I took a laptop (and Blackberry) with my on vacation to NZ - a small Thinkpad X31. I found it completely useful, as it was a trip that didn't have a set itinerary and when I was able to find places to connect, I could look up hotels, etc. It was also great to be able to back up all my pictures, look up routes on Garmin's Mapsource products, and use Skype to call family.

The blackberry was great for getting emails from reservations, etc.

I had little to no actual work usage on either the blackberry or laptop, it was all personal. I took a laptop to Italy before and it was pretty much useless, but at least in NZ it wasn't too hard to find wireless connections for free or a nominal fee. Made the trip much better.