Bringing a laptop? (Italy, Hungary, Romania)

[johnny'sgirl]

DH and I are going to Europe (Italy, Hungary, and Romania) for three weeks this summer. I'd like to bring my laptop (small Dell) so that we have someplace to offload our digital camera pictures, and DH is also taking an online class that he'll need to check in with periodically.

I'm wondering two things, though:

1.) I found this website (http://www.wififreespot.com/europe.html) that lists free WiFi hotspots in Europe, but I was wondering if WiFi is more prevalent than this, or if we really shouldn't expect to find it anywhere.

2.) DH thinks it's not safe for us to bring my laptop, and that we'd have to take it with us everywhere because it wouldn't be a good idea to leave it in our hotel room. Opinions? We were planning to get this backpack/camera pack (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000F31KLU/ref=wl_it_dp/102-8558791-9574556?ie=UTF8&coliid=I22GPLADY42CFA&colid=2RJ3749G32KZU) because it's made specifically for laptops and digital SLRs (which is what we're bringing with us.) We went to a camera store to check it out and it seemed really sturdy and secure, but DH is still really leery about theft (as am I, as my laptop is my baby.) ;)

Any advice? I really appreciate it!!

(Oh, and in Hungary/Romania we'll be staying in a couple of hotels, but mostly we'll be staying with the families of my roommate and his wife.)

[HeatherFL]

I prefer not to travel through Europe with a laptop, even if it's small. There are so many cheap internet cafe's, I check emails in those. Most hotels also have internet access.

If you do want to have your own with you, I was just in London and France and had to have two laptops with me, since the France part of my trip was business. I just kept the laptop case tucked away and there were no problems.

~H.

[nyclaura]

I have left my laptop at hotels all over the world without any issue. If you have extreme safety concerns then the front desk should have a safe that you can leave it in when you leave the room. Also, if it's a medium price point hotel you should also have a safe in your own room.

[houseblend]

There are probably more hotpoints than what are listed on that website, but I was really surprised with how few hotels in Italy offer internet access. If they do, there is usually a hefty fee involved and sometimes when they say "internet access" they mean "dial-up modem" or a computer in the lobby with access.

With that said, if your laptop is small, I would still think it is fine to bring with you, especially to back up your pictures (it does make it much easier with the digital camera!). Just make sure you have a copy of everything backed up at home.

[tlew12778]

There really are not too many hotspots in Italy. Milan is covered pretty well but you need a cell phone to receive an SMS message with a password (with an Italian number).

I really cannot imagine that there are many hotspots in Hungary and Romania but you never know.

A lot of the time you can find unprotected networks and hop on.

There are also these (http://www.amazon.com/SmartDisk-Digital-Multimedia-Player-Storage/dp/B0009JS6J4/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-3002849-1723138?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1180985032&sr=1-1) photo storage devices in case you don't want to bring a laptop with you.

[Purple]

I took a large laptop with me to Europe (Portugal, Spain and France) this past February and I am glad that I did. We were able to transfer pics, watch movies while waiting in airport and check email. I was glad that I brought it. Only in the Algarve were we not able to connect in the hotel room so I went across the street to a cafe. That was fine but it is so much handier to have access to your stored files, bookmarked pages etc on your own laptop. I used a funky, hot pink laptop bag that didn't look like a traditional one so I felt pretty safe travelling with it- and yes I did leave it in the room. The safes were too small (it held our passports and cc) but if I was really concerned I could have kept it at the front desk where they have a locked room.

And I went into withdrawal when my laptop was in for one week before the trip to get a new adapter ;), so it is my baby too!