Andrew

Peter_S_Aus: <i>Tip No 6. Don't take your laptop computer with you. Heavy, valuable, and you have the hassle of finding a wireless hot-spot. You can find an internet cafe in most places - frequently identified by the "@" sign outside.</i>

It is a pain to lug around. But for some of us, it's almost required. I'm self employed and need my laptop to respond to emails and send off photos, etc. from my laptop on the go, when needed. I'm highly considering getting a little netbook for future journeys, though.

Plus, these days, I'm not sure I would trust a random internet cafe for anything important (e.g. banking). You have no idea what key logging spyware could be setup on their computers (even without the owner of the cafe realizing it) that could steal your passwords etc. At worst, I'd set my regular email account to forward to a junk Yahoo or Gmail account I don't really care about and use that at those cafes - so if that account gets compromised, who cares?

thursdaysd

I took a netbook (Lenovo S10, love it) to France my last trip - every hotel had wi-fi, and there's free wi-fi in Paris in all the parks and libraries. I used to figure that laptops were too heavy and too valuable, but the netbook is light enough and cheap enough it's fine for Europe (I still wouldn't take it if I were doing a lot of moving around somewhere rougher). Plus, in richer countries it's getting harder to find 'net cafes as everyone gets their own access.

tigerofjiang

@StCriq I see what you're saying, it's a good thing I don't say it like that lol i just act dumb sometimes, I'm not dumb enough to use like all the time, if it's that way i can see how it's a problem
I'll only use "like" a different way other than comparing when I am not sure of something
such as: "I think it's like...5 minutes that way" or i'll say "about" which ever pops into my head first
and about know french and italian, both are bad in knowledge to me, I understand italian more, i've never heard anyone speak french but I've seen it written, and since there are some words that sound very different than their spelling, I could have some trouble, I can understand the main things in written french a lot more after taking italian for a year.

@ Peter
venere.com I've looked at that too, but I was wondering is hostelbookers.com a good place to book at as well?
I've booked one hotel directly with their site, Hôtel de Nemours à Rennes, it's the nicest hotel I'll have, I thought it would be nice, since it's only a short time, why not you know?
oh but I must take my laptop! i put a whole bunch of games on it on purpose, i have very long flights and one very long train ride...okay maybe two long train rides
and I make sure the hotels I go to have wi-fi
and my laptop isn't so heavy, it's kinda in there, in the middle