True, the Tour de France ended last month, but this is the perfect time to plan for next year's event. Here to tell us how to bike in the legendary race yourself--or at least have a good time in the stands--is Lauren Hefferon, a former professional cyclist who has logged 35,000 miles cycling across Europe in her early years after college. She now runs a bicycle touring company, Ciclismo Classico, which runs biking trips throughout Italy, France, Spain, Vietnam, Chile, Argentina, and New Zealand.

I've been following a wonderful NYTimes blog about an amateur who raced in a leg of this year's Tour de France. How hard is this to do?

Considering the race is two weeks long and covers over 130 miles a day over the some of the toughest passes in the world, it is considered one of the toughest races in the world. The racers must train all year long and begin at a very young age training their muscles and their mind. The sport is very strategic, rider must not only be fit but they have to understand how to best work together as a team to gain the most advantage over each day's ride. The team will always assist the favorite rider by blocking, drafting and out sprinting their adversaries,

And what's the process for those who want to train and get involved in racing--and not just touring?

Potential racers should first be passionate about the sport, have solid endurance and be committed to training regularly and vigorously. The best thing is to join a team so you can have some of your expenses sponsored. Being on a team you will get coaching, support from team members and some of your equipment covered. Cycling can be a very expensive sport and the winnings are not that much. You must commit 3-4 hours a day to training, additional rest and a healthy lifestyle.

I'm here with Mark Jolly, founder and editor of globorati, the top luxury travel site for the stylish jet set. Mark is also a contributing editor at Conde Nast Traveler, having reported from over 60 countries and lived on four continents. He's here to talk about everything from which diamond-infused lotion is appropriate for your next getaway to Miami to the next big luxury destination (in South America, but not Brazil or Argentina).

globorati has covered some pretty over-the-top vacation packages. Are such experiences becoming more prevalent. What are some particularly extravagant ones coming up?

Most of what globorati covers is focused on useful, up-to-the-moment stories that capture the thrill and beauty of travel. But every now and again we'll run something on a big-ticket, through-the-roof, ultra-luxe experience. The sort of stuff I call "sick travel" - stuff like a $700 breakfast at the new Ritz-Carlton Moscow, or a $30,000 private-jet expedition to Antarctica, or a $50,000 one-night package at the Four Seasons Miami (the massage uses lotion infused with ground diamonds). The other day, we ran a story on a $1 million vacation to Dubai. You can file that one under "vacations for the cash-rich, sense-poor traveler."

What's been the cushiest trip you've ever splurged on?

Sounds like an odd thing to say, but I'm a professional traveler: I normally get paid to travel and experience different cultures. The most singular journey I've ever taken has to be the Concorde. The experience was a thing of beauty: the captain invited me to sit in the cockpit, and from my seat, at 60,000 feet, I saw a panoramic sky that was an incomparably richer, darker blue than anything I'd seen at subsonic altitude. And at 23 miles-per-minute, I could make out the curvature of the earth. For the foreseeable future there's absolutely nothing in commercial aviation that will come close to the Concorde.

Bob Knebel is vice president of sales for Flexjet, a subsidiary of the jet-maker Bombardier which sells shares of private jets to frequent fliers. This is a relatively new trend in the marketplace. He's here to give a glimpse into what actually goes on in the world of ultra jet-setters.

For owners of private jets, is the airport process totally different from what we commoners have to bear? Can you go straight onto the tarmac and lift off?

First, and foremost, it is important to know that security at general aviation airports is taken as seriously as it is at the larger commercial airports ... and always has been. That said, a passenger will go through a brief identification/security screening process by the Fixed Base Operator (the base of operations for business jets transiting through this airport), and then again with the crew flying your aircraft. The entire process is personal, and much quicker than that at a commercial airport. And, yes, depending on the particular airport policies, in many instances you may drive your car on to the ramp, making the job of loading your luggage directly on to your aircraft just that much easier.

