Travel blog featuring best travel sites, travel deals, travel guides, effective travel tips, daily stories with up-to-date travel information, travel pictures, travel webcams. For more, visit my travel portal, www.johnnyjet.com.
Jiwire.com I just realized I've never made jiwire.com website of the day. It's one of the first places I go when looking for a wireless signal. Just type in your destination (domestic or international — it serves almost 100 countries), then click on the more than 60,000 free and commercial hotspot locations. Find out the address, cost and provider.
AtcMonitor.com In honor of passing through the world’s busiest airport a couple weeks ago, I'm linking a website that monitors the airspace around Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Users can view current radar depicting the location of every plane, type of aircraft, and where it’s headed to or coming from.
Can you believe I had my second emergency landing in 8 days. How crazy is that? Listen to this crazy day: I left my hotel in Rio at 4pm yesterday. I was delayed 1.5 hours in the Rio airport due to weather in Sao Paulo. Flew to Sao Paulo to catch my flight to Miami. I then took the Tri-Rail to Fort Lauderdale Airport for a 2 pm departure to L.A. Took off on time and ten minutes later the captain made an announcement saying “we just ingested something and it’s messing up our instruments so we are going to need to divert to Miami!” What are the odds? I'm now staying in Florida for 2 nights
EarWormslearning.com
TravelKleen.com Have you ever taken your seat on a plane (or a train) and just before plopping your head back, you spot a long black hair dangling from the headrest? Yuck! It’s happened to me more than once – including in first class. Obviously, the airlines don’t change these covers for every flight because of their bottom-line budgets. So, if you want to be sure to keep your head sanitized from who knows what, you can now buy your own head covers. Travel Kleen sells these disposable headrest covers that easily attach to fabric, leather and synthetic materials without marring the surface and can be quickly removed for future use. They come two to a package, cost $9.95 and as a guerilla marketer myself, they make for fantastic promotional opportunities, as people/companies can brand them themselves!
WorldAirlineAwards.com
Sorry for missing a post - but a s you can tell from the picture I just arrived in Rio de Janeiro.
Worried about your belongings being stolen from your checked luggage? First, of course, you should never put anything valuable in checked luggage. But if you still want to feel secure, purchase a lock from Safe Skies. They're officially recognized by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), so if screeners need to go through your bags they can open the locks without breaking them. After inspecting your bags, they can re-lock them. Safe Skies Locks come in a variety of shapes, designs and colors; prices start at $4.95 Now you have one less thing to worry about this holiday.
FreeConference.com
I had a long day of flying yesterday. I will give you a hint to where I am-- I had to transfer planes in Sao Paulo, Brazil (Pictured).
I just arrived in South Florida. Thank God! I flew from LAX to FLL this morning at 7am (yes, it was really 6am). About an hour into the flight I heard a flight attendant say to another – do you smell something burning? Like “electrical?” Not the words you want to hear when you are 37,000 feet up. A minute later the pilot announced over the PA that since a few passengers smelled smoke we are going to divert to Tucson just to play it safe. That’s all he said and it was in a calm voice– as if we were driving down the road and got a flat tire. No one panicked. However, the next twenty minutes or so on descent everyone was calm and quiet as the plane made sharp turns. Then out of nowhere my knucklehead seatmate says to me “there goes our on time arrival”. I looked at him like he was an idiot and said – look buddy – all I want to do is arrive. We did and 7 fire trucks greeted our Boeing 757 American Airlines plane. Everything turned out to be fine and American did a great job getting us another 757 to us quickly. The whole ordeal just added 3 extra hours to the day and looking back it was a good experience but one I hope to never have again.
Since I am going to be traveling all day Monday I will feature March 12th's “Website Of The Day” today. U.S. Det. of State’s Foreign Entry Requirements When I am preparing for travel to international destinations, one of the first websites I check out is the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Entry Requirements page. Although, it hasn’t been updated since December, 2005 (is that pathetic or what?) it still has a good listing of what’s required for U.S. citizens traveling to foreign countries for work or vacation. I also always check out the country’s embassy webpage as well, which is listed on this website. Be sure to find out what’s required well in advance because entry to some countries requires visas, immunizations, medical insurance, and/or your passport needs to be six months or more before its expiration.
Are you a planning to rent a house for a family vacation? Ever wonder what the neighborhood is like or, even worse, if there are any sex offenders living nearby? Well, thanks to FamilyWatchDog.us you can find out. All you have to do is enter an address and FamilyWatchDog shows registered sex offenders in detail, including the criminal’s mug shot, their address and a description of his or her crime. You have to love technology – except of course, if you’re a sex offender.
It seems like these days everyone is paranoid about germs. I'm guilty too. When I enter a hotel room, the first thing I do is wipe down the TV remote control and door knobs with a disinfectant sheet. I do the same when I sit on a plane. One of my biggest fears while traveling is getting sick. Now there is a new product to help calm your fears: airline seat covers that are either disposable or machine-washable. God knows how many people sit in those seats before they clean them, and who knows what the heck people wipe on them (I'd rather not think about it). But if that does cross your mind and you want to stay fresh, get the new PlaneSheets. They come in a variety of designer prints and fabrics, and cost $12.99 for two. Just specify whether you want either a coach or first class seat. If you do try these out, please send us an email. Let us know how you liked them -- and don’t forget to take a picture so we can post it.
GotVoice.com
AirTreks.com
GetHuman.com If you're like me, you probably go batty when you call an airline for a reservation and the automated phone system makes you wait forever just to find out which numbers to press to get in touch with a human. Thankfully Paul English, a co-founder of Kayak.com, has created a website that lists which buttons to press so you don’t have to waste time listening to annoying automation. There are over 500 categories, including credit cards, finance, government, hardware, insurance, internet, mobile, pharmaceuticals, retail shipping, software, stores, telco, and of course travel.
Have you ever been on the road, but the file you're trying to send is too big for your email? Thanks to YouSendIt, you can now send files up to 2 GB in size. What’s great is that they don’t put any annoying ads in the email, it comes with tracking so you can see if your mail was opened or not (you have 14 days from the time it was sent before it expires), and it can be downloaded up to 500 times! YouSendIt = YouGottaLoveIt!
GeoNames.org
I used to be afraid to fly (long story). Moved to California from Connecticut at 21-- that's when I conquered my fear. In college I started dating a bona fide princess from Hong Kong. She was accustomed to flying Biz Class. I had ONLY flown coach -- and I had never been overseas. When she invited me home, I couldn't let the opportunity slip by. I (okay, my dad) bought the seat next to her from a consolidator. I picked the right time to have my first out-of-coach experience. WOW! What a difference-- A nice phat seat, some hot towels, a little sorbet to clean the palate, non-stop food, beverages and movies. When I returned to the U.S. I felt like a new man. I started working as a college recruiter. While traveling my 26-state territory on a tight budget, I learned traveling in style on a budget was possible. I started a weekly newsletter and JohnnyJet.com to share my tips. Three months later USAToday made JohnnyJet.com website of the week and now it's my full time job.
