Internet in Europe
We're off on our European trip soon - Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France and maybe Belgium - can't wait!
What do you regular travellers do for internet access while you're away? Everything we look at doesn't seem to suit - 3 MiFi doesn't cover Germany, buying a SIM in Germany seems to be tricky and a bit of a pain elsewhere, EE have a brilliant package for
500mb for £3 a day but we have the wrong type of contract and they'll only offer 75mb for the same price
How is the coverage on campsite wifi in general? is it generally worth paying for? Does it vary from country to country or just pot luck?
I know it's not the most important thing in the world but it's handy and we're away for 5 weeks so we want to be able to keep in touch with family back home.
Thanks for any info
Comments
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We have been right down in the heel of Italy and currently Just outside Salzburg, free wifi on pitch here, we use the ACSI site guide to determine sites and look for wifi sites where possible, our 5 weeks so far have been pretty good for wifi, EE will
offer you The 500mb deal for £3 A day once they have tried to get the same £3 deal for 75 mb a few times ( they have with us) we didn't bother used sites free, coffee shops bars restaurants etc all for free a lot of towns now have free wifi too, hope this
helpsken
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That's good to know Ken, thank you. I'm sure regular coffee stops could be arranged.
Husband is currently on live chat to O2 as they offer unlimited data for £1.99 a day. Just need to find out if we can do it on pay as you go SIM I'll update if we get any more info.
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I tend to check whether campsites have site wide WiFi. If they do I will make use of it even if you have to pay. During our recent 5 week trip through Germany and Austria I found the only problem is that many connections are quite weak for the number of people on site and one thing I notice which was not so evident on previous trips was the use of WiFi boosters by, particularly, the Dutch. On some sites it was difficult to get a consistant connection. I am with Virgin Mobile and they do a 250mb travel pass for £5 which lasts up to a month. The problem with a daily charge is that over time it can be an expensive option.
David
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Thanks for your reply, David. It's great to get information from experienced travellers! The daily charges would soon mount up and we're reluctant to go that way if we don't need to. I'll go and invesigate the Virgin pass too.
For reference for others, the O2 offer I mentioned above is only for contract customers, pay as you go users are limited to 100mb a day for the same price!
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We have just come back from 6 weeks, travelling to Croatia and back. (Holland Germany Austria Slovenia & Croatia) We had free wifi on all campsites bar one, where it was €2 for 24 hours. Most were good and quick, but have never used it for films or tv
type feeds.Most service stations offer free wifi, as do most bars and cafes. Many towns do a free wifi system as well. In fact as far as wifi is concerned i consider coming back to the UK as stepping back 20 years
No longer any need to bother with foreign SIM cards either, now that the EU has forced roaming charges down.
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We've been away for 9 weeks now, Spain, Portugal and France only one site have we not had Wifi on, all but this site have been free, this one costs 1€ per week. Some as DK says are beter than others. OH has a contract with 3, 1gb a month so he uses his phone, its me that uses the on site wifi
Another tip is most Tourist offices have free wifi as do McDonalds
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OAT
I have to say that my experience of WiFi over recent weeks even shows the Caravan Club WiFi in a good light!!! Unfortunately the doing away with data roaming charges won't come into effect until next year.
I should add, as it might be helpful, that if you have a modern Smart phone is that it in many ways does away with the need for WiFi if you can find a reasonably priced data package. If I were to download more Apps I reckon I could handle most of my finances on my phone and more secure.
David
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In Switzerland on our way back from 11 weeks in Croatia, although I don't know what that has to do with answering your question. Unless you are doing work on the net, or your phone gives you European cover as part of it's package I would just use the site wifi. The one thing that is worth having is a booster. Try www.wifi-antennas.co.uk. They have a great peace of kit for caravans, it is their package, wi-kit-02. Be carefull at caffee wifi's, etc, as you might not be the only person looking at your screen!! Oh! you can get a booster for about £40 that are rubbish, or pay £200, ripoff!! About £90 for good kit.
