Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door 2004: The Travel Skills Handbook
by Rick Steves

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Cybercafes, along with the many shops that offer Internet access without the coffee, are popular through Europe. Large European chains such as easyInternetcafe (www.easyinternetcafe.com) offer inexpensive access in big cities. In small towns you can usually get wired to the Web in librarires and youth hostels, and sometimes at bookstores, copy shops, post offices and video stores. Ask the TI, your hotelier, a younger person, or another traveler for the nearest plugged-in place. Or, before you go, compile a list by serching Cybercafes.com (www.cybercafes.com) or the Internet Cafe Guide (www.netcafeguide.com).

You can send and receive e-mail using free services such as Yahoo! Mail (www.mail.yahoo.com) or Hotmail (www.hotmail.com). Although you can set up your e-mail account from anywhere, it's smarter to figure it out at home than in Europe.

Consider PocketMail (www.pocketmail.com), a device that allows you to use nearly any telephone to send and receive e-mail. The smallness of this hand-held computer (about the size of a check-book) and the tiny keyboard take some getting used to, but work fine for most users. There's no modem to hook up--you just dial the number (paying the minimal long-distance charges) and it chirps your messages into the telephone handset. You can also check your e-mail through PocketMail's Web Site. A minimum three-month subscription is required.

Source: Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door 2004: The Travel Skills Handbook, Pg 258,259.