Technology Tips: 2005
European tourism now comes with a digital divide: those with high tech gadgets and those without. Which fancy new tools are worth the trouble and actually enhance your travels?
Take a picture of the train schedule
When travelling on a railpass in Europe, especially to smaller towns and villages, I take a digital photo of the departure schedule. Then later in my hostel or hotel room, I can use the zoom feature to determine when to go back to the station the next day. This is much easier than finding an internet connection or showing up just after the train leaves!
Chris
St Louis, MO USA Fri 12/30/2005
iPods are great for travel
iPods are great for travel! Besides listening to music and travel podcasts, I had great success planning a Benelux trip in iCal, then using iSync to sync the calendar to my iPod. I don't plan every minute of the trip. I use the calendar for location, contact, and transportation info for my overnights and daily siteseeing. I can even set alarms for important events like, say, calling a hostel to confirm my arrival "before 16:00". I used my iPod before I even passed through customs in Amsterdam. The airline had lost my checked luggage and they requested info on where I would be staying for the next 48 hours. I had all that info on my iPod!
I also load my past travel photos onto my iPod Nano. It's great to share photos with fellow travelers if you're a shutterbug like me.
Nate <email>
Boulder, CO USA Tue 12/27/2005
Digital Transfer/Storage with USB Anywhere
For about $45 from Belkin, this handy little device is something for the traveler to consider:
The USB Anywhere connects two mass-storage devices (media reader, digital camera, hard drive) using USB cables to transfer photos, songs, and files from one device to the other-all without a computer. Use the Belkin USB Anywhere to copy files from your digital camera to your external hard drive, between two MP3 players, and/or between USB flash-memory drives, external hard drives, CD-R burners, and memory-card readers. The compact USB Anywhere is ideal for traveling, as it eliminates the need to use your computer for photo storage. When your digital camera's media card gets full, you can use USB Anywhere to download the images to your portable hard drive and take more pictures.
Advantages . Frees up space on your media card for more pictures . Lets you transfer files without a computer . Allows you to copy individual files or complete directories with 2 copy modes . Automatically shuts down after 30 seconds of inactivity for longer battery life . Fits easily into your pocket with compact, lightweight design . Saves you money by eliminating the need to buy multiple memory cards . Indicates transfer status with flashing LED . Includes a 5V, 1.5A optional power supply . Installs with Plug-and-Play and hot swap convenience . Transfers files at up to 12Mbps . Operates on 3 AAA alkaline batteries
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Product_Id=245923#
Jay
Sandpoint, Idaho USA Tue 12/20/2005
Why Laptops
As the price of computers and internet access goes down, I have found that Internet cafes in Europe are gradually becoming harder to find. I recently bought a handheld computer (dell axim) for my travels. Only about the size of a calculator, they can be used for wifi Internet, listening to music, reading ebooks, and even watching movies and TV shows. Almost anything you can do on a laptop you can also do on a handheld- only the screen is smaller :)
Michael Schneider <email>
ny USA Tue 12/20/2005
Why Laptops
I have travelled a LOT over the last 10 years and mostly my husband had his BUSINESS laptop [where all internet access calls were paid by company:)]
However our LAST trip was a RTW pleasure trip where ALL we had was a 20" rollercase and a backpack each for almost 8 weeks SO a laptop was just SO much unnecessary weight (and space)
Internet access is generally available in all but the backblocks of places -- and is it SO important that you HAVE to have Internet access?? We had a triband phone(used in Australia USA AND Europe) wher IF our family needed to contact us they could -- and believe me it was SO good being free of contacts -- holiday was TERIFIC
Having said that the laptop husband had was bought ABOUT 1999 and ONLY needed adapter plugs to work ANYWHERE in the world as it could cope with 110-240 volts input so I am sure the latest ones have the same capapibility :)
Jackie Williams
Perth Australia , Australia Tue 12/20/2005
Why Laptops?
It seems to me that, unless you MUST have immediate recourse to a laptop or you are on biz, that carrying a computer with you is counterproductive and a source of worry (about converters,frying and theft among other things).There are so many internet access places in Europe that it is amazingly easy to go online at virtually anytime in almost anyplace.
I've never had a problem retrieving email or researching online.
Paul n Sara <email>
Newburyport , MA USA Sun 12/18/2005
Handling power differences
Avoid all the problems with power differences. If you plan on traveling to Europe, when you buy any electronic device you might take along, make sure it is dual voltage (110-240 VAC, 50/60 Hz). Then all you need is a plug adapter.
Otherwise you have to carry along a power converter. That's just one more thing and extra weight to carry.
I have a small (handheld) computer and a digital camera. I tape a US multi-outlet adapter to my plug adapter. That way I can charge both at once, if I want to.
Lee
CO USA Fri 11/25/2005
120 means 120 or LESS. All of Euroland is way more than 120. Don't plug that thing into the wall in Europe unless you like sparks and melted stuff.
USA Tue 11/22/2005
Re: Battery Recharger
Kathy: Voltages in the USA are variously described as 110, 115, or 120VAC (VAC=Volts, Alternating Current). Generaly USA voltages can vary from around 110-125, with 117VAC sometimes listed as 'nominal'. If your recharger says it requires 120VAC then it will NOT work on European systems without a converter. European voltage is usually stated as 240VAC. If you have an appliance that says it works on 120-240VAC (or similar numbers) then it's safe to use it directly without a converter.
Davel
Austin, TX USA Mon 11/21/2005
Battery Recharger
I am still confused about rechargers that state 110/240V - no converter. Does this mean that anything between 110v and 240v will work with just an adapter (no converter needed)?
The back of my battery recharger says: Input: 120VAC, 30mA, 60Hz, Output: 3VDC, 250mA. I think 120VAC means 120V, so does this mean it will work without a converter and just an adapter because 120 is between 110 and 240? I am leaving for Germany Dec 10, and I would love an explanation so I can purchase an adapter and/or a converter too.
thanks
Kathy
Richmond, CA USA Mon 11/21/2005
Plug adapter
Daniel, one hint. Tape the adapter to the plug of the power cord. The pins on European plugs fit tightly into the wall receptacle. If you just pull on the power cord plug, there is a tendency to leave the adapter in the wall.
CO USA Fri 11/18/2005
Traveling with laptop
You put the two pins of the plug adapter into the wall outlet in Europe. Then you plug into the plug adapter whatever it is you plug into the wall over here.
USA Wed 11/16/2005
Travel Computer Insurance?
Traveling to England and South Africa after the first of the year. Am taking my laptop along and am wondering if there is anything such as travel computer insurance and is it worth it. thanks...
Debbie <email>
Rochester, MN USA Wed 11/16/2005
Traveling with laptop for the first time
I'm flying to Paris next week and was thinking about taking my laptop, a Dell Inspiron 6000. I know I need an plug adapater, and the AC can handle the 110/220 switch, but do I need a power cable as well? I would welcome information from people who travel with laptops.
Daniel M. Perez <email>
Miami Beach, FL USA Tue 11/15/2005
update to germany and digital cameras
update: well, we went to the amazon.de (german version) and sure enough they have the cameras we were searching for :)
Christine
Auburn, WA USA Thu 11/10/2005
PDA with WiFi
I recently spent 3 weeks in various cities in Italy with my new HP iPaq (PDA with wifi). I found no use for it except to swap my digital camera card in to view pictures on a bigger screen. Venice, Florence, Rome did not have wi-fi - our B&B in Rome did the last 4 days and I was forced to submit to internet cafes with locked down interfaces. Completely frustrating.
I eventually just gave up trying to access the internet all together. Although, the clothes size conversion program on my PDA made shopping easier. And I could take brief notes, but next time, it stays at home.
sue <email>
seattle, wa USA Tue 11/08/2005
Laptops
I have a 12-inch PowerBook and I am rarely without it. I have a shoulderbag it fits nicely in, and frequently take it with me whenever I'm out, in case I end up with time to kill and want to relax and get some work done at Starbuck's or somewhere similar. So for me, carrying the laptop to the UK this year was no big deal. I carry it with me more often than not here at home.
It was convenient for downloading photos, and for writing captions to the photos while I still had the details fresh.
Patricia
Dallas, TX USA Mon 11/07/2005
Camera pack
We bought a digital camera shortly before leaving on a RS 10-day tour of Italy. (Good thing we did, because my husband's 35mm died in St. Peter's Square.) For safety's sake, I bought a special camera pack from Travel Smith that has a steel cable in the waist strap. This pack has plenty of space for extra memory cards, batteries (if needed), and even credit cards and money, if you so choose. The clasp for the strap is concealed in a heavy-duty velco wrap, so I never had to worry that someone would slash the strap or undo the clasp. It gave me great peace of mind.
Carol
Reston, VA USA Mon 11/07/2005
Laptops v PDA
I've travelled with a laptop (and it was quite small - 12" screen) and it was a pain in the bum.
Yes, I used it to download/store photos, write and update my blog with it but...it was still a pain in the bum both to carry it, worry about it and put it through security each time I travelled (had to pull it out of the bag and put it on a separate conveyer belt).
Bella <email>
Brisbane, QLD Australia Sat 11/05/2005
Cell phone alternative.
I have a Telestial quad band phone and use Italian TIM and French SIM cards in it. On my last trip I discovered many internet cafes have cheap phone booth service as well. 10 or 12 cents per minute to the USA! Much more economical than the cell phone for calling home.
Carol
Walnut Creek, CA USA Fri 11/04/2005
Storing and saving photos
Just returned from 9 weeks in Europe. My wife took LOTS of pictures and I took Video. I took a small Sony WiFi computer and several thumb drives. Each night I transferred the day's photos to the laptop and backed it up on a thumb drive - just in case. I also set up a "MyTrip" website using www.ama.ab.ca (click on Travel, ignore the pulldown menu, on the right side one of the options is "personal travel journal" Click on this and the rest is self-explanatory). I believe there are other gateways to it. I uploaded select photos to it as often as I could, so I always had plenty of fall back positions.
The WiFi was available at several hotels, sometimes free, sometimes not, but always worked great. Internet Cafes were spotty. Contrary to some of the posts, I always found they used Windows, and had a great one in Prague. Some were slow - broadband in Greece seems to mean a different thing from here, especially in Santorini. Some had no USB or were set up with the USB blocked.
We had one strange experience. We were in Salzburg and the laptop would not boot up. Moved on to Prague - no problem, came back to Austria in Vienna and again it would not boot up. On to Venice and no problem, and have not had a problem since, over a month now. Why would Austria cause a problem with the computer? It was not an Internet problem. The computer just would not boot up, either on electric power or battery.
Until technology changes, I would always travel with a small laptop now. It worked great, with the above exception.
Iain <email>
Edmonton, AB Canada Tue 11/01/2005
Recording sounds AND sights
It wasn't until the 2nd week of our 23 day Eur.Grand Tour that I discovered the movie clip mode on my Canon PowerShot G5. Hearing while viewing the scene brings it back like no still can and I'm only carrying one device. The G5 uses a camcorder battery & with a 1GB CF card I never ran out of space or power whiile taking over 3000 shots and clips.
