Map of flights: Flights in 2005

Miles flown: 66,218 (all of it in (gasp) economy!)

Airlines flown:

Continential (YYZ-EWR, EWR-AMS, and return)
KLM (AMS-JRO, and return)
Air Excel (ARK-ZNZ)
??? can't recall (ZNZ-ARK)
Air Canada (YYZ-YUL-YYZ * 14, YYZ-CDG-YYZ * 3, YYZ-SFO-YYZ * 2, YYZ-LGA-YYZ * 1, YYZ-EWR-YYZ * 1)
Air Canada (booked via United) (HKG-YYZ-YVR)
Air Transat (YYZ-LCE (yet to be taken))

Awards:

Best Flight: Air Excel (ARK-ZNZ). First, for being the smallest commercial plane I have ever been on. 6 paid passenger seats, though they flew with one pilot and put a paying passenger in the co-pilots seat. Second, for the great views of Stone Town harbour and the peak of Kilimanjaro. Three, because the CEO himself was flying the plane (it's not a big company).

Worst Flight: There was an 2 hour delay on one of the YYZ-YUL flights, which upsets me because that means the delay was twice as long as the flight, but nothing too upsetting this year. Of course, I haven't taken the Air Transat flight yet. It's a charter, and so things don't seem likely to be great.

Best Hotel: Hotel Michelet Odeon in Paris. Nice rooms (though small) with Wifi. Close to the metro. 12 TV channels, plus the woman across the street would walk around her apartment with no clothes on, so lots of entertainment. All this for 90 euros a night.

Best Chain Hotel: Marriott Renaissance Harbour View, Hong Kong. Great views of the bay and across to Kowloon. Centrally located. Good service. Not the nicest Marriott I've been in ever, but the nicest this year.

Worst Hotel: Hotel Acacias at 20 rue du Temple. At 94 Euros a night, certainly priced like a business class hotel, but you would never have guessed it from the interior. My room was on the top floor, and was the most weirdly shaped hotel room I have ever seen. Walking into the room, the bed was to your right and the bathroom (as small as a closet) was straight ahead. To your left was a low, slanted ceiling (almost like the underside of a staircase), which, after a quick duck and drop of around 3/4 of an inch, opened up to a small desk, and long thin hallway towards the window. Plus you couldn't stand in the shower without turning off the water.

Worst Chain Hotel: La Quinta Inn and Suites, Alpharetta, GA. Actually, I didn't stay there in 2005. But I did in 2004, and the memory still haunts me.

Best Airport: A tie between Amsterdam and Vancouver. Both beautifully laid out and well lit and lots of cool stuff to see. Vancouver has the beautiful tie ins to the local nature and native culture. Amsterdam has a museum and a casino. Nice!

Worst airport: Montreal. Bad transit to and from the airport, the taxi drivers are MAD insane. It's not very pretty. The Air Canada lounge is small.

Greg