Thanks for the help..

I will try and convince him to go the N8X0 route and maybe I'll win. I just love my N800 and the price is right ($230). But then there's the cell phone and GPS one has to carry - or the N810.

I think a separate cell phone is a good/better idea anyway since if you know you're not near a wifi hotspot or don't intend to get lost you can leave it at the hotel/backpack and the cell phone alone is much smaller.

The comment from Jerome regarding the potential difficulty to get a pay-as-you-go card when you are just visiting could be the big killer - then the wifi in the cafe's is the great solution - as long as you love coffee! A secondary question to this post would be how common are hotspots around Europe in cafes and/or hotels?

Cheers

Clive