Bill Witowski <email>
Crestwood, IL USA Sun 10/30/2005
cell phones
I found a great accessory that is a must for travelers going to Europe. It is a cellphone booster,a portable battery pack for cell phones that would need a converter or adapter to use in hotels etc. I bought one at Staples for about $4.00 and it came in very handy. It has sixty hours of power and about an hour and a half of phone time. Foun dit completely by accident when I was looking for something else.
Melissa Miller <email>
concord, ca USA Thu 10/27/2005
Computer in Europe
If you are planning on perhaps buying a computer while in Europe, why don't you just buy a laptop here for ease of transport and use? Seems silly to spend more with the exchange rate of US to EU on a computer. All you need is an adaptor. The price of laptops is dropping and the features are expanding.
USA Wed 10/26/2005
Karen As long as your computer is "up to date" and can run on 240 volts - take it with you
Jackie <email>
Perth , Australia Mon 10/24/2005
Buying a Computer in Germany
I plan to relocate to Europe this winter. I am wondering if I should bring my computer with me (it isn't a notebook) or just buy one while I am there. Another alternative will be to have someone ship it to me.
I do websites and graphic design and I will certainly need a computer when I get to Europe. I will appreciate any suggestions.
Karen M. Fletcher <email>
New York City, NY USA Sun 10/23/2005
GPS
On our recent trip to Germany and Austria, we rented a BMW with GPS. Best thing we could have ever done. Even with the road construction and detours, she guided us to our destination ever time. Having driven in Europe before, the GPS took the stress out of driving, saved time going over maps, and opened up the ability to go to small villages and still find our way to our next stop. It was always good to hear the sound of, "you have arrived". A few tips:
1. Make sure that the rental agency shows you how to use the GPS, and that it is programmed for your required language. We met one gentleman that had the GPS, but could not program it to English to fully us it. 2. If there are multiple cities with the same name, pick a city just past your city of destination.
Enjoy the trip!
Jimmy <email>
Atlanta, GA USA Tue 10/18/2005
Picture Storage
Archos MP3 player
Some Archos models have a feature to download data cards this worked like a charm
We would dump the pictures from the card daily to the MP3 player.
Clean off the card and start out again, so we never were out of room.
2 batteries, 2 - 256 cards and this MP3 player had us set 900+ pictures later, and great memories.
D
USA Mon 10/10/2005
re:Driving Europe with GPS Maps and Cell Phone
I too just recently returned from a trip to Europe and used Microsoft Autoroute. I have used Microsoft Streets and Trips in the US for years and hoped the Autoroute software would be as detailed. It proved to be fantastic for not only planning our routes / drive times before arriving but, as stated below great for using while 'in country'. I purchased the software from the US on EBAY. I purchased it from a seller in the UK who shipped it to me here in the States. An added benefit is that I paid 1/3 of the retail price. I highly recommend it for your travel planning and navigating.
Eking34 <email>
Marietta, GA USA Mon 10/10/2005
Mobile Roaming
You could do no worse than browse this BBC recommended website and attempt to save money when ringing from a mobile phone when abroad.
http://europa.eu.int/information_society/activities/roaming/index_en.htm
Gary Radice <email>
Liverpool , UK Thu 10/06/2005
What we learned....
We just got back from a 2 week trip on motorcycles through the Czech Republic, Austria and Germany. Here is what worked for us.
While we took quad band cell phones we never had the need to use them. Not only is this way too expensive (you need separate sim cards and airtime for each country unless you subscribe to global roaming) but the instant ability to talk with anyone at any time was simply not needed. After all we were ON VACATION! Instead we used internet cafes or the hotel computer and were able to send and receive e-mail with everyone daily. Even in the very small town of Telc in the Czech Republic the pension we stayed at had a computer from which we could send e-mail.
The computer keyboards in Europe are slightly different from those found in the USA. Simply look for a small square icon in the lower right hand side of the screen and you can change the format of the keyboard to the one you are used to. If the icon is not shown ask if they have a QWERTY (USA) keyboard on any of their computers. Often they do. Otherwise, the z and y are interchanged and if you need the @ sign just press alt then +6 +4 at the same time.
Before you leave look at your battery chargers, hair dryers, shavers, etc. to see if they will work on 120 or 120/240 volts. Unless you really understand how to use the transformers/adapters simply don't take them if they only work on 120 volts. If they do say 120/240 volts you will still need the little adapter that converts your plug to the one in the country you will be visiting.
For the storage of digital pictures it is best to simply buy a huge memory card. I took a 1 gig card that cost me about $70 and, after taking about 1,100 pictures still had about 400 left! The jump drive idea mentioned below works well (I took one and transfered pictures) but 1) the jump drive still costs $70 2)you might not even use it after you get home 3)you need to find a computer 4)not all computers have USB ports 5) the internet cafe proprietors may not want you transfering pictures (one wanted to do it for me at an extra charge) and 6)it takes awhile to transfer say, 300 pictures (time away from having fun). Get a 512 meg or 1 gig card and take pictures non-stop!
Good luck!
Gael
Charlotte, NC USA Mon 10/03/2005
Rental car Navigation System
We just returned from 2 weeks in Germany; we rented an Audi from EuropCar for our second week.
When making the arrangements online, there was a list of options you might want, and I chose Navigation System. (It didn't change the price.)
Well, the navigation system worked beautifully. We discovered that we could really trust "her" to get us easily from place to place. We only glanced at the maps for our curiosity.
Nan Whelan
Santa Maria, CA USA Mon 10/03/2005
Driving Europe with GPS Maps and Cell Phone
KEEP this a secret!! We will never spend $300 on maps for europe again! Sure, the autostrada/highway maps are fine, but as soon as you pull off into a city or town, the orange blob for Lyon or Rome (for example) is not useful for navigation. You must stop and buy a city map. Multiply this by 2 dozen cities and it gets expensive and cumbersome, not to mention a fire hazard. After months of researching, I found the best bang for the buck GPS mapping program is Microsofts's Autoroute 2005, now version 2006 should be in stores. But you cannot get it in the USA or have it shipped from an online retailer from UK or Europe due to licensing restrictions. It is the same software as Streets and Trips and it works great with a laptop or PDA. We found a B&B in Paris at 11PM using it and route planner (built-in). If you buy it in france it is in French, but that's cool as you learn more of the language that way. If you were in UK you can get an english version. It is cheap ($45-55 euros). We will never buy a paper map again. Absolutely the only way to see all of europe and never be lost! Take you laptop and buy a $100 GPS receiver (USB or now bluetooth). We also use our USA vonage softpone number/software with Boingo wireless account and a Canary WIFI detector to find a hi-speed connection and make and receive calls to the USA free. Use vonage softphone on my PDA as well after some simple programming. Also use Eyebeam videophone on my laptop with vonage software for twoway video and voice communications. Works great. Email me if you can't figure it out. We also found out how to get local SIM cards for use in our quad band (unlocked) cell phones and pay only what the french citizens pay, so we can have easy, inexpensive in-country access). Don't buy the ones available over the internet, they are way too expensive and expire if you dont use them for four months or so. We also use mobal.com SIMs for backup and emergencies, but they use a UK number and are $1.50.minute inbound and outbound. When we get back in November I will tell you how to get free inbound cell calls and pay only about 6 to 7 cents per minute in-france outbound cell calls. Still experimenting with two SIM suppliers who will sell to US citizens in france. Bonjour! Its fun figuring how things work! Glad to share it with you.
m sprouse <email>
winter springs, FL USA Sun 10/02/2005
GPS maps and VOIP in Europe
Go to my comments under graffiti - "Driving Me Crazy" (Oct 1 2005) and find out how to use your laptop as a GPS receiver for carefree travel throughout Europe!
m sprouse <email>
winter springs, FL USA Sun 10/02/2005
Two great tips!
The two things I highly, highly recommend are (and obviously an electric converter and adaptor, because that's a "duh") :
*iPOD-- best thing I brought on this trip. Seriously. When we were on the train, this person was throwing up, and it was so gross, but I had my IPOD so I turned it on and didn't hear anything :) lol, but also, it totally helps to fight the boredom, and bring a sense of "home" with you, when you're feeling overwhelmed or just miss the comforts of home
*Travel hairdryer (very small one) for women. Half of the hotels I went to didn't even have one so I was really glad I brought my little one to help with that. It didn't take up any space at all, and it is also good for drying clothes after you wash them in the sink. Brookstone has a great one, along with great converters too. So does REI.
Megan <email>
Hillsboro, Oregon USA Sat 10/01/2005
Internet Cafes and Hotel Computers
I have a Sony Cybershot camera that saves photos on memory sticks.
Last summer we traveled to Ireland. When my memory sticks were full, I went to a CyberCafe in Dublin and transferred the jpg files to my usb thumb drive. I had to wait 30 minutes for a certain workstation, but it worked well.
I expected to do the same on our recent trip to Germany and Prague. I carried a usb memory stick reader to make the process easy (5 minutes).
There was a free computer for guest use in our Prague hotel and a reasonable one in the Munich hotel, but neither of them used a Windows operating system. The hotel staff knew nothing about their operating systems, so I couldn't do it there.
Finally I found an Internet Cafe in Munich. They had lots of stations but all were non-Windows. Fortunately there was a young employee there who understood what I needed. He knew his way around the operating system (calling up DOS-like screens and typing lots of commands) and copied my photos to my usb drive so that I could re-use my memory sticks. He was a life saver and my husband gave him a 5 euro tip.
Anyway, the computers we came across this year were not Windows and were really not intended for use beyond email and web.
Nancy Whelan
Santa Maria, Ca USA Thu 09/29/2005
Inexpensive cell phone
In Germany, I went to a T-Punkt shop (T-Mobile), and purchased a cell phone ("Handy") for 25 euros, which included a card for 10 euros worth of calls. It could be used all over Europe. Good deal if you're not calling home every night!
Wes Aman <email>
Seattle, WA USA Sun 09/25/2005
Switch before you leave!
Here's a comical one. My wife and I both plugged in appliances with the 120v setting instead of 220v the first day. 120V Hair dryers work great on 220V for a few seconds! Most other stuff just quits working.
We're blaming jet lag. Switch your stuff over before you leave. Stick a piece of electrical tape or something over plugs to remind you to use a power converter if your appliance doesn't have a switch.
Matt
Erie, CO USA Sat 09/24/2005
Shutterbug Haven
We just spent three weeks in Italy and collected almost 8000 high resolution digital photos and mini-movies. That's about 17GB of pictures!!! Or about 26 CD-ROMs. The secret? An Apple 40GB iPOD with a Belkin Digital Link.
I will add some words of caution. Use the link a bunch before you leave. It is sometimes flaky and some iPOD models seem to work better than others. Always double check the photo import screen on the iPOD and make sure the photo count is accurate too. We brought two iPODs and uploaded the same photos to both as a precaution. Glitches corrupted 10 photos on one iPOD. The second iPOD had a major glitch and lost 100 photos. Between the two we were able to restore everything and now have a huge task of sorting and filtering the photos before our next trip! =)
An expensive proposition but if you're a serious shutterbug you can't compete.
Matt <email>
Erie, CO USA Sat 09/24/2005
Noise Cancellation Headphones
I tried the Sennheiser PXC250 headphones. They do cut the noise of the aircraft engines in half and were not too uncomfortable. Not sure if they are worth the price though.
