are Internet cafes a thing of the past?

With the advent of nearly universal wi-fi and ipads, internet cafes have disappeared. You will see one from time to time often incorporated with a money exchange and a phone bank. Some hotels continue to have a guest computer (mostly for printing board passes) but those too are infrequent. There are portable hard drives just for the purpose you mentioned as devices for downloading. You might look into that if you don't want to carry an ipad or a laptop.

Many hotels list "business services" as an amenity which these days means they have a computer you can use.

I have not seen an Internet Cafe anywhere I have been in Europe for probably 10 years, but really haven't tried that hard to find them as I have not needed one. Great to have before every place had WiFi and everyone had internet connected personal devices. They always seemed too expensive anyway.

I assume you're not looking to actually "download video and pics onto our hard drive" (that is, copy data from the camera card to your own physical hard drive that you will have along with you) but rather probably you want to upload data to some cloud service...no? Very different tasks.

In any case, I haven't seen an "Internet Cafe" for years - at least not in mainstream Europe (in remote places and/or in developing countries I'm sure you can still find them). You might run into businesses that have PCs available to use as a courtesy/guest perk, but if you're counting on finding a dedicated "Internet Cafe" regularly, I think you'll be disappointed.

As far as hotels having a PC available, I think you may still find that occasionally at small places (although shared computers are often a mess and may be non-functional - it requires ongoing maintenance to keep a PC working and free of malware and most small hotel operators won't be enthusiastic about doubling as an IT worker). OTOH, hotels that cater to business travelers often have one or more PCs available, and those are more likely to actually work.

Shooting high resolution video (typical from modern cams) generates massive files. Managing that can be a lot more challenging than you might think. You have a few options, none of which are perfect for travelers...

1. Upload your data to some online service (there are many). Problem with that is you need connectivity and you need a lot of patience. The free wifi that's widely available is typically unreliable (you can usually find it somewhere, but maybe not the wifi you want) and mostly it's slow - too slow to be uploading lots of HD video. Even with a fast connection it can take many hours to upload large video files. Many people try to get by with this, just for photos (much less demanding in terms of the volume of data) and find it challenging. For video, I don't think this is a good (realistic) choice.

2. Bring lots of large-capacity memory cards for your camera. Lots. How many you will need depends on the size of the video files your camera generates, how many video files you're going to shoot each day, and how long your trip is. One potential problem is that although memory cards are pretty reliable, no media is 100% bullet-proof, so there's a chance a card might go bad (or could simply get lost), resulting in loss of the files on it. To get an idea of how many cards you'll need, your husband needs to start shooting video NOW and try to replicate what it will be like on the trip, and extrapolate.

3. Bring along some kind of portable storage unit (either a simple external hard drive or a dedicated photo storage/backup device). This can be a good solution in some ways: you can get huge storage capacity and you never have to hunt for wifi that will usually be too slow to use anyway. The downsides: one more heavy, fragile, expensive gizmo to carry along.

3A: If you just bring an external hard drive in an enclosure (the kind of "backup" drive you can find at Costco, for example) then you need a computer to plug that into (and the computer needs to be able to read your memory cards - not all computers have built-in card readers, so you would need to bring a card reader device along, too, although you can get little USB readers) - then you need the cables and power brick for the hard drive, too. The extras add up, and then you have the dilemma of finding a computer to use.

3B: There are dedicated photo storage devices available. These are basically a hard drive in an enclosure, with a built-in card reader, a small screen, and a simple operating system to let you copy files. Some let you browse your photos/videos and do a few other minor tasks. The advantage of this is it's an all-in-one-unit solution (no computer needed, until you get home and then copy everything to your own computer). But not cheap, and One More Thing (see above).

(continued)

(continuing...)

If your husband is seriously into the video thing, if he expects to take lots of video, the dedicated storage device might be a good option, but that's a commitment and these devices each have their own quirks and limitations (I currently own several). For most people, I think these are expensive overkill.

Assuming your husband is mostly rational (that is, he's not an "enthusiast" like some of us), your best bet would be either:

• Simply buy enough memory cards to cover your needs for the trip. They're not super-expensive (if you shop around you can find them at reasonable prices), they're tiny and featherweight. You'll need to get an idea of how many you'll need (so send him out for a day of practice shooting and let him crunch the numbers). They're also ubiquitous, so in a pinch (if your needs exceed your estimates) you can find them in any decent sized town - but you will want to avoid that, since prices can be crazy high in some places (small towns, tourist shops). Or...

