Packing a day bag with electronics?

Hotel Room Safe, Hotel Safe, locked suitcase. Unless you are planning to use all of it, it's going to get heavy. For the netbook, you could get a Kensington lock and lock it down to something that doesn't move. Pacsafe also makes lockable sacks for items that are left in hotel rooms but you want to protect from theft.

Gwen, it's NOT a good idea to haul your electronic gear around with you while day touring. Not only will it get heavy after awhile as Frank II mentioned, but it could actually be at GREATER risk than leaving it in the Hotel room. Imagine the scenario of putting your Messenger Bag down for a minute while you pay the bill at a restaurant (or whatever), and when you look up it's gone. In that case, you will have lost ALL your gear with one theft! I also travel with lots of electronic gear, but have no reservations about leaving it in the Hotel room. I leave my Netbook and other gear locked in my luggage in the room, and so far I haven't had any problems with that approach ("knock on wood"). If I'm not using my IPod Touch, it stays in the room also. An increasing number of Hotels (even in the "budget" category) are now offering an in-room Safe so that's another option. I checked this year and most of the Safes have been large enough to fit a Netbook and my DSLR if necessary. Happy travels!

Thanks Ken, for your perspective. I can see how it might actually be riskier to carry my electronics with me...there is supposed to be a room safe where I'm staying, so I'll probably go with that option

Hi Gwen, I agree with the guys on leaving excess electronics in the hotel. It just gets so heavy after a while! One thing I might do is ask if all of the extra electronics are necessary. I'm always tempted to travel with a netbook/laptop but at the end of the day decide that it isn't worth the stress/hassle. If you're taking along a netbook to download photos there are a number of hard drive devices that have built in memory card readers which are quite reliable. I use those instead of bringing a laptop. Happy travels!

The netbook is not only for downloading photos, but also emailing shots to people at home and possibly also for journaling. Yes, you are right that I could probably live without it, but I just don't want to. Maybe I'll change my mind after this trip...I usually have to learn the hard way, lol.

It seems a bit redundant to bring along the Kindle. You can use your netbook to view your Kindle books. Same might be true of the Ipod as well, unless of course you're using it for RS audio tours. A couple less things to haul around.

Yeah, I'm using the iPod for the RS podcasts. I'm completely new to the Kindle and didn't know I could use the netbook to read my Kindle titles. How does that work, if you don't mind my asking? I really appreciate all these great tips!

Gwen, One more point-of-view on the Netbook issue. I "wrestled" with the decision on whether or not to travel with a Laptop for several years. I have a 15.4" MacBook Pro and while it's an awesome computer, there's NO WAY I'll travel with it. It's just too large, too heavy and too expensive. If it were every lost/damaged/stolen, it would be a MAJOR hit to my budget! I travelled with a Netbook for the first time this year, and it was absolutely one of my MOST valuable travel accessories! I used it for Blogging, E-mail, journaling, storing travel files & Itinerary, checking things on the Web such as railway schedules, and of course photo storage. It was more useful for storing JPEG photos from my P&S Camera, as it has a built-in SD card reader. It wasn't as practical for photos from my DSLR, which uses CF cards and RAW files. It could store the files without difficulty, but couldn't process them properly as most Netbooks don't have the "horsepower" for photo processing. I found the minimal weight of the Netbook was NOT a problem to haul around Europe. Cheers!

Not sure which Ipod you have....but.....if it's a 3rd Generation IPod Touch (32 or 64 GB) and you have upgraded to OS 4.0, you can now use a bluetooth keyboard. I have my eye on a folding one that's 6.4" X 4.0" X 0.75" (when folded) but unfolds to full size. It weighs 9.21 oz. Great for blogging, journaling, emailing but wont' help with uploading photos.

Assuming your netbook runs windows, head here: http://tinyurl.com/yzybvb3 to download the free Kindle software. When you purchase a title from the Amazon.com site it gives you the option of which device you want to store it on.

http://www.pacsafe.com Have you considered a pacsafe to store you electronics in whilst day tripping? I am going to Italy soon for a photography workshop and must bring quite a bit of gear and am also considering pros and cons of several methodologies and equipment. There are Kindle apps for Mac and Windows as well as iPhone/iPod touch, Android and iPad. The advantage of reading a book on the kindle vs. netbook/laptop is the long battery life of the kindle. If I wasn't going to the photo workshop I might consider traveling with just my iPad but I know I will need a laptop for photo editing and even though I have the 64 GB iPad it is not enough for 2 weeks of photos for me. I would just make sure whatever you store your gear in is lockable and preferably can be locked to something.

Thanks, Michael...I downloaded the Kindle software and now Im set! Ken, you have confirmed what I have been thinking...that a laptop would be too much to haul around but a netbook will be a handy thing to havve on my trip.

Gwen, my Netbook will be coming along on EVERY trip from now on. I've taken two short multi-day trips this month (one by air and one by car) and the Netbook was the first thing packed. Cheers!