FtWorthGuy2
Ft Worth, Tx USA Wed 09/21/2005
TRAVEL SIZE HAIR DRYER - out of desperation, I picked up a travel size dryer at Boots Pharmacy in Dublin for 10 euro. Now I have it for my 3rd trip! It's a great size (fits in my toiletry kit with room to spare), uses up to 250V (no plug adapter needed) and will work anywhere in Ireland/UK. Great idea if you frequent those areas (as many do) and also good on the Continent with an adapter plug. I found out you can't always count on your budget hotel for a hair dryer.
RECHARGABLE BATTERIES - Don't spend 40 euros on batteries like I did. Check out walkabouttravelgear.com for a dual voltage battery charger. All you need is rechargable batteries and an adapter plug. Also see magellans.com for some more sophisticated items (and prices).
CELL PHONES - I purchased a world phone with the intention of using it overseas and the charger has a built-in adapter. Look for "Input:100-240V~/50-60Hz". I use it at home, it's tiny, and all I need to buy now is a $4.00 adapter plug.
iPOD - if you don't have one, you should get on over to apple.com. If you've got one, you know how I feel. I'm all stocked up on music (free from my own discs), audio books (free from library), addresses, and misc. info for my trip. No cumbersome books, CD's, or players for me! When you buy your iPod, you can purchase a relatively inexpensive and very small charger that reads "Input: AC 100-240V" and "50-60Hz". Again, just attach an adapter for the plug.Hope my research has been of help. walkabouttravelgear.com has good links for explaining the whole electrical pickle. Also, you can email them with you questions about electricity abroad.
USA Thu 09/15/2005
Prepaid SIM Cards
I am spending a year in France (studying abroad) and I have heard cellularabroad.com highly recommended for prepaid SIM cards. However, after some research it seems that Telestial may be a better deal.
I will be living in France, with plans to travel all over Europe throughout the year, but most of my calls will be within France. Is a country-specific SIM card my best bet?
Jamie
San Francisco, CA USA Wed 09/07/2005
CD Burning in Italy and France
Just to add my 2 cents from this summer's trip:
- The cheapest place I saw to have a CD burned was in Siena at the place that Rick recommends for internet use: Internet Train just off Il Campo. 5 euros for a straight copy.
- The Photo Station shop on rue Cler in Paris is full of very nice people. As someone has mentioned it can be difficult to get your photos burned if you have a 1 GB memory card, since photomats use a fancy machine that automates the process. They were confused too, but were very nice about it despite being pretty busy. They spent probably 20 minutes figuring out how to do it and finally gave me my photos on 2 CDs and only charged me the same price for one (10 euros).
- Many people are recommending the USB thumb drives. The prices for them are usually not any cheaper than regular flash memory, unless you use the expensive xD format. A good place to check prices for both USB thumb drives and other flash memory is http://dealram.com.
- I was awfully nervous about the photo CD I had made. Burning errors are not that uncommon. One thing you can do to make sure you don't erase your trip's photos is to ask to check the CD on a computer before you leave the photomat. You don't have to open every file, but if all the thumbnails came out OK you're probably fine. Of course, that doesn't mean that your CD can't get damaged in transit . . .
Mark
Los Angeles, CA USA Mon 09/05/2005
3 weeks...over 2000 pictures to go through!
I just returned from 3 weeks in London, Paris, Stuttgart, Venice, Rome, Nice and Monaco. Since digital pictures are virtually free I took 3 1-gigabyte memory sticks with me and a camera connector to transfer each card to my IPOD photo at night.
The biggest frustration was the amount of time it took to transfer pictures as I was able to get over 500 pictures on each card. The IPOD and camera both had to be completely charged to transfer this many pictures.
Even though I had transferred the pictures to my IPOD I was reluctant to erase the cards in case the IPOD failed, so once all three cards were full I burned them on CD's using a friends computer I was lucky to have access to halfway through my trip.
Be careful if you are using 1 gig cards as these hold more than a CD will so many of the "transfer" stations can't do the transfer. I learned to change cards during the day and not put as many pictures on each as well as to do preliminary deletions on the camera during the day.
My feelings on all of this are: digital is free and since I'm paying thousands of dollars on a trip, I'm not going to skimp on pictures to remember it by, although next time I will take my laptop (it's the really small light type) for transfering as it is still the best option.
Heather
Saline, Michigan USA Sun 08/14/2005
Mike - Tampa
If your rechargers states 110/240 - no converter. Just returned from 45 days and I had to recharge cam corder, digital camera and Portable Hard Drive frequently. All were 110/240 and worked just fine with only the adapter.
JByrum
USA Fri 08/12/2005
Interactive Online Map for Switzerland
Here's a really useful interactive, online, multilingual map for Switzerland (has a topo look to it and even shows larger buildings, if you zoom in):
http://gis.swissinfo.org/
Be sure to check out the 'Themes' tabs that will put icon markers on the map (will even help you locate Wi-Fi hotspots, Post Offices, Train Stations, Hospitals, etc.). Really excellent!
I'm still looking for something similar, for Germany and Austria and UK.
If anyone has similar interactive maps (for any country), please post the URLs.
Alpin Reiser <email>
USA Thu 08/11/2005
WiFi
I'm thinking about trying a wifi PDA in
France - I have found that I can download
maps of Paris, etc from Mapquest and
can email to and from the PDA at WiFi
hotspots here in the U.S. Has anyone had experience with either a Sony Clie or
a Palm T3?
David <email>
Newalla, ok USA Wed 08/10/2005
Media Storage
In Spain, Portugal, and Thailand I found that photo shops would burn digital pictures onto CDs for reasonable prices. It takes them some time to transfer the images, so I would drop of my memory card before lunch and it would be ready afterwards. It's not as convenient as bringing a laptop, but it's not too much trouble and I'd much rather carry around a few CDs than a laptop.
Mike <email>
CA USA Mon 08/08/2005
Mini phone for VoIP
Ed,
Check this out for an ultra small land line. Go to ebay and enter this item number 5794645010
USA Sat 08/06/2005
Geocaching
Has anyone here ever gone geocaching in Italy? What sort of experience was it for you?
tadaa
USA Sat 08/06/2005
Mike from Tampa
I THINK you will be ok with just plug adapters IF the actual device is rated for 220-240 Volts
Jackie
Perth Australia , Australia Sat 08/06/2005
Plugs for iPod and Camera
I am taking an iPod and a Sony Cybershot digital camera to Paris/Amsterdam. I just purchased Steve's EU continental plug. Do I also need a power converter to charge these devices? They both have AC adapters for 110-240 V.
Thanks,
Mike
Mike
Tampa, FL USA Thu 08/04/2005
Wireless Access
Any place that advertises WiFi access will have their own internet provider. When you open your internet browser (like Internet Explorer)it will detect the WiFi signal and you will be accessing the internet through that provider.
Steve
Richmond, Virginia USA Wed 08/03/2005
Wireless Internet?
I am heading to Europe (9 countries) in a few months. Is there anyway that I can use wireless internet over there through one company? I will be bringing my laptop along-so I would like to utilize wireless internet. If anyone has any companies, suggestions,etc for me-that would be great. Thanks for the help.
Megan <email>
Bemidji, MN USA Tue 08/02/2005
Small portable land line
Check out walmart or the dollar stores for a mini phone. they are about 1.5 inch square and come with a small headset. most cheap electronics stores still carry these for around $5 or less. very handy for your needs
Rob <email>
Ma USA Tue 08/02/2005
Portable phone for VoIP
Does anyone know of a SMALL PORTABLE "land line" phone? When I travel I bring my VoIP adapter which allows me to use a traditional telephone to make calls via the internet for FREE. It sure beats paying through the nose for global cell phone calls. The only downside is the desktop phone I currently use is too bulky for travel, and no one seems to have a landline phone that is the same compact size as a cell phone.
Ed
USA Mon 08/01/2005
Catherine -- I bought a hard drive (20 Gig) with slots for all types of digital camera cards -- and the drive, and all the associated cords etc were packed in it's own waist type pack (However this does NOT allow me to view the photos without connecting to a computer)
The other thing you could use is a photo I-pod (60 GIG I think) , with a separate card reader --hope this helps
Jackie
Perth , Australia Sat 07/30/2005
Media storage
hi, i need some advice. i currently have a pentax optio mx4 that take stills and videos and i'm taking it to europe for 10 days. any idea on transfering the stills and videos for storage from my camera. because i don't want to be lugging my laytop with all over when i want to take more videos and stills.
Catherine
Las Vegas, NV USA Fri 07/29/2005
Disposable digital camcorder
We brought two of these with us on our trip to Europe earlier this month. They are for sale at CVS for $29.99 each, and $12.99 for processing. A bit pricey, but the convenience was FANTASTIC! Each one takes about 20 minutes of video. You don't have to worry about adapters, chargers, etc. They are small (fit in the palm of your hand) and easy to use. I was suprised at the good quality of the DVD. Not quite as high as our regular digital camcorder, but perfectly satisfactory. Most of all though, the convenience was great. I am the one who ends up lugging around the camera, camcorder, film, etc. and this tiny camcorder fit in my purse and never needed to be recharged. I will buy these from now on for all trips.
Chris
MA USA Thu 07/28/2005
Cell Phone
I'm studying in London for 4 weeks and a fellow student purchased a Virgin cell phone for £30 with £15 of time free so the phone cost £15. It will also take sim cards for other companies. I think the cost was 20 cents per minute to the US but it was good to have a phone when needed.
Andy Perry <email>
Louisville, KY USA Wed 07/27/2005
Cell Phone
Just got a international cell phone from mobal.com for $49. Works in Europe, but per minute rates are high. Although mobal states on their website the phones are sim locked to their network, they are not. Popped in a friends sim card today and it worked. Had his phone book, called his number from house phone and my phone rang (with his sim card in it). Planning on buying sim's for the countries we visit to cut down on the cost per call.
Roland
Dallas, TX USA Sun 07/24/2005
cell phone vs phone card
Have checked out the site for the mobal cell phone and it sounds good for our one month trip to France. I'm not interested in the testimonials on their website, (would they publish a bad one?) but would like to hear from anyone on this board who have used this phone. Thanks!
myrna michon
chase, BC Canada Sun 07/24/2005
Sleeves, Cases, etc. for your electronics
I recently purchased a laptop sleeve and an Ipod gear case from http://www.sfbags.com/index.htm. I can't say enough about the service and the quality. I was tired of keeping up with the cables, chargers, etc. that go with my Ipod -- and this gear bag is the best I've seen anywhere. The laptop sleeve is rugged but also great-looking, and there were numerous options I could have added had I wanted to. Check 'em out.
Patricia
Dallas, TX USA Wed 07/20/2005
Tech for travelers
If your camera is suppored by iPod, it's a great storage strategy. Plus you get the added value of iPod features.
An extra portable USB slim hard drive is great insurance. It's the laws of backup. Hardware can fail. ;-)
Depending on the internet cafe, they may allow you to plug in a USB device.
Slimline DVD burners are now in the $100 range. Add $50-ish for the USB case.
