Netbook and Wi-Fi While Day Touring

I only times I fire up my netbook are in the evening, when I'm done sightseeing for the day and unwinding in my hotel room (most all hotels have wifi these days). I will also use it on long train rides to listen to music or watch videos. I've never had a need to carry it around during the day and leave it behind in the hotel room locked in the in-room safe or a pacsafe portable safe I travel with.

Since I use my netbook to store all the travel related information (maps, rail schedules) that I might use during the day, I take it with me (would you leave your guidebook back in your room?). I also keep my journal and record my expenses. I also download, label, and categorize my pictures, but I usually save that for breakfast. . . . . . ¶ I don't find all of my hotels to have Wifi. I've also found Wifi or wired connections at Internet cafes and restaurants while I'm traveling during the day, and used it to check my email. (Because of the time difference between Europe and home, I use email to keep in touch.)

Never but I am not of the generation that believes they must be in touch 24, 7. I use in the hotel every couple of days. It is fairly easy to find hot spots but not always free.

Gwen, I always leave my Netbook in my room and take care of E-mail,Blogging and photo transfers in the evening when I'm finished touring. When having lunch or taking a break during the day, I'd much rather chat with people and perhaps get a few photos. However, I often check my E-mail and other details during breakfast, if I'm not with a tour group. ¶ With my Camera gear, I'm packing enough kit as it is, so I don't need something else to carry. Having said that, I sometimes take my Guidebook, and while the weight is similar to a Netbook a book is much easier to carry in my Vest. Also, I feel the Netbook is probably less likely to be damaged or stolen in my Hotel room. ¶ Finally, outside the Hotel, there's often a charge for Wi-Fi at places like Starbucks or Net Cafes, so I prefer to just use the free Hotel Wi-Fi. Cheers!

I'm in Italy with my netbook right now. Up early to catch a train to Germany this morning. I only use the netbook in my room. I do not take it around with me during the day. I do have an Ipod touch that I have used for taking notes for each place I am staying. I take that with me. Everywhere we have stayed has had wifi, except in the Cinque Terre.

Same for us, we usually have a combination of laptops and netbooks with us (we both need to do some work on vacation, sadly), and also use them for travel journals and photo storage and email. We leave them where we are staying when we are out. If we feel at all concerned, we just bury them in a suitcase and lock it and hide the lock. We've only had locks fiddled with once and that was in Orlando of all places.

Me too! Only used it during the day on train journeys o write up my log or check photos.

Same here - I just returned from 2+ weeks in Europe, and only used my netbook in the evening. If my hotel offered wi-fi, I would stay there; otherwise, I would go out and find a cafe with wi-fi access and relax with a cup of coffee or a glass of wine while I blogged and checked email. To me, it's just not worth the extra weight during the day - I know it's light, but it's still one more thing to carry. If I really needed to get online, I had my iPod touch with me, but hardly ever found the need to do so.

It depends. On our last trip, I had an Internet-capable phone, but it was not a smartphone so I could look up things most times, but couldn't book a reservation. Because we were making reservations on the fly, I would fire up the netbook to do that. I also had to do some work which meant I needed access to email and to something that would view any attachments to the email. ** I now have an Android-based smartphone that is much more capable at web-related tasks, including email. Because of that fact, I probably would leave the netbook in the room. Even though they weigh very little, an extra 2 or 3 pounds seems like 10 pounds when you carry it around every day. As others have posted, many of us are carrying other things, too, so any weight we can shed is welcome.

Just got back from France, including Paris & Provence, and the only free wi-fi was at our hotels. There are hotspots here and there (I carry an IPod Touch), but none were free - not even at train stations or airports.

Regarding the lack of free wifi, I think McDonalds still has it free or free if you buy a cup of coffee. But if you can't get wifi, European cell companies have great prepaid data deals compared to what one can get in the U.S. Get a phone that can be tethered to your laptop / netbook / ipod Touch to connect. Or just use a smartphone. As I've noted in other posts, Android phones with the most recent version of the operating system can be set to allow a wifi connection with another device. The device connects to the phone over wifi and then the phone connects to the Internet over the cell signal. For checking email or making reservations, it is great.