| Today's Travel News |
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| · Tuesday, July 15, 2003 · |
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Book Review: It's the Ultimate Internet Travel Guide We're here (in Provence) and we're traveling with Johnny Jet. Or at least with the help of Johnny Jet and his latest book You Are Here Traveling with JohnnyJet.com. If you haven't added this gem to your travel book library, head on over to amazon.com or your local Barnes & Noble and pick it up. Especially if, like us, you find the web an indispensable tool for finding travel deals, lodging and destination information.
Johnny Jet's book contains over 3,000 travel websites, tips and bargains, categorized within 34 chapters like Steals and Deals on Fares, Boat Travel, Airport Information, Traveling with the Family, Tips and Business Travel. We particularly liked the Staying in Touch chapter, which led us to a bunch of websites that can help us stay in touch with family and friends while we're on vacation, especially abroad. Including www.travelcell.com, which offers global cell rentals at low rates. Just go to the site, click on your destination and up pops all the information, including rates for the cell phone rental in that country. Or how about www.netflix.com, which rents DVDs online - great for entertaining the kids as you travel cross-country. Haven't heard of Johnny Jet? His real name is John Einar DiScala. He acquired the Johnny Jet nickname as a teenage riding his jet ski on Long Island Sound. Traveling over 150,000 miles a year, Johnny began putting together travel tips and information for friends and family. Before long, it expanded to become www.JohnnyJet.com, a website that categorizes and organizes travel links. So why buy the book when you can get the same info on his website for free? Well, for one thing, the index, which lists sites by destination. Going to Orlando? Check it out under Florida and you'll find five tourism sites. For another thing, the book reviews each site (his website doesn't). It also includes a "Jet Code" which, when used in the search box on the Johnny Jet website, links you directly to the coded travel site you're looking for. You don't even have to type the URL. Plus to us, anyway, it's still so much faster to look through a book, than a website. You Are Here Traveling with JohnnyJet.com, written by Eric Leebow with John E. DiScala. Published in 2003 by Yahbooks Publishing. $14.95 U.S. Available at local bookstores or www.amazon.com. - Judi Janofsky and Rich Steck  |
· accommodations InterContinental Hotels & Resorts announces the rebranding of the Crowne Plaza Toronto Centre as the InterContinental Toronto Centre. The property, which is currently undergoing an ambitious $21 million refurbishment program, will fly the InterContinental flag as of September 2003. For More... Biras Creek, a 31-suite resort on Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands, will open a new wellness and body treatment facility on November 1. The Relais & Chateaux property, which is known for its high-end services, excellent cuisine and private and serene location, will feature an intimately sized treatment center further enhancing the pampering and relaxing ambiance that guests experience. For More... The newest deluxe resort in Los Cabos, the 237-suite Marquis Los Cabos Beach, Golf, Spa and Casitas Resort, is offering special late summer and fall internet only rates of $200 for a junior suite. This rate represents a discount of 50 percent off of upcoming winter 2003/4 rates and includes a Marquis breakfast served daily to each suite. For More... An all-new comprehensive resort wellness center has opened at the Wailea Marriott in Maui, Hawaii. The Maui Wellness Institute offers programs for meeting groups and individual guests on health, fitness, anti-aging and stress reduction. For More... · events The local chapter of the Antique Motorcycle Club of America, Chief Blackhawk, will host the 32nd annual Fall National Meet on Labor Day Weekend, August 29 - 31, at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds in Davenport, Iowa. For More... Embarcadero Center will kick off San Francisco's holiday season with the annual Building Lighting Ceremony on Friday, November 21, immediately following the Embarcadero Center Holiday Fair. For More... · destinations Houston has long told visitors to "expect the unexpected," a motto that perhaps best fits the city's thriving arts community, where avant-garde innovation and excitement are an everyday occurrence. The breadth of offerings from small- and mid-size cultural organizations include dance, theater, literature, music and the visual arts, and are reinforcing the city's growth into a cosmopolitan hub of culture and commerce. For More... · transportation Travelocity, the most popular travel service on the Web, today announced an agreement with Arlington, Va.-based US Airways, Inc. that makes Travelocity the exclusive distributor of hotels, car rentals and last minute deals on the US Airways Web site. For More... America West Airlines, the second largest low-fare carrier in the U.S., announces that it will initiate the only daily nonstop, roundtrip service between its Phoenix hub and Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on October 2003. For More... Delta Connection is offering customers new nonstop jet service between New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and Jacksonville, Fla., effective September 15. Delta Connection carrier Comair, a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, will operate the service with Bombardier CRJ regional jets. For More... |
| Produced by Judi Janofsky, Rich Steck and the Golf Press Association |