Burn the images to DVD at the cafe, and mail them home. :-)
Eventually, the 2 lb packable laptop for $500 will appear, specicially for those traveling techno's.
jdk
boston, ma USA Mon 07/18/2005
Digital Camera Memory Card downloads
Don't know if this has been said before, but here goes:
If you have a digitial camera, and have used all the memory on the card, don't go and buy a new one, which will cost a forturne. I took my 250mb card to the FNAC store in Cannes. I was able to transfer/download all of my pictures to a CD for only 4.40 euros. I verified that the pictures were actually on the disc, and then I was able to delete them from my card, and start over. There are FNAC stores all over France, and perhaps Europe.
Joy <email>
Los Angeles, Ca USA Sun 07/17/2005
What I wish I would have brought to Europe.
The one thing I wish I would have brought was a USB TV tuner for my laptop computer to record European TV shows.
I had to laugh when I saw the Intro to Fresh Prince of Bel-Air voice-over in Spanish.
Sorry about the following.. I was shocked to see extremely racist Warner Brother cartoons from the 40s and 50s. (Bug's Bunny and Elmer Fud) In Croatia, I was told they have been aired non-stop for 20-30 years. (They are in English with voice-over or subtitles. These are cartoons I have never seen, but they are so racist against Japanese and Blacks I couldn't believe it what I was seeing.
Then my family where I was staying stunned me when they asked me if niggers in the United States are really as stupid as those depicted in the cartoon? I was speechless. With limited language skills I tried to explain. (I don't think they got it though.)
On my trip back to the US, I wish I would have taped the show so I could show my friends in the Mid-West and South just how racists these cartoons are. As I paid to watch a movie on the plane, I realized Warner Brothers must still be profiting from these racist cartoons.
Robert
San Francisco, CA USA Sun 07/17/2005
How to use US plugs in Europe
I took a computer, cell phone, digital camera, recharable battery charger, iPod and other US plug electronic equipment and used US plugs in Europe and UK.
Almost all power adaptors for electronic equipment is rated for 100-250v 50/60hz. (Just look on the label.) NO transformer or power converters are needed.
Here's how I converted the prongs to work in Europe. Since outlets are few in Europe I purchased a power strip in the US for $2 to give me 7 outlets. To adapt the plug to the 2 prong central Europe and I purchased for $1 a US to 2 prong central European power adaptor, (EBay or Google Search). http://www.walkabouttravelgear.com/elect.htm
Everything worked perfetcly and I saved a ton of money by not having to buy batteries for my digital camera.
Don't try this if your stuff is not rated for 240v (90-250v).
Robert
San Francisco, CA USA Sun 07/17/2005
Free phone calls to US from Europe
I just returned from 8 weeks in Europe and used all of the following all over Europe.
Skype.com - I made free phone calls to family in the US. The sound quality is incredable.
Vonage - For $15 a month I used Vonage and had a US phone number. People in the US could call me just as if I was in the US and had additional features like voice mail.
Cell Phone - Buy an "unlocked" phone off of EBay. When you arrive in Europe buy a prepaid cell phone card. When you return to the US, and unlocked phone will work with any US cell phone carrier.
Robert
San Francisco, CA USA Sun 07/17/2005
All in one adapter
Kensington now sells a new "all-in-one" adapter. This rugged one piece unit will connect to outlets in over 120 different countires! It cost $19.95
check out this link for full specs:
http://www.kensington.com/html/5519.html
Michael schneider <email>
ny USA Fri 07/15/2005
More for Nicole
I've tried the USB jump drives and a portable hard drive. On occasion, either through operator error or device failure, I've lost pictures. Unfortunately, I didn't know this until I got home. I finally got a 20Gb SmartDisk FlashTrax which has a screen, making it possible to view the pictures after transfer. I can now be sure that they got to the device.
Jeff
Lafayette, CA USA Wed 07/13/2005
For Nicole - Portable Harddrive
I bought a portable harddrive device where you insert your camera memory card directly into it and push one button - copy - and the pictures are automatically copied onto the harddrive.
Then you can delete the photos from the memory card. The device can be purchased with a harddrive already installed. I had an extra laptop harddrive, so I just used that. Let me know if you are interested.
Steve
Richmond, VA USA Tue 07/12/2005
Storing Pictures...
As I mentioned in another post, I use my iPod Photo for backups. However, my personal general recommendation (and that of many others I know) is to use USB Jump Drives as backups for your images. They're small, easy to take anywhere with you and getting cheaper by the day. In fact, I just saw that you can get a 2.2GB one from Outpost.com (Fry's online) for $99! You can even use the iPod Shuffles as combination MP3 player and USB hard drive.
Strategy: you can do a backup at virtually any internet cafe where computers have USB ports. Basically, copy your images to the computer (I use a generic USB adapter which takes any camera card including memory sticks). Then copy the images back onto your USB Jump Drive. Some folks around here like to burn CDs for their backups. You might consider doing this on occasion when you want to send a package back home (here you copy the backed up images from your USB drive onto a computer, burn CD of the images, and mail CD home).
FYI, I just returned from a 3 week trip to Europe including Prague and Italy where I took over 500 images and MPEGs (videos) -- the total space used for my digital media was less than 1 GB.
You are correct in that uploading images to a photo web site will be time consumming and probably not something you will want to do until you return home. Generally, hi-speed internet is only that for downloading (the upload speed is typically at a much slower rate).
Depending on how often you plan to visit an internet cafe (computer access), you can probably get by with just one 256MB memory card in your camera. If you think you won't have frequent access, you might want several cards or just one large one (its always nice to have a backup card in case one fails for some reason -- it happens occassionally). Since you're backpacking, you might also consdier getting extra batteries for your camera if you won't have access to power to recharge.
Randy <email>
Seattle, WA USA Mon 07/11/2005
French computer keyboards
In Paris, I was able to convert the French keyboard in cybercafes to a QWERTY format by clicking on an icon in the bottom right of the screen. The icon allowed you to choose Francais or English. If you can type without looking at the keys, this was a huge help.
Marge <email>
Los Angeles, CA USA Mon 07/11/2005
Suggestions for storing pictures during long term travels
I will be going on a three and a half month backpacking trip soon and need some help concerning photos. I have been having problems determining the best way to store pictures with my digital camera. When I went to an electronic store the guy there told em the best thing to do would be to develop them as I go but I was hoping to not have to do that. I was wanting to do something along the lines of what another person posted by using one of those portable hard drive things (?). I was told that wouldn't work and I was also told by another technology person to just buy a 1G memory card and that would take care of everything. I would like to hear feedback from those who have traveled for extended periods though. I will have access to internet cafes but am concerned that downloading pictures, for example, to a photo website will be time consuming and non-efficient. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions? Thank you.
Nicole <email>
Minneapolis, MN USA Mon 07/11/2005
Electrical Adapters
Rick Steves' Travel Store has the best adapters I've found: small, effecient, and CHEAP! I've used them the same one in Rome, Florence, Paris and the British version in London. Highly recommended!
Andy Perry <email>
Louisville, KY USA Sat 07/09/2005
Storing, taking digital pics
I take probably 800 pics per 2 week trip. I have a 256 mb memory card in my camera which will store about 200 pics at medium image size (1600 x 1200) and compression. I also have a 1 gigabyte "jump" drive that I take with me. It cost less that $60 and is the size of a lipstick. It plugs into a computer's USB port and acts just like a 1 gig hard drive when plugged in. My camera has a USB cord so I can also plug it into a computer. I then remove all the pics I have taken from the camera and put them on the jump drive. I do this in an internet cafe or most any hotel. I can usually transfer all 800 pics to the jump drive and still have room for more on the camera's memory card!
Tip: If you are going to make prints of your pics that are NOT larger than 8" x 10" do not set your camera to a image size that is larger than 1600 x 1200. 1024 x 768 is probably ok if you are to print 4" x 6" snapshots. Larger image size means larger computer files and fewer pics you can take before you run out of memory. But the data in these larger files generally doesn't mean better quality when the picture is printed at 8" x 10" or less.
Also, set jpeg compression levels in your camera to "medium" which will allow you to get more pics on your memory card. Jpeg compression is a way for the camera to compress the picture into a tiny file size. The more compression you allow your camera to use the more the picture is degraded. If your camera has an "economy" or "high" compression setting, don't use it, use "medium".
Gael
Charlotte, NC USA Fri 07/08/2005
Electronic Adaptors
Before we left on our trip to europe last month, I went to Best Buy and purchased the cheapest adapter I could find. ($20) When we arrived in Belgium, and went to charge up our camera and camcorder, it didn't work. Later, when we went to Germany, I stopped into an electronics store and purchased one for 3 euros and it worked like a charm. This cheapie worked in Switzerland and Italy as well. I wish I would have known this before the trip.
spey <email>
east moline, il USA Fri 07/08/2005
Adaptors-- don't need to go
I bought an adaptor set at Target 9 years ago, it has all the additional smaller adaptors labeled for every country in the world. this set has worked for me in France, Scotland, Italy, Austria, Germany, no problems. you don't have to spend big $$ for a set. I spent about $15. Don't waste money on a set for $30, you don't need it. The old adaptor works with my brand new digital camera battery charger, my new iPod photo (to recharge the battery) and worked with my hair dryer (when I used to travel with one...no more of that!)
USA Fri 07/08/2005
Electrical Adapters
I used two adapters while in Europe, both purchased from Rick Steves. One adapter worked in Italy and France, no problems and the other worked in Britain. I'm still in London and so far, no problems (except for the tube explosions!!).
John Perry <email>
Louisville, KY USA Thu 07/07/2005
Photo Backups and Adapter
Just got back from a wonderful trip in Central and Eastern Europe, with a few dabbles in the West. Here is what I found.
Stayed in Venice 4 days, and my universal European adapter was all that I needed. Don't know where the previous poster stayed, but everywhere I was had universal European plugs. In fact, the only electronics we brought was a battery charger for charging AA batteries for our camera. Worked great! I highly recommend it!
As far as photo backups. I am a photo freak. If I had it to do over again, I would probably just purchase another memory card to hold all my photos, but memory cards can get damaged too, so I highly recommend making CD copies of all of your pictures.
You don't need to carry your own burner for most destinations. Uploading them to the net is really not feasible. Hundreds of pictures will take hours to upload and 6 days into my trip, we had 400+ pictures. I didn't want to waste the time nor the money to be on the net that long.
Make sure that you bring the USB cord for your camera. We forgot ours, and that made it much more difficult to be "choosy" about with whom we did business. Lots of places have USB connectivity and a CD burner, only a few have memory card readers. We just stuck the cd inside the pocket of our trip binder (a 3 ring binder we brought with all of our reservation confirmations, etc) to keep it safe and unbroken.
The best and most reasonable place I found to make picture CD's is in Venice. If you're in the square facing the church and Doge's palace, walk to the street on the left. Follow it behind the square(it curves around to the right) Just before you cross the second bridge, turn left. You will see an @ symbol, signifying an internet cafe. DON'T go there, their 8EURO CD didn't even work. Keep walking and there is a photo store on your right, with cameras and such and big Kodak signs out front. They can put all your photos on CD for 6 Euro.
Got it home and it works great! No problems.
Nicole <email>
Chicago, IL USA Wed 07/06/2005
European Adapters
When bringing over electrical adapters to Europe, make sure you have the correct one needed for the specific countries you are traveling to. Also, make sure it is wide enough to handle shielded plugs! Not all do.
In general, there are 3 adapters (someone correct me if I'm wrong) to be aware of for Europe.
England Italy Rest of Europe
The reason I bring this up is that I recently made a trip to Praha and Italy (only bringing the common Europe adapter). When I arrived in Italy, I found out about their 3 pronged adapters. After some hunting around Venice, I found an adapter. Unfortunately, this adapter did not handle shielded plugs where one of the two plugs is wider than the other. Fortunately, the guy also had an italy->german adapter which he graciously replaced to do the trick. So I ended up connecting up two adapters just to charge my electronic devices.
As others folks have mentioned, make sure that you check all the power adapters for any electronic devices you plan to bring and plug in. If they do not properly have 110-220 volts, you will need to get a converter. Fortunately, most devices today do this for you (which is one reason that many of these power adapters are so huge).
Randy
Seattle, WA USA Wed 07/06/2005
Photo Backup Strategies
I've read some of the strategies from folks here and wanted to share some my thoughts. I'm not a big fan of the idea of burning CDs. First off, I really don't want to carry around the extra weight and bulk of a burner. Secondly, I know someone who did just this and only kept the CDs in his luggage. Guess what, his luggage containing both the CDs and CD burner were stolen from his locked van in Rome. Also, do you really want to trust the mail system of some other country as your only backup. BTW, if you want to go this route, get a DVD burner instead. Personally, I use my iPod Photo to backup all my images (via the Apple Photo Connector). It is small and I always have it with me (and can listen to music too). If I didn't have my iPod, I do backups to USB Drives or just have a bunch of memory cards/sticks. They are small, cheap and easy to take with you. Another option which I sometimes use is to create 10MB ZIP files and mail them to my email accounts (both Hotmail and Gmail have 10MB attachment limits). This option has some drawbacks (you may need to create quite a few files in sizes of 10MB, upload speeds are often much slower than download speeds even for broadband), but at least the images are safely backed up offsite.
Randy
Seattle, WA USA Wed 07/06/2005
Cingular/Motorola 551 Phone????
Anybody have experience using the Motorola 551 quadband phone in Poland, Czech Republic, Germany? Service through Cingular. Looks like it will work if I call Cingular and activate their international calling plan. Just wondering if anybody has personal experience. Strictly for emergencies, not planning on ruining a perfectly great vacation by keeping my phone with me the whole time!
Arnie <email>
Portland, OR USA Sat 07/02/2005
jonathan
if i bring a loptop over italy will it works with the internet connection?
jonathan <email>
coram, ny USA Sat 07/02/2005
WIFI In Europe
In October my family and I will be traveling to northern Italy, Paris and then on to London. Instead of taking a laptop with me I was planning on taking just an HP iPAQ. My question to fellow travelers is are there enough public locations and hotels in the locations I'm traveling to that I can get away with just relying on my iPAQ and WIFI access or do I need to still lug around the laptop so that I can use stand LAN connections? I've found in previous trips mostly to England that have quick access to the Internet saves me tons in time and money.
Charlie
Fort Collins, CO USA Fri 07/01/2005
Digital memory managment and Internet Cafes
Two weeks traveling from Amsterdam to Vienna and I absolutely swear by my digital memory card to CD burner for photos. Every night I would take the one or two 512MB cards I had used during the day and in the time it took to have a quick shower my pictures were burned to a CD forever. I'd mark the CD with the date and day and where we were. I would then format the cards and was ready for another day. All in all we took over 1800 photos at full resolution which sounds obsessive but my wife and I have been having a ball reliving small moments of the trip we had already forgotten about while sorting the photos on the computer here at home. I watched sadly as others rationed their picture taking so as not to fill up their memory cards before the end of the trip. They were all using a low resolution setting on their cameras to try and get the most pictures on the memory card, great for saving space but lousy for good picture taking. When I offered to burn CD's for them we suddenly had a line forming (and free drinks and dinners for our effort).
Kanguru.com makes the one I used, a Kanguru Slim FC-RW. It supports all the major memory card/sticks/microdrives so you can be a good Samaritan to just about anyone for a 10 cent CD. Check around the web for best price and possible rebates. Get a cheap CD wallet at the dollar store and fill it up before you go with blank CD's.
As far as internet cafes, they are popping up everywhere and are dirt cheap! Some charge a flat rate of 1.5 Euro per hour and you get a slip of paper with your "account number" on it so you can go back again and again untill you use up your time. Some are as cheap as 0.20 Euro for 15 minutes. Everyone we used allowed for us to upload pictures to e-mails for family either by USB connection (make sure you have your camera to computer cable with you) or a CD drive (good thing you have a CD burner with you, right?). Most of these cafes also offer phone booths and for about 0.13 Euro per minute you can call the US. You pay by the minute so you don't have to waste money on a 10 Euro phone card you will never use up. Local information kiosks have the addresses of all these cafes on hand or ask any 15 year old you see on the street (they also speak english better than anyone) and the cafes are almost always right in the center of town.
Last thing, if you are ever in need of something and you don't know where to get it, (CD marking pen in my case) check out the central train stations in the bigger cities. Closest thing to a mall you will find in Europe.
Happy traveling.
Rob <email>
Ma USA Fri 07/01/2005
European plug adapters
Ann, ETBD sells European plug adapters for $3.95. Shipping makes it pretty expensive if that is all you are buying, but if you order anything else it's the time to get one. Last time I looked REI sold them. Best of all, ACE Hardware carries plug adapters (and voltage converters). They are all over so you can save shipping. Every adapter I have seen has an "omega" shaped female socket that will take an American bladed plug if you have a 120-240V device or a European pin plug if you need to get into a recessed outlet.
USA Tue 06/28/2005
Too deep wall socket solution
In response to the problem of too deep wall sockets for use with a plug adaptor, I got around this by finding another plug adaptor at a yard sale for .10, plugging it into the back of the first one and, using the two as one unit, plugging that into the voltage converter and thence into the wall socket. Problem solved.
Lyn
Tucson, AZ USA Mon 06/27/2005
Mini Laptops & Computers
Ok, so after dragging my Apple Powerbook with me on our last two trips to Italy and France, I decided I had to figure out a new solution. The Powerbook is just too weighty, and lugging it around with me (though I need it for work) just wasn't in keeping with my new Rick Steves-inspired "travel light, travel fast" ethic. :) I did a search of my neighborhood CompUSA, but couldn't find anything that was really small enough, so I decided to make a lengthy search through the bowels of the internet. Couldn't find much until I typed "minimalist laptop" on a whim. I then found my new favorite gadget, the Panasonic R4. The thing is a quite small (fits into my old leather organizer), runs Windows XP, and sports a 9 hour battery life. (Yes, 9 hours. I just made it back on a flight from Frankfurt to JFK to Tampa and I didn't have to turn off the laptop. I'm not kidding.) This computer is PERFECT for anyone who prefers "small and efficient" to "hefty and cumbersome." I just got back from a 6 week trip and no one, from gypsies in Firenze to fellow train travellers in Munich, knew what I was carrying. I moved my miniDV footage and the stills from our Canon Powershot into my "leather organizer" at least twice a day, causing quite a few glances. The TSA agents thought it was a portable DVD player. (And, based on a suggestion from the folks at Kemplar.com, I burned several of my favorite DVDs onto the compputer's hard drive before we left, leaving the family and I completely independent of the in-flight movie offerings.) If you're an adherant to the Rick Steves' travel philosophy, you have to take a look at this computer. It is a Japanese import, so you have to get it through an importer (I bought mine at Kemplar.com), but most of the importers convert the thing to English for you so it works like any American-bought computer right out of the box.
Tim Lloyd <email>
Tampa, FL USA Sun 06/26/2005
Phone Cards
Buy phone cards at the post offices. The ones from the convenience stores often do not work or will use up minutes very quickly. Try not to use a pay phone birth, but use a hotel/B & B phone to make calls. The phone booths eat minutes just to make the connection.
Audrey Ellis <email>
Keizer, OR USA Fri 06/24/2005
Voltage Issues
Before buying a power converter, check your gadgets to see if they are dual voltage. If the "input" says 110-240 volts, then you only need the wall plug adaptors. Wall plugs for United Kingdom are different than the rest of Europe - so you would need a set for each.
This past April I was in Europe; I had a Sony digicam, a battery recharger, and a portable harddrive to move pictures from my digital camera, and they were all dual voltage.
Steve <email>
Richmond, VA USA Fri 06/24/2005
Radio Shack Foreign AC Converter
Hello. This is a lesson in "Don't assume..research..read..try out before you go.." Before I left for Germany, I bought a Radio Shack 50-Watt Foreign AC Converter for my battery charger. When I got to Germany, and went to recharge my batteries, I discovered that my regular adapter did not fit--the round prongs on Radio Shack's converter were too short. So I hauled around this converter for 2 weeks for nothing (thankfully, I found Engergizer E2 lithium batteries I could use in my digital camera).
When I got home, and was in Radio Shack, I asked about the converter. They informed me that I had to buy the set of special adapters that go with the converter ("Plug adapters for Foreign AC converters"), which cost an extra 12.99 or so (the adapters for different countries are not sold separately at this time--you have to buy the whole set).
Lessons to be learned: always check your adapter with your converter before you go, always ask questions. Never assume: I had just assumed that since I had an adapter, I didn't need any others.
Anger and frustration make me say that this is Radio Shack's way of making some money (If you buy the converter, you have to buy the adapter [I do think there's some truth to this]). But still, I should have checked.
So, if you buy Radio Shack's Foreign AC Converter for Electroncs Equipment (cat. # 273-1401--about $17.00), be sure to buy the Plug Adapters for Foriegn AC converters (cat. # 275-1405--about $12.99). Better yet, look around and see if somebody else sells a converter that goes with just a regular adapter.
Ann
IN USA Thu 06/23/2005
Forget those Labels!
I just mentioned this on the Packing Light threads, and thought I'd mention it here. Don't carry your electronic equipment in bags that advertise what's in them. Nobody would guess my Rick Steves' Veloce bag has a laptop in it -- it just looks like a shoulderbag. But our friend's expensive camera equipment got stolen when he had set it down at a train station (he had too many bags to hold onto easily). The fact that it advertised its contents with a big NIKON on it couldn't have helped!
USA Tue 06/21/2005
Capturing sounds
Among all the camera ideas I noticed one comment about capturing sound. I much appreciate my digital camera. I greatly enjoy my tousands of old slides from all over the world that are now digital and available at a touch. What do I miss most? Missed sounds. I captured odds and ends of sounds on early cassette tape recorders. I have very few, mostly snatches of radio stations, but those sounds bring back more vivid memories than most of the photos. I don't have them on tape, but some of the city clock chimes in Japan still stick in my head and pop up in incomplete, hauntingly vague snatches. I wish I had recorded them. Characteristic city chimes like that are probably the next most vivid memory jogger to smells. I highly recommend recording. For my next trip I intend to have a good, compact recording device. I've missed too much already.
Ramon
Fairfax, VA USA Sun 06/19/2005
GPS
A GPS is a very worthwhile investment! I happen to live in Germany on the border of the Netherlands and bought a Garmin 1610 since folks are terrible at giving directions, I'm the only driver due to some vision problems that my husband has. So easy to just type in the address and have "Bertha" (yes, we named the thing) tell you to turn right in 140 meters. We just came back from a trip to Carcassonne where it took us to all of Rick's sites and even drove us over the Pyrenees to Andorra. Then we went to Normandy by car and went from location to location easily. GPSs can be programmed to take you on the back roads which just enhances the trip immensely and reprograms the route if you get caught with one of those detour signs!
Joanne <email>
Geilenkirchen, Germany Tue 06/14/2005
Internet Cafes & digital media
It will probably depend not only on the country, but the Internet cafe you use. Ask - and let us all know for future reference, please!
In Thailand, we were able to scan and send photos for a very small fee; but we had problems doing that in some Western European contry - can't recall which one.
FL Tue 06/14/2005
internet cafes
If I have a digital camera, will internet cafes in Europe allow you to use their computers to transfer the pictures to a thumb drive or a high-speed mobile disk as part of the fee for using the computer?
Mark Gould <email>
Hanover, PA USA Mon 06/13/2005
Portable DVD Player
Add on for the tip below...........I also took along my protable DVD player with came in great for days of relaxing in the apt we rented. We had about 4 or 5 DVD's to watch and made it confortable when the TV in the apt would not work. Also it is great in case the flight over (depending on the airline you use)you do not get your own movie screen or are stuck watching some horrible movie. It is not like you can get up and walk out. It is a extra when it comes to packing but if you are not planning on running from one end of Europe to the other and most of us Americans do on our 1 to 2 week holiday then take a DVD player. You will not reget it. Also a deck of cards is good to pass the time and take up on room.
Parker <email>
Newport Beach, Ca USA Mon 06/06/2005
Converters
I just returned from a trip to Europe and I went to Radio Shack and bought a Cconverter plug for about $20. It takes up almost no space and came in handy for my moms breathing machine that she needed do to all the smoking. Had we not had the converter for her machine we would have had to cut our trip short or admit her into the hospital. Neither of which was a good idea.
Parker <email>
Newport Beach, Ca USA Mon 06/06/2005
iPod photo!! Fantastic purchase!
I bought the ipod photo, 30G before our trip to italy. I loaded it with great music for the plane ride over, and for noisey nights in hotels. worked great! I recharged as needed with the adaptor, no converter needed. got home and downloaded all my great vacation photos to the ipod (didn't have the new camera connector yet) Now I can watch my photos on the TV at home. We plan to have friends over for an "Italian night" of antipasta and vacation stories. What a great way to show and store my photos. I can also take my ipod on the road for work and show off my pictures to friends (although the screen is small for this, they can get an idea)My ipod takes up little room in my bag and I have already had hours and hours of enjoyment by using it! Best purchase I made this year for holiday and everyday use!
USA Sun 06/05/2005
cell phone
Keep looking on ebay, i got mine for 5 bucks. Its locked to Vodafone, but I dont care. Just do a search for worldphone, unlocked gms. youll find one!!!
george
pa USA Fri 06/03/2005
cheap cell phone
Try www.mobal.com
USA Thu 06/02/2005
lap top , leave it at home
Skip taking a lap top unless you are staying at a deluxe hotel. In april we stayed in Italy at many of Rick Steves hotel suggestions. While they were excellent for lodging lap top hook ups were not usually avail.or a prob, that meant a search to a internet cafe which is not always avail (closed on holidays etc.)Skip the lap top, save carrying such a heavy item and opt for a temporary email address such as hotmail for correspondence while you are gone or cheap phone cards. It works for me well, after all you are on vacation.
JS
Ca USA Tue 05/24/2005
Ipod Itrip
Download the European frequencies for your Itrip here - http://griffintechnology.com/software/software_itrip.html
Shiny Bob
San Diego, CA USA Sun 05/22/2005
Need an int'l phone card in Spain?
We just got back from a trip to Barcelona and ended up with two phone cards that still have a lot of minutes left on them. If you're headed to Spain and would like to use them, let me know via www.hillfamily.net/contact.html. Free to the first two to contact me.
Justin Hill
Atlanta, GA USA Wed 05/18/2005
International Cell Phone and SIM Card
In 2003, I bought a phone and SIM card package from Telestial for my trip. I spent about $220. Since I was doing 5 countries in 20 days, it didn't make sense to buy separate SIM cards for each country, so I bought one, a brand that's no longer available, that was one phone number and one set of rates worldwide. I bought because I knew I would be traveling back to Europe this year.
This time I was able to replace that SIM Card with one called Hop Mobile. It's a Monaco phone number. $.95 per minute outgoing, but billed at 6 second increments. I think it's $.35 incoming. These rates are also good worldwide. You can get cheaper rates with a one country card, but only while you are in that country.
The initial purchase of the SIM card is something like $50 for only $15 of airtime, but recharges are dollar for dollar, of course. It pays to keep the same card.
Anyway, if you travel regularly, it's probably worthwhile to buy, rather than rent, your tri-band phone. In any case, I am traveling with my 11 year old again, and having a phone on me was fantastic and made the trip much easier, not to mention that I enjoyed staying in reasonable contact with my husband back in the states.
Oh, and he will use our calling card from Global Phone corporation to call me. We use an unlimited long distance service from our local provider that doesn't offer any sort of reasonable international rates. Global Phone takes your info then bills your credit card for only your actual usage in the months you use their service. I've been happy with them and have been using them off and on for 2 years also. There may be some international calling card that's cheaper, but with this I don't have to estimate minutes, buy ahead or waste unused minutes.
Linda
GA USA Fri 05/13/2005
Download your photos in the middle of the woods
Bar none - the best travel companion I've found for a digital camera is a photobank from Transcend. It lets you plug the media card from your camera into it and download the images to a 1.8 inch hard drive (20gb or 40gb) leaving you with an empty memory card to fill up all over again. Best of all, it has a built in rechargable battery and the power plug already has an adapter for Europe built in so you can flip up the american set of prongs or the european set of prongs.
40gb version is $281
Al <email>
Houston, TX USA Tue 05/10/2005
VOIP phone service works, cheap!
I've been working in Italy for the last 12 years and have recently started using my Vonage phone service while there. Because it uses any broadband internet connection, I've been able to call the states very cheaply. All you have to do is purchase your adapter and set up an account at home. I have the $15mo. 500 minute plan. I connect it to the internet connection at work in Italy and it gives me a dial tone on the phone I plug into it. It can use any standard phone and it does not require a computer to function. Its a great way to call home without using expensive cell phones or hotel phones. All you need is the internet connection. There are other providers other than Vonage that are worth checking out. Do a google search for VOIP to find them. I've been happy with Vonage. Good luck, happy travels.
Jess <email>
orange, ca usa Sun 05/08/2005
Cell phone sim cards
Most tri-band phones will work in Europe. If your phone is recent enough, it may be tri-band. Just gete it unlocked at home (most cell-phone repair shops will do it for a nominal fee, between $5-$50) or get it unlocked in Europe. Many shops will be happy to do it for a few dollars.
Depending on the country you're going to, you may be able to buy a SIM card kit. Most will cost around $30 and will probably be sold in convenience stores. However, cell phone shops are ubiquitous in Europe, so ask around.
I have used these kits in Sweden, Turkey and Romania, all with success, however, you may need to go with a local resident to have it registered under their name (such as in Turkey).
While these 'Pay as you go' type cards are more expensive to talk with, they can receive incoming calls and can send SMS messages.
Karla <email>
Timisoara, Romania Sun 05/08/2005
Cell Phone Rentals
I've done some checking about renting a cell phone for a trip to Europe. I finally decided to go with a company that rents you the phone and either an all Europe or country specific chip. The rates are much more reasonable then upgrading my usual cell. Check out www.CellularAbroad.com
Daneal <email>
Tucson, AZ USA Sat 05/07/2005
mobile phone rentals in UK
My 15-year old son & I are traveling to the UK this summer for two weeks. Given the difference in our ages/interest levels, renting two mobile phones seems like a reasonable plan to allow us to remain in contact with each other while we're off exploring our particular interests, most especially in London. I'd like to hear about success stories with mobile phone rentals. I can imagine the horror stories. . . Thanks!
Cathy <email>
Gainesville, FL USA Thu 05/05/2005
Burning memory to CD the easy way
I now safeguard all my digital pictures each day with one of the battery operated portable Flash Card Burners that lets you plug in your digital camera media (up to seven different types) directly with no computer necessary and burn each day?s pictures in seconds. Having had memory cards go dumb and loosing irreplaceable pictures bringing this along became a no brainer. It fits easily in the bottom of my camera bag and the 12V charger operates from 110V/220V. Best of all I can keep my camera set on the highest resolution for best picture results and never worry about running out of memory. Now I don?t have to waste time or money looking for a photo shop to burn my cards.
Rob <email>
USA Thu 05/05/2005
re: Ipod and Itrip
I use my iTrip all the time in the car and it works VERY well. I assume that if the radio (FM) frequencies are the same in Europe it would work there as well. The only problem is that on very long trips (over 6 hours) the iPod will run out of battery charge, as it is not plugged in. I think you can get something that will plug into the cigarette lighter and charge it while you drive, though.
Adrian <email>
New York, NY USA Wed 05/04/2005
Converters and Camcorders
I have been to England twice, France and Italy once each. I have shot hours of video each time and have charged my camera each night. I first purchased a simple, multicountry converter from Radio Shack for $25. Worked fine but went out on the third trip to Paris and found one in an electronics store for $15 euros. Never a problem. Don't worry, anything you can find over here you can find over there for about the same price if you shop with the locals.
Mark Krieger <email>
Lincoln, NE USA Tue 05/03/2005
Burning pictures to CD
In Florence there is a camera store next to the Duomo (right side), that, among other sevices, will transfer your pictures from your digital camera's memory card to CD for about 9 Euros per CD in about an hour.Details: The store is: Music Center Firenze, Piazza Duomo Tel. 055 292 273. Fax 055 281 317. e-mail: musiccenterfi@supereva.it
sonia <email>
NJ USA Tue 05/03/2005
Ipod
I have been debating about the Ipod phot, Ipod and Iriver....for music, text files and photos....after alot of thought and research pesonally I am not too thrilled with the Ipod or Ipod photo...why...overpriced, hype....
for the extra money they are asking to get an IPod photo you can get a 1 or 2 gig card for your camera.then Ipod wants you to buy this and that attachement to do anything....in a word Ipod is overrated...
get an Iriver mp3 player for music...there is a nice 5gig and 20 gig comming out...(voice recorder included you don't have to buy an attachement like you do with Ipod, removable battery which Ipod does not have you have to buy all the attachements to charge it using an outlet, Iriver comes with an adapter, and you can view pictures on the H10 but just not download them from your camera)but don't waste the money on an ipod and all the attachements. Invest the money in a card for the camera.
USA Mon 05/02/2005
Cell phone rental
After communication problems spoiled several days on our previous trip together, my wife and I swore we would never go to Europe again without cell phones. Having now rented cell phones for a trip, I'm not so sure. They were great for coordinating rendezvous when one of us went to a museum and the other did the laundry, and for booking hotel rooms from the train. But if anyone but thieves are in the cell phone rental business, we have not found them.
