WEBSITE OF THE DAY -- Eurocheapo.com

Going to Europe this summer and looking for inexpensive hotels? Well, then, check out EuroCheapo’s hotel recommendations and reviews. They also have city guides providing advice about local transit, budget tips, and day trip suggestions. They even explain European budget airlines, rail passes, and car rental guidelines. In Paris (www.eurocheapo.com/paris), EuroCheapo provides recommendations for 77 affordable hotels, all centrally located, with double rates ranging from $41 to $250 per night. In Rome (www.eurocheapo.com/rome), travelers can choose from 85 hotels, ranging in price from $34 to $309 per night. EuroCheapo’s Amsterdam guide (www.eurocheapo.com/amsterdam) features a choice of 48 hotels, all charging between $34 and $201 a night.

Wicked In L.A.

I saw the play “Wicked” last month (http://www.johnnyjet.com/folder/archive/WheresJohnny050920073.html) in London and loved it. I don’t normally plug PR stuff but I thought for those who are “Wicked” fans and will be in L.A. this might be a great event to attend, especially for kids. "Wicked Wednesdays" at Universal Studios Hollywood will be kicked off tomorrow (June 27) by Carol Kane, currently seen as Madame Morrible on Pantages boards in "Wicked". She will introduce a series of noon performances at Universal Studios Hollywood offering the blockbuster musical's fans an opportunity to enjoy special performances, meet the stars and collect autographs from the cast of the L.A. production on three Wednesdays this summer. The Oscar-nominated thesp will introduce cast members Julie Reiber (Elphaba) and Melissa Fahn (Glinda) who will perform a sampling of the show's most popular numbers. Two of the show's other stars--Eden Espinosa and Kris Cussack-- will need no escorts when they make their "Wicked Wednesdays" appearances later in the summer: both got their start singing and hoofing in Universal Studios Hollywood theme park shows ("Spiderman Rocks," and "Beetlejuice"). "Wicked Wednesday" performances at the theme park will be reprised on July 11 and July 25. For more info see: http://www.universalstudioshollywood.com/b_wickedwednesdays/

WEBSITE OF THE DAY -- Earthwatch.org

EarthWatch.org is like a two-week Peace Corps experience. Unlike other environmental organizations, Earthwatch Institute puts men and women in the field where they can assist scientists in their work. Earthwatch people learn new skills, while developing a deeper understanding of their role in building a sustainable future. Earthwatch believes that teaching and promoting scientific literacy is the best way to solve the many complex environmental and social issues facing society today. The cost of an excursion ranges from $1,000 - $4,000.

WEBSITE OF THE DAY -- Tripology.com

Looking for a travel agent? Tripology.com is a new website that matches travelers up with specialized travel agents. All the consumer has to do is fill out a trip request describing the geographic location, purpose of the trip, number of people traveling, activities from outdoor pursuits to sports, leisure and cultural diversions, plus approximate dates that suit them, and Tripology.com will find an agent with the matching expertise. They have more than 4,500 agents who can help and it’s free to use, but agents are charged a referral fee.

WEBSITE OF THE DAY -- POINTMAVEN.COM

Pointmaven.com
I wrote about this guy’s first website a while back– MileMaven.com (http://www.milemaven.com/) which helps travelers find airline bonus mile offers by searching airlines or routes. Now he has created PointMaven.com which helps maximize your bonus points when on the ground. It specializes in which hotels are offering bonus point promotions. The database contains information about thousands of hotel properties and promotions and it’s updated daily. All you have to do is just enter a domestic or international city or airport code, and you'll be presented with a list of the promotions with a cool-looking map of all hotels and offers and distance from the airport.

Johnny Jet on the History Channel

Check it out! Johnny Jet is going to be an expert guest on "Our Generation: Fly With Me" which premiers this week on the History Channel! Please check your local listings but it should be on Friday, June 15 12:30 PM EST; Friday, June 15 06:30 PM EST; Sunday, June 17 08:30 AM EST.

WEBSITE OF THE DAY -- Globorati.com

Globorati.com
I just arrived in France! I don’t have a lot of internet time but here is a fairly new website that’s exclusively for those looking for luxury travel. I’m talking some of their info is REAL high end. Enjoy

WEBSITE OF THE DAY -- Epitourean.com

Epitourean.com
This was unique travel website was recently just launched. It offers visitors the opportunity to learn about cultures through cooking classes, culinary vacations, culinary cruises, guided culinary tours, cooking parties and culinary team building. In addition, Epitourean invites users to submit cooking videos (ie YouTube) to share with people throughout the world. This is a great idea as Culinary tourism is getting more and more popular. According to the Travel
Industry Association of America, over 23 million Americans took a culinary vacation over the past three years.

WEBSITE OF THE DAY -- www.Vayama.com

www.Vayama.com
Here’s a new travel website that was just launched today. Vayama.com is the only site that I know of that is dedicated solely to international travel. It offers price and booking capabilities for international air travel to 191 countries. I love their clean mapping feature which shows where you will be flying to and that it’s easy to do multiple trips. What I don’t like is that it doesn’t handle last minute jaunts (within 40 hours) and most importantly it doesn’t bring up low fare carriers. I just put in Nice to Rome which I will be flying next week and only the over priced majors were found. Not the inexpensive discount carriers.

WEBSITE OF THE DAY-- Luminato.com

http://www.luminato.com/english/

I just returned from Toronto where I attended the first ever Toronto Festival of the Arts and Creativity. There’s lots of celebrations going on from music, dance, film, literature, theatre, and visual arts and design. Many events are free and visitors also get a sneak peek at the new modern crystal exhibit hall that’s sticking out of the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum). You better hurry as the festival ends June 10, 2007.

WEBSITE OF THE DAY -- FlightMemory.com

FlightMemory.com

Here's a fun website that tracks every flight you've ever taken. It's free and only involves a 30-second registration (user name and password). Once you're registered, go to work entering in your flight details. I just spent 20 minutes entering in my flights from January 1, 2007 and I didn't even use all of the fields (dates, airlines, seat, class, purpose of trip, etc.) I simply entered in the cities I've traveled to and I discovered that since January, I have flown the equivalent of two and half times around the world! Can you believe that I've spent 131 hours (5.5 days) in the air since January? Broken down like this, I realize I fly a lot. All your flight data is presented in neat spreadsheets, from the longest and shortest flights you've taken, as well as your top 10 airports: I have flown in or out of LAX 23 times this year! My favorite feature is the map, which highlights all of my routes and can be turned into colorful posters starting from $29.