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).
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:
Comments
43 responses to “Restaurants with free wireless”
You can get 1GB/month free (not more than 250MB/week they say) offered from Sinns in Wembley Square, Gardens. Is very quick and super easy to use, never had any issues with it. Vida there has WiFi as well but haven’t bothered with theirs.
Hey seems like we both happened on to the same idea; I’ve got quite a list growing @ http://www.moralfibre.co.za why don’t you check it out and those Cape Town spots I may have missed to the Moral Fibre list?
Great list, and yes, I was going to mention the list on Moral Fibre, would be great to merge it all together and provide it on a WAP website of sorts, so people could easily check and find a location..
Good idea Chris; will actually just host a single page doc on this topic on one of my parked domains 🙂 So please drop me a line @ vincent@moralfibre.co.za if you’re keen.. I will link back to all sources used.
Hi
Yes, good idea. It would be cool if it was a simple page with a drop down to select the city, then suburb and then it displays a list of options.
Also, might be an idea to set up a Google Map with the various places indicated.
The Vida on KLOOF in gardens CT is lekker coz the signal from across the road Seattle Coffee is strong. so you need a Mugg and Bean account to access the Seattle, but WTF, so you can sit in Vida and it costs just about bugger all, it may as well be for free
Hi Dax,
Great to see a post on Free WiFi and its good to get feedback, even indirect, on the MB allocation.
One of the lists has grown a little with Cafe Sofia and Cafe Chameleon having been added recently as announced on http://blog.redbutton.co.za/
We’ll be releasing a Google Map some time soon all you’ll be able to filter on Free WiFi only.
If you have any feedback or thoughts we’d much appreciate it. Also if you have a spot where you’d like to see Free WiFi please let us know.
Cheers,
Nico
With Brad mentioning that a Mugg & Bean account costs ‘bugger all’, I did some investigating into the costs. If you have a MWEB account, you get 5 hours of free WiFi usage. Then the costs are about R1 per minute, which is what you pay if you just use your credit card.
I’m not too excited about paying per minute, but that would also be influenced by the speed.
If you’re paying by credit card you can choose to buy megabytes instead of minutes. The costs are very similar to cellphone bundles (which is why I would just use my cellphone):
250MB R160
500MB R275
@Nico: Thanks for the comment. Cafe Sofia is on my list and Cafe Chameleon was left off because it is below 20MB which, as I mentioned, is pointless.
It appears that Vodacom also offers WiFi at many hotels and restaurants/coffee shops eg:
Cafe Dulce
Nandos
News Cafe
Seattle Coffee Company
See the full list here http://vodacom.wirelessg.co.za/cgi-bin/if.cgi?run=ts_wifi-coverage
The costs are similar to the other options, unless you use it quite a bit. 30 minutes will cost around R1/min but if you buy 200 min it’s only R120.
100MB = R80
200MB = R144
Apparently Pastis in Constantia and Beleza on Kloof Nek offer free WiFi.
The new Sundance Coffee Shop in Seapoint Main Road says they are going to have free WiFi, not sure whether the others have.
All Primis offer limit less WIFI, great spots. Primi Campsbay, Cavendish, Sea Point, Constantia, Blue route, Paarl. Gotta love PRIMI.
Hi Dax,
We recently completed the installation of RedButton Free WiFi hotspots at all six Sundance Gourmet Coffee Co stores in Cape Town. Each hotspot gives an automated free allowance of 20MB daily and you can use your RedButton account at each store:
1) CBD – 59 Buitengracht street
2) CBD – 25 Church street
3) Mouille Point Village – 18 Bay road, Surrey Place
4) V&A Waterfront – Shop 6, Albert Mall
5) Sea Point – Shop 2, Equinox Building, 154 Main rd
6) Green Point – Cape Royale Hotel, 47 Main Road
Cheers,
Nico
I’ve found another provider of WiFi hotspots: Skyrove (http://www.skyrove.com)
They don’t list all their hotspots but you can find a map showing all their hotspots here:
http://map.skyrove.com
It doesn’t tell you if any venues offer free WiFi, you would have to check with the venues themselves. I don’t have time to go through the map and list the venues for you, but some examples are:
Arnold’s Cafe
Fat Cactus
Rick’s Cafe
Origin Coffee
RCaffe
There are many more, I count about 35 on the map.
