The last post on netbooks was in May, so I am here explaining why I am definitely taking mine for my three month trip to Europe. a) I plan on communicating with the folks back home by email, not phone b) I’ve got an itinerary planned but I don’t want to commit to every last day of it, so I want to be able to reserve at hotels and hostels a few days before I get to where I need a place to stay—ditto train reservations c) it is a 10 inch Asus and I haven’t weighed it BUT

It substitutes for guidebooks on the whole. First, you can scan in the fatter ones or the glossy ones like DK, save them as PDF, and all that interesting but heavy info is at your fingertips. (The ebook industry is WAY behind on good purchased guides).

Second and MOST IMPORTANT, if you use Microsoft OneNOte you can make your own guidebooks free (particularly useful if you plan on going heavy on museums or are into the history of where you are going). OneNote, you ask? Try it—the best organizing tool of the computer age. If you have Office 2007 you already have it. Otherwise, you can try it free from the Microsoft Website. In it you can organize info by everything from Country to City to Neighborhood, stick in all your reservations and phone numbers, even copies of your passport etc, do yourself your own “art gallery” of things you want to see in person, add info on history or biography neatly copied from Wikipedia amongst others, even copy maps to it. I have pages for artists, for cathedrals, for museum opening hours (cut/paste, there’s the most current info) for good spots to eat—and it is all reachable from ONE page.

It is super easy to use. From IE (or from Firefox with an add-on) you can simply send any web page you are looking at to OneNote. It saves itself so you don’t need to worry about losing it. AND once in Onenote you can annotate to your heart’s content. Rearrange if you change your mind.

OneNote is a MARVEL for travel planning. I first encountered it through work, where it has increased my productivity a zillion percent, but it is perfect for sorting and getting to information in a rational, EASY way.

At to netbook battery life—there’s a concept called “recharging” and since it comes with a 110-240 cord, all you need extra is the little do-hickey with the appropriate size prongs.

As far as other tech goes: All the docs on my netbook will also be on a flashdrive kept separate in case someone manages to filch it (it will be in my daypack and I probably will use same as a pillow!!). I’m also taking my Kindle because I read a whole lot and will be on trains a whole lot. And an MP3 player—there are a fair number of walking tours downloadable for far less than a bought tour.

I’ve done the “tear out the pages you want” and it works for shorter trips, but for three months I’m going to need a lot of info. And the torn out pages tend to fall apart…. I plan on taking only those few paper pages that guide to specific sights so I don’t have to fire up netbook on site (yes, that IS an interesting gargoyle up there), but the concept is to learn what you can about where you are going ahead of time (on that train ride) and then just _experience _it when you get there.

C’mon guys, rise to the challenge! I am, by the way, a medicare aged grandma, travelling solo and heading for hostels. If I can do it, anyone can.

PS I don’t work for Microsoft.