Should we take our laptop to Europe? We won't need it for communication home, but I thought it might be helpful in making arrangements in London and Paris.

If you plan on making arrangements online, you should just go to an internet cafe instead of lugging your laptop around Europe.

I agree that you should leave your laptop at home. It's one less thing to look out for (you can't leave it in your hotel room) and especially nowadays with security checks that is another hassle.

Every hotel I stay at has a business centre where I am able to use the internet for checking into flights etc.

I never find a laptop worth bothering with - in room internet access is usually expensive. I nearly always am allowed to use the business centre for free.

i bring the laptop mostly to transfer the dozens of photos my wife takes daily. we enjoy going thru them in the late afternoon editing and dumping some.

she is quite serious about this. of course not serious enough to actually lug the thing around herself.

i've never had any problem leaving it at the desk when we're out of the room.

Well discussed on some recent threads:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34497007

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34490666

Best wishes,

Rex

Thanks everyone. I appreciate hearing your thoughts. I'll leave my laptop at home!

Well, I am writing this on my laptop in Paris. Cybercafes are around, but never seem to be conveniently located when needed, and vary in cost. My counsel would be if it is a small/light laptop, throw it in your carry on bag. Be sure that your power cord will work on European voltage (my Dell has no problem with this.) I will say that though this apartment has "high speed" Internet access via cable modem the service has been spotty, with loooooong load times being common. Still, it's nice to have and we have used it for planning daily activities as well as uploading digital photos and email.

And it's also useful to log on to Fodors as well I see...

<<useful for making arrangements>>??

What sort of arrangements? Can't you make your arrangements before you leave? Why go to Europe without having all "arrangements" made ahead of time?

Or maybe I'm not understanding what you mean.

In any case, I always bring my laptop to Europe, but that's because I have to work while over there. My experience with using it for personal reasons in hotels, etc., is that is far more of a hassle than it's worth and it cuts into the time I want to be vacationing.

There are internet cafés everywhere.