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In Switzerland on our way back from 11 weeks in Croatia, although I don't know what that has to do with answering your question. Unless you are doing work on the net, or your phone gives you European cover as part of it's package I would just use the site wifi. The one thing that is worth having is a booster. Try www.wifi-antennas.co.uk. They have a great peace of kit for caravans, it is their package, wi-kit-02. Be carefull at caffee wifi's, etc, as you might not be the only person looking at your screen!! Oh! you can get a booster for about £40 that are rubbish, or pay £200, ripoff!! About £90 for good kit.
When I was working part-time I used to take six weeks holiday, and continue to do my job whilst 'on holiday'. WiFi is often free - on sites in France at least. I managed perfectly well using site WiFi - many times sitting outside the caravan working away in a shady area, occasionally at the bar or reception area.
Since then we have continued to use WiFi on sites where it is free, and now at our holiday home in the Aude we have free WiFi at the open 24 hours a day Mairie or in the gardens there.
Tourist Information offices, many Mairies (town halls) and libraries offer free WiFi, as do most small cafes and bars, large supermarket cafeterias, shopping malls - and even our local DIY hypermarket! There is even a 'bench' in a village near us, where free WiFi is available. The French have really pushed to make the internet accessible in even the most rural areas.
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I wrote a review in 2014 for an unassuming municipal site in Brittany saying that it was just about the only site I knew which didn't have wi-fi. By 2015 the local mayor had got it installed and set up. But that year we did find one other small local French campsite without wi - fi. Had I better go back and see whether that mayor also reads my reviews?
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We've found the O2 "unlimited" data for £1.99 a day deal is not really as good as it looks. We read somewhere that the download speed gets slower the more data you use, and this proved true on a recent trip
to Germany and Austria. In the morning the speed was brilliant but after a couple of hours it slowed to a crawl for the rest of each day.Keith
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Thank you everyone for your answers! Some really useful information.
This is our first trip to Europe so we really didn't know what to expect but I think we're feeling a bit more confident now just using site Wifi and other hotspots. We have unlimited data here in the UK so it feels a bit alien to go away without it!
One thing we are going to invest in now is a booster, so thank you for that tip Such a helpful community!
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Someone was telling me about the Tesco Mobile Home from Home offer that's available at the moment (until September). I'll post the link here in case it's of use to anyone
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Do you know if that applies to all Tesco phone contracts? My OH currently has a Tesco 'plan' and it's not clear whether you have to sign up to a new plan/phone in order to benefit.
I've answered my own question by googling, and the good news is that it applies to all Tesco phones and you don't need to do anything to 'activate' it or take advantage. I'm going to swap to Tesco because they offer a better phone and better 'deal' than my current contract.
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I really don't know, ValDa, still investigating it myself!
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Sorry for that last short reply, ValDa, I didn't mean to be rude. For some reason, it seemed like a good idea to be on CT and trying to get the kids in the shower!
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No problem Hans, I was posting at the same time as eating a meal - not a good idea, now I've got salad dressing on my trousers!
I've taken the liberty of posting a separate thread about this as I'm sure Tesco mobile users will be interested.
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If you are intending to use on-site wifi, be carefull to check the price. The comms provider for the municipal in Trebes wanted to charge me 5 Euros for an hour! The wifi on the Yelloh site in St Emillion is provided by the same company had had the same
rip-off tarrif.Last year I was with EE. (Changed to 3 now) I found that the phone connection was mostly non-existent outside of major French towns. On returning home I went to the local EE outlet to have a moan. The girl I spoke to was well aware of the problem but said
that there was nothing they could do as the French connection (Sorry about that) is outside of their control. How about a refund??? Ha Ha.0 -
Moved from Limoges today(wifi 1euro for 7 days) worked in the van all over the site good signal but you are limited to 2Gb for the 7 day period. Now at Angers, Lac de Maine site where it is FREE again I'm sat in the van on the pitch posting this. Not all wifi is expensive same as not all is free.
