Cybercafes: A Worldwide Guide for Travelers

Smaller and lighter than the most compact laptop, Cybercafes is an indispensable guide for the traveler who wants to stay connected without the weight, hassle, and responsibility of lugging expensive computer machinery around the world. It's an extremely user-friendly little book. Organized by geographic regions, it also provides an index listing for dozens of cafés by name. For each café--take L'Heroïque Sandwich in Bordeaux, France, for example--the guide includes the street address, fax and phone numbers, and e-mail and Web-site address (if applicable); gives instructions on how to find it (near Grosse Cloche, in the case of L'Heroïque); tells the hours, prices (and which credit cards are accepted), and facility amenities (number of computers, availability of color, and black and white, printers), as well as any nearby places to visit. Other details are included too, such as whether the café has scanners, video-conferencing software, or America Online software, and whether the café offers any special discounts or freebies to bearers of the guidebook. The author explains cybercafé basics for first-timers, taking you step-by-step through opening an e-mail account and accessing it on the road, and she also describes the various sorts of cybercafés that exist, with their distinct atmospheres and clientele. Another bonus is a short list of great World Wide Web sites, including one that regularly updates the list of cybercafés. Small enough to fit in a back pocket, Cybercafes gives you the wherewithal to send and check e-mail in 65 countries, from Malta and Zimbabwe to Pakistan and Uruguay, and all across the U.S. It's a serious improvement over pawing through dusty, distant poste restantes, hoping for the rare letter that's addressed to you.