The 1.5 hours refers to recording time, as I assume you know. Actual time will be less, because you will be stopping and starting the camcorder. You can save on power by using the viewfinder instead of the LCD viewing screen.
To charge the battery, you'd have to park the camera somewhere for several hours, I would assume. How long does it take to re-charge your battery? Can you really stand there and watch it the entire time, even if you could find an outlet?
My suggestion is to do what I did: look on ebay for a larger capacity battery. It is a big relief to shoot for hours and see the battery indicator still at 3/4 charge! and then, you still have the smaller battery to fall back on.
If you do buy on ebay: 1. buy from a seller with a lot of sales and high approval rating, and 2. TEST the battery before leaving on your trip. I bought a battery on ebay for my expensive Canon camcorder; it was defective, and would only last a few minutes. The replacement did the same. I then bought on ebay a slightly used Canon battery, which works great, and cost a fraction of the price from Canon. I also purchased a battery on ebay for my "cheap" JVC camcorder, the one I bring on vacation. Haven't had a problem with that one, and it also cost a fraction of a JVC battery.