Kayak is one of our favorite companies to write about. The leading airfare metacrawler processes some 40 million travel requests per month, making it one of the most popular travel sites out there. TIME Magazine has called it one of the "50 Coolest Websites" and the "Best Search Aid" by Travel + Leisure Magazine.

Instead of random musings this time, we've got Steve Hafner on the line. He's the co-founder and CEO, a guy who's more than qualified in his position--he helped found Orbitz in 1999.

How is a metacrawler better than a regular search engine?

Studies show consumers search four to five Web sites before making a purchase. Kayak.com saves the consumer time by searching all of these Web sites in seconds and displaying rates and availability for more than 440 travel brands. We provide the user with powerful filtering and sorting tools, so they can find exactly what they're looking for quickly and easily. Then, Kayak.com then lets the user decide where to purchase-direct from a supplier such as the airline's own website, or from on online travel agency like Orbitz. Unlike the online travel agencies, Kayak.com is free to use.

Do you plan on getting into the package market or will you continue to metacrawl?

Kayak.com launched a beta version of a package product on Thursday, June 26. We hope to add several more providers over the next two weeks and formally launch the vacations product soon. Kayak.com is the first travel site to offer a true meta-search product for vacation packages.

Will you ever implement a feature to pick a destination by "region" instead of city? As in Europe instead of Paris?

Excellent idea. We launched such a product in 2005 (see announcement). Kayak Buzz displays the lowest fares to the 25 most popular destinations within a region from a consumer's hometown. To get the Buzz, input a departure airport or city in the Buzz section of the homepage, along with desired month of travel and region of interest. Within seconds, Kayak Buzz displays a list of 25 cities organized by popularity with an interactive Google Map that plots destinations. Regions include world, U.S., Europe, Caribbean, South America, Asia, Africa and Australia/Oceania. Consumers can also register to receive customized Kayak Buzz Alerts by email. Consumers and media really love it, so we've enhanced Kayak Buzz several times.

Does your software have the ability to do that?

Kayak.com keeps all search data for one year. Kayak Buzz prices are actual fares found by other Kayakers over the past two days. Our data warehouse of fares is used for several Kayak.com tools including Best Fare Trend Chart, Fare History and Fare Alerts.

What is the advantage of your metacrawler over other engines such as Mobissimo or Sidestep?

Kayak.com is the leader in the space for a reason. Kayak.com is the only travel search site that offers a complete package-comprehensive search, powerful filtering tools, variety of useful search tools such as Flexible Search or Weekend Search, personalization and ease of use (Note: Kayak.com's search engine has powered SideStep.com since the December 2007 acquisition). As a technology company, Kayak.com is able to enhance and innovate the site at a rapid pace-which keeps us ahead of other travel search sites and the OTAs. Many new features come directly from consumer requests, as every Kayak.com employee reads every piece of user feedback every day and we respond to new feature requests in order of popularity.

What are some features we should expect to see in the near future?

On Thursday, June 26, Kayak.com launched Flight Quality functionality which allows the user to filter red-eyes, departure/return from same airport, aircraft type, etc. A warning message is also displayed to flights that meet a criteria deemed undesirable by some travelers including flights with terrible on-time records, layovers longer than four hours, red-eyes, last flight of the day, etc. Kayak.com also launched an Airline Fee Chart which summarizes the five most popular fees tacked on by airlines including those for baggage, meals, pets, unaccompanied minors and seat assignment/legroom. Kayak.com is working on integrating these fees into the search results and we hope to launch this capability by the end of July.

When Kayak.com acquired SideStep.com, a hotel review site called Travelpost.com came with the package. Our plan is to turn Travelpost.com into a true competitor to TripAdvisor. Although TripAdvisor is the hotel review leader, we think it's a terrible user experience and we know we can do it better. Our engineering team is in the process of adding the Kayak.com UI to Travelpost.com and then we'll start enhancing the site with better functionality. You'll start hearing about Travelpost.com around the watercooler soon.

