Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
instead, you'll pay with a major credit card (which you insert into the phone—minimum
charge for a credit-card call is
£
1.20) or coins (have a bunch handy; minimum fee is
£
0.60). The phone clearly shows how your money supply's doing. Only unused coins will
be returned, so put in biggies with caution. Avoid using an international phone card at a
pay phone.
Internet Cafés and Public Internet Terminals
Finding public Internet terminals in Europe is no problem. Many hotels have a computer
in the lobby for guests to use. Otherwise, head for an Internet café, or ask the TI or your
hotelier for the nearest place to access the Internet.
British computers typically use non-American keyboards. While familiar, a few let-
ters are switched around. For example, the @ symbol appears to the right of the letter L,
and the
£
symbol takes the place of the #. If you can't locate a special character (such as
the @ symbol), simply copy it (Ctrl-C) from a Web page and paste it (Ctrl-V) into your
email message.
International Phone Cards
In Britain, international phone cards are sold at newsstands, street kiosks, and
train stations. These prepaid cards can be used to make inexpensive calls—within
Europe, or to the US, for pennies a minute—from nearly any phone, including the
one in your hotel room. The cards come with a toll-free number and a scratch-to-
reveal PIN code. Be warned that the national telecom companies in Britain levy a
hefty surcharge for using one of these cards from a pay phone—which effectively
eliminates any savings. But you can still use them cheaply from a hotel-room phone.
Whether you're accessing the Internet with your own device or at a public terminal, using
a shared network or computer comes with the potential for increased security risks. Ask
the hotel or café for the specific name of their Wi-Fi network, and make sure you log on
to that exact one; hackers sometimes create a bogus hotspot with a similar or vague name
(such as “Hotel Europa Free Wi-Fi”). It's better if a network uses a password (especially a
hard-to-guess one) rather than being open to the world.
While traveling, you may want to check your online banking or credit-card state-
ments, or to take care of other personal-finance chores, but Internet security experts advise
