Hi all! My wife and I are traveling to Ireland later this spring for a week. We and another couple are doing a tour package where a driver takes us around in a minivan and shows us the sights. I’m looking for any and all advice relating to saving money on the trip, but more especially:
- Should I re-shop the airline ticket prices as we get closer to departure?
- Should I use the overseas cell plan of my US cell carrier ($5/day/line, only charged each day if you use it) or get a local physical/e-SIM? If the latter, any recommendations for a carrier that will work in both the Republic and Northern Ireland?
- Any other money-saving advice specific to traveling to Ireland
Thanks in advance! I’m really looking forward to this adventure!
Ireland is great. You’ll have fun.
If you have anything but a basic economy ticket, you can re-shop your ticket and get either a eCredit or complete refund, depending on what level of ticket you have. If you have basic, then you’re out of luck. I just did this for a trip to Italy in June. I got a main cabin ticket which allowed eCredit, so a couple of weeks ago the price dropped, I cancelled my ticket for an eCredit refund, then bought the new ticket using the credit at the new price and saved over $500. I have until January 2025 to use the credit which will not be a problem.
I have a Motorola phone that works overseas and I just get a Sim when I arrive. I don’t recall who I used, but generally whatever you get works all over Europe. Mine worked in Ireland and Spain, and the same sim actually still worked a year later in Italy. So, it must have been based on amount of data used and not time (i.e. 30 days or something).
We now have TMobile so I don’t need the extra phone anymore when in Europe.
Beyond that, I don’t have any other advice. Have fun.
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