Edit: forgot to say I can use the wifi but OH cannot connect to it the only differance between our laptops is that I'm still on wndows 7, he is on wndows 10. Not sure if this makes any differance but its the 3rd site he hasn't been able to get on line using his laptop.
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TG
I have experienced similar problems with Windows 10 but generally only when the signal has been weak. There was an update that seems to have affected the ability to connect.
David
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Quote from Dunclair:
If you are intending to use on-site wifi, be carefull to check the price. The comms provider for the municipal in Trebes wanted to charge me 5 Euros for an hour! The wifi on the Yelloh site in St Emillion is provided by the same company had had the same rip-off tarrif.
Last year I was with EE. (Changed to 3 now) I found that the phone connection was mostly non-existent outside of major French towns. On returning home I went to the local EE outlet to have a moan. The girl I spoke to was well aware of the problem but said that there was nothing they could do as the French connection (Sorry about that) is outside of their control. How about a refund??? Ha Ha.
These days we NEVER pay for site WiFi. We make sure about WiFi before going somewhere. The only time in many years we've paid, was whilst acting as Tour Hosts for a Caravan Club tour, where we required an internet connection - and the site charged, so we paid up, but I wouldn't pay again if on that site. I would make sure my internet use came free by using one of the many other sources of free WiFi in France.
We have phone contracts with TalkMobile, and Tesco, and neither of us have problems at our 'French house' which is about as far out into the sticks as you can get, and incidentally used to have a free WiFi connection for the whole village until the mast blew down in storms a year ago! Now we have to walk about forty yards to the Mairie where it's still free (and mostly a good connection except after storms).
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After 9 weeks in Germany and Austria I have not found a problem with wifi at all most sites have been free all over site and good reception. If no over site wifi I have used the iPhone as a modem and been OK with o2 data roaming at £1.99 for 24 hours. The
most wifi I saw charged was €3 for 24 hours.I have found the Laptop which is Windows 10 no problem and is quicker than iPad or iPhone and have been able to update my website daily and with lots of photos too.
DianneT
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Thanks DK and DianneT for the info regarding windows 10, think OH will have to do a bit of checking out when we return home next week. He is on a 3 contract for his phone so has no problems with getting internet on that plenty of data and of course no roaming
charges with 3. On the very few sites that we would have had to pay for internet he just used his phone instead.The dearest we came across was at L'Amfora in Spain who wanted 15 euro for 7 nights but it was much dearer if you just did a few days. We were lucky when we were there as there was a problem with the antenna for our area of the campsite, the guy who came
to fix it just left it open so no password was needed, took them 3 days to correct it
we were only there 4 days so didn't bother
to buy a ticket.0 -
I am certainly going to review how I handle the internet in future if and when we go abroad again. I have no objection to paying for decent WiFi but object if it is just a WiFi point at the bar. I choose a location I want to be in rather than whether I have
free WiFi.Things that can be done to overcome lack or poor WiFi.
1) Invest in a WiFi booster, particularly one that allows several devices to be run from it.
2) Download Apps onto my Smart phone for banking etc as they seem to use less data when compared to using a laptop.
3) Depending on what happens on the 23rd look at data only deals from the various networks as I have found, almost universally, that mobile data to be superior to the majority of campsite WiFi provision.
David
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Sitting on the Pont Aven using their free wifi as we head home.
We have phones on 3 and Tesco so both had use of them whilst away but due to the lack of a TV signal also wanted to use wifi to watch a limited amount of TV so we were prepared to have to pay. In addition my wife does not like to go without a newspaper but,unlike
a lot of areas, this was not possible in Northern Spain at Playa Joyel BUT by paying for wifi we were able,albeit very frustratingly slowly at times, to down load the paper each day. Wifi for two weeks there was €25 so cheaper than a paper and we re also managed
to watch some TV including the England games. We stayed in France 2 nights each way and the wifi was free and much faster than in Spain.Will be looking into the aerial/booster option for next time.
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