Should I bring my Laptop

I have always (7x) traveled with a laptop. I've used it for years to store all my travel information (hotel addresses, phone nos., and email addresses, rail schedules, maps of towns I am going to, etc) on a speadsheet, keep my expense record (another spreadsheet), review, sort, and label my digital pictures, keep my journal. The last two trips I have had wifi connections to the internet in over half the nights. I use it not only to keep in touch with home via email, but to check rail schedules and update my travel website. In short, I have found it to be very useful.

My latest "laptop" is a 2.2# Acer Aspire One, which has built in Wifi. When I turn on the computer, it comes up with available local networks. I select the hotel's network, input the password they gave me, and I'm on.

Tina,

This is always a hotly contested topic on the HelpLine. So far I've avoided travelling with a Laptop and just used Net Cafes when necessary. However, I've noticed that more Hotels and B&B's these days are starting to offer free Wi-Fi, so it would certainly be useful at times for not only E-mail but also photo storage and journaling. However, many Hotels these days also offer an Internet terminal in the Lobby, so I'd rather use that than pack a Laptop.

One reason I haven't taken a Laptop so far is that I'm reluctant to spend my valuable holiday time sitting in a Hotel room in front of a computer screen. I'd much rather be out visiting with the locals and seeing the sites.

I WILL NOT travel with my MacBook Pro, as it's just too expensive and would be a major problem if it was ever lost or damaged. There's also the weight / space issues in the Backpack. My Camera gear comes first!

I've thought of buying one of the small Netbooks such as the one mentioned in the previous post, but haven't made a decision on that yet. I might do a "test run" on my trip this year with my IPod Touch to see how that works and how many places offer Wi-Fi.

You'll need to consider the impact of having the Laptop stolen or damaged during a trip, and perhaps losing a bunch of photos and journal entries.

Good luck with your decision!

Tina, this is really a matter of personal preference.

Laptops work the same way in Europe as they do in the States. The only think you need is a plug adapter.

When I travel for business, I always have a laptop. However, when I travel for business, I usually have the benefit of a taxi between airport/train station and hotel or office.

When I travel for pleasure, I leave the laptop at home. The extra weight is not worth it to me since i am usually relying on public transportation. I use internet cafes or internet in the hotel. However, I must admit that there are times it would be nice to have the laptop. This year, I have an I-Touch and I am going to give that a try.

Food for thought!!
You all make great points.
I don't leave till June so I have time to ponder.

Thank you all,
Tina

Tina, I bought a small Sony Vaio 4 years ago specifically for travel. I have used it extensively in Europe since then and been really glad to have it. Last night my wife gave me an HP 2140 - almost half the size of the Sony and less than 2/3 the weight. In fact I am using it just now! and will use it when we go to Europe in a couple of months.

Most hotels have WiFi these days, some free, some charge, some use a third party for a fee. I use for downloading my wife's photos and labelling them evry night - she takes, I catalog. I update our website so our family can follow our travels. For confirming reservations, sometimes booking legs of our journey. Generally I would be lost without it!

I have an ASUS 1000HE which goes with me for business travel. But for travel overseas, I rely on my wifi capable PDA. I can connect to the internet, check email, do some basic surfing, and it weighs a few ounces. I'll soon add the forthcoming Blackberry Niagara which will connect via broadband all over the world--where available.

I might, underline the might, replace my wifi PDA with an ipod touch just for all the cool apps available.

I don't bring a laptop, business or pleasure. I carry on only and don't like adding the additional weight for the laptop, battery and accessories. When I'm on the road, I communicate by phone.

Just got a Samsung netbook and am planning on taking it with us next month -- it will fit in my husband's new camera bag. In the last couple of years we have had hit & miss success in finding cybercafes. We usually rented apts which had intenet access -- but we had no computer. In both years it turned out to be necessary to receive some critical information when we also did not have a cell phone. Now I plan to have both, just in case. It will help with my daily journaling as I can type so much faster than I can write. I also disliked the non-QWERTY European keyboards -- that really slowed me down at first!

Janis, German keyboards are QWERTZ. They use Z more than Y, so they interchanged them. Drives me crayz.

Worst thing, as I remember, is they have an extra key over by the left hand SHIFT key, and I'm always hitting it when I try to type a capital letter.

Tina,

I don't see why your laptop wouldn't connect to hotels' wi-fi as long as is there.
If you need to book rooms, then I would say to take it.

Like the others said, it's really a matter of personal preference. I find a laptop usually a cumbersome necessity for business trips, but I've never take one for personal travel. I guess the "take-or-not-to-take" decision lies with what you plan to do with the it and whether or not the convenience of having your own computer outweights the inconvenience of lugging it around. Certainly, if you're someone who writes your own blog and likes to share pictures en-route, then bringing your laptop makes sense. However, if you're more like me, and you only want to check your email and send a quick message home every now and again, consider leaving it at home. It will be one less hastle to worry about, and if you look, you can ALWAYS find internet access in Europe, be it at an internet cafe, on a public computer at your hotel, or at a TI.

In 2000, I went to Europe with my new digital camera. Even though my pictures then were only 1/3 MB, a 16 MB Memory Stick sold for around $100. I could see that I could take more pictures than I could afford to store. So I dusted off my 7½# Compaq LTE and took it with me. If I had to use that computer, I might not take one either.

