Portable Wi-Fi

Some companies charge a lot for international data if it is not included in the phone plan already, so it might be cheaper to get a portable Wi-Fi for the group you're traveling with and split the cost to save money.

I ordered my portable Wi-Fi through Hippocket Wi-Fi. You can choose to pick it up at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport (sometimes not available), have it mailed to your hotel in France for free, or have it mailed to your house (€10 for it being sent to the United States. I decided to have it mailed to my house in the United States as I wanted to have it before I flew so I could have internet connection right when I landed! They have two plans: 1 GB/day or unlimited (€2 difference/day). You can also choose to use it in France only or use it in multiple countries across Europe, so it’s nice that it will work if you’re traveling through multiple countries (€1 difference/day). Also, up to 10 devices can connect to it. The total cost for mailing it to my house in the U.S. and renting it for 12 days was $105.68. Sometimes they’ll have discount codes posted to their Twitter and Facebook pages, so be sure to check their pages to see if you can get 10-15% off!

When you get the portable Wi-Fi package, it will come with a yellow envelope for you to return the device and they will also email you a return slip to print and attach to the envelope. I taped on the return slip at home so it would be ready ahead of time! To return the portable Wi-Fi, you can put it in the envelope and drop it off at any yellow post box in France (they have some at the airport) or you can pay a fee to return it from another country. A tip I would have would be to bring 1-3 portable chargers to charge the portable Wi-Fi (depending on how many people you’re traveling with and how many devices you’re connecting to it) as my device lasted 4-6 hours before running out of battery. Overall, it was super easy to use and return, so I would recommend it to others if they’re looking for a way to have internet/data connection abroad!