Cell phones

mapa244

Wish we didn't have them - having said that, we will most likely keep in touch with email and a few phone calls - my first question is 'do most hotels on tour have wifi?' - do the wifi spots allow for email reception and sending without any special plan?

Thanks

any other info greatly appreciated

AlanS

Tauck has arranged with hotels on most of its tours to provide free Internet (via WiFi and/or cable) in every hotel that has internet. In some remote locations there may be no internet at all or the WiFi signal (which is very short range) only available in the the lobby.

Once you are connected to the internet (via WiFi or cable) wherever it may be- hotel, restaurant, park hot spot, etc. you will be able to do just about anything you can do on the internet from home. It may be slow and the bandwidth limited which means pages may load slowly, you may not be able to upload large photos, may only be able to do voice (no video) over Skype, etc. Also, depending on your email provider and security settings of the WiFi you may need to use your provider's internet web mail instead of standard email, but that is no different than in the States.

You don't need a phone plan for WiFi. A "plan" is only needed if you want to use 3G/4G data which is a totally different signal broadcast from cell phone towers (not via WiFi from a local wireless router in house, hotel, etc.) You can use a WiFi capable phone (if in range of a free Wifi signal) without ever activating the phone or data plan for the country you are visiting.

mapa244

Very helpful - thanks for responding - really appreciate the info