Possibly moving to Letterkenny - broadband/rent/general things.

danthefan

Chance I'll be taking up a job in Donegal in the next month or so, just wondering about services.

- What is the best broadband provider? I understand UPC don't serve Donegal, they're who I'm with at the moment and think they're very good. I really don't want to go with Eircom.
- I've never been to Letterkenny, is it well served with shops and the likes? It's not a particularly small town so I assume so. Is it a good place to live in general?
- Would accomodation be easily available? Would preferably like to live on my own in a furnished apartment, have been looking on daft.ie, would this be the best place to look?

Mint Sauce

danthefan wrote: »

Chance I'll be taking up a job in Donegal in the next month or so, just wondering about services.

- What is the best broadband provider? I understand UPC don't serve Donegal, they're who I'm with at the moment and think they're very good. I really don't want to go with Eircom.
- I've never been to Letterkenny, is it well served with shops and the likes? It's not a particularly small town so I assume so. Is it a good place to live in general?
- Would accomodation be easily available? Would preferably like to live on my own in a furnished apartment, have been looking on daft.ie, would this be the best place to look?

Not sure about landline based ISPs, but I have used O2 broadband there without much hassle.

Shopping wise, it has the same shops as many other town in the country, and plenty of independent retailers. As for night life, a few different night clubs, plenty of bars and is visited by a various irish acts and DJs during their irish tours.

If you want an even more varied selection Derry is only about a 30 minute drive away.

Not sure on rent prices as been a while since I lived there, but their are several threads on here on the best areas to live in.

homer simpson

danthefan wrote: »

Chance I'll be taking up a job in Donegal in the next month or so, just wondering about services.

Congrats on the job

- What is the best broadband provider? I understand UPC don't serve Donegal, they're who I'm with at the moment and think they're very good. I really don't want to go with Eircom.

Well you have eircom, vodafone, talk talk, ect, but all use eircom lines. I have heard lots of good stuff about Smart recently. You also have Wimax but i have heard some horror stories since they came into letterkenny a while back.

- I've never been to Letterkenny, is it well served with shops and the likes? It's not a particularly small town so I assume so. Is it a good place to live in general?

You have pretty much the same shops you'll get anywhere, tesco/ dunnes/ centras /vivo's and the likes, and all the usuall Dept stores and the local ones, TK max / heatons / evolve / temptest and boots argos ect... and as for is it a good place to live, its grand same as every bigish town has a few avoid areas but not that many

- Would accomodation be easily available? Would preferably like to live on my own in a furnished apartment, have been looking on daft.ie, would this be the best place to look?

You could phone round the letting agents and ask to arrange a day to go look at different apartments houses with them, there are a good few letting agents in the town. Also if you have a car when your up here grab a copy of "the dealer" its like a local buy and sell (if you go into a local shop and ask for the dealer 90% certain they will have it) there is usually 4 or 5 pages of property rentals in there, phone around a few places....


Lastly if your not sure on an area ask on here, your sure to get an honest answer , good or bad :P

danthefan

Thanks a lot for the replies.

Think that's what I'll do in relation to getting a place to live, ring one of them up and have viewings arranged.

On Wimax, also heard awful awful things so will stay well clear too, had a very bad time with Eircom though too so guess one of the mobile broadband dealies it is, O2 or 3 maybe.

creaghadoos

danthefan wrote: »

Thanks a lot for the replies.

Think that's what I'll do in relation to getting a place to live, ring one of them up and have viewings arranged.

On Wimax, also heard awful awful things so will stay well clear too, had a very bad time with Eircom though too so guess one of the mobile broadband dealies it is, O2 or 3 maybe.

if you have a car, living outside letterkenny town may be an option you should consider. there are a lot of very good rural towns and villages where you can have the peace and quiet of country life but the town is only 15 minutes away.

mistermouse

On broadband, I have had smart since they came to town, Apart from the time eircom shafted them and sent their reps around, I have never had any problems. They have been the best BB supplier I have worked with on this side of the border by far with Eircom being the worst, given I work in IT

Ninjedi

Go with Smart for broadband, I've had Eircom, o2, Meteor mobile and them and they're by far the best. Customer service can be frustrating when you have to deal with them but let's face it when aren't they :P Although if you're not a high-bandwidth user Meteor mobile with the little modem thingy is quite good as you can get more than one device, including consoles, online using it.

You won't have a problem getting somewhere to live up here - make sure and ask if previous tenants were students though unfortunately they have a tendency to leave the place in worse condition than is immediately apparent. Rent around here is one of the cheapest in the country, you should be able to get a two bed flat for yourself no bother and if you're paying more than €140 absolute tops then you're getting ripped off. You need to be up front about how rent will be paid, whether relief application is ok etc as a lot of the landlords aren't registered and don't like any kind of trail leading back to them.

p.s. welcome to Donegal, county of the cowboy!

Nicoladuff

Welcome to Letterkenny, the land of the hills!

You will have a great pick of places to live, but just make sure it is in the right area! Daft.ie will have a good selection of houses or flats.

As for broadband - I used digiweb and had no problems at all with the provider and speed. I have also used 02 and also had no problem, stay well clear of eircom as mentioned in the previous posts...I was constantly overcharged and speeds were poor.

I wish you lots of luck in your search and hope you will enjoy living in LK, plenty of things to do here, lots of places to visit and great ski slopes during our wintery weather:)

danniemcq

Am i the only person happy with Wimax? k so the speeds aren't as great as smart for me but i have the box upstairs and wifi through the house no need for any wireless routers etc it hasn't given me a day of bother... famous last words i hope not

but if i am the ONLY happy one then maybe go smart i haven't heard as many bad things about them plus wired is always quicker!