[Product review]

“Oh, you have already uploaded your Instagram photos? I just asked the restaurant, they don’t have Wifi and roaming is so expensive,” said a fellow writer who sat next to me during the recent trip to Charleston in the US.

Throughout the entire trip, we were practically inseparable. The next day, someone else wanted to hang out. The day after, more people wanted to hang out.

I was being surrounded by all these people wanting to be my friend!

Living in Europe, we take Wifi for granted. From cafes to pubs to banks to libraries, almost everywhere provides Wifi, and that’s on top of the standard roaming services in the EU countries where you can use your allocated data and calls as per your mobile phone plan at home, anywhere in the EU without additional charges.

However, in the US, this wasn’t the case. Hardly any restaurants provided Wifi, and being travel writers / bloggers and photographers, where it is often part of our job to be constantly sharing the destinations we are visiting (it really is part of our job, just check out #bgtwcharleston on Instagram – I’ll tell you about the trip later), it became clear that most of the time, we had to play catch up on our posts.

Until I whipped out my secret weapon.

Oh boy, did I make friends fast. I was an instant hit with my fellow writers and bloggers, like Kat from Travels with Kat, who used my little Mifi device the entire time! [Check out her post on Where and What to Eat in Charleston].

Someone joked the other day that modern day friendship is all virtual. We all have more friends on social media than real life, and the reason why I was able to make so many friends in a couple of days, is exactly that: I was the hot spot everyone wanted to be close to.

Prior to the trip, I got my hands on one of these babies: a MiFi. A device that works like a mobile router, a Wifi hotspot. I had acquired this from Cellhire, a company that specialises in travel mobile communications.

Why did I not just buy some kind of roaming package from my mobile phone provider you say?

Well, it’s not only expensive, but I also needed something that could work fast and connects multiple devices.

The light weight device is easy to use, fits in any standard pockets / hand bag which means no one would know you are using a Wifi connection if you didn’t tell them.

As we were taken to various museums, galleries, gardens, walks and restaurants, I was Instagraming / Tweeting / Facebooking constantly on the go. When I needed to take a phone call or join an online conference (remember I have two jobs) the connection was stable and fast enough for me to work wherever there’s at least some kind of mobile signal.

Amazing.

At the end, you pop the device into a pre-paid envelope and return it back to Cellhire. I quite like the idea of the device on hire, as otherwise it’ll just end up being another electronic device that gets stashed away on the shelf for the rest of the year.

The only downside to the Mifi device is that its battery only last around 6 hours on constant use. However, it is easily chargeable by USB cable so potentially you could also charge it on the go wherever you find somewhere you can charge. (Or, connect it to a battery pack)

A US 5GB bundle is £50 for a month’s hire. I have found this a great product for those who always need to be on the go and travelling to places that isn’t always Wifi friendly.

Click here for more information.

Disclaimer: I was provided with a review bundle of Mifi from Cellhire for the Charleston trip.