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Vacations - Am I the only one that does this?
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I don’t worry about it, but it is always more convenient when you have a good connection, especially in your hotel room.
Funny, before internet I never worried about it. Had a great time anyway. That said it's a nice way to keep in touch.
I like looking stuff up about the world I’m visiting. Adds much value. Much better than the old travel book, though to be honest, I still pick up one of them too.
Where are you going? Internet is so ubiquitous destinations prominently discuss its access.
You will find internet enough in most places — unless you are in the middle of the Sahara or deep in the Amazon… and even then satellite links should be available.
Personally the best use I have for the internet while travelling is Google Maps. But even then offline maps help a lot.
And I always have some paper maps and directions with me.
Email and FaceBook and stuff can wait until they are convenient to access and needed.
The world really does not need another "instant" pic of me sipping a drink somewhere… If I am sitting under a shady palm on a coral white beach somewhere and I am scrolling through FaceBook, then I'd need a serious look at my life.
Personally the best use I have for the internet while travelling is Google Maps. But even then offline maps help a lot.
And I always have some paper maps and directions with me.
Email and FaceBook and stuff can wait until they are convenient to access and needed.
The world really does not need another "instant" pic of me sipping a drink somewhere… If I am sitting under a shady palm on a coral white beach somewhere and I am scrolling through FaceBook, then I'd need a serious look at my life.
Then there’s this — travel apps that sometimes help, sometimes don’t
https://9to5mac.com/2019/03/28/travel-apps/
https://9to5mac.com/2019/03/28/travel-apps/
I don't worry about it, but I've come to expect that its available. I'm rarely disappointed as well
this is like saying before buses and subways were invented, we never had to worry that they were down. internet is ubiquitous in our lives that i expect it to be available in most places i visit.
I print out my itinerary. I have the important points of where the hotel is, airport flight times and anything else pertinent. I don't use social media. Nor do I spend much time on the internet. It would just be an inconvenience not being able to check the weather, look for local restaurant reviews, get an Uber or find local attractions. That's about all I use the internet for when traveling. I'm there to experience the place not do the same thing I do at home.
Not really. But what I often do is purchase several vacation plans, go on most of them, and then return them before completion to compare. Whichever vacation is best is the one I finish.
I gather you never visited West Texas
Or the western Catskills.
All horizons average a quarter mile away in the "wrinkled" terrain of foothills to this mountain range, so cellular use is a challenge, (aka per optimistic carriers), "spotty coverage". Likewise broadband or even DSL in some of the rural stretches. When you come here for a vacation, you can really get one. 
The internet is enormously helpful for navigation, restaurant reviews, translation, communicating with friends and family back home, finding out when places are open or closed, etc.
Ha! True!I gather you never visited West Texas
I always think of the US as 100% Coverage…
In the same way here in the UK, you can get to parts of Wales and there is nada. Zip. Zilch… Mountains with deep valleys. Or sheep chewing the wires.
Went to Yellowstone and Glacier national parks where is there VERY limited internet.
I don't recall minding it much at all. Of course it's nice to have Internet but sometimes it was nice to be just myself, vehicle, and gf, figuring things out.
I don't recall minding it much at all. Of course it's nice to have Internet but sometimes it was nice to be just myself, vehicle, and gf, figuring things out.
No one is that insane.I gather you never visited West Texas
Not quite, and not only in the Catskills and West Texas, and the Welsh mountains.
I've been in parts of the world, indeed parts of Europe, (most recently this past week) where internet coverage was spotty, patchy and very, very uneven.
Do not worry about it what so ever.
I can sit at home and stare at glass. I don’t have to pay money to go somewhere else and do that.
While on vacation connectivity is a convenience.
One time my wife said, what if someone was got into a horrible accident or died.
My being somewhere else and knowing at that very moment isn’t going to change what happened.
If something happened and I didn’t get called I surely wouldn’t fault the person that didn’t call me.
Vacation - disconnect and enjoy.
You’ll be back in the rat race soon enough.
Exactly. That said, I do try and greatly reduce my internet usage during vacations, and concentrate on spending the time with whoever I'm with.
I haven't been on a cruise without internet in at least 10 years, maybe longer then that, though I seldom use it, or pay for it if they aren't giving it to me for free. Depending on the cruise location, with the exception of a cross atlantic or California to Hawaii, you are usually at port at least every other day, and my phone gets me internet and texting for free everywhere but Cuba, so I turn it on, verify the little dogs haven't hurt the big dogs, house is still standing and all the family is good, post some picture that makes everyone at work mad at me for a few hours and enjoy my vacation. To the OP (actually anyone) what do you use the internet for on your vacation? In Tanzania, we had a real slow internet 15 years ago, and every 3 days or so, I would send an email saying Lion tried to come in tent and eat me, but we are still having fun. And I would get updates on how everyone was doing, but if I didn't have it, I would have had just as much fun, and saved the $5 for 30 minutes I paid 4 or 5 times on the trip. The funny thing is 20 years ago I started taking vacations outside the country, because its the only way my company wouldn't call me on vacation and ask for help (though they are much better at it now), now they could actually get in touch with me, but they are properly trained and don't really try.
-Tig