Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
SURFING FOR RENTAL CARS
For booking rental cars online, the
best deals are usually found at rental-
car company websites, although all
the major online travel agencies also
offer rental-car reservations services.
Priceline and Hotwire work well for
rental cars too; the only “mystery” is
which major rental company you get,
and for most travelers the difference
between Hertz, Avis, and Budget is
negligible.
10 The 21st-Century Traveler
INTERNET ACCESS AWAY
FROM HOME
Travelers have any number of ways to
check their e-mail and access the
Internet on the road. Of course, using
your own laptop—or even a PDA
(personal digital assistant) or elec-
tronic organizer with a modem—gives
you the most flexibility. But even if
you don't have a computer, you can
still access your e-mail and even your
office computer from cybercafes.
WITHOUT YOUR OWN
COMPUTER
It's hard nowadays to find a city that
doesn't
have a few cybercafes. Although
there's no definitive directory for cyber-
cafes—these are independent busi-
nesses, after all—three places to start
looking are at
www.cybercaptive.com
,
netcafes.com
, and
www.cybercafe.
com
.
Aside from formal cybercafes, most
youth hostels
nowadays have at least
one computer you can get to the
Internet on. And most
public
libraries
across the world offer Inter-
net access free or for a small charge.
Avoid
hotel business centers
unless
you're willing to pay exorbitant rates.
Most major airports now have
Internet kiosks
scattered throughout
their gates. These kiosks, which you'll
also see in shopping malls, hotel lob-
bies, and tourist information offices
around the world, give you basic Web
access for a per-minute fee that's usu-
ally higher than cybercafe prices. The
kiosks' clunkiness and high prices
mean they should be avoided when-
ever possible.
To retrieve your e-mail, ask your
Internet service provider (ISP)
if it
has a Web-based interface tied to your
existing e-mail account. If your ISP
doesn't have such an interface, you can
use the free
mail2web
service (www.
mail2web.com) to view and reply to
your home e-mail. For more flexibility,
you may want to open a free, Web-
based e-mail account with
Yahoo! Mail
(http://mail.yahoo.com). (Microsoft's
Hotmail is another popular option, but
Hotmail has severe spam problems.)
Your home ISP may be able to forward
your e-mail to the Web-based account
automatically.
If you need to access files on your
office computer, look into a service
called
GoToMyPC
(www.gotomypc.
com). The service provides a Web-
based interface for you to access and
manipulate a distant PC from any-
where—even a cybercafe—provided
your “target” PC is on and has an
always-on connection to the Internet
(such as with Road Runner cable).
The service offers top-quality security,
but if you're worried about hackers,
use your own laptop rather than a
cybercafe to access the GoToMyPC
system.
WITH YOUR OWN
COMPUTER
Wi-fi (wireless fidelity) is the buzz-
word in computer access, and more
and more hotels, cafes, and retailers
are signing on as wireless “hotspots”
from where you can get high-speed
connection without cable wires, net-
working hardware, or a phone line
(see below). You can get wi-fi connec-
tion one of several ways. Many laptops
