I’d leave it at home.
Can’t you blog from an internet cafe?
The only people I know who take laptops to Europe are those traveling for business, or who are going there to live for a few months or years or whatever.

It would be a huge hassle to worry about. There are plenty of internet cafes around. You can do whatever you need to from there – blog, upload photos, etc.

I don’t take the laptop unless I’m doing to be in one place where I know I’ll have internet access for 1 1/2 to 2 weeks.  For the “move on every 2 to 5 days” trip, I think the laptop is more trouble than it’s worth.

I’m considering buying an Eee PC for my trip to Europe.  It’s only 2 pounds and would work great for travel blogging.  They start out at $300.  I would hesitate to take a fullsize laptop because of the weight and value.  I suspect there will be a lot of similar ultra-budget/ultra-light laptops coming with the success of the Eee PC, so if you can wait, there should be plenty of options at a great price.

A laptop while travelling is a hassel. There are tons of interent cafes and im sure there is computer access in your hotel or hostel. Trust me you would be greatful that you didnt take it with you.

Shawna,
 
The answer is no.
 
In additional to the reasons everyone else gave you (hassle to carry it around, it might get stolen or damaged, etc), there’s one additional thing to consider:
 
Just because you have your laptop with you all the time, doesn’t mean you’ll have access to internet (ethernet or WiFi) all the time.  Laptop or not, you’ll still need to go somewhere where internet is available.  Might as well leave the laptop at home, and take advantage of Europe’s countless internet cafes.
 
If you need to stay in touch with back home on a regular basis, maybe you can get a good international deal with your mobile phone company? 

Ok thanx for the input……got it….no laptop haha !
 
I’ll stick to the internet cafe’s

Leave it home.  Travelling lite is the best way.

Maybe this is more of a computer question than a travelling question, but are you able to transfer photos from a digital camera to a computer in an internet café? I always thought that you had to pre-load software onto you computer to do that.

RE: “ . . . maybe you can get a good international deal with your mobile phone company? “

As IF !!??~

Congratulations on reviving a post that’s nearly 4 years old. I think all of the information in this one is out of date.

It appears to me that it remains relevant that a laptop, even the smallest notepads are not as useful as an iPod, if traveling light is the objective. In that regard, most of the sentiments here still apply if the understanding is that traveling with a laptop, even the present technology in its lightest form — MacAir poses some unnecessary inconvenience. I had to comment on the most obtuse opinion that there is anything such as a deal on cell service. IPod touch IOS 5 covers the bases exceptionally well. Now we are up to date and the thread draws attention to FAQ about laptop, mobility, communications, ubiquity.

I found for the couple of weeks that I was in Britain that if I brought a laptop I would have saved a ton of money. Since laptops are heavy and large, I’m seriously considering bringing a 7 inch tablet when I go this summer because it’ll be small enough to take with me everywhere if there’s no secure locker for me to stuff it in for a day. Also (this especially applies to long trips) I want to be able to pay off my visa and book hostels on a computer that I know is protected and not one that someone could have installed a keylogger onto 5 minutes before me. Getting my visa ripped off in Europe would make a trip a lot more expensive and would kill a lot of convenience.

I carry a small laptop.

I use it to entertain myself on the long flights. All the notes and plans I used to carry on paper are now on the laptop. I take a lot of pictures and can load them onto the laptop every night and label them while I still remember just what they are. I write a draft of my trip report while the events are still fresh in my mind. I don’t rely on the web while traveling, because access is not universal, but I have a program that keeps copies of web sites so I can access the information anytime. Planning a trip is much easier when you can just bookmark websites instead of putting the information on paper.

Internet access is still spotty, and I don’t want to waste time looking for an internet cafe. We often rent apartments and wifi access is fairly common in them, and I can usually find a wifi site as easily as finding an internet cafe, and some of the internet cafes have keyboards that differ from those in the US, which complicates using them.

Security remains a concern, and most places don’t have a good place to secure your laptop, so I carry mine in a backpack.

Four years ago, I rarely took the laptop. Two years ago, I usually took the netbook. Today, wouldn’t think of going without the tablet. Four years ago WiFi was relatively rare and internet cafes were easy to find. The reverse is true now.

A small netbook has the advantage of running a full scale OS and browser. Websites are not always optimized for mobile devices and as a result, completing transactions on a mobile device, such as advance reservations a few days ahead of travel, may not be as reliable on a handheld as on a Windows or OSX machine. I am traveling with an acer aspire 1 with 500GB drive and 4GB Ram on an AMD dual core running Win7. It will provide the serious artillery to stand behind the iPod in addition to media management. The Acer weighs just a few ounces over a pound, is the size of a tablet, & has full keyboard.

It’s amazing how much things have changed in just a few years.
We’re thinking about bringing a tablet on our trip. Still haven’t decided what (if anything) we’ll do about a phone. Last time we just bought one, then gave it to our kid because it was an upgrade for him.

There are differing protocols for different areas of the world, but if you have a fourband phone, it can be used almost anywhere. I cancelled the international calling plan my provider was charging me for and buy a sim card when I get to a new country. It gives you a new phone number, but often very low rates for usage; when I get home, I reinstall my local sim card. For reservations and such made from home, I use the internet to avoid the high international phone rates.

Wow! How much the internet/computer/cellphone situation has changed these past few years!

I have a full-size laptop with a wide-screen; I’ve had it since 2006, and it still runs almost like new, and I don’t plan to get a new one because A) I still absolutely love my laptop, B) Windows XP is still supported by Microsoft until 2014, and C) PCs haven’t advanced that much since 2006 to require me to get a new one yet.

I do not have one of those compact laptops (are they called netbooks?), nor a tablet device. Those are lighter than a full-size laptop, and may be easier to carry around when backpacking.

For me, my laptop is an unnecessary weight when backpacking, especially since I also carry a DSLR + two lenses. And it’s also an additional thing to worry about locking it away into a locker. I do travel with my laptop within the USA/Canada, but never outside USA/Canada. I would if I were going to spend a considerable time in a stable place, as opposed to moving around from hostel to hostel every few days.

I do like to stay connected to the internet whenever possible, because I need to be able to look things up during my trips. Almost all hostels now provide their own “internet cafe” (which you usually need to pay for). When I bought my smartphone, I made sure it had wi-fi. So, for my purposes, a smartphone with wi-fi perfectly suits my needs, and if I ever need a full-blown PC, I can always use the computers that are provided by the hostel.

I’ve noticed that wi-fi is much more common nowadays, but you often have to be a customer of the respective establishment in order for them to give you the security code. So, any cafe won’t just give you their wi-fi security code…which means that you’ll still have relatively limited access to wi-fi even in 2011/2012.

So, if anyone is in a similar situation as me (large laptop, and you already carry other heavy things), leave the PC at home, and just carry a smartphone. But disable the data roaming, and make sure your smartphone has wi-fi.