How to Get Wi-Fi for Camping and RV

• Mobile hotspot devices offer more data than hotspotting off your phone and they don’t drain your phone battery. 
• All data plans we recommend are contract free. Without the burden of a month-to-month service contract, you can buy the mobile hotspot device upfront and just activate service for the months you camp.
• The drawback to a mobile hotspot device is that it doesn’t work in areas without cell phone reception—you have to be close enough to a cell phone tower to get a signal.
• A mobile hotspot is usually cheaper per month than your other portable internet options.
• Using a cell phone booster can strengthen your signal in more remote campsites and National Parks with weak cellular signals. 

If you’re planning on doing a lot of backcountry camping, a mobile hotspot device may not work. For example, if you’re boondocking in the backcountry and you’re 100 miles from the nearest cell phone tower, you may only be able to get online using a portable satellite dish like Starlink Mobile, which is more expensive but gets you connected. But if you’re content to save online activities for when you’re staying in established camping areas, a mobile hotspot device might be great. 

Travelers who rely heavily on internet access for working remotely or staying connected during long trips will benefit most from getting a mobile hotspot device. Occasional campers may not need a dedicated device for internet access while camping and could get by with hotspotting off their cell phone plan.

Other mobile hotspot options include the Verizon 5G Hotspot will deliver a steady connection in many camping areas. 

Our top recommendation for getting Wi-Fi while camping in is getting a mobile hotspot device and pairing it with a prepaid data plan. This is the most flexible option, allowing you to buy a device upfront and then just activate service for the months you’ll be using it, rather than having a year-long contract. 

Using a mobile hotspot like the AT&T Nighthawk LTE along with one of AT&T’s prepaid data plans is a great choice for camping and RV. AT&T recently slashed the price on their prepaid plans and doubled the data—which is a win, win, anyway you look at it. If you like Verizon’s network but are looking for something cheaper, check out Visible’s $40 per month data plans, which include unlimited hotspot data.

When selecting a mobile hotspot device, most people get one with the same provider as they use for their cell phone. Sometimes, you can save money by bundling plans. Mobile hotspot plans cost $5 to $150 per month, depending on which provider you pick and how much data you use. 

Although Verizon has one of the cheapest hotspot devices, Verizon’s data-only hotspot plans are the most expensive, which is why we recommend getting MVNO Visible if you want to use Verizon’s network. (Visible is much cheaper.)

To learn more, check out our full mobile hotspot review, which includes information on service plans.

Using a mobile phone to access the internet or hotspotting from a phone to a laptop are the most popular ways that people get online while camping. The only catch is you have to be camping in an area with cell phone service. The internet activities you’ll be able to use your phone for will depend a lot on how strong your signal is.

If you want to bring your home internet connection with you wherever you go, 4G LTE internet is a great option for camping in an RV. It doesn’t require complicated installation of a satellite dish or data monitoring, and you can get a signal in the same places as you can get cellphone service. Some carriers have better coverage in rural areas. You can use your 4G LTE internet service for your home internet provider and for your RV internet service, which is a big perk. 

Also known as wireless internet, 4G LTE internet service delivers data using cell phone towers—the same way you get data on your smartphone. Most 4G LTE providers offer download speeds of 10–25 Mbps, which might not be fast enough to play fast-paced games like Fortnite or Diablo online, but it’s ample speed for browsing, emailing, fetching directions, making reservations, making video calls, and even streaming  movies or TV on Netflix or YouTube. 

To take your 4G LTE internet with you on the road, you just need to carry your modem/router out to your RV and plug it into a power source and you’ll have internet access for your devices on the go. And you don’t have to be going far—you can use it in the barn, in a workshop, or anywhere you have access to power. When you plug your modem/router in, you’ll have the same network name and password that you set up at home.

Perfect for rural areas, vacation spots, and RV campgrounds, 4G LTE internet service offers portable internet service that’s also great for RVers. There are dozens of small 4G LTE internet providers around the country. Here are a few worth checking out.

Like cell phone service, 4G LTE internet depends on proximity to cell phone towers to get a signal. It won’t work well in extremely remote areas, canyons, or in heavily forested areas. Lakes and swamps can also interfere with cell signals. 4G LTE works best when you’re in an open area and you’re located close to cell phone towers.

