To Backpack with a Laptop, or not
By Nick March 19, 2007
As I was mulling around on the internet after returning from my short time away (reason for infrequent posting, sorry) I ran across an interesting travel discussion on Slashdot fueled by the following question.
“I’m planning to spend a year backpacking around the world and the hardest question I have to answer is: What technology do I take with me? Aside from the obvious (digital camera, ipod, et. al.) what technological devices would you you take? Specifically, I wonder if I should bring my nice and shiny MacBook Pro. I can think of lots of uses for it (offloading pix, updating weblog, email, etc.), but I’m worried it will be lost or stolen along the way. Does anyone have experience with travel while toting technology?”
So should travelers Backpack around with a Laptop?
The overwhelming suggestion agreed with my own opinion: No. Although, it may depend on the type of trip you have planned. MacBook Pros are nice, so for security reasons, one would have to stay in very secure (aka somewhat pricey) hotels to avoid the risk of theft. Either that, or risk toting it around with you everywhere you go.
So if you would prefer to stay in hostels and cheap hotels, a lovely laptop would not be the most desirable piece of travel gear that I would like to worry about on my trip. As one responder (metlin) puts it.
“And lugging that extra weight is still a pain. What happens if you are caught in the rain, or if you decide to get drunk in a totally random place? You can’t always be worried about your backpack and doing so is likely to give a big hint to folks that there is something worth stealing in your backpack.”
Laptop Travel Alternatives
There are many laptop alternatives available to travelers who love the internet. (I’m that guy too).
Internet Cafes - Internet Cafes are cheap and the best alternative to bringing your laptop along. Usually they computers are decent fast and equipped well enough to handle the simplest of tasks. You won’t edit your cool travel videos, but you can blog, e-mail, and maybe dump some photos. This is definitely the best alternative. Especially if you’re not rich. If you are rich, you may continue reading.- PDA- There are often wireless access points in big urban areas that you may be traveling to. You will probably have to pay for the wireless access, and your productivity will probably go down a lot while using a small PDA. But for checking e-mail, this could be an okay alternative.
- Cellphone- If you have a GSM enabled phone/smartphone and are willing to pay for data usage, it could work for emails. Be sure to check out if it’ll work before you go though.
So don’t fret if you can’t bring your laptop on your backpacking trip. If something would happen to it, the replacement cost wouldn’t justify the luxury of having it with you. Internet Cafes are plentiful abroad and offer everything you really need while traveling, so when you’re backpacking around the world, it might be smartest to leave your laptop at home.
Topics: Travel Gear |
11 Responses to “To Backpack with a Laptop, or not”
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Whilst I agree that you can use internet cafes or even a wifi equipped pda, if you do want to travel with a laptop there are solutions. I use an anti-theft laptop bag called a Metrosafe 300 when I travel and on longer trips I use a Daysafe 100 both products are by pacsafe who make excellent anti-theft travel bags.
Hi there! I'm Rcon Pascua, 22, writer who also loves to travel exotic destinations, particularly Morocco. Well, a laptop can be a technology that can be tote around while traveling. It is, however, no longer handy, if you unfortunately have a bulky laptop model. Alternative technologies to bring while traveling are PDAs and cellphones.
If you can carry your around and feel natural about it, then do. An alternative if you can't is web-based text editors like Google Docs. Only thing is that you can't really work online.
If you've got writing etched into your brain, believe me, you can write on paper napkins if it comes down to it.
-Ethan
Backpacking on Little Money
[...] Parece que es la primera vez que visitas Blog de Viajes. Si deseas leerlo regularmente, puedes suscribirte para que te llegue por correo electronico o por feed RSS . Gracias por visitarme!Cuenta Nick, de Budget Globetrotting, que en Slashdot alguien preguntó si convenía llevar una notebook a un viaje de un año como mochilero. Nick responde de manera muy directa: NO. El tema, claro, es el riesgo de ser robado. En muchos lugares del mundo una notebook es un bien casi imposible de conseguir, o que se paga bien en el mercado negro. Pero también hay otras razones. [...]
Sean, secure laptop bags are an okay alternative, but I have a feeling the thief wouldn't take the time to try and take the laptop out of the bag. Instead, he'd probably just take the whole thing.
Ethan's online word processor idea is a good one. Zoho and Open Office might be a few other alternatives to Google Docs. You could also just carry a USB thumb drive and type on text documents in internet cafes. Plenty of options.
And yes, napkins should always be available. That's probably the cheapest way to go
Hi. Recently I´ve been in subsaaharian Africa with my laptop to do a work for a known guide. I have used it several time to write and tranfer photo from my difital camera. What I could say about to take a laptop to travel is: ok, you can take it, but forget about internet conections in pour countries (unless you have a satelite conection). You may have two problems if so: 1. the thifes may like it and, you will probaly not use the internet in it. One ideia: Leave the laptop and try to find a internet coffe everywhere you go. Good Travels! Claudio Vaz
One more ideia. If you leave you laptop at home, do not forget to take with you all programs and drivers you need in a normal CD. Normally you can instal it the internet cafes.
For typing on the go, I like an intelligent portable keyboard like an Alphasmart. Weighs less than 2 lbs., holds up to 100 pages of text, never needs to boot, and the batteries last 200 hours. You plug it in to any PC to transfer the text.
I took a bunch of these to rural Colombia, put them in a bag on a dirt bike, and was able to give classes on typing in places where they don't even have electricity.
Jeff, great suggestion. I never even knew that there was such a thing. I checked out their site and wikipedia article and that Alphasmart seems like a great alternative. Rugged yet sophisticated. I may have to update this post to include it. Thanks!
What about if you NEED to bring a laptop?
For example, I am a software engineer who is going to telecommute while backpacking for an extended period of time. I have a top of the line laptop to run all my development software.
How should I deal with this???
WebDev, That's exactly what I was wondering, what if we don't have a choice and have to bring a laptop? That's my problem because I have to go to a technical conference and I will be presenting. Since I will be staying a little longer to see the sites... not sure what to do about laptop safety.