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Things happen.

I've traveled a lot with my iPad and unless absolutely need my notebook for mission critical work things, only the iPad goes. Yes, it might get stolen, but I would rather have a $500 iPad stolen rather than a $2000 notebook.
 
Right, because people in foreign countries cannot be trusted. :rolleyes:

I find this thread offensive, but that's just me.

Leave it at home if you feel that way. It's irreplaceable after all.

Offensive or not, tourists ARE targets for theft, locals are normally left alone. Some areas are worse for this than others, so look at it as the OP feeling out the places he is going too ahead of time.

So the slime in any country stays.... The slime. I'm sure we can agree on that?
 
Right, because people in foreign countries cannot be trusted. :rolleyes:

I find this thread offensive, but that's just me.

Leave it at home if you feel that way. It's irreplaceable after all.

I bet Catherine Mullany finds it offensive as well, And Benjamin.:rolleyes:
 
heh, South America?
Look I'm from South America and I wouldnt even wear a watch that costs more than $100. Lol call me paranoid but I have tons of family there and they always tell me the same "Dont cary around expensive stuff". I don't live in South America though. Unless you're staying in wealthy areas, I would not take my iPad. I know this may sound offensive, but I'm being realistic. I have familly all over South America, and they all tell me the same thing. It sucks that there's this negative view, but I wouldnt risk a $600 iPad. whenever I visit south America, I also never speak english, always spanish. No need for people to think I'm a tourist
Now this sounds harsh, but I'm also cautous. Again, I only visit South America, and I have never been mugged or had an unpleasant encounter. Everyone has always been very pleasant. But my family tells me that any real "danger" of getting robbed would be during the night. I also stayed at a hotel once in Cajamarca, Peru and I left my wallet in the room. I was missing $100 bucks when I got back, so I would keep my stuff in a locked bag/safe
 
Offensive or not, tourists ARE targets for theft, locals are normally left alone. Some areas are worse for this than others, so look at it as the OP feeling out the places he is going too ahead of time.

So the slime in any country stays.... The slime. I'm sure we can agree on that?

I grew up in a tourist destination (Hawai'i) and still spend a lot of time there. I know the places where the tourists are likely to get robbed, if they're careless. Me? When I go to those places, I don't take anything valuable and I don't even lock my ratty old car (which could never be mistaken for a rental car, and thus is completely safe).

Really, TraceyS/FL is correct -- tourists are often targets, and recognizing that isn't the same as declaring that other countries are dangerous in and of themselves (which is indeed offensive).

The last time I went to a "dangerous" country, my lodging in the capital city was surrounded by razor wire, and for good reason. Some of my equipment was stolen from locked checked cases along the way. But in the troubled rural area I was headed for, even though there were armed young men wandering around, some serious alcohol problems, etc., I was fine with my many thousands of dollars of video equipment, never secured except in a leaf house.

Why? Because I had a long history in that place and wasn't considered an outsider even though technically I was. Another outsider who came into that area most likely would have had a little bit of trouble, at the hands of young men who would never steal from their own people, but would grab this or that from an outsider.

I don't defend them morally. I'm just saying that that's how it can be, and the OP and anyone else traveling needs to figure out whether their destination is a place where they need to be really careful, or just normally careful.
 
I recently traveled from Houston to Singapore.

You get some "ooohs" and "ahhs" from passerby's but like anything else, you shouldn't go waving it around. I was particularly paranoid about it, given the new-ness of the device but at no time did I really feel like someone would take it.
 
Hi all,

I'll be traveling to the Caribbean and South America shortly. I plan to bring my iPad to use while traveling and as a substitute for my macbook.

My question - How would/do you treat your iPad while out of the country? I know the areas I'm going to stay are not very affluent, so I'm a bit concerned about being robbed if I take it out at a local coffee shop or restaurant. I've been robbed in the Caribbean before and it sucks.

I'm wondering if I should just use it in the hotel room and keep it in the safe while I'm out. However, bringing it to breakfast and reading a ibooks on the beach sounds fantastic.

I appreciate any recommendations.


Hosnetly if you have to ask you clearly have no common sense, just my opinion. Protecting any valulable is not specific to leaving the country. You do what Rick Steves would do tape it to your chest.
 
I recently traveled from Houston to Singapore.

You get some "ooohs" and "ahhs" from passerby's but like anything else, you shouldn't go waving it around. I was particularly paranoid about it, given the new-ness of the device but at no time did I really feel like someone would take it.

Just a FYI I agree with you , but people are well behaved in Singapore, the fear of death or caining.
 
The iPad is more valuable than almost any Laptop in these countries because it's a hypetoy and people would pay lots of money for it, If you are at a nice place use it, but if you're on the streets at night better keep it in your bag
 
+1 on the rental insurance

Get some good insurance?

I've got rental insurance that covers $5000 of electronics while traveling. This can relieve allot of stress for one who travels with a DSLR camera, a laptop, an iphone, etc. like myself. I will be living in Panama but regularly travel with my iphone and camera. These days these things are more common than you might think but I wouldn't pull it out in a shady bus station at 9 at night. Just use a little common sense.