Trustive is another provider of hotspots, not necessarily free.
http://www.trustive.com/hotspots/South_Africa/Cape_Town/
I’ve updated this post as there are many more places offering free wifi now and some on my list had closed down.
I did take some from David Donde’s post, and you might find some others there.
http://www.daviddonde.com/wp/2009/07/free-wi-fi-in-south-africa/
I haven’t included anything below 20MB (incl Mugg & Bean which is 10mins free) because I still think it’s a waste of time.
Hi. I think that the Fat Cactus in Park Road, off Kloof has WiFi, and I think it’s free. They used to have WiFi when it was Five On Park, but I don’t know now that ownership has changed..
When I last checked, The Fat Cactus was a Skyrove hotspot and they did not indicate any free usage. So until someone tells me for sure, I’ll say they don’t.
DAX – why don’t you include a jpg number/code for comments?
Its easy to integrate, user-friendly, and will reduce your SPAM time.
I’d prefer you had more time blogging than deleting SPAM.
@Nir, I could use Captcha technology but I actually have a spam filter which is 99.9% accurate. So while I get several hundred spam comments a day, I just go in at the end of the day and browse them quickly before deleting them.
I think it makes it easier for people to comment when they don’t have to jump through hoops. More comments means me more happy!
Sostanza restaurant in Lakeside (in the Old Bakery on Lincoln road) offers free unlimited Wifi – you just need to ask for the password from your waiter.
I hear that The Loading Bay next door to Origin Coffee in Greenpoint has free wifi.
I see you developed quite a urge for free wifi, you should check out CTWUG http://www.ctwug.za.net/vb/ we are a free wireless community in the greater cape town. Yes free as in free beer. Thanks for the list, always nice to know where one can leech a bit of free bandwidth.
Hi Dax,
I just wanted to let you know that Trustive’s South African network has just increased to 1000+ locations, just in time for the World Cup 2010!!
Here’s the full, updated list for you…http://www.trustive.com/hotspots/South_Africa/
Manhattan main road seapoint(three anchor bay)
Newport – opposite manhattan
both offer free unlimited wifi
Wellcafe – in the Wellness Centre in Kloof st.
Free unlimited internet!
Great smoothies while you work
🙂
Tired of your office. Beleza is offering unlimited free internet
Yes I confirm Wellness Warehouse in Kloof street also has free unlimited internet – @Nir are you my downstairs neighbour? Will try the smoothies 🙂
@Laura – yes I’m your downstairs neighbour. 🙂
@Dax – you’ve managed to connect neighbours – well played!
Hey Dax, Truth has had free Wi-Fi since we opened. Greenpoint and the Waterfront (capped @ 3 Hours per day)
Looks like there is website devoted to this now over at http://www.findfreewifi.co.za.
Not much there at the mo though
All Kauai outlets have free unlimited Wi Fi.
Bean There Coffee Roasters on Wale str also have free, uncapped WiFi.
Mugg & Bean now offers guests 30 minutes of complementary wifi a day, just register and keep the same login details wherever you go!
Thanks for this – now I know where to go when I need to get out (and update my blog). Cheers for a very useful article!
All Kauai outlets have free unlimited Wi Fi
Here’s a good website for finding free wifi in SA. Will also show you wifi spots near your current location. Mobile friendly too…
http://www.findfreewifi.co.za/
Sotanos in Mouille Point also has free WIFI…
Also, my name is also, Dax 😉
Here’s a quick update from a working Sunday in Cape Town… Cafe Puka is capped ( and they get quite shirty if you phone up to ask if its uncapped), Beleza, Cafe Manhattan & La Vie offer unlimited. Okaythanks
TRUTH has now a free wifi for the first hour, not for 3 hours as said above.
At least that’s what they told me on the phone when I called to confirm…
Found a place in constantia,nice cosy little restaurant/pub in constantia that offers free wifi and have a nice menu to go with it.searched everywhere for a place in southern subs to connect my playbook and yipppee I did!!!its called madeira restaurant…just thought I needed to share it for those tht are lookin this side…cheers!!!
We offer free Internet in the 2012 Audi A6 on all chauffeur drives.
The Tribe Cafe in the Woodstock Foundry now has free Wifi too, 170 Albert Road Woodstock Cape Town.
hello
Peter’s House on Kloof Nek rd has FREE WIFI.. and cupcakes too