Laptop

[FourSeasons]

You’re right, it’s not ideal but I may need to bring a laptop if I want to walk the 800k on the Frances. I’d only need to use it once a week then at month end.

Can anyone share experiences in carrying a laptop? What size? How to pack it? Any info on a lightweight one?

Of course I’d still like to keep my weight to 15 lbs or under. My next Camino will be my 4th, and possibly late Fall or late Winter, God willing.

 

[Perambulating Griffin]

I have never yet had the liberty of going without a connection. I take an iPad Air — smallest size. It comes in around 450 G with an apple pencil (crucial for signing documents), and a 3rd party fold out keyboard. I slide it all into the sturdy ziplock container that Black Diamond uses to ship its pole tips. A very tough Zip baggie would likely accomplish the same thing.
I hotspot to my phone if I need to.
On this platforms I can use the entire Office Suite, Zoom, Teams, FaceTime… split my screen to show 2 windows running at the same time (eg: documents on one side, and a meeting window on the other). Today I ran a hiring committee meeting in one window and our admin shared candidate rankings in another. Easy.
I can do all my banking, log in to the platforms my Not-Mac-Oriented workplace requires us to use…
I have several dozen books loaded in my library, the entire Wise Pilgrim Suite, Google Translate (downloaded for use offline)…
The tech stuff and over a full kilogram of meds, plus my 36 L Kyte comes in around 7KG (water not included) for any trip and I always go either early or late i the season now when things like a poncho, gaiters, and down comforter are not negotiable.
My laptop stays in my office.
I hope this information helps.

 

[FourSeasons]

I have never yet had the liberty of going without a connection. I take an iPad Air — smallest size. It comes in around 450 G with an apple pencil (crucial for signing documents), and a 3rd party fold out keyboard. I slide it all into the sturdy ziplock container that Black Diamond uses to ship its pole tips. A very tough Zip baggie would likely accomplish the same thing.
I hotspot to my phone if I need to.
On this platforms I can use the entire Office Suite, Zoom, Teams, FaceTime… split my screen to show 2 windows running at the same time (eg: documents on one side, and a meeting window on the other). Today I ran a hiring committee meeting in one window and our admin shared candidate rankings in another. Easy.
I can do all my banking, log in to the platforms my Not-Mac-Oriented workplace requires us to use…
I have several dozen books loaded in my library, the entire Wise Pilgrim Suite, Google Translate (downloaded for use offline)…
The tech stuff and over a full kilogram of meds, plus my 36 L Kyte comes in around 7KG (water not included) for any trip and I always go either early or late i the season now when things like a poncho, gaiters, and down comforter are not negotiable.
My laptop stays in my office.
I hope this information helps.

Thank you, what a great suggestion. I did a quick search. They’re a little spendy. I’d definitely need to stash some cash away for the purchase. I could do another summer Camino, save on not having to add to my kit.

 

[andonius]

I always carry a small laptop on my caminos because I like to write and from time to time I need to do some work too...
Not ideal, but better be working while walking than only workimg!!!
I also upload books to read and all the description of stages and reservations I've made for the trip as well as a copy of my ID or passport and my credit or debit cards, so I have a backup in case of loosing them.
I use a small microsoft Surface, which fits perfectly in my backpack (9,65" × 6,9" × 0,33") and only weigts 800 grs (1,8 pounds) including charger. It has enough memory, speed and connection capacity for my needs.
I carry it in a special interior compartment in my backpack, always well protected by two ziplock bags.
Hope it helps.

 

[sugargypsy]

I use a small microsoft Surface, which fits perfectly in my backpack (9,65" × 6,9" × 0,33") and only weigts 800 grs (1,8 pounds) including charger. It has enough memory, speed and connection capacity for my needs.

Same here, worked perfectly on my camino.

 

[Luka]

Just a suggestion: if you would only need it once a week, wouldn't it make more sense to send it ahead every week? With the downside of course that you would have to predict how far you'll walk.

 

[uscaminodude]

I use a Surface Pro. It is my main work and personal PC at home. I have posted about remote working in the past: https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/remote-working-while-walking.53653/post-627423 On my last camino I would stay in a nice hotel with a desk the night before I needed to work and then I worked until check out time. I walked a full day but needed to walk into the evening to catch-up with my wife and camino family. I was worried that working immediately before walking would pollute my mind with work thoughts the entire day. This turned out to not be the case.

 

[FourSeasons]

Just a suggestion: if you would only need it once a week, wouldn't it make more sense to send it ahead every week? With the downside of course that you would have to predict how far you'll walk.

You would think it make sense but I'd be concerned with it getting lost or stolen and of course as you mentioned not knowing my stopping points on a daily basis.

 

[Rex]

I carried an iPad Air on two Caminos and did some writing and Board duties, but left it home last year for the 1st half of the VF across France. I realized I could do everything I needed to do with my iPhone (assuming my thumbs will cooperate on that tiny keyboard). :>). And T-Mobile offers a great 5GB package of data usage for a nominal amount for 30 days, which I always add on the morning my plane lands in Europe. Buen Camino.

