Traveling with/without laptop
 

We recently bought a laptop, primarily for use in a small business, but we had thought it would be nice to take on vacation. It seemed a cheaper option to keep in touch with family (rather than cell phones) and to download digital pictures (though I know there are other options). We are traveling from Maine to Hawaii for 2 weeks and are beginning to question whether or not to take it along-we're starting to be concerned about it getting damaged with all the travel(and do we really want to lug the thing around..) and theft(though we do have a cable lock. Would be interested to hear others opinions/experiences. Thanks!

My personal experience has been that it's more of a pain than it's worth. I hated having to unpack it, open and turn it on at every security check point. Then, the worries of it getting damaged or stolen were another problem. I finally decided that it wasn't worth the hassle, and prefer to pop into an internet cafe once in awhile, instead.

I wouldn't worry about damage - I travel extensively (every week) on business and have carried a laptop with me for as long as they've been in existence. I've never had any damage of any kind. As for the rest of it - when I'm on vacation the last thing I want to see is my laptop. But that's me.

I have an aunt who bought a "Mailstation" -- CompUSA & others keep having them for "free" after rebates, but you have to use THEIR ISP service. The machine is much smaller than a notebook - maybe 1/2, but with a similar sized keyboard, and only does text email. She swears by it.

I had purchased a similar device at Staples for $25 - the VTech Express (I think) that could fit in a jacket pocket and used my yahoo account ... but you still had to use their ISP, and I couldn't deal with the little keys ... but it was a good way to receive email while traveling. I stopped using it as I couldn't see paying two different ISPs.

I always carry along my laptop when travleing in the US or Canada. Aside from keeping in touch, it is handy for checking on details of the trip or making reservations at the lowest fare.

My current laptop has exterior drives for CD and floppy and I leave them at home so there is less to carry. All I take is the laptop, power cord, camera interface and telephone cord. It takes little space in my suitcase.

Don't forget to get the local access numbers for your ISP before you go. And see if they have an 800 number if you end up somewhere too small for them to have local access.

Keith

My husband hauls his laptop everywhere, and it has never broken. It may be convenient for uses you mention - as long as you promise not to do work on it while you are relaxing on vacation, - that is the tempting part for some if their laptop accompanies them.

Hey, rb_travelerxATyahoo,
can you tell me how much the ISP fee is per month for either unit? I have a hand held NEC for work, but big-bro NOW frowns on us using it for anything but the biz :(

Also, how tough is it to access or do they work with an 800 number?

TIA!

In my opinion, bringing a laptop on a vacation is like taking your boss, co-workers, (clients in your case), mother-in-law, father-in-law, and a business plan with you. I think a vacation is for getting away from all that. Forget the laptop.

I stare at a computer screen all day at work. Vacation for me is to get away from it. To keep in touch with the family get a phone card - either pre-paid or from your phone company, and the charge will appear on your monthly bill. To make tour reservations there are always 800 numbers, and also the hotels charge you even for 800 calls made from your room, there are always coin phones in the lobby where the call is free. I wouldn't carry a lap-top unless it's a business trip.

IF it's not too bulky and you won't be tempted to do work, go ahed and take it. I use mine to look up local info, check flights, etc. as well as the functions you mentioned. Be careful packing and it shouldn't get damaged. Do NOT check it, but carry it with you. You will have to take it out of its case to go through security, but I haven't seen anyone asked by airport security to power on their machine in a long tme. If you leave it in your room while out enjoying, be sure to either lock it up or at least stash it somewhere out of sight. And, as mentioned, make sure you know how to connect to your ISP from wherever you will be, as well as the cost. (Be careful! Some of the 1-800 ISP numbers charge by the minute).

The Mailstation (http://www.earthlink.net/home/mailstation/) was a division of Cidco, but appears to be part of Earthlink now, and monthly service is $12.95/month. You must pay for a year of service to get the 100% rebate on the device.

For the Vtech Postbox Express, The billing plan had two options, either a quarterly payment of $39.99, or a yearly payment of $99.99 See http://www.shopvtechconnect.com/vciui/howItWorks.cfm -- this device only for USA & Canada. It appears they no longer make the very small device that I have, but they do have devices similar to the Mailstation.

Another laptop question...
Can we use one of the AOL free disks to download AOL for the time we'll be on the road? We thought that way we could check our email (other than AOL) by doing a search for local connections when we stop for the night. We'll be traveling for several weeks by car.

I had to travel on business and took a laptop with me. Couldn't imagine having to do that for something that is supposed to be fun. Hated lugging it around and wished I could have left it. I would say leave it at home if at all possible.

We usually take my laptop - use it for the pictures, etc. when we are going to be fairly stationary on a trip.

If we are going to be moving about a lot, I bring my digital wallet to download the pictures.

I've never had a problem with breakage, etc.

As for AOL, I set up a dummy account when I visited some relatives out of town. I am not sure how well that would work for continuously moving though. I imagine you'd just need to look up the # in the next area you'd be going to before you log out from your existing area. It was hard to cancel though - they argued with me about it for a few minutes before they closed the account.

We always travel with our laptop. We own a business and have to keep up with that - as well as e-mail from friends and family. We usually just call the local number for our ISP but have also used our cell phone (free calls and roaming) and have just called our number back home. Works great and also allows us to make changes in travel plans and the like. We couldn't live without it.

I'm interested in how you use your cell phone as your connection. I'd like to learn more about how to do that.

Another question....

What are some good companies that would have local numbers all over the country?

I travel every week... (at the Hyatt Austin at the moment) and take advantage of free high speed internet at many hotels. You just boot up, launch your browser and off you go! Freakin' awesome. Just in case, I have a dial up and rarely have issues with the phone lines.
I also belong to NetFlix and load up on DVD's before I leave. I can watch movies on the plane, in the airport, connected to hotel TV's, etc... I also carry Bose headphones which are incredible. I NEVER, EVER travel without my laptop (currently a Toshiba Tecra 9100) It's a tool and entertainment center.
BTW, I have the security drill down to an art and have never had any damage... and I am pretty brutal.

We bought an adapter for our computer to cell phone from Eerizon Wireless and have always traveled with it in recent years because we sometimes are in small towns and remote areas where they do not have free access to our ISP. We use both AOL and Earthlink and have rarely had a problem. We also do use high speed access at many hotels.

Ooops., sorry, I meant Verizon Wireless.

Do you remember how much the adapter cost for your cell phone?

EastEileen, don't load AOL software unless you intend to use only AOL in the future. It makes changes to settings all through your computer and you may find other software no longer works properly. And you can never totally uninstall it.

Connie, any ISP that offers service around the country will have numbers around the country. ATT, roadrunner, etc.

If you add a network card, you can also take advantage of the hotels that offer highspeed service.

Keith

I find it useful to have a laptop (a REAL computer, not some lame email terminal) just to lookup travel info/hints on the web for places I never went to. I find online resources way better than any guide book, and even though I usually print out a lot of the useful sites info, there is always last minute changes in my schedule so to be "connected" is a great thing. Then again, the word "laptop" can mean either a 3 pound subnotebook or an 8 pound 15" screen clunker. BIG difference among the two.

Stevecat, this is also why we're planning on bringing ours -- we have a program on it that has been extremely useful in creating our itinerary. But, now I'm worried about Keith's comments about AOL interference. We had picked up the "free" CD and were hoping to use that for the times we wanted to get online. Any other suggestions anyone? I don't want to get involved in a yearly contract or whatever just to occasionally get online or to check email.
Do folks know that you can go to local libraries while traveling and use the internet?

Thanks for the info, folks. I've learned a lot about something I've been interested in.

I have used internet cafe's a lot.but we are usually out of town camping and I thought it would be nice to be connected wherever we are.

TxTravelPro, you are one in-touch dude.
What you going to do when your company slashes your travel account budget? No wonder businesses are going under.

I have had Earthlink (in various incarnations) as my ISP for the last 8 years, and they provide pretty good dial-up service nationwide. Note that if you have DSL service (like I do), you are allotted a few hours per month of dial-up for when you're on the road (I think it's 20 hours, maybe less). Their communications software gives you a directory of their nationwide local numbers, along with search functionality and update capability (the numbers change very frequently).

If you just want to check e-mails from a "public" Internet station, you can use mail2web.com, which will pull down e-mails from any ISP, or use Webmail functions on your ISP's website (ex. earthlink.net). This is quick, the service itself is free (you'll pay the station for connect time), and I think it's great for logging in and cleaning out the spam.

EastEileen,

When I didn't have a laptop, I would check on internet access, on the internet, before traveling. Chackeing the libraies websites or sending theman email will tell you if access is available and what there hours are.

If they don't have access, they may be able to tell you of an internet cafe.

Also, some hotels provide access, either free or for a by the minute fee.

Keith

One thing I can add is to be sure to have an email address to give others that can be used anywhere.

When I was in China during 9-11, we were desperate to talk to family and phone calls were very expensive. I had no trouble with a Yahoo address but those who had addresses through their work, etc. could not be reached. They all had to set up a Yahoo or Hotmail address and get it to everyone they wanted to connect with.

We have a Motorola Star Tac phone and we got the adapter/program for about $65 from Verizon. It has been worth the $$$ and we love it!!

Thanks for all the helpful responses. We are leaning toward bringing it along-it is very light weight and I think it will be useful for all the reasons mentioned-there's not a chance we'll do any work while in Hawaii!! We use high-speed at home but it came with a 1 year AOL subscription so we can use those local dialup #'s for access. It also has the capability for a wireless connection where available. This may be a dumb question, but how does this work? I see that we need to disable this option when on the plane-anything else we should know? We have looked at hotspotlist.com for places in Hawaii where it is available. We have never used this before-do you just power up and off you go? Is there generally a charge? We thought it might be fun to try this out if it wasn't too much of a hassle.
Thanks again, Laurie

FYI... jor, I am a chick, not a dude.
Since I make my company millions per year, I don't think they mind that I have to travel to do it.
Besides, I work in the travel industry and I pay much less for my corporate travel than regular Jors, I mean Joes.
Peace :)

Now that we are home from Hawaii I thought I would update this thread. We brought the laptop and were very glad we did. It was very handy to be able to download and view our digital pictures daily. Also, with the time change from the east coast, it was the easiest/cheapest way to keep in touch with family/friends. We also used it to check details of various activities, make reservations, check flights etc. We used AOL on both Oahu and the BI with no problems. We brought along a few DVD's and watched a couple at the airport during layovers-it really helped the time to pass faster!!! Going through security was not a hassle-only had to take it out of the case and one time, they did a "wipe-down" for explosive residue (I think). We did keep it locked up with the cable lock all the time in the hotel/condo. I might not bother with it for just one week but would definitely take it again for 2 weeks.

We took an extended trip to Hawaii earlier this year and brought along the laptop for the same reasons as you stated. I agree it was very convenient to have. The condos where we stayed all offered free local calls so there was no charge to access my ISP. We used it to keep in touch with friends and family, look up restaurants, car rentals, driving directions, check flight status. It's something I would definitely do again for a long trip.