There’s quite a few hotels, hotels, and cafes that offer free wifi. I found this list online: http://www.wififrees… I’m pretty sure this is not an exhaustive list.

some hostels offer free wifi and/or free computers with internet. Check before you book. Those that don’t offer it free, charge around 2-5 euros per hour (according to my Lets Go book, in which I looked at 3 cities in 3 different countries— Paris, Rome, and Munich).

I found free internet at several hotels last summer. A few places charged, usually about 2 or 3 euros per 1/2 hour. I think the most I ever paid was the equivalent of about $5 US per 1/4 hour in Moscow (where everything was outrageously expensive).

Most people don’t properly protect their Wifi…walk down any street and you’ll find a connection to use for free

Should I take my laptop or just get an Iphone or web access via phone??

I guess its a matter of personal preference and what you need to accomplish.
I just need to check my email, maybe book a hostel or check a train schedule on the internet, have some music, games and videos to keep my self entertained. I am planing on just taking my i-pod touch. It fits in my shirt pocket and shouldn’t be difficult to keep it in a safe location. I wouldn’t want to lug the laptop around and find someplace safe to keep it all the time, but if you need it for work you will have to pack it.
I don’t know about web access by phone because I don’t have one, but you would want to be sure the phone wasn’t roaming for a signal and running up a huge bill.

There are tonnes of wifi spots in cities. That website should help.

Unless your doing major work, and taking lots and lots of hi-res photos there isnt a need for a laptopp. A iphone/itouch would do the trick.

And as has been said most hostels have wifi or computers. And if not there will always be a internet cafe nearby. I went to public libraries throughout the UK and it was either free or extremely cheap. I am not sure if the same deal applies over in Europe but itd be worth a try.

Lots of places have public wifis. Pubs, restaurants, sometimes even McDonalds. In some towns or villages, there could be a free public wifi.

But generally, internet cafe may cost 1-2 € per hour.

I just wanted to point out that the internet cafe’s in europe usually dont have wifi. they have computers and they make you use theirs.

In France I found wifi in McDonalds and KFC.

If you have and iPhone or iTouch, then you do not need to take your laptop. DO NOT use your data plan or you will get killed with fees, use wifi all the time and leave your phone on Airplane mode otherwise. You should be able to find wifi in your hostel or somewhere specified by the link above.

I took a laptop and I would not recommend it unless you KNOW you are going to be using it a lot. If thats the case you are probably not backpacking…

Thanks for the great info, I have lightened my load quite a bit…..no laptop! Will just use what I can find there.

Well Swill (unfortunately) I am going to have to bring my laptop with me, but as I mentioned in another thread it’s one of the small ones that don’t weigh very much. I’m doing research and will need to be able to type pretty much every day, without waiting for all the kids in the hostel to get off their damn myspace accounts

If you are going to be doing a lot of typing it is worth it to bring your own laptop. The one thing that really killed me in Europe was the keyboards. It took me a while to figure out where all the keys I wanted were and even longer to get used to touch typing…

It always messes me up coming back to America after I’m used to using their wacky keyboards in Germany and elsewhere. I think it’s “y” and “z” that are switched there which isn’t a big deal, and I think the apostrophe is either an “o” or “a” with an umlaut over it. But actually the craziest one I’d ever seen was in Belgium, where I was convinced some kid had removed all the keys and put them back in random places on the keyboard

haha, ya i had some issues initially too. it took me a while to find the ? mark. most of the keys are in the in the same general area if not in the same place, so it just takes a little getting used to.

haha I still have problems using UK keyboards. Frustratingly the !@#$%^&*( etc are different to my usual keyboard. But using europe ones is tough to get used to.