TamaraEden

Situation: You have 14 days in Benelux (Amsterdam, Bruges, Brussels, Antwerp). You are staying at 4 small hotels, private rooms with private facilities. Your hotel most likely has no lift. You are a blogger and want to write and upload photos of your trip.

Question: Do you bring your laptop? Or, do you go to internet cafes? Would you feel safe hiding your laptop in your luggage in your private room when you leave for the day?

wco81

Well I've tried the cybercafe thing. PITA.

If your hotel has Internet access, definitely do it.

I took a PowerBook to Rome last November. Hotel wanted almost 20 euros a day so I went to EasyInternet which let me use their connection for 30 euro for a week.

One of the things I was able to do was change a stock sale order so that I made more than enough to finance my trip.

Yeah you have to worry about security at cybercafes or worry about keeping your laptop safe. Try to back up crucial data right before you leave so that if you lose it, you have the data.

There is laptop insurance at safeware.com. Or invest in a Kensington lock.

A lot of hotels have those smart safes and some of them will be just big enough to accommodate a laptop. Might be worth asking your hotel ahead of time whether they have safes.

wco81

Also, there are surely software for locking your drive so that if it's stolen, the thief can't access your data.

You are encrypting the hard disk basically.

Again, backup before using such a product, just in case.

TamaraEden

wco81--the data is the least of my concerns. It's the computer that I can't afford to replace. My hotels say, "Internet services". Which sounds like a rental service.

Thanks for quick response though. This is my first Europe trip and biggest trip I've done. So many questions, about to post another

wco81

Well you can insure the laptop like I said. Might also check a homeowner's policy too.

But often, for many people, the data is invaluable. Not having access to it and/or falling into the wrong hands.

Especially if you got financial data in there or say hundreds or thousands of pictures. Takes time to replace the latter.

ira

Hi T,

>You are a blogger and want to write and upload photos of your trip. <

Sounds like a no brainer.

Myself, I would enjoy my vacation and write a trip report after I got home.

No one has yet tried to steal my notepad and my pen.

Have a nice visit.

dutyfree

Leave the laptop at home. My daughter is presently studying overseas right now and even the school that she is at said that they would NOT recommend bringing one. Her roommate did and has already ruined hers with the wrong converter,etc.They only have one internet cafe in the whole town that she is in but this is an exception-most of the larger cities have quite a few and the price is reasonable.Most of the people that I have had on my flights that took a laptop said that in retrospect they wished that they had not as it was a pain in the rear with security,outlets,etc.I agree with Ira-enjoy the trip as you are traveling and then come home and do the blogging.

OReilly

"Internet Service" may just mean they have a terminal in the lobby you can use or just dialup from the room ( which would make it virtually impossible to upload photos and extremely expensive unless you have an international roaming service. You should contact the hotels and ask them of they have broadband or WIFI and, if so, how much per day (costs are usually about 15-20 Euros per day, unlimited access).

Regarding safety, I bring my laptop with me everywhere, because I am usually working before or after my vacation. I lock it in my case when I am not in the hotels, stay at 4-star hotels (lots of business people with laptops) and I still worry about it. There have been plenty of reports on this site of personal affects being stolen from hotel rooms.

If you can’t upload your photos, then there is probably no reason to bring the laptop along – you can use internet cafes for the blog.

Regards Ger

Robespierre

Think about a Pocket PC. In addition to being wireless internet terminals, they are a versatile travel tool having dozens of uses. Adapters allow plugging in digital cameras or memory, from which files can be uploaded to your web log. Blogging can be accomplished anywhere by scribbling notes on the screen in block or script.

PPCs offer all the utility of a laptop (except the large LCD and keyboard, of course), and you can carry one secured by a lanyard in your pocket. Many gigabytes of memory cards can be carried in a baggie. Here are a few possible applications:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34474486

katzen

bookmarking

drempel

I concur with the advice to leave your laptop at home. We traveled throughout europe for three weeks with two laptops, and ended up going to easy internet to check email. When hotels said they had internet service, it varied from a single terminal in the lobby monopolized by various people to a single terminal down the street at another hotel! Robespierre's suggestion sounds intriguing if you must have some electronic device with you at all times, but as Ira says, there's always a good old fashioned pen and paper.

laclaire

I say leave the laptop at home. Why risk it?

