I use easy tether, a free program (unless you need secure capabilities) that can be found at amazon or googleplay.
You install the program on your phone, then install a sub program to your laptop.
Honestly, the connection through my phone is faster than any wifi I have found in campgrounds or places like starbucks and mcdonalds. If I'm not streaming video, with daily 2 hour usage, I go through about 3G per month. If I stream movies (works really well) it run from 5G to 15G in a month.
I have not found anything that works better, especially sinnce my phone has an unlimited data plan.
Good Luck!