Buying a MiFi to use in Ireland

[QuadCityImages]

So, this fall the wife and I are making only our 2nd European trip, back to Ireland where we had our honeymoon. Before anyone starts saying whatever about Americans not traveling, we enjoy traveling and plan to see more of Europe in upcoming years. Blah blah...

Anyway, we both have CMDA/LTE (Verizon) phones that don't work in Europe whatsoever. Last time we just were constantly on the lookout for wifi hotspots and coffee shops and such, but lets just say it made me realize how useful always-on internet is while traveling.

So this time, I had been intending to rent a MiFi 3G hotspot through Xcom Global, which I'd read a lot of positive stuff about. Basically they mail you a 3g hotspot with unlimited data SIMs for whatever countries you're traveling to, and you mail it back when you return. However, I started looking into it further, and a lot of people are saying (correctly) that its cheaper to just buy an unlocked MiFi and get a data sim for whatever country you're in.

So I'm looking at something along the lines of this, but constantly seeing people having issues with their Mifis actually not being unlocked, or whatever, and the Irish mobile network websites aren't overly helpful about this sort of thing. At this point I'm leaning towards testing it with T-Mobile or something before we leave the country to make sure it really is unlocked.

Has anyone done something similar, or can offer helpful advice to this newbie European traveler? I'm starting to see that the expense of the Xcom rental is possibly justified by avoiding all this, but apparently they charge a fortune if you lose or damage their devices as well, and at the end of the vacation to don't own anything. I like the idea of ending up with a hotspot I can use next time.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Not really a technical answer but what are you requiring the internet for while you are on vacation? As for legitimate solutions I would just look at getting a tablet and there are places like McDonalds that have WiFi that are common enough pretty much everywhere that you should have no problem in making it work to send off quick e-mails.

I guess I may be old fashioned but I prefer to remain not in contact with everyone 24/7 when I am on vacation.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Mean Mr. Mustard

Not really a technical answer but what are you requiring the internet for while you are on vacation? As for legitimate solutions I would just look at getting a tablet and there are places like McDonalds that have WiFi that are common enough pretty much everywhere that you should have no problem in making it work to send off quick e-mails.

I guess I may be old fashioned but I prefer to remain not in contact with everyone 24/7 when I am on vacation.

The biggest thing is googling sights, etc. I almost did this in my honeymoon in Europe but had a blackberry that had a sim I could replace which I did instead. It's nice to be able to send pics to family too.

Could you not by a cheap sim phone with those capabilities?

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

The biggest thing is googling sights, etc. I almost did this in my honeymoon in Europe but had a blackberry that had a sim I could replace which I did instead. It's nice to be able to send pics to family too.

Could you not by a cheap sim phone with those capabilities?

Fair enough - I have a tablet and I loaded a few travel books and the like on it that I can easily access at any time as well as maps of the area. Actually the main benefit that I would see would be for real time maps of the area.

Still it may just be my Scottish heritage but 105 dollars a week seems quite pricey.

[Ducay]

I used Tep wireless (similar to Xcom) based out of London, for our trip to France & Italy this summer and it worked like a champ. Cheaper than Xcom (like $5 a day). They shipped it to us before departure in Canada (gratis) and all we had to do was mail it back once the rental was done.

And yes, having always on internet is the single best thing to have while travelling. I can only think of how many hours were spent hunting for Starbucks' and McDonalds looking for wifi on prior trips.

[edslunch]

When I travel I like to be connected, but when we have family vacations we leave all electronics at home so the kids stay engaged.

[QuadCityImages]

Originally Posted by Mean Mr. Mustard

I guess I may be old fashioned but I prefer to remain not in contact with everyone 24/7 when I am on vacation.

This is exactly what we thought when we went to Ireland 2 years ago on our honeymoon. No need for constant Facebook, news updates, or random emails during the day, right? That part was definitely true, but not having easy internet access made me realize how much I use it for more practical things. Finding restaurants, sights, hours and information about places, and downloading maps for Google directions on my phone. They've since added cached maps, but I don't think you can cache a whole country.

One example was a place called Westport House. We didn't know what it was, so we walked like a mile to check it out, and it ended up being something we wouldn't have bothered with if we'd known more about it (ie, if my wife could have googled it while I was parking the car). There were a surprising number of times that we missed having the internet with us.

The reason I'd prefer a MiFi is that we'd both be able to use our phones and/or laptop rather than having to use some cheap GSM throwaway that we pick up over there.