Also, please please please don't be that guy at the hotel who hogs the one terminal and blogs more than he actually sees.

Claire

AuntAnnie

I would probably not bring a laptop on a vacation....but my daughter will be studying in Freiburg, Germany for a year. Worth it???

Woody

I have a friend whose laptop was stolen at an airport baggage claim carousel as he reached for his checked bag. It ruined his entire trip.

TamaraEden

OK OK It's staying home and hidden away. I promise. I will, however, try to upload some pics while I'm gone. I wouldn't be the guy blogging more than seeing. Which is why having it in the room at night with wifi is good. Can blog before bed. But I can wait, I'm not THAT addicted Really I'm not.

All good advice, thanks so much. I'll tell my travel partner to not bother with his too.

rex

I think that you have been persuaded by anti-laptop people. I never leave home without mine.

Best wishes,

Rex

wco81

Yeah I'm resolved to take mine.

If you're used to having online access all the time and realy miss it for instance if your ISP has an outage, then it's harder to leave the laptop home.

If however you don't feel this way, then not a big deal. One workaround is there may be places with photo kiosks where you can burn the contents of your memory card to a CD-ROM. Then you can delete the pics and keep using the memory card.

twk

I'm taking mine to Scotland primarily for use as a GPS (I have Microsoft Autoroute Europe 2006 and the GPS attachment--hoping that will keep us on the right track as we drive the Highlands). However, I'm also going to download pics from my camera, and either save them to a flash drive or burn discs as I go, so that i don't have any lost photo issues. I also know that I will have WiFi internet access for at least the final three days of my stay in Edinburgh, and this will allow me to retrieve email messages and do some online banking (paying bills) if necessary.

I'm aware of the theft possibilities, but I think that there is enough upside for me that I'm willing to put up with some minor inconveniences and worry in order to have the benefits.

katzen

I am also thinking of taking my mac powerbook. A friend of ours had taken their laptop while we were all in Hawaii. I really enjoyed getting up early each morning, sitting in front of the window, looking out at the ocean and sending an email (a journal of what my thoughts on what we had done the day before) to my family. I cc'd myself so that when I got home I had something to remind me of my trip (had a great little memory book).

I also like to to this as opposed to waiting until I get home because I tend to forget the 'little' things that make the trip even more special. I've tried taking pad and paper and it takes me much longer to write than it does to type.

Mary_Fran

I wouldn't dream of leaving home without my laptop. I use it primarily for downloading photos from my camera and labeling the photos and keeping a journal. My sister uses a film camera, but by the time she gets the film developed, she's sometimes forgotten what the photo was of, or even where it was taken, so we rely on my labeled photos in my computer to help her identify her photos.

The only time I've ever used my laptop for e-mail is when I've stayed in hotels that had free internet access in our hotel room (only here in the US so far) and when I stay with my son in San Francisco and have access to his internet connection via WIFI.

I always carry my laptop in a special backpack I bought for the purpose from e-bags. The backpack has room for my medicines, camera, and lots of other stuff I don't want to check. The only time it's out of my sight in transit is for a few seconds through the scanner. Worrying about it getting snatched at that point is just beyond the pale.

The following precautions will be in place for our next trip, in May:

I set up password access to my computer, both at the bios level and at the windows level. I haven't gone so far as to go through encryption and wouldn't likely do that since it's only for my personal use and not for my employer's data.

I purchased a lock for my computer, so I can fasten it to my suitcase or to immovable furniture in my hotel room and inside of the trunk of our rental car.

My laptop also has a built-in CD-writer, so I can download my photos to a CD each night, this precaution as a result of having lost priceless photos of Barcelona and Sevilla when my old laptop had an unrecoverable hard-disk failure on my trip to Spain.