Travelers should look on the bright side of 2007

My Aunt Gertrude Jones, a lovely woman with a heart as pure as the saint for whom she was named, always said you sometimes count the good days by what doesn’t happen and not by what does.

It’s tempting to look at the year in travel and note how we, as travelers, took it on the chin. Fuel prices increased, hotel rates crept upward, quality of airline service tumbled downward, traveler patience slipped noticeably and we used even less of our paid vacation time than ever.

I won’t speak for all of you, but just looking at that makes me borderline hostile.

Until I look at it the Aunt Gertrude way.

So fuel prices increased. Did you stop driving? No. Did you stop driving as much? Maybe. Well, good for you. You’re helping the environment.

Did you pay more for a hotel? Yes. But did you end up sleeping in your car? No.

Did you get poor service from the airlines? Yes. But did anyone slap you? No.

Did you notice your fellow travelers were pretty tightly wound? Yes. Did anyone snap? Not within my eyesight, except for that jerk in Phoenix who started yelling at the airline agent who had just done him a huge favor by re-booking him.

Did you use less of your vacation time? Yes. But thank the mercy you even had a vacation. Do you know how many people don’t get paid time off?

With that frame of reference, here are the five most important things that happened in travel in 2007. Thank you, Aunt G.

• Airlines’ financial situation improved. Take a bow. Part of that was at a cost to us (having to buy or bring your own food, for instance, on a flight), but how dull would life be without the anticipation, never mind the actuality, of being able to get on the plane and go? The bottom line improvements are such a turnaround from the grim days after 9/11 that it almost makes me want to dance on a tray table top.

• Hotels love us more than ever. Hotels seem to be the counterbalance to the airline experience. They want to be our friends. Some are trying to speed our way into our room by putting check-in kiosks in the lobby. Others are trying to give us all the high-tech toys we could ever want (though a pox on those luxury hotels that charge for wireless Internet access). Still others make sure we get a breakfast to help us start the day. We may be paying a pretty penny, but it’s money well spent.

• Road trips got easier. By Christmas, the price of GPS devices was dropping like real estate.This means more of us can have them and more rental cars may too. This puts the power back where it belongs: in the hands of people who can’t read (or see, for that matter) maps.

• The dollar got us out of our “Europe again” rut. Don’t get me wrong. I love Europe, and so do the rest of Americans, who didn’t stop going there just because the dollar is as weak as a kitten against the pit bull euro. But I resisted the siren call of the Continent, focusing instead on destinations closer to home (Arizona and Texas) or finding variations on familiar destinations. [Can you really say you’ve lived until you’ve tasted applesauce custard pie (better than the famous 10-layer cake) on Smith Island, Md., about three hours and a boat ride from Washington, D.C.?]

• Despite everything, we still believed that seeing the world is important. Sometimes it’s just for a mental health break; sometimes it’s a bridge to understanding. Whatever our motivation, we’ve realized, as a country, that being on the move is not just a privilege reserved for the rich. Whether you take the Megabus to San Francisco for a buck or the new Queen Victoria through the Canary Islands for several grand, you can expand your horizons and see the world from a new perspective

Isn’t that what Aunt Gertrude wanted us to do?