Do you have any stats on Kayak's usage / popularity to wow us?

More than 35 million people visited Kayak.com last month, and we processed more than 40 million requests for travel information. That makes us a top 10 travel site in the U.S., bigger than just about every airline and hotel website. Plus, we recently launched websites in the U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Italy and India. The amazing part is how little we spend on marketing compared to our competitors.

As someone who helped found Orbitz, why did you end up leaving? In your opinion, what's wrong about their service right now?

Orbitz is a great company. But many consumers use it to search for travel information and then book at the airline or hotel website directly. So, it is really a search engine-but not a very good one. Not every airline or hotel is available on Orbitz, the sorting and filtering tools are rudimentary and there is no real personalization. So I left to start a Web site that tried to be a travel search engine and not a seller of travel services.

What can Kayak do better? What is the search engine's biggest weakness?

We're still not very good at what we do. We don't search every airline and hotel, we take too long to conduct a search and the result set is not as personalized as it should be. The bright side is that we still do it better than everyone else. And, we're making progress on each of those weaknesses.

What are your top three favorite travel destinations?

It's hard to beat the French Riviera (especially Antibes), St. Barts in the Caribbean and my local favorite: New York City.

What are some bizarre travel trends you've picked up from Kayak users?

When Kayak.com launched a redesign of the hotel search, we asked users about hotel stays. You wouldn't believe what people have found in their hotel rooms! The results still make me laugh every time I read them.

For travelers in other countries, is there any way to avoid booking a ticket through a travel agency? Are there solid search engines for particular geographic regions (like Southeast Asia or South America)?

The rest of the world is beyond the U.S. in terms of sophistication in online travel. Kayak.com has improved the online travel experience in some countries by launching local sites in the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Spain and India.

This Friday will mark the launch of the first regular route in the world on the A380, from Dubai to New York JFK on Emirates Airline. I'm here to talk to Nigel Page, Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations (Americas) about this exciting development, the airline's famed "private hotels in the sky," and why we should book a ticket to Dubai.

What will be the configuration on the A380, New York-Dubai route? What are some of the amenities?

Emirates A380 on the New York-Dubai route will feature 489 seats in a three-class configuration. (14 first class, 76 business class and 399 economy class.) Our official unveiling takes place today as we accept the first A380 directly from Airbus in Hamburg, Germany. This will be followed by the first-ever commercially scheduled A380 flight to the United States on August 1st.

How much cost savings does the A380 provide over the traditional transatlantic equipment?

The A380 is an aircraft built to not only serve the customer better, but the operator as well. Fuel economy is perhaps the greatest advantage the A380 provides, as this aircraft receives better mileage per passenger than most hybrid passenger cars. This fuel economy, combined with the A380's range and capacity, allows for a greater projected cost savings over other older aircraft.

Adelle and Ron Milavsky, a lovely retired couple who live in Connecticut, have been road-tripping across Europe for years. They've written the definitive guide on RV trips, Take Your RV to Europe: The Low-Cost Route to Long-Term Touring and now here to share a few more tips about this rather under-rated method of travel.

You recently came back from yet another RV roadtrip through Europe. Tell us a bit about it. How far did you go? What were some of your best memories?

Over the years, we've spent more than a year touring Western Europe. Our latest trip was in April and May this year. We only stayed for six weeks this year instead of our usual 10 –12 weeks. We knew that it would be considerably more expensive this year because of the low value of the dollar. Because gas was as high as $10 a gallon, we only traveled in The Netherlands, Belgium and France with one stop in Germany.

In all we drove about 1500 miles. Our main stops were Bruges, Ypres, Waterloo and Gent in Belgium; The Hague, Amsterdam, and Keukenhof Gardens in The Netherlands; Metz, Nancy, Strasbourg, Troyes in France; and Aachen in Germany. Our bills from this six-week stay were still affordable. Our total outlay for six weeks of travel (not counting airfare) was about $3,000 more than what we would spend at home for food and entertainment. For our 42-day stay, gas costs us $1200, campgrounds just under $1000.

