take my laptop???

It depends (of course). My wife takes her laptop because she backs up a lot of digital photos and can empty her memory cards. It's not as easy to find wireless access and there are plenty of Internet cafes to do e-mail, check hotel reservations etc. Wireless accessibility varies by country as well. Italy, for example, requires positive photo ID for Internet access - it's a counter-terrorism measure.

Bottom line, if you need data and storage from your hard drive, you might take the laptop. If you're looking to check e-mail and access the Internet for short periods of time, then I'd leave the laptop at home. Especially if you will lack a car trunk to lock it up.

I guess the first question if why you think you need it?

I use my laptop (notebook actually, it only weighs 2.9#) to store lots of valuable information, like train schedules, town maps, addresses, etc., stuff I would otherwise have to carry as assorted pages of paper. I also use it to review, edit, label, and sort pictures. I keep a running expense report on a spreadsheet, and use it to project my expenses for the rest of the trip. I also use it to send and receive email. I have found in recent trips, in Germany at least, that cybercafes are becoming rare, but wifi hookups where you are staying are becoming more prevalent. How nice it is to sit in my room and communicate with home at midnight, when the cybercafes are closed.

However, I found a used, lightweight model, so it's easy to carry and no real worry about theft. I wouldn't use a new, expensive, heavy model.

On my last trip in Germany, I discovered that Internet cafes are now hard to find, but half the places I stayed (small family run Gasthauses, not big-name hotels) had wifi. For some reason, my prepaid phone card didn't work. If I hadn't had my laptop, communicating with home would have been nearly impossible.

My experience is the opposite of Doug's. If you need an internet cafe your going to have to go out of your way to find one. Whereas I've never had problems finding WiFi. In fact on more than one occasion there have been so many WiFi signals in some places that it has overloaded my PDA, and I've had to reboot. When I was in Italy last month I never had show any kind of ID to use WiFi.

It depends of the reason and where you will be staying.
If you just need it to download pictures, I would rather take a few memory cards.They come cheap now days.If your hotel doesn't have a safe place to store it, then it will be a hassle carrying with you.
I take mine with me because I need it for business, but otherwise I wouldn't.