While travelling for work I lug an unwieldy Macbook Pro 15". Wouldn't recommend it as its heavy and battery life is around 2 hours tops.

I prefer using my Asus 9" netbook on leisure travels. It's light and battery life is 5 hours or more. More suited for my needs.

I guess I would give the same advice to anyone looking for a travelling notebook. What are the most important factors you want out of it. Larger screen? Faster speeds? Light weight? Battery life?

For speed and better screen and bigger keyboards I would advise them to get a Macbook Pro. Otherwise if weight and battery life is more of a concern I would say check out the Netbooks. Recently a very curious mix has appear in the form of the MSI X-Slim series. They have decent 13" screens, come with a core CPU and feature a full sized keyboard. Weight and battery life are much better than a full notebook. And they cost around $500 and not a bomb that most ultra-portable notebooks costs. You might want to check that out too.