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)

While in Paris, we decided to take a day trip to London, since it was only about a 3 hour train ride which goes through the Channel Tunnel. We boarded the Eurostar at 8AM in the morning and arrived at Waterloo Station in London at 10AM. We rode in second class and the train was very comfortable. They offered breakfast and snacks for sale in the dining car. When arriving at the station, it is a good idea to exchange some money for Pounds, if you wish to purchase anything while you are there.

Once we got in London, we had tickets to take the Hop-on Hop-off London bus tour. It allows you to hop on and hop off the bus at over 40 stops around the city. The stops go to all the major attractions and came with a free cruise on the River Thames. Along the bus tour, we saw the Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace to mention just a few.

Dining
For lunch, we ate at a place called “Eat”. It had pretty good sandwiches and muffins. I would definitely recommend this for a quick place to grab a snack or lunch and it was right next to the Tower of London. For dinner, we ate at TGI Friday’s in Piccadilly Square. The food was typical American food, and the best part was they had free refills on drinks, the only place in Europe that offered them.

London Sites
We hopped off the bus at the Buckingham Palace stop. We were able to walk up to the gates of the palace. Guards stand out in front of the palace, walking and guarding the British Royals. The palace is quite big in size, very impressive.

Our day in London was too short. We are planning on returning, so that we can give it the time that it deserves. You should definitely put Britain at the top of your must-see list.

Purchase Tours:
Rail Tour to Paris from London by Eurostar

The Original London Sightseeing Tour - Hop On Hop Off

Tally-ho!
Michael