I have my EEEPC 901HD with me on my world tour, it's been an absolute godsend. Depending on the type of travel you're doing, the main concern is battery life. On this I can watch two movie's on a bus journey, or get circa 8 hours of low intensity stuff.
The keyboard is actually something you adapt to very quickly, for instance, I was completely unable to type on this when I got it, but can now touch type quickly and easily on it. Something to consider perhaps.
If I were buying a netbook now, I'd be looking at the Acer Ferrari, though it's battery life suffers because of how powerful it is. The EEEPC 1001HE is also a stellar performer. In honesty, the only time I've really thought "jesus I wish this was quicker" is when I learnt this is incapable of playing most H.264 files reliably - kills the CPU.
The other thing that's made mine so handy is the fact it has an SD slot, meaning my pics come straight from the cam, and get uploaded straight to Flickr, no messing.