Travel Blog

If you live in the United States and plan on traveling internationally and bringing electronics, you need to do some research. Most countries outside of the United States use 220/240 volt electricity. The U.S. uses 110 volt electricity. This may mean that your electronics won’t work in far away places. But, that is not entirely true. Many electronic devices sold today are dual voltage, which means that they will work under 110/120 volts and also 220/240 volts. To determine this, real the label and see the section for input. If it had 220 or 240 volts, then it will work just fine with a plug adapter. If it only has 110 or 120 volts, then you will need a converter.

International Travel Electricity Requirements:

1. Plug Adapters: Bring along plug adapters. They allow your U.S. plug devices to plug into international plugs. Research the countries you are going to, so that you purchase the right adapter. There are a number of good universal plug adapters you can buy that will work for nearly all of the places you could visit. Also it is recommended that your plug adapters have a built-in surge protector. This will protect your electric devices from frying during surges.

2. Electricity Converter (Transformer): This handy little device will convert 220/240 volt electricity to 110/120 volt electricity. This will allow any of your devices that are 110/120 only to work. This will need to be used in conjunction with a plug adapter for the specific country you are in. Get a converter that is powerful enough in watts to support your most power hungry device.

On our European trip, we visited England, France and Italy, and only needed a multi-plug adapter, an Italy plug adapter and a 200 watt electricity converter. This work for all our devices; Portable DVD Player. Laptop Computer, Camcorder Charger, battery charger, hair dryer, electric razor and our Nintendo DS. Out of all those devices, only the battery charger, Nintendo and heating pad required the electricity converter, the rest all had 220 or 240 volt inputs.

I made a little spreadsheet analyzing the devices we were taking to determine our requirements.

Here are a list of the items I bought for our trip.

Italy Plug Adapter at Amazon.com

Samsonite Worldwide Adaptor Plug from Amazon.com

200 WATT Step Down Voltage Transformer 110120volts.com
(They also have smaller and larger watt transformers)

We planned on going on a cruise of the Mediterranean. Our cruise was for 12 days and left out of Civitavecchia, which is near Rome. We were planning on staying in Rome a few days before the cruise and a few days after, so we needed to find transportation to and from the port which is about 1 1/2 to 2 hours away. There are a number of options, some better then others.

Taxi
A Taxi is one of the more expensive options, it will cost around 150 euros for two people and luggage. They will take you right up to the pier and drop you off. On returning to Rome, there are no taxi’s waiting around to shuttle people, you need to call and have one come for you to get a ride. I would suggest taking a taxi as the least viable option as a transfer method.

Ranked: Worst Method of Transfer

Train
There is a train that runs from the Termini station in the center of Rome to the port at Civitavecchia. The train costs about 9 euros one way. This is a very affordable way to get to the port. The problem with taking a train is that you have to haul all your luggage on and off the train and haul it from the train station to the port. There are shuttles that are offered from the train station to the port. As it could be a fairly lengthy walk with your luggage. This is a good option to choose if you are not planning on bringing much luggage on your cruise.

Ranked: Most Affordable Method of Travel

Private Shuttle
There are an abundance of private shuttles that are available to transfer you from your hotel in Rome to the pier. Searching on google, will bring up a number of options. We used one called RomeCabs. We choose them after much research on the Internet and reading alot of people’s comments on their services. Everyone had good things to say about them. They arrived on time to pick us up at our hotel and drove us to the port in a luxury Mercedes car with an English speaking driver. The trip was very comfortable and made the process simple. It cost 125 euros each way. Which I think was well worth the expense. We confirmed our reservation before we left home via email with the owner, who was very helpful in answering all of our questions.

Ranked: Most Comfortable Method of Travel

Cruise Supplied Shuttle
Another option is to use a shuttle supplied by the cruise ship. This is a good option if they provide a convenient pick up location for you in Rome. We went on a Carnival Cruise and they only offered pickup in two places in the city and not time could be reserved for pickup. This is an good, safe option, knowing that the shuttle will be there to get you. You also get the convenience of the making the reservation through the cruise line and they handle all of the arrangements.

Ranked: Most Convenient Method of Travel.

In conclusion, if you are looking for affordable transportation and have little luggage, the train may be the way to go. But my suggestion is to make it easy on yourself and rent a private shuttle and let them do all the work.

Safe Travels
Michael

When we decided to go from Paris to Rome, we looked into a number of options, flying, driving or by train. We choose to take the Artesia night train leaving from Bercy Train Station in Paris. The Artesia train trip is 14 hrs and 30 mins long and leaves in the evening and arrives in Rome in the morning. It was a great way to get to Italy. It cost us $260 per person for a 1st class sleeper compartment of our own.

The room consisted of a sink, pull out beds, and plenty of space to store our luggage. The room had electric outlets, which allows you to use a laptop or watch a portable DVD player or anything else you may have with you that requires electricity. The plus with Italian style, so make sure you bring a plug adapter. There was an attendant that looked over the travellers on the train car. At bedtime, he would come and put the beds down and make the room ready to sleep and make the room back up in the morning. The train had a dining car that offered a sit down dinner or breakfast for an additional cost. There was also a snack counter that provided drinks, croissants, snacks and numerous other things to eat. Sleeping on the train was fairly comfortable, considering the small size of the compartments. The train moved fair smooth along the tracks, with minimal shaking or jogging.

One drawback to the trip is that most of the ride is during the night which doesn’t allow alot of time to see the countryside. But during daylight hours, it is nice to watch the views as the train travels along. One thing that there is alot of on the trip are tunnels. There must be alot of hills and mountains that the train needs to navigate on its way to Rome. If you plan on getting to Rome at a specific time, you may want to try alternate routes. Our train arrived at Rome 2 hours later then it was scheduled to and from what I can tell it is normal for the train to not arrive on time., but if you are not in a hurry to get to Rome, it is a great way to travel from Paris.