• Get one of the "portable hard drives" used for backup (Costco, etc.) and resign yourselves to needing to find a functioning PC every time your memory cards are full. If you go this route, you will still want to have several extra memory cards so you can go longer (maybe several days) between having to unload the cards to the drive. Hopefully you won't need to find a PC every day, maybe every 2-3 days (all depends on the guy shooting the video).

• I would not count on uploading all that video data to any cloud storage service. You have better things to do on your vacation.

Hope the above helps. Good luck.

Thanks everyone (especially David)! I should have said - my husband is actually a computer guy:). He doesn't think one of the storage devices as in David's 3B would have enough storage. We could invest in more cards, but he has already spent a fair amount on them and thinks he has 4 - 5 hours of video (seems like a lot to me). He wants to create some 3d video he can watch at home.

We've only taken our phones for pics on our last few trips so this in new territory for us:)

ETA - I should say I've email a few of the bigger "chain" hotels we will be staying at inquiring if they have a guest computer.

Actually, you can get a photo storage device with a capacity of up to 2 Terabytes (last time I looked, there may be a newer one now), which is pretty good (I have one of these).
That said, it's not a perfect system. But if you're going to generate massive data and don't mind investing the money, it's a viable option.

I would only recommend one of these for someone that's very dedicated to their photo/video efforts, and who plans to take enough trips to justify the expense and hassles. The device I have is slow (just unloading cards to the device takes a while), a bit clunky and limited (doesn't fully support all modern/current standards - it's in need of an update), and perhaps worst of all, it's like any camera or computer gear: it quickly becomes outdated as new things are developed and we all expect them to work, so (at least in my case) I end up having to replace one of these with the latest-and-greatest version every few years.

Of course, any "serious" videographer (eyeroll...) would need at least two of these, since one could fail and you always need a backup... So, your computer guy husband should be careful about going there.

If you plan to stay in large-chain "business" hotels I think you will find many have a PC available in their "business center".

Don't underestimate the incredible volume of data that video recordings generate - it's huuuuuge.

Jill, we don't like to take our laptop, either, and usually rely on hotel computers. On our recent Best of Europe tour, at least half the hotels had computers available for guests to use. These were not business class hotels, so YMMV. We did try an internet café in Haarlem, but the operating system was so out of date that the websites we needed to visit refused to load!

Several years ago - maybe 4 - it was fairly easy to find internet cafés; now, they are rare. I think trying the hotels will be your best bet. We have also had good luck throwing ourselves on the mercy of hotels which did not have a guest computer, but only for things like checking in for flights home or printing out boarding passes. Doing a lengthy file transfer probably wouldn't pass muster.

Why not buy a small travel laptop with a big hard drive? I guess I don't see the problem with taking a small one (one that might have been called a "netbook" a few years back). It would simplify your life greatly. Your husband could easily upgrade the hard drive if he wants to - my day-to-day laptop is actually a 11.6" I originally bought for travel but found it so light and convenient that I retired my old larger laptop. Hard drive is now a 500GB SSD, but a 1TB drive easy to install.

The Acer Recertified "store" (website) has cheap small laptops - older models that may be slow but would be very adequate for your purpose. Just get one with a hard drive that can be removed/upgraded (not one with a 16/32/64GB SSD - those are not upgradeable).

I had the same issue a few years ago. I posted my solution at the very end of this thread:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tech-tips/back-up-photos-with-no-laptop

The specific brand names may have changed, but the concept is the same. A bridge device enables you to transfer data from one type of media (SD card, USB stick, etc.) to another type of media (in my case, a solid state hard drive with several hundred GB of storage), with no computer or internet connection required. In my case, an iphone app provides the "brains" to make it all happen.

This was key, as I was able to transfer data from the GoPro SD cards to a hard drive while on trains, planes, or anywhere I had a few spare minutes. At the end of my trip, once I was back at my computer, I simply plugged my portable hard drive in and downloaded all of my footage.

Obviously, you could also use a wireless internet connection to download data to the cloud, but that requires an internet connection.

Thanks again everybody! I've been passing all your great advice along to my husband. I'll let you know what he decided in the end:)

Jill,

Like the others, I haven't seen an Internet Cafe in Europe for several years, although they certainly could still exist in some places. In the "old days", the cafes used to be a bit "reluctant" to allow file transfer in their computers, given the possibility of being infected by a virus or malware.

I normally pack a small Netbook which has a large hard drive and a built-in SD card reader. I've never looked, but assume the GoPro uses SD cards? You could also look at something like these devices - https://toomanyadapters.com/best-travel-storage/ .

My husband asked me to pass on a big Thank you to all! He looked up your recommendations - some of which are not available, but did lead him to this - https://www.wdc.com/products/portable-storage/my-passport-wireless-pro.html which he ordered last night so no need to take laptop:)

Thanks!

