A friend of mine and I have booked a holiday that includes accomodation in Barcelona, Rome, Florence, Ravenna, Venice and finally Paris, all on the net. A good site is http://www.hostelworld.com/. Compared with other similar facilities, they were always the cheapest It is time consuming but in the process one’s ideas change and develop. I also found that I got to know the city/counyty in the process and found other info about art galleries, museums etc. The proof of the pudding will be once we get there and we will see whether spending all this time on the net has given us a more informed start on our own two week amazing race