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When Brad Rome goes camping, he makes sure to bring the essentials: bug spray, floppy hat, lawn chair - and his laptop.

As soon as Mr. Rome arrived at Ratter Lake Campground near Sudbury, Ont., at the beginning of the summer, his first order of business wasn't setting up the campfire or heading down to the beach. Instead, he powered up his computer and logged on to the campground's wireless Internet hot spot.

"It's really a home away from home here, but I can't really live without e-mail," said Mr. Rome, a Bell World retail store manager. "I find it incredibly difficult when I can't connect."

Although lifelong campers like Mr. Rome may embrace the sights and sounds of the great outdoors, many now insist on staying connected.

Wireless access to the Internet is quickly becoming a standard feature at Canadian campgrounds.

At least 80 Canadian campgrounds and RV parks - including about 30 in British Columbia - now offer wireless Internet for their guests.

Kampgrounds of America has fully outfitted more than two-thirds of its 33 Canadian campgrounds with free WiFi. According to Jef Sutherland, the company's vice-president of information services, 324 of the 379 North American campsites that KOA operates now have WiFi access - twice as many as last year.

"Campers expect WiFi as part of a service," he said.

Mr. Sutherland said campers usually use the Internet to write e-mails, send pictures of their latest vacation experiences, manage personal financial obligations and do a bit of work. However, they don't expect to pay for the service.

"You don't pay to go to the bathroom or use the pool, and they don't want to pay any more for WiFi service," Mr. Sutherland said.

It's a luxury for campers like Mr. Rome to be able to take his laptop on the beach and conduct business while catching some sun and avoiding frolicking children.

"I've got a direct virtual personal network line to my office and it makes life so much easier when I'm away from work," he said.

Having the Internet available also provides Mr. Rome an option during those rainy days when his 14-year-old daughter Mandie needs to be entertained. "You know how kids can get," he said. "It's nice that she can go online and chat with her friends."

Nicole Lepage, owner of Ratter Lake Campground, says having WiFi service helps attract customers - particularly ones from outside Canada.

"Often, it's a long time for them to be away from family, so now you can keep in touch with them. Oftentimes, we're overbooked and we see people in the parking lot using the Internet connection," said Ms. Lepage, who charges $3.50 an hour for the service to recoup the initial cost of setting up the hot spot.

Cody Harris, chief operating officer of NomadISP, an Idaho-based wireless Internet provider for RV parks and campgrounds, says the four-year-old company has seen the interest in campground Internet access boom, doubling the firm's growth since the beginning of the year. Mr. Harris has installed 10 hot spots in Canadian RV parks and hopes to have 50 by the end of the year.

Russ Roffey, a resident of Burnaby, B.C., who was RV camping at Ratter Lake, insists having the Internet at his fingertips doesn't take away from the camping experience. "I find I can just turn off my cellphone or laptop whenever I want. When you want to get away from it, you can."

However, he acknowledges a few downsides to being able to surf the Web while in the rough. "It's not the nicest of days today, with a lot of mosquitoes out and about," he said.

"We'll have to head inside our motorhome if we don't want to use the Internet outside."