However, I have a little more imagination than that. Since then, 6 trips, I have taken a used NEC Mobile Pro, a used Toshiba Protege, and last time, a brand now Acer Aspire One. Each weighed between 2-3#. I pack light and carry on, but I consider having this versatile piece of equipment well worth the weight. In it's separate carrying case, it weighs 4-5#, about 20% of my total. When I board the plane, I put my bag in the overhead bin and my laptop under the seat, so I can use it during the flight.

I agree with Lee and the others that do carry laptops.

I just purchased a Dell Insiron (wireless) with a 15.6 inch screen that fits perfectly in my day back pack. My daughter and I will be traveling for a month around the US soon and this will be our first trip with the laptop. Got a Canary Hotspotter to find open wireless connections. It indicates whether there are open or locked...type of connection, distance, etc. After the trip, I will post a review.

Got the Garmin Nuvi 780 to track our trip. Yet don't know how to do that as of now. Trying to figure it out.

I would suggest you take your laptop. You will probably enjoy it.

JB (Gadget Granny)

I wouldnt do it....unless youre going to be only in places where cyber cafes are nonexistant.....BUT, we even found a cyber cafe in Fes, Morocco for 40 cents per hour! It was like 1 Euro per hour in Barcelona.
You have to weigh the cost of taking a few moments out of each day of locating a cyber cafe and a few Euro spent vs. having your laptop damaged or stolen and having to replace it.

"unless youre going to be only in places where cyber cafes are nonexistant" - which today could be almost anywhere in Germany, outside of big cities.

Last Nov I stayed for 12 nights (4, 5, & 3) in 3 small towns in Germany. First town, no cyber cafe, but privatzimmer had Wifi. Second town had a few for-pay, publicly accessible computers in the book store, which was not open weekends or evenings. In the third town (Black Forest) my host didn't have Wifi. TI office had Wifi only, not public computers. I went by bus to Baden-Baden and found a Cybercafe.

The trip before I spent two hours in a town looking for the only for-pay, publicly accessible computer. In another town, I watched an entire tennis match waiting in vain in a sports bar for the only working publicly accessible computer to become available. In only two of the ten places I stayed did the hotel itself have an accessible computer, and in one case it wasn't connected to the Internet.

While Wifi is becoming common, cybercafes are going the way of Traveler's Cheques.

I've spent 14 weeks in Europe in the last 8 years, always with a laptop, and never had one stolen or damaged. The same concern could be said for using a laptop in this country, so, if you own a laptop, never take it out of your house (but then why own a laptop if you never take it anywhere?).

I guess it depends largely on how you use it. If you only use a computer to play video-games, watch movies, and send an occasional email home, it's probably not worth bringing it. However, if it is a valuable tool for your travel, and you have a lightweight, Wifi equiped one, by all means, take it along.

As someone else had mentioned, I have used both an iPod touch and later an iPhone with fantastic success on a 6 week and 2 week trip through continental Europe. It is great for the occasional out-on-a-limb website checking, it has a great email client, and, even plays music ;)! Even with the abilities it has, I still prefer to use a 'real' computer, so I would only use it when I didn't have (free or cheap) access to one in a hostel or cafe.

Since it takes up nearly no room in my pack, it was hardly a compromise in features, and I would recommend it to anyone, especially if you can get an iphone since that replaces an emergency cell phone as well.

Brian

A few additional thoughts to add to my earlier post.....

This year I'll probably just use an IPod Touch in areas with Wi-Fi, or possibly Hotel computers or Net Cafes where available. The IPod Touch is a bit awkward to use with the small display and keyboard, but it is somewhat functional.

I've found on past trips that it's not really too much of an inconvenience if I only get to a computer every few days for E-mail, as I usually keep in touch with family back home via text messages. The advantage of texts is that the phone is always with me, there's no concerns with time zone differences (they'll get the message when they wake up), don't have to worry about opening/closing hours of Net Cafes or with Hotel computers being used by other guests. It's also a very inexpensive method to keep in touch, as sent texts are only 60¢ and received are FREE.

The only advantage I can see with a Laptop (one having a hard drive rather than a SSD) is backup storage for photos but a PHD such as the Epson series can perform that function in a slightly smaller package.

Cheers!

Wow, what was travel like back in the dark ages? Hey, I know, lets ask Pat, shes still in them. LOL

I travel without a laptop or cell phone. I have used a hotel computer, twice, for about 10 minutes. whoopee.

I do not take hundreds and hundreds of photos, ( I guess I am a throw back to the days when one only took so many rolls of film ) . I find one memory card is all I need, and I rarely fill it.

I don't book hotels while there, they are generaly booked from at home now. I guess if something happened and I had to find a hotel I could go to an internet cafe.

I know that a laptop would be fun, but it is not nessesary to having a WONDERFUL time, and it is just one more thing to have to carry, and watch.

I have no plans to bring one, and I feel the same about cell phones. I find you use them if you have them , but if you don't have them you don't realy miss them. You just miss the weight, LOL

Of course I am only referring to leisure travel, business travellers are smart to bring a laptop.