Traveling abroad with a laptop

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 36
    Quote:

    Originally posted by kenaustus

    I don't have a choice as I travel overseas on business and have a PB just for travel.



    The first thing I advise is to get travel insurance for it - if someone nicks it then you can get reimbursed. The deductible will probably be less than the cost of an old iBook. the important thing is to carry it in something that does NOT look like a laptop bag. The cheaper it looks the better.



    iSight is fantastic. I have had an iSight chat with my wife from a hotel room in Korea and the 3 years old granddaughter kept sticking her face in the screen to say Hi! It's fantastic. (You can also make "iSight Movies" - not world class, but your parents won't care.)



    Cameras? I just received a new Canon SD600. 6 Mpxs, about the size of a pack of cigs and a 2.5" LCD. You'll need the MPB with the large drive for the huge pic files - and the iSight movies.



    (Widgets? Sunlit Earth is nice to have, Locker for security of data, World Clock - one for home and one for wherever you are. Actually going through the widgets you "might" use will consume a day of planning.)



    Have a great trip!




    Thanks, I'm definitely looking foreward to it!



    Did you have any companies that offer travel insurance which you would reccomend?



    As for the bag that I'd carry it in, probably just a standard black backpack, nothing fancy, just small, and convenient to carry like tacojohn suggested.
  • Reply 22 of 36
    xoolxool Posts: 2,460member
    All the times I've travelled through Europe I've done so with one my PowerBooks at my side. I'd keep it in a sleevecase inside my backpack. The backpack itself would be locked and usually be on my back. When I would travel throughout the day, I'd place the laptop in the hotel's in-room safe if available, otherwise I'd lock it in my suitcase which I'd lock to the other bags and the closet pole using a giant bicycle lock. I never ran in to problems and I doubt anyone ever broke in to my room trying to steal my goods, but if they tried they'd have to break through several levels of protection.



    As far as voltage goes, all my gadgets are dual voltage. Camera, video camera, PowerBook (& thus iPod), shavers, travel iPod speakers, cell phone charger, etc. All I needed was the plug adapter which was very cheap and I picked up a few so I could use multiple gadgets at once.



    Bringing the laptop was great, especially for longer trips, since I could email family and offload pictures from my camera. I'm sure on my next trip I'll be even more active and post pictures online while traveling. If only the smaller hotels out in the boondocks had high speed internet. Which isn't too much to ask, as I know random farmhouses in Sweden have DSL.



    I brought a kensington lock with me but I don't think I ever actually used it. Next time I think I'll leave it at home. But YMMV and depending on how paranoid you want to be and if you want to leave it out, its not necessarily a bad investment.



    Enjoy the trip!
  • Reply 23 of 36
    Where I am, comprehensive Insurance for an iBook is only about £35.00 a year. That seems pretty good value for a £640 piece of kit, I'm sure it can't be that much more for a MacBook Pro.



    That combined with backing up all your stuff always gives you something to fall back on.



    Andrew
  • Reply 24 of 36
    progmacprogmac Posts: 1,850member
    Get good insurance, a lock, and take a small portable hard drive and back all your memories, pictures, and documents up daily. Then if it gets jacked, you'll be covered, plus you'll have your backup of important stuff, which you can keep in a separate location.



    It's not the end of the world if you can't take it though. There are internet cafes readily available throughout every city in Europe, and you should be able to transfer digital images to a CD or wherever at such a cafe.
  • Reply 25 of 36
    Dude, would you carry your MBP around your home town/Colledge Campus/state?



    Europe is not full of criminals, just make sure you have travel insurance and don't leave your bag unattended. It's the same kind of common sense you use when taking a laptop around at home.



    Just remember, don't buy the international plug pack for your MBP charger off the Apple website. It's a rip off.



    Quote:

    Originally posted by progmac

    take a small portable hard drive and back all your memories, pictures, and documents up daily.



    If you have Inet access for most of the trip, .Mac might be cheaper and easier then a portable harddrive.
  • Reply 26 of 36
    Quote:

    Originally posted by HammerIntoApple

    If you have Inet access for most of the trip, .Mac might be cheaper and easier then a portable harddrive.



    Actually, even if you don't have .Mac, there are boatloads of sites out there that allow you to store pictures etc.
  • Reply 27 of 36
    Quote:

    Originally posted by HammerIntoApple

    Just remember, don't buy the international plug pack for your MBP charger off the Apple website. It's a rip off.



