Getting online was really important to me in my four months around the world, so every hostel, guesthouse, and hotel I chose had to have internet access. Of course, this sometimes meant, "I know nothing about computers, you'll have to wait for my husband to wake up," or "we're in the process of getting our wireless fixed." I got in the habit of asking specifically if wifi was "in room" or "lobby only," and how much it was whenever I made a reservation. Without further ado, here are the best and worst places around the world for internet:
The Best: South America
Maybe I had great luck, but from my hostel in Buenos Aires, to the Sheraton at Iguazu, to the two guesthouses in Rio and Sao Paulo, all of the internet connection worked as advertised. They all had fast, in-room access, and with the exception of the Sheraton, they were all free and unlimited.
The Worst: New Zealand
Okay, I am excluding Laos because seriously, you've got to cut it some slack since even electricity was a scarce commodity in most places we went.
The worst place for accessing internet was New Zealand. It was free (though slow) only at one hotel; at every other place not only was internet expensive, it was CONFUSING!
Here's one example of internet access terms:
$0.68 per minute up to $33.69 for 24 hours from when you first connect. $0.10 per MB if you use over 100 MB within the 24 hours.
Did someone just roll a few dice and come up with these numbers? My first day, I racked up close to NZ$50 for just two hours of internet; that's more than US$30.
Here's another example:
One Hour Access - No Limit - 256/320kb 6.00 NZD
Two Hour Access - No Limit - 256/320kb 10.00 NZD
24hr Access - 500mb - 256/320kb 15.00 NZD
One Week Access - 800mb - 256/320kb 30.00 NZD
Two Week Access - 2Gb - 256/320kb 40.00 NZD
Four Week Access - 5Gb - 256/320kb 50.00 NZD
And believe it or not, these were not the worst. At one hostel, the internet provider created a pricing scheme that combined four different variables: duration of time online, duration of access validity, amount of data upload/download, and price. So you could choose, e.g. 3 hours of access expiring in 3 hours with 20 MB of data for $10, or 2 hours of access expiring in 48 hours with unlimited data for $12. There were about six or seven of these options.
Seriously, NZ internet providers need to learn that when presented with too much choice, consumers will get paralyzed and run to the nearest coffee shop with free wifi (like what I did in Queenstown).
