We are on our second round of netbooks. Our first little Acer One was great at the time, but as more models hit the market, the keyboard and touchpad got old to use (cramped). We recently purchased a new Dell Mini 10v for $230 during a Thanksgiving sale. If you keep an eye on the deal sites, like dealnews.com and slickdeals.net, Dell sells these puppies at good prices either new or refurbished, but make sure you got the 10v. The keyboard is great and one can easy install (reading directions) Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6 operating system on it for $25. We Windows on one and installed Snow Leopard on the other. Cheapest Mac you'll ever find! I do use a laser travel mouse out of preference over the touchpad. Make sure you grab a cheap netbook sleeve, Target has them.

I would avoid an iPod Touch or iPhone, which I own. Typing and browsing on them eventually gets old.

You can pay iPass / iPassConnect and Boingo $10 a month for unlimited Wi-Fi roaming access. From my experience, Boingo is better if you travel in Canada. From what I've read, iPass is much cheaper if Europe is your destination. No contractual agreements from either company, sign up, use them, then lose them. Finding free Wi-Fi when you need it can be a pain, just pay the $10 for a month to either service.

Use Skype to phone North America for $3 a month.