Travel Accessories

Check at your hotels. Most European hotels have built in hair dryers. If they don't, I just wear a straw hat all day, then no one notices!

You will find hair dryers in all but the least expensive hotels or B&Bs...that's been our experience.

Venice airport is small. I just went through it once, but would guess such a thing would not be for sale there. I too have always wanted to buy a European hair dryer, but every place I stay at, either apartment or hotel, has had one available so I haven't gotten around to it.

When you say "toss" do you mean literally to trash it, or leave it back (if you do buy one over there)?

I am sure someone would appreciate receiving a free hairdryer.

I don't have the answer to the Venice airport, as we haven't flown through it, but I'd like to add that I've NEVER had an Italian hotel with a hair dryer in it, with the exception of Rome. If you go into the smaller towns at all, I wouldn't count on a hotel having them.

Lucky you Kent.

Lots of accommodations now have hairdryers. Re. ditching. On one trip (staying at a convent in Rome)I was jettisoning extras to keep the weight down. The cleaning lady was most appreciative of any soaps, shampoos etc. I can't imagine that the payscale of those in the hospitality industry is high.

Shari - I echo the advice to check first with your prospective hotels. We were in Italy last year including Sicily. Stayed for the most part in B&B's. There was either a hairdryer in the room or one for me to use at each place we stayed - even though once it was the owners personal hairdryer. Bottom line though is that I will not bring a hairdryer to Europe again.

I just returned from a week in Italy staying in mostly cheaper accomodations, and each hotel had a hair dryer in it. I had purchased a dual voltage hairdryer in advance and used it with a converter plug when the dryer in our hotel in Rome didn't work very well. I purchased it (with the plugs) off of the Magellans site, hoping that I will be able to use it for future travels, too.

Thanks everyone! I'm staying in a mix of hotels/family run Inn's so hopefully they will all have a dryer available. And yes, by "tossing" it, I meant I would probably leave it at my last hotel or something for someone else to use in the future.

Thanks again!

Did not see anything like this in the Venice airport but the airport probably would not be the best place to purchase a hair dryer--would be even more expensive. After numerous trips to Europe, I finally bought a hairdryer last summer at the beginning of our 3-week trip at one of the grocery stores we popped into in Padova. Auchens are big supermarches with groceries and lots of other stuff like a Target over here. Even though some of the places you stay have hairdryers, I still like a regular hairdryer. We have stayed at many agriturismos in Italy and they don't have hairdryers. I brought it home with me and plan on using it for future trips.

I didn't see anything in the Venice airport, I purchased my European hairdryer in Santa Margherita Ligure in a Electronics store after shopping around throughout italy checking out prices, it was 20 euros and that was 2 years ago

Hair dryers and Curling Irons are NOT cheap and readily available like we are use to..also the wattage for most of the hair dryers was low compared to what we are use to...they have the high wattage but they were over 60 euros.

If you have long hair, I would suggest bringing a hair towel to do most of the work and then the hairdryer

I have quite long hair that doesn't like humidity very well. I don't even try to dry it - I just wash and go.

I don't remember NOT seeing a hair dryer in rooms. We stay in big hotels and very small ones in rural areas. More and more of the small places have all the ammenities these days.

My wife used to take a hair dryer but the past few years she didnt and all hotels and B&Bs have them in the bathroom and if not they have them at the desk to use.

I bought a travel dryer at Wal-mart, I believe. It has a little button that changes from ac to dc. It's small, didn't cost much and can be used on ac current here if needed and would be cheaper than buying one there considering how poorly the dollar is doing. You'll also have it for future trips. Also, check the hotel web sites. Most of the places I've stayed in have dryers to keep tourists from blowing circuits.

Every place we stayed had a hair dryer. The hair dryer I use at home has a switch to change voltage. If I HAD taken it on our trip, I still would have needed to use the adaptor plug for Italy, but at least I would not have needed a convertor.

I'll chime in too. I have traveled a lot in Europe and recently in several places in Italy. There were always hairdryers in the rooms. If there is not one, you can always ask at the desk and they usually have one you can borrow. Never been a problem for me.