I recently acquired a laptop, so now I’m more interested in free wireless internet (sometimes just called WiFi) than I used to be. There are some places that offer internet but you have to pay for it (credit card) eg. Mugg & Bean (you can get a list of 125 of these ‘hotspots’ here). But if I’m going to pay, I might as well just connect my cellphone to my laptop via bluetooth and access the internet that way (not as complicated as it sounds).

Wi-Fi logo

I like the idea of being able to have a coffee and some breakfast while checking my mail or working on Relax with Dax (sometimes writing posts but generally deleting spam comments of which I have had over 20 000 so far).

Some places limit you to a certain amount of MBs per day. Others offer you unlimited usage, I guess you are only limited by the lifespan of your laptop battery. I think 20MB is enough to check your mail and do a little Facebooking, but not much else. I would say 50MB is a good amount, which will give you freedom to do all the things you need to do apart from downloading large files.

The following venues offer limited internet (I’ve omitted anything under 20MB as that is pointless):

Cafe Sofia (20MB) all of them
Kauai (20MB) only the one on Shortmarket Street in town
Long Street Cafe (20MB), guess where it is
Andiamo (20MB) in the Cape Quarter
Beleza (20MB) on the Cnr of Kloofnek & Burnside Roads (opp Rafikis)
Depasco (20MB) on the cnr of Kloof & Buitensingel Roads
Wimpy (50MB) in Rondebosch (I dislike Wimpy food)
Sinns (20MB) in Wembley Square. I know someone commented they offer 250MB per week, but the installers (Red Button) say 20MB so I’m going with what they say
Blues (20MB) in Camps Bay
Sundance Coffee shops (20MB) all of them
Sauls (2oMB) all venues
Vida Cafe (20MB), all venues

These venues offer unlimited internet, or at least it appears that way. Don’t give me a hard time if it turns out I am wrong!

Mugged on Roeland Street, City Bowl
&Union on Bree Street, City Bowl
Cafe Neo on Beach Road, Mouille Point
Cafe Gainsbourg on Kloof Street, City Bowl
Cafe Puka on the Cnr of Tamboerskloof & Brunswick Roads, Tamboerskloof
Primi Piatti at the Waterfront
Bouillabaisse in the Rockwell Greenpoint
One & Only hotel, Waterfront
Caprice, Camps Bay

There are plenty of paid options, IS, Vodacom, Mweb, Skyrove, Red Button, etc. You can usually buy credit when you start using the hotspot (see more details in the comments below).

I’m sure there are more places, if you know if any, please post a comment. Also, if you have had any bad or good experiences when trying to use the WiFi on offer, please comment about that too.

UPDATE (29/7/09): I’ve updated this post and incorporated the venues mentioned in the comments up until the 7th June 2009. I’ve also taken venues from the following websites: