communication

You might want to check with your hotels as some may have computers that you can use to check your email. There should also be internet cafe's or places where you can check your email in most cities. I do it this way so I do not have to ride heard on one more thing.

However, I am sure there are others who will post good ideas if you want to take a computer or blackberry type communication with you.

A netbook like the Dell Mini 10, ITouch, or PDAs are most popular.

iPod Touch. Easy to use, light and picks up wi-fi signals well. Plus if you remember to do a full power-off after using it, the battery lasts a very long time.

Pete

During 3 trips to Europe, we have emailed and checked mail almost daily. We have never resorted to bringing a device, as there are numerous internet cafes and available computers at phone centers.

I second the ipod touch idea. Try to get a used one via eBay (look for ipod touch, not ipod nano or any other ipod). They're not that expensive anymore and you can then download the itunes software free from Apple's website to get all your addresses (e.g. from Outlook) into the ipod. Reg. WiFi access: Which countries are you traveling to?

I'd be tempted to go with an iPod Touch, too, with a few exception:

1) If you needed or wanted to have a phone, too, then an unlocked smartphone might be a better choice because it could do dual duty. You'd need a phone that had the right frequency bands to work in Europe (getting a Quad-Band phone would work).

2) If you wanted to be able to check your email without the need for finding a WiFi hotspot, then a phone would also be preferable because you could connect over the phone's data connection for not too much money in most of Europe (you'd buy a prepaid SIM card over there and likely buy a low-cost data package that would be good for a short period of time). The Touch would only work in hotspots, but there are lots of them in Europe (McDonald's for example).

3) If you needed to view certain types of documents that might be attached to the email (e.g., Microsoft Word documents or Adobe Acrobat documents). I can't recall if the latest version of the Touch will display those type of documents, but I know most fairly recent smartphones that use Windows Mobile will.

I don't have a lot of experience with other types of smartphones, but I have a T-Mobile (or HTC) Dash. It would do all of the things listed above and can be purchased used on ebay.

The Ipod Touch will allow you to store and view and edit documents. Packages such as Documents to Go and others will allow it.

I agree with the iPod Touch as well.

Either that or a cheap and small Netbook.

Before the Itouch was around, I used to bring along a high-end Dell Axim PDA in my travels. It was more or less the same size of the Itouch and had the same features. At first it was neat that such a small device could do so many advanced things, like wifi, video, music, document storage, applications etc. But after a while the small screen and pain-in-the-butt virtual keyboard got very tiring. I now happily use a Dell Mini netbook, and even though it's larger, I find it more functional and user friendly. I'll never go back to a PDA type device.

Hi Shirley

I'll cast my vote for the netbook. Obviously not the convenience of a phone, but we just returned from 10 days in Europe and found the netbook very handy.

Everywhere we stayed there was WiFi, and the only hotel that charged for it was the big chain hotel (Marriott). All the smaller hotels that you might not expect to have it did, and for free.

Being compact, it was lightweight and easier than the full size laptops we used to take. Also used it as a backup storage place for my photos. I take alot (1,800 for this trip), and downloaded every night for backup safety.

I used my cell as a phone - go figure.

I take my Ipod Touch. It does double duty as entertainment/music and wi-fi internet access. I also take my phone. A netbook would be nice, but a little larger. Maybe one of these days I will spring for one, but it wouldn't substitute for an Ipod for me.