Not sure that is good advice. Lots of places have wi-fi by no public PCs to use. For domestic US travel smartphones or laptops will work just as well as they do at home. There are plenty of personal emails that benefit from timely delivery (bills, banking alerts etc).

I use this little netbook to do email and make skype, gizmo, or magicjack phone calls over the web. It is about the size and weight of a small hardcover book, and works great. You can usually find $10 off coupons for this site as well. This one is for Jan 2010
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Spot on. The device is easy... there are probably dozens of devices that would work. It's the connection that's an issue. It's just so easy to use your smartphone's data connection that most people just do it, despite the expense.

I have received some good advice and suggestions on products and I really appreciate it all.
Some of the above advice has saved me making mistakes esp when it comes to security.

It's easy to forget that you're not tied to paying for a hotel's Wi-Fi. Before you accept the daily rate, remember to run search from your laptop for a cheaper or free network. I connected to a free one. It wasn't secure, but I was happy to avoid paying $16 per day.

This just worked for me in San Antonio. The hotel wanted something like $16.95 per day, but I discovered that there was a city-wide service that worked fine for something like 2 bucks a day. I didn't do anything non-secure, however.

Similarly, at the MSP Airport Hilton the charge - or used to - for WiFi, but the free stuff from the Embassy Suites next door bled over.

Always look for something free before buying access.

Many airports (domestic & foreign) offer free wifi.

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.