ANY year in which the good travel experiences outweigh the bad certainly deserves applause. Happily, this has been such a year for travellers like us, careful about their choice of destinations.The main problems seem to involve getting there and getting around once there! It's one reason why more travellers than ever are turning to trains. In fact, more than 600,000 went by train over Thanksgiving, necessitating the addition of 60 additional train-cars. We definitely intend to join them next year!

Year's end is a good time to sit back, savour pleasant memories and reflect on how to avoid repeating unpleasant ones. Let's start with the pleasant ones and a list of finds unexcelled in recent years. Hope yours were too.

q Best accommodations: Travellers usually consider themselves fortunate when they find several truly standout locations surrounded by interesting scenery and attractions on a trip.

Happily — and quite incredibly — that's all we did find this year. So much so that we took encore trips to two of them within months and intend to do the same next year.

How could we be so lucky? County Cavan's Kilcorby Log Cabins overlooking Northern Ireland's lush green border was a delightful place to relax and savour the local culture.

Two trips to Estes Park, Colorado (including the Scottish-Irish Gathering of the Clans Tattoo) revealed wonders of the YMCA's Estes Park Centre and Snow Mountain Ranch. How could we have explored Rocky Mountain National Park several times since childhood and never previously discovered those gems hidden down off-trail roads?

Door County Peninsula's Gordon Lodge on the Wisconsin shores of Lake Michigan proved "You can go home again", even after an absence of decades. And we did . . . twice!FLAGSTAFF'S Hampton Inn and Suites proved very comfortable, especially when we were upgraded as Hilton Gold Card members going and coming up to the Navajo reservation. The suites are spacious, comfortable, with a full housekeeping kitchen for long-stay guests.Their movie channel so distracted us with The Odessa File followed by The Day of the Jackal that packing was considerably delayed and we barely made it in time for buffet breakfast, complete with frontier chuckwagon, and scheduled take-off for Phoenix airport.

Ahead was another Hampton Inn in Kayenta, Arizona deep within the Navajo Nation. Designed and operated by the son of a Navajo Code Talker and daughter of an old-time trader, it recaptures the rare mood, atmosphere and culture of tribal customs we remember from a lifetime of travel there.

So unique is the mood and sense of place, it's antagonised short-sighted corporate Hampton Inn officials who want all their properties to be totally uniform. It's an unbelievable reaction we'll be talking about in a future article visiting that fabled area. It's their very uniqueness that has led us back there.

All these wonderful finds were discovered in our usual style . . . taking to the highway without overnight reservations, hoping to discover something exceptional and different to write about. This year our batting average was perfect!

q Worst travel experience: This one probably goes without saying since it's shared by most travellers, unless they have a private landing strip and access to a private jet. Inconsistencies of flying today are like playing the lottery.

One time it's a flawless experience, the next like tunnelling through a gulag prison camp. Those who fly a lot can't escape some degree of trauma. Once onboard most American carriers, anything remotely resembling a "Fringe benefit" long ago disappeared in economy class and is trimmed to the bone even in first class.

A light lunch was served in American's first class en route to Denver, but not back because flight time was just minutes under the mandatory requirement. The same was true on an encore trip.

A drink before takeoff seems to have become as extinct on board American first class as the gooney bird, except internationally. Most our flights this year were with them because of platinum status, but similar complaints seem industry-wide.

Meanwhile, in the back of the bus, because that's what many domestic flights have become, hungry passengers are offered high-fat snack bags at $5 each, free soft drinks, and cocktails or wine at $5 each.

But who would want to gain an ounce or they'll soon have to wedge passengers into those ever-shrinking economy seats with a shoehorn. Whatever happened to that promotion about added leg room? Threats of deep vein thrombosis become ever more a threat.

Just telephoning to make a reservation has cost $5 for quite a while, and I do like to take the pulse of things talking to a live person. On a recent trip to Phoenix, I had to call again a week later when my mailed e-ticket hadn't arrived. By that time it had already gone up to $8 and is now $10. Mailing the ticket, incidentally, cost another $3 and the reservationist had mismarked the order and it was never sent.

One of the bonuses of frequent flyer seating used to be emergency exit seating when no first class upgrades were available for purchase. United has announced these are now for sale. In other news, Air Canada has decided pillows will now cost $2.

And flyers felt deprived when former president Crandall took olives out of salads to save dollars. After all, those big bonuses and hefty pensions of failing airline executives have to come from somewhere, don't they?SINCE our comfortable business class flight on American to Dublin in May, subsequent service has been in decline and passenger discontent rising rapidly. Several passengers lamented the same refrain. "Flying is getting more like a third world bus ride . . . next time we're taking the train." Whoever produces commercials like American Airlines' "We Know Why You Fly" must never fly themselves!

q Best fun shopping: Two shops stand out as fun finds. The Lighthouse Shop in Kewaunee, Wisconsin emphasises lighthouses in every way imaginable. In a Lake Michigan area where lighthouse presence meant survival for ships sailing treacherous waters, many properties have maritime themes as part of their landscape.

But this shop not only has a building full of four- to six-foot-tall hand-crafted miniatures, but fashionable clothes and decorations of every imaginable type with lighthouse bird-feeder. We mounted it on an eight-foot pole visible from our solarium and it looks great.

Treeline Home Collection in Estes Park, Colorado has a sweeping front porch view of Rocky Mountain National Park. It features work in local woods by very talented area craftsmen . . . everything from beautifully made furniture, decorative arts, very hard to resist high fashion innovative pieces.

Our two finds there were unlike anything we'd seen before . . . two five- and six-foot-tall "totems" carved from a facing slab of a giant log. Carved and painted images from top to bottom are symbolic of Colorado. One is toped by a mountain lion head above a range of peaks, alpine flowers birds and an owl. The other has a coyote, mountain sheep, trees and mountains.

Total cost for both was $366 (15 per cent reduced September sale prices) including packing and shipping.

q Best person-to-person experience: Without a doubt officers of the Ballyconnell, Ireland Police Station whose effervescent personalities and considerate compassion actually turned our accident misadventure into a memorable, unforgettable experience.

It came only days after another sparkling person-to-person meeting with Brian Hardy, Cootehill's hardware store owner who shared information about his favourite Irish border-area scenic and historic sights.

q Most spectacular (and remote) scenery: Can you imagine what it might be like driving a narrow, very precipitous, cliff-edge unpaved road deep down into Grand Canyon? Paiute Canyon Road, weaving north of Navajo Mountain and within strenuous hiking distance of famed Rainbow Bridge and Lake Powell, is every bit that dramatic, actually more so.WE did half of it last year, this year more adventurously braved the whole route into southern Utah, circling back down to Arizona's historic Shonto Trading Post. Not one vehicle was encountered on our all-day adventure, with scenery nothing short of overwhelming.A more restful, less challenging, but uniquely special day on the "best list" was spent at Door County's Cana Lighthouse, vintage 1869. The storm-lashed island near Death's Door in Lake Michigan is now accessible by hiking a rocky causeway, thanks to low lake levels. Both were memorable magic days any reader would rate special.

The only other "worst" involved car rentals. But they'll be included in an upcoming update on what you need to know about car rentals world-wide.