Best “On the Go” Internet for Long-term Campers in America
In my personal opinion, there’s very little in life that is as rewarding as spending time in nature. And, in fact, camping is one of my absolute favorite family activities. Not only is it a ton of fun, but it’s less expensive than staying in hotels or Airbnbs while traveling, and camping can be extremely educational as well. All of which is why so many families are deciding to do it full-time!
Of course, full-time camping does require a few major considerations. Like where to get internet.
Whether it’s for work, school, or a family movie night, there are a lot of reasons why being sure of having an internet connection while camping is important. Especially if you’re planning on camping long term.
Luckily, I’ve got you covered.
TLDR –
Nomad Internet is most often the best choice for families who plan to spend large portions of the year traveling around America. It provides reliable, unlimited, mobile network-based internet coverage on the Verizon network for an affordable price.
Campground Wifi Connections
If you need a good internet connection while camping, it can be tempting to try to find campgrounds that offer wifi as one of their amenities. After all, why should you pay for internet access if you can get a campground that provides internet for you?
And, in fact, I have actually used campground wifi to do work on several occasions. However, I would not suggest depending on campground wifi if you absolutely need to be online at any point during your trip.
In general, I have found that the campgrounds that offer wifi tend to have extremely limited wifi connectivity. Often, wifi signals are centered on shelters or other permanent structures in the campground, and many individual campsites end up with a weak signal or no connectivity at all. On top of that pubic wifi is way less secure than a home connection, unless you’re using a VPN. (You should be.)
These campgrounds also tend to be located in areas that are closer to urban areas, which can often translate to crowded campgrounds and less of the peace and quiet that makes camping so great. Lots of people can also mean slower overall internet speeds and connection interruptions.
When you get farther out into the wilderness, campgrounds are usually less crowded, but much less likely to have any wifi at all. And if you decide to do dispersed camping, campground wifi is off the table completely!
When it comes down to it, campground wifi can be helpful in a pinch, but isn’t typically a reliable source of internet if you need to do work or school while camping.
Pros
- Free access
Cons
- Unreliable
- Only available at certain locations
- Insecure (without a VPN)
Mobile Network Hotspots
When wifi isn’t an option, the next easiest source of internet is often the cell phone in your pocket.
Many mobile networks will allow you to share your internet connection with your other devices by creating a mobile hotspot. Some services have this functionality built into all their plans, while other networks require you to pay a bit extra for plans with hotspotting.
My wife and I have worked from our phones’ mobile hotspots often, and it is a legitimately good way to get internet while camping in many areas. The only real limitation comes from your cell network’s coverage and any limits your specific plan might have.
For instance, my family uses Google Fi as our provider. Generally, they provide great, high-speed coverage, but we often use enough data in a month that we get throttled, at which point our work slows down considerably. If you’re on their Flexible Plan you can get up to 15GB of data at full-speed before getting throttled, whereas the Unlimited Plus plan allows up to 50GB of full-speed data before throttling.
A lot of other mobile service providers, on the other hand, charge a bit extra on top of their unlimited plans if you want to hotspot at all. It can be worth it, if you’re already using their cell plans and don’t plan on using a ton of internet. However, if you need a lot of internet, or just don’t want to have to keep track of your usage, you may want to look at a dedicated internet service instead of using your phone plan.
Prices for a single line with hotspotting
(click the plan names for more details)
Google Fi Flexible Plan ($20-$80/month)
This is Google Fi’s entry-level plan, and is typically the plan my family uses when we are outside the the US. Google will charge $20 for phone service, plus $10/GB of data used up to 6GB. After that, any internet is free, so your bill maxes out at $80/month. The Flexible Plan generally has good speed and comes with the ability to hotspot, but it begins throttling data after only 15GB.
This means it’s a great choice for families who plan on using only a little bit of internet, but if you regularly use more than 4GB of internet in a month, you should upgrade to Fi’s Unlimited Plus Plan or to a different provider.
Google Fi Unlimited Plus Plan ($65/month)
The Unlimited Plus Plan is my family’s typical phone plan while in the States, and we have really enjoyed it. For $65, you get unlimited calls, texts, and hotspotting. As with most mobile providers, when we’re talking about unlimited data, they really mean kind of unlimited. Google Fi does a pretty good job with it though. You can use up to 50GB of data through your line before they begin to throttle, and if you have more than one line you can get up to 50GB on each of your lines before it gets throttled.
This is one of the best Unlimited plans I’ve found, and for a lot of families this ends up being enough to get through the month without too much scrimping, but it is definitely not truly “unlimited.”
Boost Mobile + Amazon Prime ($35/month with hotspotting)
If you hadn’t heard, Amazon recently announced some pretty big phone plan discounts for Amazon Prime members, including this one from Boost Mobile! Prime Members can sign up for Unlimited data on a single line for just $25/month, which is an incredible price for unlimited data. However, adding hotspotting costs an extra $10/month, and is limited to your line’s “premium” data, which is what they call the data before your throttling limit. Boost will start throttling at 30GB, at which point hotspotting will also be disabled.
I also can’t vouch for Boost’s network, as they are running on a combination of Dish Network’s spectrum and “borrowed” signal from ATT and T-Mobile. But for $25-$35/month, it may be worth trying out on an extra line just for the cheap data!
