Please sign in to post.

best travel adapter

Hi all! I will be traveling to Rome, Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia and Prague this coming May and June. I am in search of a good travel adapter for charging my ipad, phone, etc. What is the best brand or adapter to purchase, as well as the best place to buy it. Any advice is much appreciated!

Posted by
11294 posts

Most items and chargers manufactured in the past 5-10 years are multi-voltage, but you need to check to be sure. For each device your are considering taking, look at the charging "brick" (you may need a magnifying glass). If next to "Input" it says both "100-240 volts" and "50-60 Hz" you are set. These items are multi-voltage, and only need a plug adapter. You can get plug adapters in a variety of places, including Amazon, Magellan, and Rick's own Travel Store, where they are now on sale for $1 a piece: http://tinyurl.com/4dd4h. For all of the counties you list, you need the bottom one in the picture (the small 2 pronged one); the large 3 pronged one is for the UK and Ireland. Get several, since you not only have several devices, but they're easy to lose. If any of your devices are 110-120 volts (but not above 200) or 60 Hz (but not 50 Hz), you will need a converter, or (better) you can buy a new charger. If you're bringing anything that gets hot (hair dryer, flat iron, etc), the proper converter is heavy and expensive due to their high wattage. There are many posts here on this topic; while some do well with dual voltage models bought in the US, others find that they don't get hot enough, so they prefer to buy a new one in Europe. Don't try to use a single-voltage appliance in Europe without the proper converter: you'll fry your device, blow a fuse, start a fire, or some combination of these (not a joke).

Posted by
32173 posts

Ashleigh, As you'll be travelling with a phone, you'll also have to be careful with roaming costs, especially if you're using a Smartphone as the data roaming charges can be HUGE (ie: five figures). Have you determined that your phone will in fact work in Europe? Happy travels!

Posted by
2081 posts

hi, you can get them online @ amazon or if you google for them. If you have an REI they have them too. i bought mine from REI, but will be dumping them soon since they are more bulky than the one i found on a plane. the one i found on a plane is an all-in-one adapter. it doent have a USB port to charge my phone, but on my next trip over there this fall, im going to upgrade to the one that does. Happy trails.

Posted by
17650 posts

I've been through a bunch of adapters over the years and have know a friend who got shocked with a cheap one when the plastic fell off. AND, if it is designed to be grounded you really should ground it. I carry these now and think they are the best all around for adapting from the US plug to the European Schuko plug, they are well built, grounded, fit in the sockets well and don't fall out of the socket if the cord weights them down: At Amazon search: "Heavy Duty Grounded USA American To European German Schuko Outlet Plug Adapter" Sorry, Rick didn't like my link for some reason.

Posted by
17 posts

Thank you all for your advice, it has been extremely helpful!

Posted by
255 posts

Don't buy one from radioshack. We wasted $20 and it was useless. We use ones we got at a hardware store in Spain.

Posted by
1840 posts

This is what we have used on several trips, all available from Amazon. Lenmar ACUSB4. charger, with four outlets, comes with adapters Lenmar PPUCLIP, camera and phone battery charger with adjustable clips, plugs into the ASUSB4. Lenmar AC5 if you need more adapters All these items are very well made and have taken care of all our charging needs. You will still have to take your item-to-charger cable(s).

Posted by
9 posts

Go for the Road Warrior Travel adapter. I just picked one up last year and it is perfect...worth every penny I spent ($20, to be exact!). We bought ours online because we couldn't find a retail store that sold them. http://rwarrior.com/
It is the smallest one we could find and works everywhere (except in S. Africa for a certain type of grounded plug, or so says their website...we used it in Vietnam and Laos). Even the one we used to have from REI is so much bigger (like almost 3 times the size), so definitely recommend!