Wifi Resources for Travelers
Thursday May 8, 2008
I've been watching with interest as Andy, the Hobo Traveler extraordinaire, has been compiling a list of worldwide wifi tips, tricks and passwords garnered from his considerable experience -- Andy travels outside of the US most of the year, and because he makes his living writing on the internets about his scene, needs the wifi without the hassle often associated with finding those sometimes-elusive waves.
Some of Andy's adventures in wifi would be downright comical if they weren't such accurate depictions of the frustration involved with working online for a living while beating international streets. My
own wifi woes are often fairly funny to me in retrospect, and in reading Andy's latest from Guatemala, I'm wryly reminiscing about the expensive and hassle-ful travails of traveling wifi-seeking. Some of the most exasperating events occurred in some of the world's more expensive cities, too: I'm thinking right now, for instance, of finally paying 24€ an hour (wifi wall of shame!) in Lucerne after searching what felt like half the town on a dark and snowy night; furtively skulking behind potted plants with laptop under my overcoat in an upscale London lobby while the hotel's techie expert peered around, looking for the thief currently kyping their wifi (my own London hostel wanted $8/day for wifi); wandering untold kilometers through Europe's largest cities with wifi finder in hand (and prior to getting that gadget, with open laptop held before me, like an offering to the geek gods) watching for the free signal sign. And the entire Western coast of Australia seems devoid of free wifi signals. Believe me: I drove it, laptop open on the seat.
The compiling of current wifi ways and means for travelers is happening with more frequency than when I first set out to lug my laptop around the planet a few years ago (as of late 2005, 21 percent of backpackers were packing a laptop, though the hospitality world hadn't caught on yet) -- some handy and up-to-date wifi resources for travelers:
own wifi woes are often fairly funny to me in retrospect, and in reading Andy's latest from Guatemala, I'm wryly reminiscing about the expensive and hassle-ful travails of traveling wifi-seeking. Some of the most exasperating events occurred in some of the world's more expensive cities, too: I'm thinking right now, for instance, of finally paying 24€ an hour (wifi wall of shame!) in Lucerne after searching what felt like half the town on a dark and snowy night; furtively skulking behind potted plants with laptop under my overcoat in an upscale London lobby while the hotel's techie expert peered around, looking for the thief currently kyping their wifi (my own London hostel wanted $8/day for wifi); wandering untold kilometers through Europe's largest cities with wifi finder in hand (and prior to getting that gadget, with open laptop held before me, like an offering to the geek gods) watching for the free signal sign. And the entire Western coast of Australia seems devoid of free wifi signals. Believe me: I drove it, laptop open on the seat.
The compiling of current wifi ways and means for travelers is happening with more frequency than when I first set out to lug my laptop around the planet a few years ago (as of late 2005, 21 percent of backpackers were packing a laptop, though the hospitality world hadn't caught on yet) -- some handy and up-to-date wifi resources for travelers:
- Andy the HoboTraveler: Mobile Office
- Less Than a Shoestring: Wifi in Europe's Capital Cities
- European Hostels With Free Wifi
- Hotel Chatter: Best and Worst International Hotel Wifi, plus domestic Best Wifi Hotels 2008 and Wifi Hotel Hell
- What is wifi?
- Backpackers, Bucks and Techno Travel - The world of hostel-hosted airwaves
- Flashpacking - Backpacking With Bucks and Toys
- Finding Free Wifi
- Internet and Travel
- Wifi Finder
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