I agree with the other posts mentioning that you should consider leaving the ipad at home in order to relieve stress, but this may be another alternative that would even guard against in hotel thieves.

Another poster mentioned how dangerous Dominican Republic is outside of the all inclusive hotels. What a shame. I have been to D.R., travelled all over via public transportation, and would NEVER set foot in an all inclusive hotel for fear of losing touch with the culture I came to experience.
 
You should be completely safe to use it within the hotel, beach and the resort.

I have visited the carribean twice. Dominican republic. The hotels are all in resort which has armed police on patrol. Its quite safe, but once you go outside... No way! For tourists its quite scary out there unless your with tour operatives on a bus or something.

So basically use ur ipad on the plane, airport and in the hotel, beach and resort. Thats it. However...with the screen on the ipad i imagine it would be hopeless to try use it out in the beach! Lol. Plus it may be to hot for the ipad to operate. Its usually 30-40*C Im not sure 100% but i think the opearting temperature of the ipad is 0-35*C



And i guess its a no brainer but i hope your taking your ipad on the plane as hand luggage! Your ipad will be damaged most likely in ur main baggage :) I was dumb enough to do this with an expensive digital camera on my first holiday. Oops! Lol

Hope you enjoy your travels :)

I wouldn't use it anywhere near a beach or where there is a lot of sand. Sand will inevitably find it's way into your case and cling on to the device itself. I live on an island with sand and no matter how careful I try to be I always get some scratches from sand rubbing on my iPhone.

Sand is about the worst thing I can think of for electronics.
 
Keep the iPad in the your bag when not using it. Use it ok on airplane, in hotel. Don't use on mass transit, or general public area. Also, not to practical to carry iPad while going sight-seeing, better to take your iPhone or iPod touch. It's funny, when the iPhone first came out about 2/3 years ago, I would'nt use it much in public. But now, everyone has a smart phone, Android or iPhone, so you don't really stand out for the bandits.
 
Things happen.

I've traveled a lot with my iPad and unless absolutely need my notebook for mission critical work things, only the iPad goes. Yes, it might get stolen, but I would rather have a $500 iPad stolen rather than a $2000 notebook.

Ipad is made like that so you can take it with you everywhere you go.
 
I have travelled through Germany, Budapest, Rome, Sao Paulo and Mexico with my iPad. I had no more security concerns about my ipad than I would have with my Mac or traveling internationally with any other valuable possession.
 
I have traveled to El Salvador recently.......

if some of you don't know the level of danger in el salvador...unless you have family or tour guides..... you would know.

i wouldn't recommend bringing it outside.

I brought my iPad 3G

I never took it out my house as my "salvi" friends may tell others that I have that....and the local gangs "MS-13" aka the world's most dangerous gang, might find out that some americans live in their block.

So i never took my iPad out of my house.

I lived happily that week without worrying somebody would mug me or my family.

The only time it saw fresh air was the airport, the freeway, home, back in the airport (free wi-fi) and LAX.;)
 
I'm a bit shocked that people put Japan, Hungary, Italy, Germany and various other countries in the same group as South America and the Caribbeans..

We are talking about countries here, where incidents against foreign tourists are fairly regular. Read a travel guide and expect slightly worst risks - what do you do if you stay in a mid-range hotel and your iPad disappears?

As I suggested earlier, just enjoy the place itself and don't ruin the trip with expensive gadgets!
 
I'm a bit shocked that people put Japan, Hungary, Italy, Germany and various other countries in the same group as South America and the Caribbeans..

We are talking about countries here, where incidents against foreign tourists are fairly regular. Read a travel guide and expect slightly worst risks - what do you do if you stay in a mid-range hotel and your iPad disappears?

As I suggested earlier, just enjoy the place itself and don't ruin the trip with expensive gadgets!
I used different precautions in each of the countries that were appropriate to the country, but since I was travelling on business I needed my iPad in all of them.
So the bottom line is, if you need to bring your iPad to any country you should not be afraid of doing so, just be be smart about it...
 
I used different precautions in each of the countries that were appropriate to the country, but since I was travelling on business I needed my iPad in all of them.
So the bottom line is, if you need to bring your iPad to any country you should not be afraid of doing so, just be be smart about it...

Sorry, my post wasn't actually aiming at you, my point was to separate developed and western countries from countries with different issues.

I didn't even want to be critical about South America at all - but where public safety is concerned, the region requires extra precaution and should be not treated in the same sense as the OP was going to somewhere like Florida.
 
Here in Perú there are plenty of internet rentals as low as US 0.35 /hour, only bring your USB pendrive with portable apps and you are set.

Don't walk with your Ipad in the streets, but if you decide to bring with you, stay in a safe hotel, 99% of the hotels,hostels have free WiFi.

Enjoy your trip, don't carry expensive stuff :)
 
I think it's dangerous to travel internationally right now even without an iPad.
 
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