Unplug your holidays!

Getting online has become part of our daily routine, staying in touch with friends via social-media has become an addiction to many of us - wanna go 'unplug' while vacationing? Hmm, not so easy!

Regardless of you use a smart phone or not, most of us still like a hotel that offers "free wifi." We update our family and friends via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare or any other social media sides. What used to be 'post-vacation' photo/experience sharing has now become 'instant sharing.' Whether it's the best ice-cream in Italy or the prettiest sunset in Bali, your friends know about it, or even see it, almost at the same time you experience it.

A recent survey of 2,000 travelers by American Express found that 77% of Americans intend to stay connected while on vacation via Internet, phone, social media and other channels. The good thing is only 14% said they would stay connected for work.

Most high-end hotels charge for wireless fees and they aren't cheap. During my trip to Europe, on average the hotels charged around 5-10 Euros per hour or a 30-day pass for less than 50 Euros. Luckily the Novotel Hotels in London (West) and Paris (Porte D'Orleans) that we stayed at offered free internet access at the lobby, so I was about to update my Facebook from time to time.

On the other hands, some 2/3-star hotels and hostels do offer free wifi in order to attract more customers. However, the wifi signal often only available at the lobby. Since it's free, I wasn't complaining.

If you like to use your smart phone overseas, make sure you check the phone plan and how much would it cost for international roaming/usage, you can end up spending thousand of dollars for 'just wanting to keep your friends posted with your trip.'

As for me, I didn't use my phone for internet access, but did get a local sim card for domestic/incidental calls. It's always cheaper to do it this way. Also, some fast food/restaurants do offer free wifi - such as McD. related story

渡假時無「網」不歡

現代人幾乎都有智慧型手機，隨時隨地上網或使用社交媒體，即使以前被視作「遠離塵世」的渡假時間，現在也都很難去過著幾天「不插電，不上網」的日子。

根據美國運通的調查，有77%的美國人表示渡假時也要與親友保持聯繫，慶幸的是只有14%說會因為公事而上網。以前大家都是渡假回來才和親友分享旅行照片和故事，現在親友們幾乎是同步感受到你旅行時的喜怒哀樂。

不管你是否真的無網不歡，重要的是出國之前要查問清楚收費，很多電訊公司的國際漫遊收費嚇死人，如果你沒有看清楚，搞不好渡假回來還要還一筆可以買張機票的電話費。當我去歐洲旅行時，就在英國買了一張手機預付卡，主要是用來打當地電話以及應急用途。至於上網則是依賴酒店提供的免費服務，或者到當地網咖使用。如果酒店沒有提供免費上網，一般的收費介於每小時5-10歐元不等，相當吃力。