After a lot of research, we chose to rent phones from Hirefone (through Avis). Big mistake. Their pricing structure, as told to us verbally, is complex, and they refused to send us a written price list. They said a written price list would come packaged with the phones, but none did. My wife and I were extremely conservative in calling only when necessary and keeping each call as short as possible. Nonetheless, our 11 days' use of the two phones cost us almost $900. The initial bill was $750, followed by more charges month after month. Whereas prices had been quoted to us in terms of dollars per minute, the bill came in terms of meaningless "units" per phone call. We were charged for a full minute even if the call lasted 19 seconds -- or even if the call did not go through. Anytime we called each other, we got charged for both incoming and outgoing calls. Only after months of wrangling did we get Hirefone to reverse charges for calls we had not made and to stop hitting us with new charges.
John Boykin <email>
Belmont, California USA Sun 05/01/2005
IPOD and photos
I checked Apple.com and they indicate their photo adapter only works with IPOD photo. I used the Belkin on my trip to Europe last year with the older model IPOD and it worked fine. At the time the Mini could not take photos. Maybe the new generation is better?
Carol <email>
Atlanta, GA USA Thu 04/28/2005
ipod camera connector
Hey all, The IPod camera connector is avaliable on line @ apple.com and I belive it works with the Ipod as with the IPod Photo. I just recive mine last week quite a slick little package what a convience this is going to make this summer. Be sure to check and make sure your camera is compatable the connector before purchase you can check this on the apple ipod web site.
Matthew <email>
Westland, Mi USA Mon 04/25/2005
Mini Ipod
I don't think you can transfer photos onto the mini Ipod. I believe this is only possible on the new full size Ipod/photo either 40 or 60g. (It has a color screen). If you have the photo ipod, then you need to get to your local Apple store to purchase the product that will read your memory card and transfer the photos. I've heard there will be a direct cord that will work from your digital camera to the ipod photo, but that product is not available yet. Please check www.Apple.com for more info on the model of ipod you own. I think you may not understand what it is limited to do....it will hold music and books and some data only, not photos.
USA Wed 04/20/2005
IPods
I was sweating whether I needed a converter and an adaptor for my IPod which is going with me to Europe. Called my dealer and he sent me package of adaptors which looked very odd and I couldn't figure out how to attach the charger. Took the stuff to the dealer and he pulled the corner of the charger and it has these two little horn numbers which attached to the adaptors. Seems as if the Apple adaptors also function as a converter which meant I could leave the big heavy dual voltage convertor home. Also the Apple international adaptors are very lightweight.
Daneal <email>
Tucson, AZ USA Sun 04/17/2005
Chargers for Batteries
I'm going to Germany/Austria/Switerland in June. These are a few Tech. Tips I'm going to try: 1. Seven STar Nickel-Cadmium/Nickel-Metal-Hydride Battery Charger. This was mentioned on this website about a month ago by someone else. It is a dual-voltage battery charger (110 U.S./220 Europe), and it takes rechargable AA,AAA, and 9 volt. I can use it here in U.S., and with the proper adapter, can plug it in in Europe. Be sure to read the box. Don't use batteries with more than 1600mAh (AA). The Charger can be found at: http://www.walkabouttravelgear.com and it cost me about $15.00. Note also that this is not a "Quick" 20 min. charger. It is more like an overnight charger.
Ann <email>
IN USA Fri 04/15/2005
Chargers (take 2)
To add a few things to my "Chargers" entry: It was Melissa (3/15/05) who mentioned the charger from walk about Travel Gear (Thanks!!). Both chargers cost about $15.00 each. Also, for the dual charger--be sure you don't use batteries that are more than 1600mAh. Also--note that this is not a "quick" charger--more like an overnight charger.
Ann
IN USA Thu 04/14/2005
Chargers
I'm going to Germany/Austria/Switerland in June. These are a few Tech. Tips I'm going to try:1. Seven STar Nickel-Cadmium/Nickel-Metal-Hydride Battery Charger. This was mentioned on this website about a month ago by someone else. It is a dual-voltage battery charger (110 U.S./220 Europe), and it takes rechargable AA,AAA, and 9 volt. I can use it here in U.S., and with the proper adapter, can plug it in in Europe.2. Belkin Emergency Charger for the Dell Axim X30 PDA. I can plug this into my PDA, and in about an hour, have it charged. It runs off an Alkaline 9 volt battery. This way, I don't have to worry about cords and more adapters and chargers (I just make sure my PDA's battery is not more than half way down--takes about an hour to recharge like this).--The Charger can be found at:http://www.walkabouttravelgear.com--The PDA charger can be found at:http://www.dell.comHope this is helpful to anyone.
Ann <email>
IN USA Thu 04/14/2005
Info about adapter/converters for travel
Just found this helpful link on the Eagle Creek website. It helps you determine what you need for the country you are going to visit. It will then recommend their product that will work, but you can take the info to any store and purchase what you need. it has info about dual voltage items...like the new battery chargers for digital cameras, hair dryers..etc. Check it out! Hope this will help to answer all the questions that get asked over and over again! http://www.eaglecreek.com/user_guide.html
Ellen
USA Wed 04/13/2005
Int. tourister Set
I think what they mean is not to run these appliances straight through the adapter.Look at the charger for your camera and i-pod and look to see what the INPUT rating is. If it says something like 110-120-210-240 volts, then you can plug these straight into the wall plug by using the appropriate wall plug adapter, without using the power converter. The power converter merely adjusts the voltage coming out of the wall down to 110 volts.
Steve
Richmond, VA USA Wed 04/13/2005
international adapter set question
I bought an American Tourister international adapter set to use to charge my Ipod & digital camera on our trip to Holland & Belgium next week. When it arrived yesterday I noticed that it says "WARNING: do not use with power tools or electonic circuitry (i.e. computers, fax machines, TVs, VCRs, stereos, battery rechargers, etc.)Will it be on to use with my camera battery charger & to charge the Ipod, or do I need something else?I would hate to lose my entire music collection on my Ipod or fry my camera battery & not be able to take photos!Thanks for your help in advance!
Tristan <email>
Portland, ME USA Tue 04/12/2005
iPod charging
Re: the iPod, I had the same question so I went to the Apple.com site and, indeed, the iPod adapter accepts voltage from 110-240 and AC current from 50-60 Hz, which I think should cover most of western europe.
Chris <email>
Minneapolis, mn USA Thu 03/31/2005
Text Message Preserves Pre-paid Cellphone Balance
Incoming calls to a cell phone using a 'local'SIM card may be FREE. Many of the SIM cards from the vendor www.Teletial.com described elsewhere in 'Mobile Phones in Europe - Pay Before You Go' offer this feature. See http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/tips/phone.htm and http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/tips/cell-phone-europe.htm for much more detail.
Send a text message which costs $0.25 or less to your contact(s) in the US asking them to call you back at the much morereasonable rate for a US originated call. Your pre-paid cell phone account isn't depleted and you control when you talk, i.e. you are in your room for awhile and not on a busy street or in a quiet museum.
Charlie G. <email>
Bellevue, WA USA Wed 03/30/2005
Ipod in France
Your adapter is sufficiant. You can ask at your local Apple store if they recommend anything different. I'm sure the AC plugs included with the iPod photo is 110/220 50/60. Have a great time in France! I'm jealous!
USA Tue 03/29/2005
ipod charging
I'll be traveling with my ipod and belkin to transfer photos and was wondering how you kept your ipod charged up. I'll be in France for three months studying and I already have a regular variety outlet adapter that I could utilize, but what's best?
Susan <email>
College Station, TX USA Tue 03/29/2005
IPod Photo
I hear there is a new cord that will connect directly from your iPod photo to your digital camera that will be available some time soon. Should be less expensive than the Belkin reader. If you are in no rush, I'd wait until annoucements from Apple come out middle of April....would be less bulky to travel with and less expensive to purchase.
USA Sat 03/26/2005
iPod+Belkin Media adapter = Tons of space for Photos
For all those people taking their iPods on their travels you may want to purchase Belkin's iPod Media Reader. It will upload pictures from any digital camera and store them in a seperate directory on your iPod. You can find it at www.apple.com.
Mike <email>
Seattle, WA USA Sat 03/26/2005
CD vulnerability
CD's are not affected by electromagnetic radiation from airport X-ray or security screening devices.
Norm <email>
Ottawa, Canada Fri 03/18/2005
Capturing the Sounds Europe
I will actually be traveling to Europe for my first time this coming May [it's going to be me, my girlfriend and Rick!...thanks Rick!!]. I don't have a boatload of money, and will need most of it for entertainment/meals [as we are staying with friends there]. I of course would like to bring something back from London...so I had an idea I thought I would share.
I am an audio nut by nature, it is my true passion. I have a portable MiniDisc recorder [it fits into the smallest pockets with ease & comfort] with a mic jack on it. The MD Recorder came with a very sensitive and accurate stereo condenser mic, with a handy lapel clip. I decided that at various moments of my journey I would simply stop, attach the mic to my chest...hit record and capture the sounds of europe [London & Prague in this case]. Now I will have the sounds of The Tube, Camden Market, and any other place I feel the spirit hit me, digitally recorded, in a full stereo image [imagine the sound of the tube passing by you from left to right!] and at my disposal to listen to when I am back home and want to re-live my trip. Depending on the quality desired, each MiniDisc can hold up to literally hours of data [sound]. I would suggest checking the with locals if you plan on recording a conversation, or a voice. I am guessing that recording in public is much like videotaping in public, which is fine...but it's always polite to ask.
On a side note...MiniDisc players nowadays can hold MP3's as well, yet another life saver for long flights, or just going out for a walk with your favorite music at hand...What better way to bring comfort to your troubled mind when you are feeling a bit homesick?? Wish me luck!!
Craig M. <email>
Baltimore, MD USA Fri 03/18/2005
TRAVEL SIZE HAIR DRYER - out of desperation, I picked up a travel size dryer at Boots Pharmacy in Dublin for 10 euro. Now I have it for my 3rd trip! It's a great size (fits in my toiletry kit with room to spare), uses up to 250V (no plug adapter needed) and will work anywhere in Ireland/UK. Great idea if you frequent those areas (as many do) and also good on the Continent with an adapter plug. I found out you can't always count on your budget hotel for a hair dryer.
RECHARGABLE BATTERIES - Don't spend 40 euros on batteries like I did. Check out walkabouttravelgear.com for a dual voltage battery charger. All you need is rechargable batteries and an adapter plug. Also see magellans.com for some more sophisticated items (and prices).
CELL PHONES - I purchased a world phone with the intention of using it overseas and the charger has a built-in adapter. Look for "Input:100-240V~/50-60Hz". I use it at home, it's tiny, and all I need to buy now is a $4.00 adapter plug.
iPOD - if you don't have one, you should get on over to apple.com. If you've got one, you know how I feel. I'm all stocked up on music (free from my own discs), audio books (free from library), addresses, and misc. info for my trip. No cumbersome books, CD's, or players for me! When you buy your iPod, you can purchase a relatively inexpensive and very small charger that reads "Input: AC 100-240V" and "50-60Hz". Again, just attach an adapter for the plug.Hope my research has been of help. walkabouttravelgear.com has good links for explaining the whole electrical pickle. Also, you can email them with you questions about electricity abroad.
