Touring UK and Europe

[julie_5101611]

Hi, My hubby and I have decided to take a year of work and tour Europe. I would appreciate any info on good/not so good places to stay, any pitfalls others may have came across and advice on insurance that allows you to be abroad for this length of time.

I would also like to take a laptop with me to book cheap flights home every few months and keep in touch with friends and family, is this feasible? Would i need to access the internet through my mobile and if i did would it be really expensive.

I know what your thinking, how can you fit so many questions into such a small space!!!!!!!!!

Any advice and info will be gratefully appreciated.

Cheers

Julie

 

[Lutz]

I'd advise you to check rates before using a mobile phone linked to a laptop to get into the internet abroad. I did it once during a holiday in Spain and Portugal and it cost me a fortune. Firstly, the use of mobile phones abroad is always expensive and the rate at which data is transfered by mobile phone is abysmally slow. If you'd rather use your own laptop you have the following alternatives:

1. Hope that you will encounter a WLAN connection somewhere. Some campsites are already starting to offer WLAN hotspots.

2. Take your laptop to an internet cafe and hook it up there rather than using their PC's. Most offer broadband connections so this is likely to be the most convenient solution. It's the one I always use when travelling and I find it reasonably economical.

3. Ask the warden of the site whether you can use their telephone to dial up during a quiet time of the day. Some providers offer dial-up at no charge to the owner of the telephone even when abroad.

 

[cris_408518]

Julie.

The following has been posted here before, hope it helps!

"You need WAP and GPRS enabled phone at least with roaming enabled! Normally you pay to download info by the kb.

You can connect as I do to phone by infra red or blue tooth if you phone has either option.

I use mobile for laptop prog from www.webtogo.de @ a cost of 29 euro per year + call charges. It is sligtly faster than dial up normaly if you degrade picture quality a feature of the prog to save money and speed up downloads!

Anywhere I can get phone signal I can use net and book hotels and do banking etc!

Some internet enabled phones let you surf and send and receive email but will not let you do secure things like banking!

If your laptop is not a "centrino" type I would go for a wi-fi plug in card so you can connect at free or pay wi-fi hotspots in europe and UK. You can buy Wi-fi card from about

 

[cris_408518]

Julie.

The following has been posted here before, hope it helps!

"You need WAP and GPRS enabled phone at least with roaming enabled! Normally you pay to download info by the kb.

You can connect as I do to phone by infra red or blue tooth if you phone has either option.

I use mobile for laptop prog from www.webtogo.de @ a cost of 29 euro per year + call charges. It is sligtly faster than dial up normaly if you degrade picture quality a feature of the prog to save money and speed up downloads!

Anywhere I can get phone signal I can use net and book hotels and do banking etc!

Some internet enabled phones let you surf and send and receive email but will not let you do secure things like banking!

If your laptop is not a "centrino" type I would go for a wi-fi plug in card so you can connect at free or pay wi-fi hotspots in europe and UK. You can buy Wi-fi card from about