I will be staying in Western Europe for several months beginning in April. Coming from US.
My questions are:
I will need to connect with the internet to check email, pay credit cards, and upload pictures.Any suggestions on what type of computer to bring?

Is there a best way to access cash while traveling for an extended period of time.

Thank you.

The best way to access cash is to use an ATM card, preferably with a U.S. bank account which does not charge anything beyond the 1% conversion fee for the transaction.

You can't stay more than 90 days in Italy. We usually go to Europe for two months. We arrange with our credit union to automatically pay our credit card bill when it comes due for the time when we are out of the country. Aside from that, we use an internet café to check on our e-mails.

Are you planning to buy a new computer for the trip? I'd just bring whatever you use at home for the same things. As long as it has a wireless internet card (which it should if it's less than 7-8 years old), you should be fine to do all of that. Just make sure you have the correct electrical plug adapter.

Agree with Michael on the ATMs.

Hi BruceinTampa,
During our 13 week trip around Europe I just brought my laptop, Dell Inspiron 1525. I set up everything to pay automatically about three months before I left home. I got online about 1-2 times a week to check email and view the automatic payments and to Skype with our sons. Very easy.

I downloaded pictures daily into a folder with the date and city name. Believe me, everything will start to blur together picture wise after awhile. Separate them when you download and it will be much easier later on.

For our five week trip next year I'm going to purchase one of the tiny notebooks in order to keep the weight down. The smaller the better IMO.

Have fun,
Michele

Oh, and I forgot to address the cash issue. We would go to the ATM every few days and take out the max allowable. We used cash for everything on our trip since we already had the money prior to leaving so didn't want to use credit cards.

I saved all the receipts for the atm withdrawals and then checked them online once a week in order to catch any mistakes. There weren't any though. On your bank statement online it will show the withdrawal and then the next line will show the fees associated with that withdrawal.

During our trip I signed up for daily emails with the conversion rate so I knew the exchange rate. It was right on the penny with every withdrawal.

We also opened a separate checking account linked to our main account prior to our trip with the travel money in it. We got an atm card for myself and my husband and we also had an atm card for both of us for our primary account. That way in case we needed more than the daily max, in order to pay for an apt etc, we could do a withdrawal from each account for each card. Four withdrawals at one time.

We also did this in case there was ever a problem with any of the cards. We never had any problems though but it was recommended on this site to do this just in case, especially since we would be gone for so long.

Have a great time. I can't wait to return.

If you are buying a new computer, I just got a Toshiba netbook that I really like - it is small and light, great for web surfing and some light computer work. The screen is small, of course, so it isn't as good for detailed picture editing, but it is great for uploading pictures and things like that.

If you are buying a new computer, I just got a Toshiba netbook that I really like - it is small and light, great for web surfing and some light computer work. The screen is small, of course, so it isn't as good for detailed picture editing, but it is great for uploading pictures and things like that.

I have a lenovo netbook that I really like. Small, light, great battery life, fast startup/wakeup, fast at finding wireless. Built in SD card reader.

- it is small and light, great for web surfing and some light computer work. The screen is small, of course, so it isn't as good for detailed picture editing, but it is great for uploading pictures and things like that.

Like many other netbooks it has NO CD/DVD drive. I use the same pc at work, connected to a larger monitor.

For cash, I use my credit union ATM card - they allow about 10 free withdrawals per month and only charge the 1% forex fee.

I also use my BofA ATM card whenever there is a partner bank ATM around, i.e. DeutscheBank in Germany.

My husband gave me an Asus netbook for my birthday 2 years ago and I use that exclusively for travel. It is more practical than lugging around my MacBook Pro and meets basic computing needs very well. I upgraded the memory so it is faster as it is quite a bit slower running my applications (Outlook Professional specifically) than my Mac.

I use Skype to make my calls and it works quite well when the wifi signal is strong. It is also really cheap to use.

My husband is a photographer and downloads photos as needed to a removable 1GIG hard drive on the netbook so he does not have to bring along a laptop of his own. He takes a LOT of photos so the hard drive comes in handy.

Forgot to add that I would have purchased an ipad for travel if it allowed me make calls and supported Flash. Hopefully one of these days it will.

Thank you so much for your replies. I forgot to ask about travel insurance, specifically health insurance in the EU. Any suggestions on that front?

Health insurance is not a problem. Visits to the doctor cost very little compared to what one pays in the States (22€ a visit in France). Emergency room visits in Italy are free. Our medical coverage will pay for emergencies, so as far as I'm concerned, potential evacuation is the only issue. You might want to read my Sicily trip report as we had a medical emergency that required Italian emergency room care and subsequent French medical care.

Check to see if you U.S. insurance would cover medical emergencies, which for ours can include doctor's visits and lab tests for bad rashes or sores that refuse to heal.