WEBSITE OF THE DAY: A380

A380delivery.com Airbus has established a website dedicated solely to the world’s largest passenger plane: the A380. If you’ve never heard of it (are you living in a cave?) you’re bound to hear about as regular service commenced today for Singapore Airline. This website provides a wealth of information for those who want a closer look at everything from how the A380 began to its first delivery. On the website, you’ll find videos (though they’re slow to load), articles and a photo gallery.

WEBSITE OF THE DAY: Southern California wildfires map

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-firemap,0,6179739.htmlpage
I’m back in Southern California. As you know, it's complete chaos out in the mountains and valleys, due to the raging wildfires, which have now forced close to a million people from their homes. I live down at the beach and here, it's the complete opposite. There is no wind and the only sign of fire is the orange night sky and the smoke on the horizon. It's also in the air, as my allergies are acting up. For all of those who have been impacted by these devastating fires, I pray that everyone stays safe and is soon able to return to their homes to start rebuilding their lives. In the meantime here is a good website on fire updates.

WEBSITE OF THE DAY: GetaPassportNow.com

GetaPassportNow.com

With all the new border laws, there’s still a lot of confusion about passports. This website, sponsored by some of the major players in the travel industry, will hopefully help U.S., Canadian and Mexican citizens figure out how and where to get a passport. If you need to renew a passport or get a visa in a hurry, this article in Travel and Leisure magazine does a nice job explaining how to go about it and the author tests out four expeditor agencies.

WEBSITE OF THE DAY: Travelzoo.com

Travelzoo.com I have been receiving Travelzoo’s Top 20® list since it first launched back in 1999. They feature some amazing deals from more than 600 travel companies, which list their very best offers with them. The secret: jump on these deals the moment (every Wednesday around, 11AM EST) the email arrives in your inbox because the Top 20 list is sent to over 11 million subscribers. That’s right ... a mind-boggling 11 million!

Obviously, with so many subscribers, they must be offering something worthwhile. When they approached me about alerting Johnny Jet readers about Travelzoo’s awesome deals, I said, “Are you kidding me? I’m sure Johnny Jet readers already subscribe to the Travelzoo Top 20." But after looking through our archives, I realized that I’ve never made Travelzoo Website of the Week, so maybe you don’t know about it.

So here goes: If you’re a savvy, Internet travel-deal-seeker who doesn’t currently receive the weekly Travelzoo Top 20, be sure to click this link to sign up. It’s a win-win situation for everyone. They get more customers and most importantly, you get access to some pretty amazing travel deals…free! As an added bonus, they are having a sweepstakes during which not one, but 20 winners get to choose a free trip from the Top 20 list. What are you waiting for? It’s free and will save you money.

WEBSITE OF THE DAY: EmbassyWorld.com

EmbassyWorld.com
This website provides links to several popular mapping companies for the destination you are searching. As a bonus (and one of the ways they make money), they suggest guidebook recommendations for every country, though they aren’t all updated. For example, the recommended USA guidebook is the Frommers edition from 2001. Uh, hello?! It’s 2007, people! Time for an update!

WEBSITE OF THE DAY: TripIt.com

TripIt.com Here’s a very cool new website that I urge you to check out. From the creator of Hotwire.com, this site helps travelers organize their plans. As we all know, there isn’t just one website out there that offers the best deals all the time. That’s why I created the Johnny Jet travel portal. When shopping around for the best price, most people end up booking flights, hotels, car rentals and various activities all on different websites. Printing all of those itineraries and confirmations is not only a waste of paper, but it gets confusing, too. This is where TripIt.com steps in. All you have to do is email your confirmations to plans@tripit.com; once they receive your bookings, they'll email you a link to view your full itinerary. It takes no time at all and it really works! I just did it and was pleasantly surprised; they threw in maps, weather forecasts and links to useful tips, including links to check-in online.

WEBSITE OF THE DAY: Souvenir's to bring home

Souvenir's to bring home My buddy and fellow travel writer Doug Lansky has put together an excellent three-minute video, all about the search for the world's best souvenirs. After listening to his humorous take on travelers trailing after trinkets and trash, you may never bring another souvenir home again. Or, you might just supersize them. Either way, you'll have to check out his video for more!

WEBSITE OF THE DAY:

RideAmigos.com

Do you live in or travel frequently to New York, Chicago, L.A. or San Francisco? If you do, then listen up ... especially if you want to save time, money and the environment. A new website called RideAmigos.com is for people who want to share a ride to wherever they’re going – the beach, a sporting event, the airport, park, museum, you name it! It can work for one-time only deals or recurring requests. Here’s how it works: Enter in whatever it is you’re looking for, then search the database. For example, I just logged on to the New York City site and did a search, pretending I was looking to share a ride tomorrow morning from the Upper East Side to JFK. Sure enough, someone else was looking to share a ride at 7:45am. So if I were in NY, looking to split cab fare, I could have sent this person an email to co-ordinate a meeting time and place. Ingenious!