How to Travel the World & Never be Without WiFi

During my recent trip to Sicily a few of you asked me, “How do you upload all your Instastories and photo content while traveling?” Well, my friends, today I am going to tell you exactly how I do it.

Sometimes hotel WiFi will work. I mean, when it’s not down, or when 1 million other guests aren’t on it, but you also have to save all your content from the day and then upload it all at once when you return to the hotel (which might take hours due to slow connection speeds. Like, who has time for that?).

It also sucks for your audience because they don’t get a true real-time experience of what your day is like.

And not to mention, part of our time in Sicily we were staying with family who had absolutely no WiFi (the horror), so I knew I had to find a solution.

So, if you’re sick of spotty WiFi in your hotel that only seems to work on that one couch in the lobby (a situation I’ve personally experienced one too many times), and you want to learn how to travel the world and never be without your own personal WiFi, no matter how remote your location, then keep reading.

I’ve discovered an amazing little device that will do just that. It’s called Tep Wireless and for less than $10/day it works as a mobile hotspot, allowing you to connect your devices wherever you go.

But, the best part about the Teppy is that it’s super small, and requires no extra wires or a complicated setup, which is especially important for techie challenged people such as myself.

You literally just turn the Tep on, enter the password on your device, and connect to your very own WiFi. This WiFi is private, secure, and just as safe as the internet you have in your own home. Only the people you choose to give the password to will be able to connect to it, so rest assured your data will be safe even when travelling.

Before my recent trip to Sicily, I ordered a Tep because I knew I would have tons of travel content and Insta story videos to upload throughout the day, and I wanted my readers to literally be able to “follow along” with my daily travels.

All of Tep Wireless‘ plans allow for unlimited data usage, so for bloggers like me who are constantly uploading data-heavy videos and image files while on location, it’s not a problem. No more worrying about overages or data fees.

And not to mention, I could literally work on my laptop at the most remote beaches, fully connected to the internet. I uploaded tons of content all while catching a few rays, too. You wanna talk to me about #multitasking?? 😉

With each Tep unit you can also connect up to 5 devices – so on our trip my boyfriend and I each connected one laptop and one iPhone, with one spot leftover for an additional device (such as a Kindle or an iPad – or in our case, the local neighbor’s laptop, since our service was much faster than his!)

Before we left for our trip, we were somewhat concerned about the reliability of the Tep connection in Sicily, which is a place infamously known for its lack of cellular and data infrastructure.

However, we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived because the Tep worked amazingly well, even in the car while driving, at the beaches, and in the remote hills of the Sicilian villages.

Using the Tep in Sicily actually saved us money, too. Since we were able to connect our phones to the WiFi in the car while driving, we could easily use the Google Maps app on our phones for navigation and directions, instead of paying a hefty daily fee for a GPS unit from the rental car company.

If you plan on using the Teppy throughout the day, however, I would recommend you get an external battery charger to keep the Tep at it’s full potential. We also traveled with a USB charging cord in the car that so we could charge the Tep while driving to our next destination.

And, since all the cords, chargers, and devices can get a bit overwhelming at times (remember – tech challenged over here!), I am going to give you a brief overview of what our electronic “setup” looked like on a typical day during our trip.

• Tep Wireless device
• Charging unit/travel adapter that comes with the Tep package.
  • This will automatically have the correct plug for the country you’re travelling to, and it actually includes 3 input slots so it can function as a USB charging unit (for phones, etc) as well as for the Tep charger. We loved the dual purpose of this little guy!
• One external battery for Tep during the day (a fully charged Tep will last about 6 hours, but this was just in case we found ourselves wanting to enjoy the beach – and the internet – for a bit longer).
• One external battery for iPhones and other devices during the day (again, as backup – you can never have enough battery power – ha!)
• One universal cord/lightning cable to connect/charge any device, no matter the port type (I use this one and love it!)
• One USB charging cord we left inside rental car to charge devices while driving

And obviously before we went to bed each night we would plug in all our devices to make sure they were fully charged and ready to go for the next day.

And here are a couple of tips and pointers regarding the Tep unit:

• It worked great for the majority of the time, especially when out in the open (even at the beach!) If you are going to be staying in an area with a lot of tall concrete buildings and you find the signal isn’t strong enough, try moving around or to an outside porch where the signal is probably easier to connect to.
• I would also recommend restarting the device once a day by turning it off and on again. This will refresh the IP address and seemed to solve any device connectivity issues we had.
• If traveling to a beach or warm destination, keep your Tep (as well as your phones and laptops) out of the direct sun! Keep it covered with a towel or stowed in a beach bag to prevent overheating of the Teppy.

So, if you have an upcoming trip to an exotic location, but you feel the need to remain “connected” to the rest of the world, I highly recommend you look into ordering a Tep. They have generously provided my readers with a discount code for 15% off when used with this link.

Use code: TEPON at checkout and the discount will be applied.

You can even order the Tep super last minute and they’ll ship it overnight to you (hello – since we planned our trip to Sicily only 5 days in advance this worked out perfect for us! And – side note – if you want to read a bunch of insider tips on how to travel in Sicily like a pro, click here to read my post).

Here is a list of destinations where the Tep device is available:

• Africa: Egypt, Kenya, and South Africa.
• Asia: Cambodia, China, Cyprus, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Macao, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
• Caribbean Islands: Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Barbados, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos Islands.
• Central America: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, and The Caribbean Islands.
• Europe: Albania, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and Vatican.
• North America: Canada, Mexico, and United States.
• Oceania: Australia, Christmas Island, Fiji, Guam, New Zealand, and Saipan.
• South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

So, have you ever been stuck on vacation without an ounce of WiFi? Tell me your stories in the comments below! And let me know if you’ve ever tried Tep Wireless and what you think of it…I would love to hear from you!

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And finally, I want to thank all of you who follow along with my travels and daily content on my social media channels. Please continue to tag me in your posts, share with your friends, and spread the love! And for those who aren’t following, why don’t you get in on the action? I can be found on: Instagram, Twitter & Pinterest!