Many people wonder if they should bring a computer with them when they travel. Most decide to forgo the idea, mainly because they don’t want to risk anything happening to the machine. The truth is, you can do a whole lot with your laptop while you’re on the move:

Access email

 

Chances are that you access your email regularly throughout the day, both to keep up with work commitments and friends and family. You can use technology to stay in touch, since laptops allow you to check your emails while you travel. You don’t want to spend your entire vacation seeing if anything has dropped into your mailbox, of course, but it’s a great way to keep in touch without paying expensive phone data rates.

 

Research local attractions

 

When you’re traveling, you want to make sure that you see everything that you want to see and experience. Maps can help, but accessing travel sites and piecing together an itinerary online is often easier. Evenings are probably the best time to map out the next day’s adventures.

 

Watch stored movies

 

Sometimes with travel, there’s an aspect of ‘hurry up and wait.’ This leads to a lot of time spent in airports or hotels waiting around when you could be doing something fun. If you store movies on your portable computer, you can burn that time watching something you enjoy. Just keep your ear open for those all-important ‘boarding at Gate…’ announcements!

 

Read books

 

If movies aren’t your thing, consider loading up some books on your computer before you leave home. You don’t want to take every electronic device you own with you when you travel, and a laptop can do double duty when an electronic reader cannot. This comes in handy for those times when you’re dealing with jet lag and you just can’t get to sleep without reading a few chapters of an engrossing book.

 

Load photos from your camera

 

While SD cards have come a long way from their first versions, they still only hold so many photos. On vacation, you’re often snapping picture after picture without worrying about how much space you have left on your memory card. If you have your laptop with you, you can load all those fun pics onto the computer’s hard drive, freeing up space for even more photos.

 

If you can only take a few electronic devices with you on vacation, a laptop is one of the ones that should come high on the list. It’s multifunctional device and can serve several needs while you’re on the go. You may be surprised by just how often you use it while away from home.