For heavy data users or seasonal RVers who travel extensively, 4G LTE internet might be a better way to get internet than cell phone hotspot. With 4G LTE internet, you can use the same plan for home internet and Wi-Fi on the road—and it delivers a lot more data than mobile hotspotting. If you’re cruising around the country in an RV for months on end, you might need more than the 15 GB of data per month that you’ll get from hotspotting off your cell phone. 

Do you like to escape the city during your travels? Plenty of campers and RVers like to stay close to popular beaches, resorts, and cities while they travel, but not everybody likes the crowds. You can venture a little farther off the beaten path if you use a signal booster, which will help the 4G LTE modem/router pick up a signal from a little farther away. 

Both Verizon and T-Mobile offer 4G LTE home internet and 5G home internet solutions, but you won't be able to take these with you one the road or to the campground. They're what's called fixed wireless internet options, so even though they run off cell phone data networks, they're designed to receive it in a single, fixed spot. Stick with a hotspot if you want to keep your 4G or 5G portable. 

We didn't use to recommend satellite internet for casual RVers because the equipment costs were high and the speeds low, low, low. Fortunately, Starlink for RVers has developed into its own special service: Starlink Mobile. And it's resolved most of our issues with portable satellite internet. It's still expensive, but $150 per month that you can pause whenever you want is a far cry from previous satellite RV options, and even if you do experienced slow speeds compared to Starlink residential users, 50Mbps on the daily is a welcome speed in comparison to the 1Mbps options you had before.

Check out our full Starlink Mobile guide to learn if it's the right camping solution for you.

For the records, neither Hughesnet nor Viasat (the major residential satellite internet companies) offer portable satellite internet service. 

The most obvious internet option while traveling in an RV is trying out campground internet or getting internet at restaurants, coffee shops, and libraries. Sometimes you may luck out and camp in a site with decent Wi-Fi. But most campground Wi-Fi is weak, slow, and unreliable, so we don’t recommend that you rely on it for anything important. 

When you check in, go ahead and get the sign in info from the camp host for the campsite Wi-Fi. It won’t hurt—it’s free in most cases. And if it’s a cold night in the middle of February and you’re the only camper, you might get enough bandwidth to stream a few YouTube videos (if you’re located close enough to the main office).

Most campground Wi-Fi networks have two problems: they’re overcrowded with too many users, and the router and modem are too far away from the campsites. You can’t fix the first problem, but you can use a booster or extender to fix the second problem.

If you’re familiar with boosters and extenders, you know that they work to amplify an existing Wi-Fi signal so you can pick up signals from farther away. Boosters made for home networks won’t work because they’re designed to be placed as close to the router as possible. A booster or extender made specifically for RV use will work best. There are a lot of good options for RVs, so we’ve created a guide to help you get the best booster or extender for your RV. 

If you need an internet option that’s reliable enough to work remotely or watch Netflix around the campfire, opt for a mobile hotspot device or 4G LTE internet service. Both of these options offer service to areas with cell phone coverage, although they won’t work in areas without cell phone service.. 

Most casual RVers won’t need portable satellite internet, which is a good thing since it’s so expensive. So, we recommend satellite internet only to extreme campers and RVers who work or live fulltime in highly remote locations.

If you’re camping you can get Wi-Fi with a mobile hotspot device, by hotspotting from your phone, or by boosting campground Wi-Fi signals into your RV. If you’re camping in an area with cell phone service, you can turn your phone into a personal hotspot (which shares your phone’s data with a laptop or other device) or sign up for 4G LTE internet service from Blazing Hog Internet or Ladybug Wireless (which is a great idea if you’re going to spend a lot of time camping). If you will be in extremely remote areas, portable satellite internet may be your only option, but it may require setting up or repositioning a satellite dish every time you make camp.

The best internet option for your camping trip depends on how much you want to spend and where you’ll be. If you’re going to be traveling frequently and need reliable data, we recommend a mobile hotspot device (which only works when you’re camping in an area with cellphone service). For casual internet use, you can also use campground Wi-Fi or use your mobile phone as a personal hotspot (which has data limitations). You can also check out our Internet and Cell Service Guide for National Parks.