 

[Bothydave]

I have never yet had the liberty of going without a connection. I take an iPad Air — smallest size. It comes in around 450 G with an apple pencil (crucial for signing documents), and a 3rd party fold out keyboard. I slide it all into the sturdy ziplock container that Black Diamond uses to ship its pole tips. A very tough Zip baggie would likely accomplish the same thing.
I hotspot to my phone if I need to.
On this platforms I can use the entire Office Suite, Zoom, Teams, FaceTime… split my screen to show 2 windows running at the same time (eg: documents on one side, and a meeting window on the other). Today I ran a hiring committee meeting in one window and our admin shared candidate rankings in another. Easy.
I can do all my banking, log in to the platforms my Not-Mac-Oriented workplace requires us to use…
I have several dozen books loaded in my library, the entire Wise Pilgrim Suite, Google Translate (downloaded for use offline)…
The tech stuff and over a full kilogram of meds, plus my 36 L Kyte comes in around 7KG (water not included) for any trip and I always go either early or late i the season now when things like a poncho, gaiters, and down comforter are not negotiable.
My laptop stays in my office.
I hope this information helps.

Excellent answer! The new iPad series are particularly good and I learn daily their use. My intention is to add all meeting documents so I can mark them up and use without carrying paper or laptop (not on Camino I may add)

 

[Pathfinder075]

I've not carried one on camino, but have carried one on other walks when i worked in IT.

Get something light and cheap and make sure the contents are encrypted. I like Lenovo's. This year i am carrying a 10" Lenovo Windows 10 tablet for my day to day stuff Cost me £45 on Ebay. Bought for this trip and then will go to my mother.

So a 10" Windows tablet with a keyboard might work for you. I used to carry a netbook, but this tablet is a lot better and lighter.

 

[Stephan the Painter]

You’re right, it’s not ideal but I may need to bring a laptop if I want to walk the 800k on the Frances. I’d only need to use it once a week then at month end.

Can anyone share experiences in carrying a laptop? What size? How to pack it? Any info on a lightweight one?

Of course I’d still like to keep my weight to 15 lbs or under. My next Camino will be my 4th, and possibly late Fall or late Winter, God willing.

Probably the lightest and cheapest laptop you could buy will be some sort of chrome book.

You don't say what you need to do, but if you just need to type, you can get a small keyboard that will interface with your phone. And use dictation.

Something like an iPad is probably the easiest thing to use. You can find them used on sites like
swappa.com or even amazon. You can get external keyboards for those as well, although I find that with a little practice, the screen keyboard works fine. Or just dictation also.

 

[Pathfinder075]

At the same time this also lends to the thread by the guy who got his phone stolen. Get a laptop, but not something so expensive that if it was stolen it would hurt your pocket a lot. So a cheap laptop that is light and cost under $200 is probably going to be fine, but at the same time if someone steals it, it's going to be painful, but not as painful as losing a $500 laptop or an ipad.

It also depends on what you need it for. For instance if you were a network engineer and needed to interact with a bunch of servers over ssh, you could get a basic, low spec, cheap laptop and stick a copy of Linux on it. Word processing, pretty much the same spec. But to do graphic design or video editing, you will need a lot more juice under the hood. Only you know the usage context.

 

[FourSeasons]

Probably the lightest and cheapest laptop you could buy will be some sort of chrome book.

You don't say what you need to do, but if you just need to type, you can get a small keyboard that will interface with your phone. And use dictation.

Something like an iPad is probably the easiest thing to use. You can find them used on sites like
swappa.com or even amazon. You can get external keyboards for those as well, although I find that with a little practice, the screen keyboard works fine. Or just dictation also.

Thanks! I’ll be using it to access a particular website where I’ll then copy into excel, do a lot of sorting. I’ll need to use a mouse so will bring my wireless one. I’ll then need Word and PDF and of course email. I’m a bookkeeper/accountant for my brother-in-laws business. I do AR/Payroll. I’ll only need someone at home to print the paychecks 1st day of the month. All else can be done remotely.

 

[woody66]

Can anyone share experiences in carrying a laptop? What size? How to pack it? Any info on a lightweight one?

Hi FourSeasons!
I take my Galaxy 8 inch tablet , Bluetooth foldable keyboard and Bluetooth mouse.
I works just like my desktop set up at home.
I can input with voice only; but oh my it makes a lot of errors i think because of my accent (souf instead of south for example plus a lot worse i listen to them back and think they make no sense)
The tablet and keyboard have assistive tech so i have audio feed back of whats on screen and what keys i press.
Tablet 347 grams. Moko Bluetooth Keyboard 137 grams, Bluetooth mouse 78 grams,Tablet stand 23 grams
Total 585 grams.
I carry the tablet anyway so the additional weight to make a usable desktop set up is only another 238 grams for me it's worth it!
Woody

 

[FourSeasons]

Hi FourSeasons!
I take my Galaxy 8 inch tablet , Bluetooth foldable keyboard and Bluetooth mouse.
I works just like my desktop set up at home.
I can input with voice only; but oh my it makes a lot of errors i think because of my accent (souf instead of south for example plus a lot worse i listen to them back and think they make no sense)
The tablet and keyboard have assistive tech so i have audio feed back of whats on screen and what keys i press.
Tablet 347 grams. Moko Bluetooth Keyboard 137 grams, Bluetooth mouse 78 grams,Tablet stand 23 grams
Total 585 grams.
I carry the tablet anyway so the additional weight to make a usable desktop set up is only another 238 grams for me it's worth it!
Woody

Thanks Woody,

This looks like a good setup. Will be doing some research.