iPad - take to Europe (river cruise + week in France) or not?
 

For our 3 week trip to Europe, I'm torn on whether or not to take my iPad. I'd purchase a data plan, but rely mostly on WiFi. It's great for entertainment, email, web surfing, etc. But I know we can also check email and the internet on board our river cruise boat as well as in hotels.

It fits in my travel purse - and we have a safe in each of our hotel rooms as well as on board.

Any opinions? Should I take it or leave it home?

We'll also have our iPhones with us.

Hi P,

I thought that vacations were a chance to get away from it all.

((I))

My iPad is for family, pleasure, entertainment - not work.

If you have email access on your iphone then really there's no need to take the ipad is there? I know they are only small, but the less stuff you have to carry the better.

I am taking mine! Downloaded guidebooks,all my travel info- totally justified in taking it along!

I bought mine specifically to take on my business trip to India (hopefully it will come in time) to use as an ereader. If it were a pleasure trip I would use it for files that I copy from places like Fodors and Chowhound as well as the ability to search the net for additional information for restaurants and sites.

Took mine on last trip and loved it-- the 3G is expensive overseas (IMO) and i needed an extra package/data plan, so hopefully you'll find lots of wifi access.

Why have such a handy and small device if you don't take it with you?

Take it along. Don't you have loads of books on it through iBook , Kindle and Nook? It is our main calendar too.
And i will always find WiFi somehwere.We own it for traveling.

Take it! We took ours to Europe last year and used it for many things. Saved our bacon in France when we couldn't find a road map and it got us to our tiny destination. Couldn't have done it without it! Very handy! Also download books before you go and you can leave the paperbacks at home.

Another vote for taking it with you. I used mine in France last year via wifi in our hotel. Great for getting exact location of restaurants, shopping etc

Do be careful about the roaming charges if you enable the 3G, but we found ours very helpful as a travel aide (e.g. research sites & download the e-ticket to the IPAD to get into the EIffel Tower). Both our hotel in Nice and in Paris offered free WIFI too...Of course, the river cruise is a different story. Iphone is handy too, but follow all the steps to ensure you don't get a $1000 bill on returning.

iPhone can't use local data plans, which are much cheaper than roaming on AT&T. In fact, you want to double-check the Settings in iPhone to make sure data roaming is OFF if you don't want to be surprised by thousands of dollars in charges.

Only use the iPhone on Wifi. The AT&T International Voice Roaming Plan (you have to enable it before you go) is 99 cents per minute for calls.

The iPad, you can buy a SIM from Orange or some other local operator to use for data. You might spend 20 Euros for minimal use for a week or two when Wifi isn't available.

On that river cruise, if Wifi isn't available, then 3G might be a good option. I heard on ocean cruises, they rip you off for Wifi.

Might check out iBooks or Kindle apps. for travel books. There are also travel apps. some with GPS support to show you sites or restaurants near your location.

Thanks, all - the iPad's going with me! It slips right into my PacSafe CitySafe 200 purse; will fit in the safes in our rooms on the boat & in hotels...but will come in so handy! I'd rather have it than not have it, I decided.

Good luck finding internet access, especially on a cruise boat.

Our river cruise boat has few wifi so I hope yours does too.

We're on an AMAWaterways river cruise - free wifi in all the common areas. Computers in all the staterooms.

Does anyone know- I have an Ipad from the US. DO I need a power converter or just the plug adapter?

Adapters work well unless u will be in remote areas

in which case I bring my power conditioner apc.com

Always take mine and insure it well

insuremytrip.com go with the free wifi as much as I can

Be sure to keep it in "Airplane Mode" at all other times

turn it on to roam only when u have to briefly then off

again or auto roaming feature will eat u up pricewise.

Room safes are not safe everybody has a general combo

So leave it in front desk safe not in your room.

They truly are a theft magnet.

italyagain, you only need the plug adapter, not the power converter. Most items now are dual voltage and the Ipad is one of the them. Reduces at least one heavy item! We left one of our adapters behind and we were constantly rotating what needed to be charged...

thanks! I thought I read it but now that the time is near, I got worried. I have so bonded with the ipad that I would go into mourning if I fried it.

So happy to find this thread today cause yesterday I bought an Ipad 2 for our upcoming 2 week trip to France. The guy in Best Buy (US) told me that getting the 3g function opened me up to scary international charges and that I wouldn't really need it as wifi is "everywhere". However, I would like to be able to use it as navigation app. I THINK he said an app could be downloaded and wouldn't need 3G to work. But now I'm wondering-maybe he meant a MAP could be stored on the Ipad. Anyway, Best Buy has a 2-week trial period and if I want to go back and upgrade (or even return) there is no re-stocking fee or anything. He said. So, should I upgrade to 3G and just be very careful to turn it to Airplane mode, except when I want to use an interactive navigation app? (Sorry, I don't really "get" new technology, but I figure I'll learn by asking). I'll be wanting to download books-I would love recommendations of books about France that I can be reading while there. We will be in Paris 1 week then train to Dordogne and driving in the Dordogne, (and possibly Provance) for 9 days. ALSO, does anyone know where I can buy the walking/hiking maps for that area before I leave?
ceilifinnigan

I am really glad I have the 3G iPad. It is a necessary option for me. You can easily turn OFF 3G under "cellular data" in Settings tab.

Only way you'd be vulnerable to international charges on a 3G iPad is if you subscribe to 3G in the US on the month that you leave for the trip. That means the 3G plan is active when you go to France.

Then when you go over there, you'd be roaming, which is where charges get expensive.

3G plans on the iPad are month to month. You buy it for a month at a time. So just make sure you don't have a plan active at the time.

The 3G model has a GPS chip while the Wifi-only model does not. When you go over there, you can look into buying a plan which covers your time over there. France doesn't have cheap temporary plans whereas Italy does. You can see what's available by reading prepaidgsm.net.

If you can limit web surfing to Wifi (like at the hotel where you're staying, though sometimes that could mean additional charges, so you should check with the hotel before booking), then you don't have to figure out about getting a prepaid SIM in France.

As for using it as a navigation device, if you're talking about it like getting turn-by-turn driving directions (where it tells you when to turn and so on) then you have to buy a separate app like Navigon or TomTOm, with European maps. For those apps, you don't need an Internet connection. Those apps. will take advantage of the GPS chip in the 3G model.

There are some apps. which download maps for a lot less than these driving turn-by-turn apps. You can Google "iPhone offline maps." Those are more for pedestrians, more like guidebooks. They may or may not use the GPS chip.

I don't want to purchase a data plan, so bottom line, if I turn off data roaming, my iPad will only access wifi and I should not incur any data charges while in Europe. Is that correct? Thanks.

That should be the case.

OR just not subscribe for the month that you're leaving on your trip, since iPad plans are month to month.

Be sure to get the adapter to be able to transfer photos from your camera to the iPad.