pay phones in Ireland?
For those who have been to Ireland recently... are there plenty of payphones available in the western part of Ireland (Dingle, Lisdoovarna, Kinvara,Galway, Westport, Ennis, eg) so that all I need to do is get a phone card while there and not worry about renting a cell phone? Used to be that payphones would be very easily available everywhere, but now that people use cell phones they seem to have disapperaed (at least in the USA)... how is it in Ireland? Thanks
Monica
Moorestown, New Jersey USA 3/7/10
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Payphones are quite rare in Ireland. We tend to use mobiles even more than our landlines.
The last time I was in Ireland, we used payphones at gas station/convenience stores. Also, two of our B&Bs had phones available for use if you had a phone card (easily available at convenience stores).
As Nancy mentioned, most B&B's will have no problems letting you use the phone with a phone card. Same with using phones in hotels. I rarely see phones in petrol stations here...at least not where I live.
Hey Debe. How's Westport?
Yes, from the first time I was there, to the last time, loooooads of pay phones have disappeared. I wouldn't consider their availability as reliable as I did in the past.
If you can get a cheap GSM cell phone thought (just find an old used one on craiglist or Ebay), SIM cards are cheap and sold everywhere.
I used pay phones a lot when I was in Ireland and didn't find it too hard to find them - I was in Dingle, Galway, Westport, and two months of other places in Ireland.
http://archives.tcm.ie/westernpeople/2009/01/28/story42758.asp
This just relates to Mayo, but other then large towns, they are fast becoming a thing of the past.
I was there in August and I had a difficult time finding payphones. If you are visiting places like Dingle and Doolin it will be hard to find them. I found several in Dublin and Galway. Unless you feel like driving around in search of a payphone, I would get a cheap cell phone and buy an international calling card.