any experience with WiFi hotspot in Europe?

Our accommodations do not provide wi-fi. They say this option provides 3G/4G and it is pretty economical. If anyone has done this, I'd appreciate hearing about your experience.

Thank you!

I'd love to read these comments. When we were in Italy last summer, the wifi was INCREDIBLY iffy. I was really annoyed that in these fab hotels, you basically had to stand on your head in the shower to get a signal. And once a signal was had, you had better type fast because it would disappear w/in seconds.

I don't even bother bringing my computer. It is almost an added adventure finding the local internet cafe or what passes as one. Frequently it is a bar with one machine or a desert and coffee place with the same situation. Met by best friend over there that way.

Once in way Northern Greece I was staying at a pretty nice hotel. Wanted to send out a few e mails so I checked out their computer for guest use situation. You actually had to put coins in it to get on the internet.

Where will you be traveling? There's a wide variety of wifi availability--London has it everywhere, Rome virtually nowhere.

just back from 2 weeks in italy-no issues with wi fi any where (abruzzo, padova & venezia)

no fancy hotels-3 star joints for us.

oots

Wish I had insight to help the OP...unfortunately, I found it all very confusing.

We are just back from England, France, and Switzerland, but a part of our hotel, B&B, and apartment booking criteria was wifi. Additionally, we read all reviews we could on TripAdvisor, Booking.com, HomeAway, and B&B websites for comments on everything important to us, including wifi. So, I was able to keep my phone off, but connect via my computer - we skyped several times with family in the US and a friend traveling on safari...all was great wifi-wise at each of our 7 accommodations.

As for what was confusing, my husband was able to pay Verizon a fee to use his phone there. In the end, he would turn it on when we were on wifi but not otherwise, so it may have not been necessary to pay the fee. I just found the international calling/roaming programs confusing.

berkeley said:
Our accommodations do not provide wi-fi. They say this option provides 3G/4G and it is pretty economical. If anyone has done this...

Not sure what that means. It is usually WI-FI or use of the house computer. MiFi maybe?

Either way check the hotel on Trip Advisor to see if someone else has commented on this aspect.

To clarify, we are renting a house that does NOT have wi-fi. Yes, we would survive without connectivity but I'm looking at different options--thanks!

we had very little problem finding wifi provided free everywhere we stayed in Northern Italy...and the reception was never a factor. Finding Verizon wifi hotspots was another issue....it would kick in sporadically but when I really needed to find it (in Milan), the wifi hotspot locator took me on a bit of a goose chase.

The rental house does not provide wi-fi. This is the alternative that I am looking at. HZ I think you are talking about logging onto a hotspot service?

http://travel-wifi.com

Looks cool to me. I will report back after the trip.

You have talked me into it, i spend a fortune on data roaming in Europe every year. This seems quite affordable.

I was just there. Almost all restaurants and cafes in the cities have wifi. The log-in and password are on the menu. As for trains, only the Rome to Milan line has wifi. Other lines have it only after you cross into Switzerland.

SPent one week in Ireland in May. WIFI commonly everywhere. We rented a car with mobile WIFI [1/2 the price of renting a GPS for the car].

Not sure where you're headed, but you can buy a week of Wifi in Venice for like 7 bucks. Worked great!

I spent time in Thessaloniki, Greece, last year. I don't know what the hotels offer, as I stayed at an Airbnb apartment that had great wifi through a mesh point connecting to the landlord's router. There was wifi everywhere else and it was free. I would bring my smartphone with me to lunch and call the US on Skype (over wifi) for free.

My understanding is that wifi is very prevalent throughout Europe. Just go to a café/restaurant/bar and ask the waiter for their wifi ssid and/or password.

In the UK I found a lot of "free" wifi places required you to belong to some kind of service. So I discovered I could take an older phone, unlock it from my provider, then buy a cheap SIM card when I got to England at the airport, with a pay as you go service which allowed me to use it just like my US phone, and it worked out cheaper than getting the international data roaming plan

ridski said:
In the UK I found a lot of "free" wifi places required you to belong to some kind of service. So I discovered I could take an older phone, unlock it from my provider, then buy a cheap SIM card when I got to England at the airport, with a pay as you go service which allowed me to use it just like my US phone, and it worked out cheaper than getting the international data roaming plan

If you want to do that, you must make sure that the old phone employs the GSM cellular technology (old T-Mobile or AT&T phones) and can access the RF spectrum used in the country you are visiting.

And as ridski said, don't forget to get the code and instructions from the service provider of that phone to unlock it.