We will be traveling through Spain for a couple of weeks. We were planning on taking our lap top computer.....with the different power supply and the need for adapters, is it a good idea?

frankkathi, welcome to our ALL SPAIN Message Board!!

Tell me/us, what brand of laptop will you be taking to Spain and from where (where do you live?)? If you're in/from Europe your laptop should work perfectly well with the power supply in Spain. If you're from the Americas you may have a challenge. I'm really no expert in this but MOST manufacturers of laptop computers have "switchable" power supplies with an accessory transformer. I think the SONY brand (the one I'm considering) comes with a transformer as a standard feature (just as it did with my SONY digital camera). If you get this transformer then you'll only need the plug adapter to be able to plug into the wall socket.

In short, check out the website of your laptop's manufacturer. I'm SURE they have information on this topic there. Good luck!

Saludos, MadridMan

We have a Dell and live in the USA. I was going to take the laptop as a storage mechanism for the digital camera, maintain a travel log and (heaven forbid) do some work. But hey, my sons are teenagers so my wife and I are not stuck babysitting and we plan on hitting the town at night!

For storing digital images I also thought about having CD's made there to bring back. Is it easy to find places that can make CD's from the camera?

My girlfriend had a similar problem when she took her European laptop to the US. Look on the power adapter of your laptop (an external brick looking thing). There it should say what voltage it can handle, in the US it is 120 at 50Hz and in Europe it is 240 Voltz at 60Hz (I think, correct me if I am wrong). If it can handle the euro power, you just need a socket adaptor for it to plug into a spanish outlet. My girlfriend had no trouble with hers with just a cheap socket adapter.

Since laptops are made for traveling they usually can handle the different voltages, but always check. You may have trouble with your other electronics as they are not as well built as your laptop. Many electronics don´t work with foreign power sources. My girlfriend´s printer that came with her laptop didn´t work in the US. Because of this, think about how you will recharge your camera if it doesn´t run on standard batteries. I have seen some kits that are supposed to be full voltage converters that allow you to run electronics from different countries, but they are a little bigger and more expensive than the plain socket converters.