When you're doing your travel planning online….ask the locals. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. Millions of people are turning to the Internet for help in planning and booking their summer vacations. Some of the best known travel sites like Expedia and Travelocity can save you hours and sometimes…lots of money too. But if you are looking for really useful information about what to do or where to eat when you get to your destination…search out a local Web site. Many are run by local newspapers. If you're heading to New York City….check out the New York Times Web site…for theatre listings and restaurant reviews. If Los Angeles is your destination…LA.com, owned by a group of newspapers, can steer you in the right direction. LA.com president Linda Keeler…booking a hotel or theatre ticket is just the start…

"What we offer is not only that, cause obviously you can book a great hotel through LA.com, but you can also figure out where do you want to spend an afternoon. If you're into gardening or architecture or shopping, what we provide is a lot of resources to be able to give you an afternoon, a weekend, so you can plan that entire weekend to see all the mid-century modern homes and architecture in Los Angeles where there's so much… all in a smart way, so you can just in one place find everything you need."

Most of the time…access to sites run by local newspapers is free. It's easy enough to find them using Google, or the search engine of your choice. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.