stimpy

To be clear, I never said you were immature! I did say...

And as for Lonely Planet, I think it would be more accurate to say I don't trust it. The entries could come from the owners of the hotel, or someone who has a personal hatred of someone who works at a hotel. Or someone who has wildly different expectations of a hotel than I would. That is why to me LP simply isn't trustworthy nor viable. All IMHO of course and if LP works for you then don't listen to my ramblings.

Flyertalk doesn't just cover the major hotel chains. There are posts here from thousands of different non-chain hotels, made by people who have demonstrated over time who they are and their level of reliability. Even backpackers!

Seat 2A

I'm sorry, stimpy, I didn't mean to imply that you had. I take full responsibility for applying that term to myself, somewhat tongue in cheek as it is.

Are you talking about the Lonely Planet books or their online site? You mentioned entries as in maybe a forum? I've never used the online site, only the books and have found some really great places (per my standards)through them.

Now this is the best endorsement I've read of FlyerTalk as a source of travel information, especially if you know some of the people involved. I guess I just don't delve deeply enough into FT for travel advice since I use it primarily to check out the occasional trip report or the Alaska Airlines forum. I've looked around the many forums in the past and FT's such a huge site with heaps of information and social networking opportunities but from my personal perspective, I just don't want to spend that much time on the internet and I'm more comfortable doing my social networking in person. As a result of this though, I could well be missing out on some information on FT that might benefit my travels.

Thanks for your input on this stimpy. Although I may not necessarily spend enough time on FlyerTalk to uncover some of the travel information of which you speak, it's good to know that fellow backpackers just might be able to find what they're looking for if they do.

stimpy

Sorry, I made the last post way too early in the morning, and was thinking more of Trip Advisor. Apologies to LP. But my comments about Flyertalk stand.

muzthe42nd

Inspired by Seat 2A's magnificent report, I did the Kyle line myself this month. So, if anyone wants to see how the line looks in Summertime, may I recommend a bit of clicking here?

JHIN

AWESOME trip report LUV the pics great just great. Cathay is my all time favorite airline and I'm trying to find more train time myself - me a cabin a view out the window and my ipod and kindle - unplugged music books scenery.

Did you think seat 1 on the 744 was cramped or looked cramped? Any train suggestions for sightseeing here in north america? Cheers!

Seat 2A

All the new seats are suites, so in terms of personal space I don't think it much matters where you sit. On the other hand, for some having the walls of the nose closing in on both sides might seem a bit confining.

As for North American trains, I recommend the California Zephyr, the Coast Starlight and the Adirondack (New York to Montreal). ViaRail's Canadian is also a pretty route, though I think its main attraction is the old 1955 era Budd cars.