Mobissimo

Some great deals here, again, those in the know, know that January and February and some of March are the prime months to travel, to Asia, even better. Almost all prices are lower and now is a great time to visit all Asia destinations, it's warm in most destinations and the crowds are low, so get on a plane, practice your Chinese, and enjoy the delights of the far East.

For flights departing 03/14 returning 03/22

Departure City	Arrival City	Airfare	% Change
San Francisco (SFO)	Tokyo (NRT)	$655	1.06%	Search
San Francisco (SFO)	Seoul (ICN)	$806	-10.98%	Search
San Francisco (SFO)	Singapore (SIN)	$732	-22.23%	Search
San Francisco (SFO)	Hong Kong (HKG)	$701	-19.03%	Search
San Francisco (SFO)	Manila (MNL)	$862	-20.48%	Search
San Francisco (SFO)	Sydney (SYD)	$1203	-0.15%	Search
San Francisco (SFO)	Christchurch (CHC)	$1240	-16.57%	Search
San Francisco (SFO)	Bangkok (BKK)	$820	-19.08%	Search
San Francisco (SFO)	Kuala Lumpur (KUL)	$874	-28.11%	Search
San Francisco (SFO)	Beijing (PEK)	$673	-8.06%	Search
Average		$857	-15.30%

If you haven't been to Rio for Carnaval, then you really haven't lived. Dancing with thousands of others, watching impossibly built floats, and then ... having your pocket picked. All in a good day. Fat Tuesday is tomorrow, so revellers will be out in force.

"It's madness. There's so much colour, dancing and music," said Des Ryan, a 48-year-old stonemason from Ireland who was experiencing Rio's world-famous Carnival for the first time.

Madness, that pretty much sums it up. Carnaval is not limited to Rio, every Brasilian city has a celebration, each trying to out do the other. Very notable is the Carnaval in Salvador, Bahia. Some say that every day is Carnaval in Bahia, and they might be right - the month preceding and following are filled with related events. Of course you can use Mobissimo to book your ticket, last chance I checked, tickets were only $753 to Rio. Hotel availability, on the other hand, is slim, but no big deal, you'll be dancing all night and sleeping on the beach during the day anyway.

It's becoming Spring in most of Europe as temperatures are rising. Prices, however, have remained low, and now is a great time to go to Europe from LA. Though it's super warm in LA, a quick little ski trip to Switzerland or Italy could be the ticket.

For flights departing 03/12 returning 03/20

Departure City	Arrival City	Airfare	% Change
Los Angeles (LAX)	Frankfurt (FRA)	$513	-4.20%	Search
Los Angeles (LAX)	London (LON)	$431	-20.04%	Search
Los Angeles (LAX)	Paris (PAR)	$597	3.36%	Search
Los Angeles (LAX)	Madrid (MAD)	$498	-21.42%	Search
Los Angeles (LAX)	Amsterdam (AMS)	$472	-23.35%	Search
Los Angeles (LAX)	Nice (NCE)	$669	3.83%	Search
Los Angeles (LAX)	Prague (PRG)	$626	-4.23%	Search
Los Angeles (LAX)	Rome (ROM)	$541	-12.73%	Search
Los Angeles (LAX)	Zurich (ZRH)	$510	-15.10%	Search
Los Angeles (LAX)	Venice (VCE)	$532	-20.66%	Search
Average		$539	-11.52%

Still good prices to Europe from New York, though the prices are going up a bit. Hit up London, very cheap at $348, the dollar's a little bit stronger, the weather ... is still bad though. Enjoy.

For flights departing 03/12 returning 03/20

If you're an American, Venezuela isn't the best place to be, especially when Chavez is consided less US-friendly than Osama. However, Isla Margarita is an unbelievably beautiful place, forget about Porlamar, hit the small areas and you will be rewarded. Otherwise, Rio is cheap as is Mexico City (DF). However, if you've seen Man on Fire, you may want to pass on DF, but that's just me.