My husband asked me to pass on a big Thank you to all! He looked up your recommendations - some of which are not available, but did lead him to this - https://www.wdc.com/products/portable-storage/my-passport-wireless-pro.html which he ordered last night so no need to take laptop:)

Jill: let us know how this works. It is definitely we might use.

Will do Ed! We don't get back to the US til July 15th and I don't think we'll know for sure until we download the images onto home computer.

Jill -

Warning - I bought one of those about a year ago and returned it after futzing with it for a couple days. It was horrible.

It has many significant weaknesses (doesn't work with some memory cards, wifi transfers are slow and unreliable, user experience is terrible, etc.) but it also has one 100% fatal flaw for me (read below). When this arrives, your husband will need to test it and decide if it's worth keeping, and if your trip is coming up fast, have a Plan B ready.

Short version: Good idea, but terrible execution. I found this thing to be fundamentally broken.

I found it pretty bad to use generally - confusing, difficult to use workflow, poor documentation (and I'm an IT guy who puts up with a LOT of bad user experiences). I could have lived with that. But worst of all, it had one complete deal-killer for me: whenever I copied images from a memory card to the unit (and then copied them to my computer) this device automatically changed the date/time-stamp on EVERY file to a single, incorrect value.

Context: Every digital file on any computer or other device has a bunch of details encoded in it. For example, the day & time the file was created, the day & time it was modified, etc. Photos have a LOT of this encoded metadata (dozens of details, most of which the average photographer probably doesn't care about or even notice). But even for casual photographers, the creation date is pretty important. The worst thing about this unit is that it changes the date stamp on every file to some incorrect, random date (it may be the date the unit was manufactured - mine was several years old but still sold as "new"). So after you use it, you come home and unload your trip photos, every one of them has the same date/time stamp (which is incorrect - IIRC it was some random date in 2015). I contacted the manufacturer and their support staff told me there was no way to fix this.

That's crazy. I don't want every photo I take for the next 5 years to all show up with the same random date stamp in 2015.

Your husband will want to look into this and do some testing as soon as this unit shows up. Until then, go read user reviews on Amazon to see all the issues people have with it. I see lots of recent negative reviews there that mirrored my experience last year. If it still has the same problems, he may want to return it and find another option.

Good luck.

Thanks David! It's supposed to arrive Thursday. My husband was apparently already aware of the date/time stamp issue, but believes there may be a fix for this. Anyway - I'll let you know how it goes.

Photos and videos do have the original timestamp saved in the EXIF data, so the actual time the videos or photos were taken should still be preserved, even if the file timestamps aren't.

Photos and videos do have the original timestamp saved in the EXIF data, so the actual time the videos or photos were taken should still be preserved, even if the file timestamps aren't.

Fair enough, but still. Yes, I know how to extract EXIF metadata and use it to overwrite OS-level file timestamps (use I'd use ExifTool) but that's pretty technical and way beyond what I would expect from all but the most dedicated enthusiasts.

The fact that a company like Western Digital has been shipping a product for years that so badly munges a basic file attribute says something (unflattering) about that company's commitment to the quality of their products. So yeah, you can find a workaround if you're determined and willing to go all geeky, but...wow, quite a compromised product IMHO. Life's too short for headaches like that (at least mine is ;) ).

But the people who "aren't geeky" probably don't care about the file timestamps, anyway. Whatever software they use to display/edit the photos should automatically show the date from the EXIF info, not from the timestamp.

Well, we will have to disagree on that one (I think that's a pretty fundamental failure for anyone, technical user or not, but there's no need to further derail this thread).

Jill, please update the thread after your husband settles on a decision and has some experience/impressions to share. Thanks.

Jill,

Hopefully that Western Digital product works well for you. It might just be easier to pack along the Laptop. At the least, there would be no additional cost.

I gather your husband wasn't interested in the Transcend StoreJet shown in that link I provided.

Good luck!

Well - it's already been ordered so I guess we'll know by Friday if it will work or not:).

If you would still need an Internet cafe... The public libraries in Amsterdam have computers and wifi you can use (at a cost of 1 euro for 30 minutes): https://www.oba.nl/oba/english/internet-and-wifi-in-the-library.html

This is an age old problem still waiting for a good solution. Kudos to David for covering the current "solutions" and their pros and cons. I agree with his assessment of the WD device: a good HW idea needing a good SW file manager (Windows Explorer Light?). One that would support:

• creation of new download folders, e.g. by locations, separating raw, jpeg, video, etc.
• downloading folders and files selectively
• preserving the attributes of the folders and files (in particular folders' timestamps)

I started out with a small netbook with an external hard drive. Then I switched to the smallest (<11") tablet (and 2-in-1) that runs both Windows OS AND Chrome, with two USB ports. In addition for my computer tasks, it serves as my e-reader. My nightly backup of up to 64GB takes less than 30min.