I'm here with Andrew Zimmern, the wildly popular host of Travel Channel's hit series, Bizarre Foods. He's a personality that needs no introduction--at least around the Gadling water cooler. You could even say he's our Paris Hilton.

His show--which is about what it sounds like--has just finished its second season, with episodes spanning the globe from Iceland and Bolivia to St. Petersberg and Delhi (check out our episode guides here). Beyond the tube, he's a celebrated food writer, dining critic, radio talk-show host, and chef. For more Andrew, check out his blog.

In this exclusive interview, Andrew dishes on everything from director Ang Lee's stinky tofu fetish to his NYC School of Hot Dog Consumption Theory.

What did you do after you got out of the restaurant business in 1997? How'd you end up on the Travel Channel?

After leaving daily restaurant operations, I started working for a local monthly glossy magazine and a local Fox news station, doing food stories for both. I began to work on several shows on HGTV as a part-time talent and just kept pushing tape everywhere I could. I began to develop a reputation and a following, and eventually started working with a local production company on show ideas. I have always wanted to be the food guy on the Travel Channel. It was my goal from the beginning and once they saw our tapes they commissioned some specials from us, and then those took off and the rest just happened thanks to the viewers. I am totally blessed and the luckiest guy in the world.

Theo Brandt-Sarif is a professional lecturer who gives seminars on booking luxury vacations and business trips. He's also author of Guerrilla Travel Tactics, a tell-all guide on how to get the best deals on flights, hotels, and vacation packages.

Are there shortcuts to getting business or first class air travel at less than street price?

By far the best way is to use frequent flyer miles. And with credit cards offering frequent flier miles in virtually any and every airline's programs, it's easier than ever to accrue a lot of miles, even if you do not fly very often. Go to freetravelreport.com. One of the free reports is titled "Simple Secrets to Getting First Class Airline Upgrades".

How about getting upgraded to a suite, oceanfront, or concierge floor?

One of my favorite hotel upgrade strategies is the "special event" strategy. All you need to do is contact the hotel reservations office 2-3 days ahead of arrival by fax, email or phone, explaining why your forthcoming visit is special. If it's your honeymoon-you are virtually guaranteed an upgrade. But wedding anniversaries, birthdays, graduation gifts, first visit to a country-they all count as "special events".

You will almost always get something you would not otherwise have received-an upgrade, free breakfast each day, champagne and fruit delivered to your room etc. Think about it from the hotel standpoint-it costs them virtually nothing to engender a very loyal customer.

I'm here with Andrew Zimmern, the wildly popular host of Travel Channel's hit series, Bizarre Foods. He's a personality that needs no introduction--at least around the Gadling water cooler. You could even say he's our Paris Hilton.

His show--which is about what it sounds like--has just finished its second season, with episodes spanning the globe from Iceland and Bolivia to St. Petersberg and Delhi (check out our episode guides here). Beyond the tube, he's a celebrated food writer, dining critic, radio talk-show host, and chef. For more Andrew, check out his blog.

In this exclusive interview, Andrew dishes on everything from director Ang Lee's stinky tofu fetish to his NYC School of Hot Dog Consumption Theory.

What are the top four worst foods you've sampled, ranked by terribleness?

• My aunt's meatloaf. Horrific. Each slice ringed with an orange pool of fat, spreading out on dirty plastic plates. I was six at the time and it traumatized me.
• Stinky tofu at Dai's Sisig in Angeles in the Philippines. It's a quick hash made with meat and cartilage from chopped pigs faces. It was really nasty.
• Raw pigs balls sliced and served with raw egg yolks. I ate it at a getemono bar in Tokyo, and texturally and aromatically, it was a real challenge to eat.
  
• And I guess to round out the list I would have to choose all the bad versions of dineguen, which is a Malaysian blood soup that I adore, but bad versions of it are just hideous.