    Where should I get it? eBay?
  • Reply 28 of 36
    Buy a travel adapter at the airport, it should plug in between the forign mains and your US plug. Should be a couple of dollers as opposed to about $30. Doesn't look as pretty, but it works perfectly.



    Check voltage compatability between Europe and US as well tho. I know that the whole of the EU runs on 230V not sure what the wattage is tho.
  • Reply 29 of 36
    progmacprogmac Posts: 1,850member
    I run an Americna-bought ibook in Europe.



    All you need is the ADAPTER, you don't need a CONVERTER (mac power supplies can take 110v-230v). An Adapter should be no more than $5 and looks something like this:





    I haven't been able to find one with a third prong. However, the European grounding system is as such that if you can get one where the third prong hangs out, it can ground itself. As you can see in this picture of a euro outlet:





    the open metal on the top and bottom is the grounding, so even if your three-prong powerbook plug is in a two-prong adapter, the third, grounding prong will rest against the exposed grounding thing.
  • Reply 30 of 36
    Deleted: misread above post
  • Reply 31 of 36
    mr skillsmr skills Posts: 144member
    Are your parents worried about you carrying about your laptop generally (like, say, if you took a trip to Seattle) or just to Italy?



    If it's a general thing, I can understand it although should not be a problem if you take care of it and get insurance etc.



    If it's an Italy/Europe thing... well maybe they should come on the trip with you. Could be an education for everyone
  • Reply 32 of 36
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Mr Skills

    Are your parents worried about you carrying about your laptop generally (like, say, if you took a trip to Seattle) or just to Italy?



    If it's a general thing, I can understand it although should not be a problem if you take care of it and get insurance etc.



    If it's an Italy/Europe thing... well maybe they should come on the trip with you. Could be an education for everyone




    They are worried just about Italy. I'm a college student, so I carry it around everyday, everywhere I go, without a peep from them. They're convinced that a "backpack snatcher" will steal my backpack at the airport, or that someone will break into my apartment in Florence. According to them, every place in Italy crime wise is worse than any place in America.
  • Reply 33 of 36
    A quick net search shows Italy's theft of personal property to be 33 percent lower than in the US.



    http://www.justice.govt.nz/pubs/repo...ppendix_c.html





    If you take your normal precautions, you are far safer there than at home.



    Assaults

    US is #6, Italy is #37



    Robbery

    US is #11, Italy is #26



    Murder

    US is # 26, Italy is #47

    http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/cri_mur_percap



    In short, your chance of being murdered, assaulted, robbed or having your MBP stolen is far higher in the US than in Italy.



    An interesting page is the perceptions of safety page which shows the US ranked high and Italy low, but the actuality is the opposite.



    http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/cri_per_of_saf_bur
  • Reply 34 of 36
    One more for the books:



    http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/cri_tot_cri_percap



    Crimes per capita puts the US above double the rate in Italy.



    Enjoy Europe. Take lots of photos. Post them for your parents to see soon after you take them so they can follow your adventure.
  • Reply 35 of 36
    Quote:

    Originally posted by david christ superstar

    They are worried just about Italy. I'm a college student, so I carry it around everyday, everywhere I go, without a peep from them. They're convinced that a "backpack snatcher" will steal my backpack at the airport, or that someone will break into my apartment in Florence. According to them, every place in Italy crime wise is worse than any place in America.



    Well, as long as you're not doing something overtly stupid such as walking around shady alleys late at night with your laptop out...



    That having been said, a college campus where everybody has a laptop is still safer than just about anywhere else.
  • Reply 36 of 36
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Bergermeister

    A quick net search shows Italy's theft of personal property to be 33 percent lower than in the US.



    http://www.justice.govt.nz/pubs/repo...ppendix_c.html





    If you take your normal precautions, you are far safer there than at home.



    Assaults

    US is #6, Italy is #37



    Robbery

    US is #11, Italy is #26



    Murder

    US is # 26, Italy is #47

    http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/cri_mur_percap



    In short, your chance of being murdered, assaulted, robbed or having your MBP stolen is far higher in the US than in Italy.



    An interesting page is the perceptions of safety page which shows the US ranked high and Italy low, but the actuality is the opposite.



    http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/cri_per_of_saf_bur




    Thanks for the statistics. After the semester finishes and I go home, I'll definitely sit down with them and allay their fears. Honestly, I can't imagine it being that bad so long as common sense precautions are used, since so many people travel with laptops these days.
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