So you’re traveling and you’ve got an urgent need to check your email; do you stop in at Starbucks, buy an overpriced drink, and pay $6 an hour for WiFi access? No way!

Many businesses these days are offering free internet access to patrons. The idea is generally that you’ll get the internet for free but spend money on something else - but most of these places have parking lots, and you may or may not choose to sit there with your laptop or PDA and sponge off the free connection (I encourage patronizing businesses whose products you like and who are nice enough to offer you free stuff).

Here are just some of the places you may be able to obtain free internet access on the road:

The public library. Not all libraries across the country have free wireless internet, but these days many of them do. It’s worth a quick phone call to check and see.

Panera Bread. Almost all Panera Bread’s 1185 nationwide locations offer free WiFi. One on occasion, I was actually encouraged by the staff to sit in the dining area and use the internet without buying anything. That’s how to bring a customer back! Here’s a list of locations with free WiFi.

Cosi Cafe. In my experience, Cosi is a bit overpriced and I don’t like them as well as Panera and they’re not as widespread, but nevertheless all their locations in nineteen different states do offer free wireless internet. You have to register with Surf and Sip, which requires a credit card number, but they’re not supposed to charge you. You can check out Cosi’s list of locations by clicking here.

The Apple Store. Okay, with 184 locations, they don’t exactly blanket the nation - but if you’re traveling through a fair-sized city, odds are there’s an Apple Store there, and all Apple Stores offer free wireless internet. Click here for a list of locations.

Truck stops. Truck stops offer all sorts of things to lure in truckers who use their high-fee ATMs and buy their overpriced convenience foods due to lack of choice. Many truck stops are now offering free WiFi, at least for an hour or two.

Apartment complexes. The morality and security of this particular tactic are open to question, but if those hurdles won’t stop you, it’s likely that if you sit in the parking lot of a large apartment complex you’ll be able to find some kind of free connection.

Hotels. Most hotels which belong to the following chains offer free WiFi access in the lobby: Marriott Residence Inn, Holiday Inn, Best Western. This is not a comprehensive list and I’d suppose that even a hotel that restricts access to guests might let you get online if you ask nicely.

Independent coffee houses. Many of these establishments attempt to one-up Starbucks by offering internet access that’s totally free.

And if that wasn’t enough, there are already a couple of online databases with very extensive state-by-state lists of locations which offer free WiFi. Trouble is, you already have to have internet access to get at these things. Well, anyway, check out WiFiFreeSpot and OpenWiFiSpots. If you know you’re gonna be traveling through a particular town, you can print out all of its locations in advance.

By the way, many Starbucks locations are now offering two hours of free internet access to anybody who buys a Starbucks gift card, registers it, and uses it at least once a month. The minimum purchase amount for the gift cards is $15, so this is really only worth it if you know you’re going to need to use the internet a lot at Starbucks - but anyway, they’re everywhere, so if you get into a pinch…

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