Melissa <email>
Troy, MI USA Wed 03/16/2005
Cell phone rentals
When we went to Greece last year we bought a GSM phone with around 20 euro in airtime for just under 100 euros. It's always easy to find an electronics store if you ask a twenty-something guy, or a cab driver. It's a good idea if you will be in Europe for a long time, or if you plan to go back. When we go next time, we can just buy the SIM card with prepaid airtime for whatever country is our base. One advantage is that you can receive calls for free, and also that you pay the local rate for calls within the country. Another plus is that it comes with European plugs for the charger. Note that you might be able to use your US cell phone if it's unlocked and GSM. But your charger wouldn't work, so you face the adapter/converter issue.
Kathy
Seattle, WA USA Tue 03/15/2005
Cell phone rentals
It's expensive. The rental itself doesn't sound bad, but the air time charges will get you. It's much cheaper to just buy a phone card in the country you are traveling to call home. Unless you are in the position of needing to be able to have family at home reach you at anytime...I'd go without the cell phone. Save the money for your trip. Use the cyber cafes to contact and "talk" to family at home.
USA Tue 03/15/2005
Adapter vs converters
A converter actually changes the voltage from the wall socket to another voltage. So, if you are in Europe where the voltage is 220 and you have a device that only operates on 110 volts, you need a converter to step the 220 volts down to 110. However, if your device will operate on either 110 volts or 220 volts (it will say so in the specifications - usually printed right on it - look for "Input"), all you need is a wall plug adapter because European wall plugs are different. If you are going to Great Britain, you need one specifically for that country, as their wall socket is different than the rest of Europe.
Steve
Richmond, VA USA Mon 03/14/2005
Laptop power in Europe
You may not need anything except a plug adapter to fit the Eurpoean wall socket. Read the small print on your laptop's AC adapter. If it says "110-220 volts, 50-60 cycles (Hertz, or Hz)" it will work without a voltage converter.If not, go to a electronics shop like "Radio Shack" Show them your AC adapter and tell them its for your laptop. They will sell you the right converter. Be careful at the big comsumer electronics retailers as their sales clerks are not usually trained well enough.Everyone should carefully check the ad adapters for all your electronic gear. Last two timies I went to Europe I needlessly took a converter when all my AC adapters worked on 110 or 220 withoug the need for a converter.WARNING!!!! NEVER USE THE CONVERTER FOR YOUR LAPTOP FOR YOUR HAIR DRYER OR VIS-A-VERSA. SMOKE AND FLAME MAY RESULT.
Jeff Wilson <email>
Placerville, CA USA Sat 03/12/2005
transfering Photos to cds in Florence
There used to be a internet access shop on one of the narrow streets behind the Duomo. Facing the front doors, it was on the right hand side and behind the Duomo. About a block or so from the Duomo. Several years ago, I had my photos transfered from compact flash cards to a CD-R for about 3 Euro. one of the cards had a problem that the attendant was able to fix. he spent about an hour downloading drivers and reformatting my card. I had to force him to take a tip!
Jeff Wilson <email>
Placerville, CA USA Wed 03/09/2005
Converters
I have used conventional converters to power digital camera batteries... with no problems at all. Most of the small converters will work well for most uses. Personally, I see no need for the kind of converter that powers a high-wattage device (like a hair-dryer or an iron) simply because I can't envision dragging those with me. If one MUST have a hair-dryer, get one that has a simple switch to go to 240 volts.
Mark
Portland, OR USA Wed 03/09/2005
Battery Chargers
I have a RayVac 15 minute charger that operates at 120v to 240 so I will only need an adapter rather than a converter as well. If you don't convert from 120 to 240 volts, everything will be damaged!
Darcy
Lewiston, ID USA Wed 03/09/2005
Voltage Converters
I am a novice myself. The information I obtained definitely advised me to get a voltage converter for charging my camcorder batteries in Europe. Check Magellans.com under their "Phone & Electric Connectivity" section. You will note there are 3 Voltage Converters - 1st is for motorized electronic appliances, camcorder rechargers, radios and other non-heating appliances. 2nd is for heating appliances and 3rd is a Auto Combination Voltage Converter for both heating and non-heating appliances. Hopes this helps.
JB <email>
Antioch, CA USA Mon 03/07/2005
wifi in the UK
Lots of sites available. Check out (http://cnet.jiwire.com/hot-spot-directory-browse-by-state.htm?country_id=226) and (http://www.ezgoal.com/hotspots/wireless/s.asp?qu=United+Kingdom). The C-Net site is easier to use.
Norm <email>
Ottawa, Canada Sat 03/05/2005
CD-R price US
A 100 spindle of CD- R 48X at Best Buy will cost $40.00 plus tax. Not expensive here.
JB <email>
Antioch, CA USA Tue 03/01/2005
Burning Photos onto CD
Burning a CD (including a CD) costs between 5 and 7 euros in Italy. Am not sure what the price for the CD itself is, but I doubt that its much.
sowmi
chicago, IL USA Mon 02/28/2005
Pics to CD
I plan to take my own CD's rather than take the chance that the CD's at the camera shop or internet cafe's are defective. Best Buy or a camera shop could avise you the best to get. Be sure all the pics were actually downloaded before leaving the camera shop or internet cafe.
JB <email>
Antioch, CA USA Sun 02/27/2005
Burning Photo's onto CD
Are there locations in Florence Italy to transfer digital pictures from either digital cameras or directly from CompactFlash or SC cards. We are traveling with a variety of cameras and media and would like to off load pictures if possible. Also should I take my own CD's or can they generally be purchased inexpensively at the location doing the transfer
Karl <email>
Valley Forge, PA USA Sat 02/26/2005
Burning pictures to CD
JB, you wrote about burning pictures onto cds. I guess you can get this done at cybercafes, but can you bring your own cds or do they make you buy the cds from them? If they do how much is it?
Kristin <email>
Mechanicsville, VA USA Fri 02/25/2005
Download Pics to CD
I have a 1 gig card for my Digital camera and plan to have the pics burned on 2 CD's - one to send home and one to keep safe with me. I plan to do this once a week or at least once every two weeks. Once the CD has arrived at home - erase those pics and reuse the card. Better safe than sorry.
JB <email>
Anitoch, CA USA Thu 02/24/2005
digital camera on vacation
I think a 1Gig card sound be enough memory for your trip to No. Africa & Europe. In a typical camera you should get about 600-800 pictures (depending on size) out of it.
Allie
Los Angeles, CA USA Thu 02/24/2005
Digital camera memory
I just purchased a digital camera to take on my six month trip to North Africa and Europe. Will there be internet cafes that allow you to download pics on to a computer? I can't imagine trying to buy enough memory cards for that long of a trip.
Erin
Castle Rock, CO USA Mon 02/21/2005
Wi-fi in Germany
Here are a couple of sites that give some listings. Since most of these are tip-driven, it's difficult to keep up with all the sites that are springing up everywhere these days. If you're concerned about making a connection, it's probably easier just to go to the local internet cafe. I'm taking along my wireless PDA this spring to make an attempts at wireless connections, but more as an experiment than anything else. (http://wififreespot.com/) (http://reviews.cnet.com/Hotspot_zone/4520-6659_7-726628-1.html)(http://www.ezgoal.com/hotspots/wireless/)
Norm <email>
Ottawa, Canada Sun 02/20/2005
Wi-fi in Germany
Has wi-fi internet access caught on anywhere in Europe, particularly Germany, like it has in the US? Are there many places that offer free or cheap wi-fi access?
Stefan
Denver, CO USA Sat 02/19/2005
Love my MP3 player
I agree. I love my MP3 player - it's an "iRock" with 128MB and uses a double AA battery. I get 30 hours out of it! The benefit of it over an iPod, is that I don't have to "charge" it overnight, I just pop a battery in it. It's flash memory so I can drop it (hey, it happens). AND It's REALLY tiny!!! Oh, and it only cost $70!
Creative also makes some great new models that are called "Muvo" - they come in cool iPod-ish colors like white and blue and pink. They have the Muvo on sale for $89 right now with 256MB - and it uses AAA battery.
Allie
Los Angeles, CA USA Thu 02/17/2005
MP3 players
[Correction to my previous one... that's Noise CanCelling headphones. ;-) ]For an MP3 player, I am very partial to the "flash media" form... which uses a memory card and has no moving parts. Of course, this means that you won't have as much memory like a hard-drive-based unit (such as an iPod). There are MP3 flash memory-based players that now have up to a gigabyte (where-as the hard-drive systems have 5-30gb!). The main advantages to a flash-media MP3 player is that it's VERY small; very durable (since they don't "crash" or easily break); and can run on a non-proprietary battery like a AA one for up to 20 hours (vs. 10 hours or less on a proprietary battery - some must be replaced by the manufacturer). I have an iRiver (the brand) but there are many other makes out there (such as by Creative or Rio and others). iRiver has many models for around $200 for the higher memory family. Also, I like to copy my CDs into a Windows Media format at 64kb (and not the standard 128 MP3 format); this will double the available space and I can't tell the difference. My iRiver with 512mb memory holds about 17 hours of music! There is a small menu window (much smaller and probably less friendly than an iPod).
Mark <email>
Portland, OR USA Fri 02/11/2005
PDA, MP3 Players, ETC
I am traveling to Europe for 3 weeks this summer, and I would like to know who has any ideas about PDAs or MP3 players. I would like to have most of my music files with me (and they're a lot), and I'd also like to have train schedules, maps, and other files with information with me, as well as store my digital photos. If possible, I'll also like to send e-mails home.Is this at all possible? Is it possible with one device? alone?
Maxwell <email>
Waterford Lakes, FL USA Thu 02/10/2005
MP# player and Noise-canelling Headphones
For the boring parts of travel, I'm very partial to a small MP3 player (I have a tiny iRiver that uses a single AA battery that lasts about 20 hours and I can store about 17 hours of music), and my BOSE Quiet Comfort noise-canelling headphones (which are terrific for flying - with our without music).
Mark <email>
Portland, OR USA Thu 02/10/2005
Technology Tips
Planning to travel by auto largely for three weeks, carried two travel ons - an overnight bag and my computer backpack with the gps unit. Having Autoroute 2004 with the gps saved so much consternation! Always know where you were and how to get where you were going - downtown Dijon, Bordeaux, Paris, Strasbourg, Bastogne, Flavigny -was worth the weight! The Magellan also had the maps for walking with the handheld - remember to mark your spot when parking!!
Bob Stutts <email>
San Antonio, Tx USA Mon 02/07/2005
Voltage Converters
If you need to recharge the battery of an electronic device such as a camcorder or digital camera etc. (anything typically operating under 50 Watts), you'll need a special voltage converter that is more sensitive/precise than the standard voltage converter which is designed for hairdryers (1000+ Watts) and the like. I ruined my camcorder charger is just a few seconds by using a standard 220V to 120V voltage converter - I should have had the special type that was designed for low wattage electronics specifically. An electronics store should have this. Radio Shack's website is pretty good at explaining the whole deal:http://support.radioshack.com/support_tutorials/batteries/pwrgde-5.htm
Ron Thomski <email>
New York, NY USA Fri 02/04/2005