Just remember that you have to be an Amazon Prime Member to get the discounted price. (You can sign up for a trial here)
Check out the Boost Infinite + Prime Plan
Straight Talk Gold Unlimited Prepaid ($55 for 30 Days)
Straight Talk is Walmart’s line of phone plans and is incredibly easy to get started with. It’s as simple as walking into the electronics department at the nearest Walmart and letting an associate know that you want a phone plan!
On top of that, it’s a pretty easy plan to use, too. Straight Talk’s Gold Unlimited plan comes with 30 days of unlimited data that doesn’t get “de-prioritized” (i.e. throttled) until after you’ve used 60GBs! I’d probably recommend this one more highly, except that it only includes 15GB of hotspot data.
That means this won’t be a good plan if you’re wanting to share data out among a lot of devices. But if you do most of your work on your phone, maybe it might work for you.
Straight Talk Gold Unlimited Plan (via Walmart)
Nomad Internet – My pick for unlimited travel-friendly internet!
Most people, when asked, would prefer to have actual unlimited internet that they can use while traveling instead of relying on mobile plans that cost extra to share with your family or start throttling you if you use too much. They want the convenient and user-friendly experience of having home internet, but with the flexibility to take it on the road.
That’s what Nomad Internet is.
Nomad Internet is a home internet provider that uses cell network connectivity instead of wired connections to provide an unlimited home internet experience anywhere you can get signal. They work great as a home internet provider in rural areas where traditional ISPs don’t reach, and they really shine as a way of staying connected while on the go!
One thing to note. Nomad Internet relies on Verizon’s cell network to function. Verizon has one of the fastest and most extensive cell networks in America, so in most places that’s not a problem, but if you do visit an area outside of Verizon’s network, you’ll be without internet. However, Nomad Internet’s routers have much larger receivers than you find in a cell phone, so they can often pick up enough signal to keep you online even when your phone can’t connect.
That connectivity does come with a price, though. Nomad Internet costs just over $100/month for home internet, and $129/month for the ability to use it while on the go. That is definitely higher than the average home internet plan, but not terrible, and it means having access while traveling!
This is particularly amazing for families living in vans or RVs, as it is basically the difference between having a real home Wi-Fi service for your RV or having to hotspot your phone to do literally anything online.
New users will need to purchase one of their specialized modems in order for the whole thing to work. Those routers run anywhere from a $99 – $399 one-time charge, depending on how many devices you plan on connecting. Though, most households will do fine with their least expensive option.
The modems don’t take much power to use, and can even be run using one of your laptop’s USB ports, in a pinch. I would prefer them to have built-in batteries, but this works well enough in practice. I would suggest using an external power source, like a power bank or a solar generator if you plan on being off-grid for a while.
Overall, I have found Nomad Internet to be an excellent option for most families, and I would recommend them to anyone looking for an easy way to work while on the go!
Starlink Internet – Internet (almost) anywhere, but at a price
There is one other option, if you’re one of those people who likes to go places where cell service doesn’t. Starlink.
Instead of using cell towers to send signal to a modem, Starlink uses a large number of small satellites orbiting the earth to connect your devices to the internet. Basically, the satellites act as a really long cord connecting your Starlink modem with the nearest relay station, which is connected to the internet at large in a more conventional way. And, in practice, it actually works pretty well!
Starlink users can usually expect internet speeds that are plenty fast enough for streaming video or making video calls, though online games can sometimes give Starlink trouble, especially in those moments where your modem is switching between satellites.
Starlink can also have some trouble in cities, as their satellites can only handle so much data at a time and that bandwidth has to be shared between way more people in urban areas. But if you need internet while camping somewhere like Badlands National Park, this is essentially the only feasible way to get it.
I LOVE how cool the concept of getting the internet from space is. And Starlink is legitimately useful for a lot of use cases, like getting decent internet on cruise boats at sea. But for most users, I would not recommend Starlink, for a couple of reasons. Its price and its user experience.
Starlink is significantly more expensive than either Nomad Internet or paying for extra data on a cell plan. Right now, using Starlink costs $150/month for service with a one-time startup cost of nearly $600 to buy their modem. Hopefully those prices will go down in the future, but for the moment, it’s a lot.
And as far as user experience goes, Starlink can be pretty finicky about what it needs to provide a good connection. Stormy weather can cause the internet to stop completely, and even heavy cloud coverage can cause a decrease in speeds, at times. But the biggest problem area for Starlink is trees.
The Starlink modem needs an unimpeded view of the nearest satellite in order to function, and trees are often the biggest impediment to getting internet. Personally, when I’m out camping, I like for there to be a lot of trees around my campsite, so Starlink is basically unusable for me in many of my favorite camping areas.
Of course, if you plan to take your internet with you across international borders, things change a bit. Starlink’s Global plan allows you to access the Starlink network from any of the countries where it is available, and there’s even a maritime plan for getting internet while out at sea!
The Best Internet Option for Families On the Go
When it comes down to it, I definitely feel that Nomad Internet is the best option for most families that need internet on the go.
Nomad Internet allows families to access all the internet they need for work, school, and modern life without having to worry about data caps or throttling. And because it works on Verizon’s network, Nomad Internet users are able to connect at great speeds almost anywhere in the United States.
It’s a solid option at an affordable price. What more could you want?
