Questions about tethering in Spain with a Xiaomi Mi A1

[#1]

I'm about to go to Spain (flights permitting!) and although it's ostensibly a holiday, I will have to work a little whilst I'm there - mainly research. The villa we're staying in is in the middle of nowhere and has no internet. We have a monthly limit of 20GB data on each mobile (both Xiaomi's, both bought new in box in Spain). Having never needed to tether my phone, I have a few questions:

1. Will 20GB be enough for 16 days away, as I'm only using it for data and not video's, downloading etc. If I need to do that, I'll go to a café where there is free wi-fi?
2. I've read other posts from 2 - 3 years ago that say tethering is not easy with Chinese phones. Has this been resolved because I've read instructions that say we can tether from the Xiaomi and it seemed to work when I tried it in the house the other day with the wi-fi switched off.
3. What's best - USB or Wi-Fi tethering. Everything I've read says USB. Does one use more data than the other?
4. Is tethering the way to go or should I buy one of those mobile wi-fi's (or something else)?

I told you I was new to this tethering lark! Sorry there are so many questions, but I don't want to get out there and find we can't connect to anything!

[#2]

Being an iPhone user, I would disable all notifications on your phone. Not sure about your model and how you'd do that.

20Gb sounds about enough, but it depends on how much you use your phone - how many e-mails and nofitications you'd like to see.

Of course use the Wi-Fi where you can, but don't let it spoil your holiday.

[#3 · Accepted solution]

@tinker47 

I have been using a Xiaomi Redmi note 8t  on MUI 11 to tether to my work laptop on Windows 10 while working from home recently.

No problems with tethering and there is an option to set a data limit per hotspot session so you can manage usage for your connected devices. For info I am using between 600-900 MB  per working day on office type activity, no videoconference or YouTube 😉

Best check the mobile coverage in the area you are going to in Spain , it's remote no guarantees of a good data connection

HTH

[#4]

That’s really helpful. Thanks @Protech 

We are there on holiday and so we won’t be working every hour of every day, but we both have presentations to prepare and research for when we get home! We plan to do as much as we can offline, go online and download content, then go off again and continue working offline. We are in the middle of nowhere, on a hillside with no neighbours (great for lack of Covid-19 contact) so coverage may be an issue, but if my memory serves, we were able to use the phones when we went last year, as the place belongs to friends of ours.