For flights departing 03/01 returning 03/09

United States: East Coast Moshup Beach, Mass. Nantucket Island, Mass. Provincetown, Mass. East Hampton, N.Y. Southampton, N.Y. Cape May, N.J. United States: Southern Coast Duck, N.C. Hilton Head, S.C. Kiawah Island, S.C. Myrtle Beach, S.C. United States: Florida & The Gulf Coast Palm Beach, Fla. Panama City Beach, Fla. Siesta Key, Fla. South Beach, Fla. South Padre Island, Texas United States: West Coast & Hawaii Coronado Beach, Calif. Hermosa Beach, Calif. Laguna Beach, Calif. Newport Beach, Calif. Santa Barbara, Calif. Venice Beach, Calif. Honaunau Bay, Hawaii Kapalua, Hawaii Mauna Kea, Hawaii Poipu Beach, Hawaii Waikiki, Hawaii Wailea, Hawaii Cannon Beach, Ore. Shi Shi Beach, Wash. Africa Clifton Beach, South Africa

Asia & Pacific Rim Natadola Beach, Fiji Kuta Bali, Indonesia Datai Beach, Langkawi, Malaysia The Maldives Islands Matira Beach, Bora Bora Anse Source d'Argent, Seychelles Ofu Beach, American Samoa Patong Beach, Phuket Island, Thailand Phi Phi Island, Langkawi, Thailand Australia Fraser Island, Australia Surfers Paradise, Australia Caribbean & Mexico Paradise Island, Bahamas Negril, Jamaica Culebra Island, Puerto Rico Grand Cul-de-Sac, St. Bart's St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands Trunk Bay, St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands Cancun, Mexico Maroma Beach, Mexico Europe Biarritz Beach, France Crete, Greece Mykonos Island, Greece Larvotto Beach, Monaco St. Tropez, France Tenerife, Canary Islands North America Pink Sands Beach, Bahamas South America Copacabana, Brazil Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

There has been some confusion amongst first time visitors to Mobissimo as well as the always vigilant and accurate media as to what it is we do exactly. Well, it depends on the day folks. Sometimes we sell small arms to promising revolutions worldwide but usually, we're what's called a travel search engine or more obtusely, a meta-search engine. To be clear, as a meta-search engine, we retrieve and display prices from over 157 different sites across the world in real-time based on your search criteria. When you see a price you like and click on the details link, we send you directly to the site where we found the information. Perhaps most importantly, the prices you see on our site are EXACTLY what you would see if you conducted the search directly on Orbitz, Cheaptickes, American Airlines, Jet Blue or any of the 157 other sites we search. So naturally, the next question you might ask yourself is how Mobissimo is different than other meta-search engines out there? Because, lets be honest, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a travel meta-search nowadays. Let us explain:

• Some of our ahem competitors do not search sites directly; they pull their prices and availability from somewhere else, resulting in prices that are not accurate or searches that need to be recreated on the supplier site again. Not on Mobissimo, what you see is what you would get if you searched each site directly.
• We search many, many, many more suppliers than anyone else. So, for example, you're trying to get a cheap flight from Boston to Bombay, we're the only travel search engine that searches the specialized India travel site MakeMyTrip. Why does that matter? We save you money and time by providing access to airfare, hotel rooms, and cars from an unequalled number of travel sites.
• We have no peer when it comes to finding international flights and hotels. Anybody else out there search Lufthansa directly? How about MakeMyTrip? SpiceJet? Nope. Nope. Nope. See the complete list here. If you want to save money flying or staying abroad, use Mobissimo.
• Power Tools. Sick of pop-up calendars and pull down menus? Use our OneBox Search. Need to check flight into multiple cities from one origin, try our PowerSearch. Need a cheap flight into Europe in the summer, buy two tickets and save via MobiCombo.

We are pleased and excited to annouce that Mary Nicklin will be writing for the MobiBlog. A well-seasoned traveler, Mary has an impressive travel resume.

Mary Winston Nicklin is the editor of the Informed Traveler, published by the luxury travel experts at Five Star Alliance.  A global nomad since graduating from Harvard, MW can't seem to shake the travel bug. 2004's solo trip around-the-world just added fuel to the fire; she then spent 2005 in El Salvador helping to develop sustainable tourism. She now divides her time between France and the US, doing her best to mend the soured Franco-American relationship.