Another vote for Yes. I always take mine. I love to be able to download my photos and write. If I have interent access, even better!
I also admit to sneaking a peek on the forums here even while traveling.

I now carry a 2.2 lb Toshiba Portege which is about 4 years old. It's not "fancy" but it gets the job done and it's smaller than most magazines. :-)

Yes.

Only if I'm working. I'm much to busy while I'm on vacation to log on. If I need information that only the internet can provide I'll go to an internet cafe.

I like to use my plane time for reading, napping or doing crossword puzzles.
I use my cell phone to call home if needed.
I don't want to lug it around.

I almost always take a laptop when traveling. If it is just one night or two, then I might make do without it, but even then. If traveling for work, I will sometimes bring two (work and personal). When traveling with my wife, we will both often bring two.

As to what I bring,
- We have a Macbook Air, which is usually the first to make the cut.
- I have a black Macbook, which I bring with less regularity.
- We both have some HP thing from work that we will take if needed.

I just purchased the Acer Aspire One and I love it! It's a mere 2.2 pounds, has built in wi-fi and webcam, plenty of room 120 gb) to load my pics, and a multi-card reader - including an xD slot, which is hard to find.

The screen is 8.9", but it hasn't been a problem yet. The keyboard takes getting used to, but even my dh, who claims to have "fat fingers", can use it.

I'm in the US. I bought converter plugs. My laptop has voltage 100-240. The tech at Walmart said that the Hz could be a problem and he recommended using the voltage converter.

Any experience with this?

>Any experience with this?
Yes
>Hz could be a problem
No problem, no converter needed

I'm confused. What kind of problem could the Hz cause?

A year ago I bought a cheapie Acer from Microcenter.com. It was 379 bucks and another 80 bucks upgraded it to 2gigs of memory. I bought it solely for travel usage - primarily to upload photos each day and as time permits to start sorting.

It's cheap enough so that if I lost it I wouldn't be too bummed (but for the photos - but those don't get deleted from my card until I get home anyway - and the risk that someone might have access to my photos isn't a big deal to me - yet...)

It's also pretty sturdy and small enough to fit into my carryon. I take it on the plane wherever I go, now - the beach house, overseas, anywhere...

fieldtripcoordinator,

Here's a tip... never take computer
advice from a Walmart employee! You're not speaking with the most tech savvy of salespeople there.

Logos999 is most likely correct... look at the power brick for the computer. If it says "110-240 v" or similar you should also see "50-60 hz". If it will handle 240 volts it will also handle 60hz.

The real bottom line on this is checking your manual or customer support of the manufacturer.

As for me, yes I take a laptop. I have to as being self employed work cannot just stop. But it's a 12 inch Dell that is easy and light to carry and comes in very handy for non work related use as others have noted.

On our trip to France in August our 16 year old daughter took my tiny Asus EEE and found it easy to carry and fun to stay in touch with friends.

Rob

Thanks, Rob!

I don't travel with mine. I like to pack very light and wouldn't want the hassle.

I watch whatever movies the plane provides. I don't call home when I travel. When I am already IN a city I can find information like business hours easily enough in other ways.

That said, I'm not *against* the idea just it's not worth it for me.

I do stop into internet cafes every few days to send and receive email, or if there was really some piece of information I needed available only online.

No, we don't take our laptop with us. We do carryon only, and if we are on vacation we have no use for it.

<i> I like to pack very light and wouldn't want the hassle.</i>

Anyone contemplating a computer for travel should shop for light weight, small size, and battery life. I have carried a 2-pound, 10&quot; laptop for years, and I haven't any idea of what &quot;the hassle&quot; means.

<i>p.s.</i> If you dump your pictures at EOD, make sure you have a backup - in a separate place. If your computer gets broken, lost, or stolen, losing all your memories as well would heighten the disappointment.

Travelnut and artsnletters,

Have a look at the Dell Mini 9: http://www.dell.com/content/products...amp;ref=homepg

The specs look good, and I have the 16GB version on order.

We take ours with us. The phone is turned off, but we check our mail daily so that if there is important news from the home front we get it that way.
Since we tend to wing it on holiday having it is useful for looking for hotels and restaurants. We also download the photos to it, along with to an image tank that also goes with us. The GPS log also gets downloaded to it daily.
We have a deal that it is only connected to the net just long enough to check the mail for important messages, everything else goes unread, and to find a hotel or whatever if we need one. If we didn't agree to that then OH would be online all the time, and working and generally behaving as he does at home.
In Europe we drive so luggage isn't an issue, and if we go long haul we check baggage always. The laptop stays quite happily in the hotel room whilst we are out for the day, on full show what is more.

<i>p.s. If you dump your pictures at EOD</i>

Maybe it's too early in the AM for me, but what's EOD?

Generally - yes. We typically go to one place for a week or so. I would find it very difficult to be without it and internet cafes can sometimes be hard to find, have odd opening hours or can be relatively unsafe. I also have to access documents.

What I use it for varies depending on work commitments and the time of the year etc - checking e-mails, checking timetables, phone numbers, skype and sometimes just surfing the internet, reading papers etc.
Especialy now that wifi is so commonplace.

Occasionally for watching a dvd or tv show I have downloaded. Never for photos but am not much of a photographer.

I am seriously considering buying a small and cheap laptop just for travel purposes.

EOD = End of Day

We never take a computer on vacation. If I did, it would not be vacation.

I have to take my laptop on my next trip. Part of the trip is professional, but I can't just then chuck the laptop for the vacation part. I thought of taking a lesser-quality laptop, but I decided I needed the full-scale one with everything set up perfectly.

My main concern is the risk of getting it stolen, even if it's small. Most of the time I am staying at a hotel with a laptop safe, and the one night I'm not, I will take it around with me. I'll be extra-cautious going on and off trains and in crowds.

Has anyone lost their laptop or had it stolen?