I have gone to Radio Shack, Bag&Baggage and one other place trying to get the correct information about adapters and converters and now am completly confused. My son is going to England. He will be at Oxford for 6 months. He will also be traveling in Europe for 1 1/2 months. He has a new laptop, a 2 year old digital camera and will be buying a cell phone in England. He also has a small electric clock.

Does he need a converter in England?

Does he need a coverter in Europe? (he will be going to Spain, France, Prague, and who knows where else)

I am told that England uses one type of adapter 90% of the time. Is that correct?

What else should I be asking or need to know?

<font color="blue"><b>Radio Shack: You've got questions - we've got blank stares.</b></font>

All of Europe (including England) uses 220v current, so that difference has to be accounted for somehow. If the laptop and camera have charger/adapters that say 120-240v or something similar, your son won't need anything to step down the voltage; in this case, all he will need are plug adapters, because the prongs on European outlets are physically different from ours. England's are different from everybody's. I wouldn't buy a voltage converter just for the clock; a battery-powered travel alarm will be fine.

If the electronics say only &quot;110v&quot; then he will need a converter in addition to the plug adapters.

Robespierre is right. For explanations and photos of adapters and converters, go to:

http://www.walkabouttravelgear.com/wwelect.htm

Adam,

He will only need an adaptor plug (NOT a converter) for the laptop and camera, but should check the specs on each to CONFIRM they have dual voltage (90% of the time, they have).

He will probably need both an adapter &amp; converter for the electric clock. NOT worth it, and converters generally suck anyway. It would be cheaper and probably better to get him a battery operated travel alarm clock.

For the cell phone purchase in England, if he's charging the battery in Europe, he'll need an adapter from the British 3 prong plug to the european two round prong plug. He can pick that up in England in any hardware store, or in Boots, or even in Selfridges if he's going to be visiting London. He can probably also find them at travel agents that sell gadgets.

The voltage in England and Western Europe (for the most part) is 220v (to our 125). So if he doesn't need a converter in England for the laptop &amp; camera, he will not need one in Europe. He will only need the adapter plugs, as follows:
U.S. to English (3 prong)plug
U.S. to general Europe (rounded two prong) plug
English to Europe plug (for the cell phone).

And yes, England uses one type of adapter 90% of the time.

Here's a simple answer. No doubt someone else will give you a more accurate and lengthy one.

Europe works on 240 volts. He shouldn't need need a converter for his laptop: the transformer than came with it will almost certainly tell you it works at 240. If he has a charger for his camera, the same should apply. If he's carrying battery re-chargers for the camera, he might, in theory, need a converter (but see below).

Power is at the same strength throughout Europe, but the UK has different plugs. Every shop (seriously) in Britain sells adapters that interface between all the world's different plugs, and even the thickest assistant understands them. There's no point buying them, in the US, where shop staff are almost universally hopeless about this.

You'll almost certainly find buying a converter for a clock a complete waste of money unless the clock has some sentimental value. Electric clocks are cheaper than chips here (about &pound;3 in any supermarket).

The phone's a non-issue, since the phone he buys here works here. THe adapter to plug into Continental points he'll buy here for a pound or two.

In other words, DO NOTHING. Let him sort it all out for himself here. It'll cost him about &pound;10 and four seconds at any electrical store.

And, frankly, if he's old enough and intelligent enough to be studying at Oxford, he really ought to have sorted all this out for himself by now. Hide this post. If it ever gets out he's got to get his parents to make his clock work, he'll be the laughing stock of the Thames Valley.

Not for the benefit of the Oxford student, but for anyone else who may use this thread for reference, I don't think it's a good idea to take an electric clock from North America to Europe.

The reason is that there is not only a difference in Voltage but also a difference Hertz (cycles per second). North America's electricity supply is 60 Hz and Europe's is Hz. This difference will cause the clock to run too fast or too slowly.

And the best advice here -- AVOID GOING TO RADIO SHACK if you need help with anything European. They even kept insisting that all phone jacks were the same in Europe as in the US, and couldn't begin to tell me what I'd need for my laptop. I went to Gateway.

Go to google and query <i>electricity europe</i> for tons of professional and amateur advice.

Thank you everyone, for the help. I could not believe the confusion and misinformation I have received from stores in regard to this subject.

As for my Oxford-bound son, yes perhaps he could have done this, but he is a really fine young man, doing a great deal, his parents really didn't mind picking up this piece for him

Thanks again!

I'm sure he's figured this out by now, but a number of stores sell what he needs. I picked an adapter up from Boswells on Broad Street for maybe 2 pounds that I plug my laptop power cord into.

Sounds like your questions have been well answered, but I just thought I'd share my converter experience with you. My first ever trip to the UK was in 1994 with siblings &amp; mom, and my sister absolutely could not do without her hairdryer, so she bought an adapter/converter that probably cost more than the hairdryer. Well the first time she used it, the hairdryer blew up and it all went in the trash. Sis was very upset. Our brother took pity on her and bought her a hairdryer there in London that cost &pound;10 (at the exchange rate back then, about $16). Sis was happy and we all shared the dryer for the rest of the trip. I've returned to the UK 3 times since and have brought the English hairdryer back with me each time, and my niece recently went on an exchange program so I sent it to her for her use. Needless to say that has become one very well traveled hairdryer and we certainly got my brother's money's worth! I hope to be able to take it back to Britain some day on a future trip.

Now that my son is settled in Oxford all I can say is we got so much wrong information in the US from Radio Shack and Bag&amp;Baggage. I agree with JoeTro, just wait until you get abroad and buy the adapters you need, or you going to be stuck with things that are absolutely useless to you.

If anyone travels with a mobile phone, or buys one at their destination then why on earth would you need to take an alarm clock aswell. Surely the phone also performs that function. Most mobile phones have clocks, alarms, cameras, calculators, hair dryers, built into them.

I bought a U.K. converter for $3.95 from the Rick Steves web site after making sure my curling iron said 110/220V. He sells a continental adapter, also, and they are both currently on sale for $3.35.