I do not need all the requirements of this setup, but it is worth considering.

https://fstoppers.com/originals/my-new-travel-backup-photography-kit-97191

A few ideas mentioned in the comments to that article are also interesting.

Oh, Floris is right. I had forgotten about public libraries. I know we used one on our South England tour, and they didn't charge us for going over the allotted time. Many cities have libraries with public computers.

Also Tourist Information offices often have public computers; we've used those in England and Italy.

Hopefully we will be able to get by without having to find a computer, but I would have never thought of trying a TI for a computer to use! Thanks Jane!

Apologies in advance if your husband has looked at the following gadget and decided against it.

A couple of years ago I was fussing with possibly not having a laptop with me on a foreign trip, and wanting to offload/backup my photos from my camera cards somehow. I don't do much video but I shoot a lot of photos, in RAW format, and there's no way a hotel wifi system would be robust enough for me to upload all those files to the cloud.

I bought this little gadget (Kingston MobileLite), tried it out at home to transfer files from an SD card to a USB drive. It worked. Not a speed demon, but not bad. (It's been replaced by a newer model, which I don't have any experience with.)

By the way, I didn't use the Kingston on my trip; took an old Chromebook instead which was very lightweight and among other things allowed me to copy files from my camera SD card to an external USB hard drive. The MobileLite has been sitting on a shelf ever since, but it only cost about thirty bucks.

EDITED to add: I see this may have been discussed in a topic linked to above. Sorry for the redundancy.

Thanks Suz. My husband has already purchased it and I will post his review shortly. So far he has done some testing and believes the date / time software issue has been fixed. He also said he believes it's fast than past reviews would allow. He said he would type up something for me to post here after he's had a chance to do some thorough testing which should be today or tomorrow as we leave on Thursday:)

OK - as promised my husband finally finished testing this morning (good thing since we leave this afternoon:). Here is what he had to say -
"Based on suggestions from this thread, I acquired and tested the WD My Passport Wireless Pro (firmware 1.04.17) as a way to offload pictures and video from my camera. I take pictures with my camera, then plug the SDcard into the WD. The transfer is finished when the LEDs on the WD stop blinking. Transfer speed is about 16MB/second. The WD is also supposed to auto-transfer when you plug in a USB memory device, however when trying auto-transfer using the USB port instead of the SDcard port, it did not work for me (only some files were copied.)
I purchased the 2 Terabyte rotating hard drive option for the WD, but the 1 TB SSD drive option would be a safer bet considering the jostling/bumping of travel. You don’t need an iphone or the internet to get this to work, but if you do have an iphone, you can view pictures/video on the WD to insure everything copied correctly, for added piece of mind. The WD also has a battery, so you can transfer SD cards on the go without the need for plug in power. Once you get home, the WD acts like a regular USB hard drive so just connect it to a USB port and copy the files to your computer. Transfer speed is 100MB/sec. This device can also act as a media server (twonkymedia and optional plex) although HD video streams might stutter. Overall, the WD My Passport Wireless Pro works well for my application."

Thanks for the review. I don't have an iPhone, so it wouldn't be useful for me, not being able to know if everything transferred successfully or not. A small laptop is really more useful and not much larger than one of these devices, no doubt.

There's nothing wrong with using a conventional hard drive instead of an SSD for travel - as long as you aren't moving when using it. I always take portable hard drives with me when I travel to backup my photos (from my little laptop), Obviously you want to be stationary when using hard drives - like connect them at a hotel not on a bumpy bus ride or something. When hard drives aren't powered on, they can handle much move movement and a lot of jostling around, because the heads are "parked." The SSD is probably very expensive compared to the hard drive and in my opinion would not add enough benefit to justify the extra expense as a backup device (whereas an SSD in say your laptop would be a huge speed-up and probably well worth the expense).

I would still caution against having only one copy of your photos and videos - that is, if you have one of these backup devices, don't delete the pictures from the camera card if you can help it. (Buy more memory cards if you need them - they don't cost much these days.) Keep them on the camera memory card too so you have two copies of the files. Any device, hard drive, SSD, whatever, could still fail, so you're taking a chance having just a single copy on one device. I always have them on two separate devices, minimum, because of the reduced chance of both failing at the same time.