How do you select the best online travel community discussions from the past year? Darts, drinks … and a lot of monkeys (don’t ask).

Seriously, with hundreds of thousands of threads from which to choose, selecting the “best” is an impossible task. Still, we try. These outstanding threads were selected due to their originality, their exceptional level of dialogue and because once you start reading you can’t stop until the very last post.

Best Trip Reports of 2014

Six-City Trip through Croatia, Slovenia and Venice – April/May 2014
Just a short 140 miles across the Adriatic Sea from Italy resides a country that enjoys far less trumpeting–Croatia.

Slow_Mustang took a long, leisurely trip through Croatia, Slovenia, with a jaunt over to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and ended the journey in Venice–taking plenty of photos along the way. Nothing against Venice, but solely judging by the photos, the beautiful Italian city falls to the bottom of this short list. Visit http://insideflyerus.wpengine.com/link/?11839

A Trip to Iran
Whether you have been considering a trip to Iran or not, this pictorial Iranian trip report by DanielW on FlyerTalk will tempt you.

Daniel’s photos are stunning. And each photo is accompanied by just one sentence of description–providing just enough context without taking anything away from the images that really drive the report. Visit http://insideflyerus.wpengine.com/link/?11840

The Tale of the Grow Walk… Huh?
It goes without saying that no two trip reports are alike. But this report by jenseib is definitely unlike any other. In addition to sharing great photos, she also describes in exceptional and excruciating detail the myriad frustrating little things that are a natural part of traveling with your family to Disney World. In short, it’s a must-read classic, see http://insideflyerus.wpengine.com/link/?11841

Best Amazing-but-True Threads of 2014

Baby Born on BA82 Yesterday
A passenger so enjoyed traveling with her 1-yr-old child on a British Airways flight this year that she decided right then and there to double the fun and give birth to a second offspring. And you thought having a crying, kicking baby in the seat behind you was about as bad as it could get.

This unusual situation led to a fantastically entertaining and enlightening discussion. See http://insideflyerus.wpengine.com/link/?11842

Surprising Lost-and-Found Call from United a Year after Incident
Leave a jacket on an airplane and it is returned within a day or two and you probably think, “Oh good, they found it.” Leave a jacket on an airplane and it is returned over a year later and you think, “Amazing!” The latter is precisely what drowelf experienced. And he isn’t alone, as others chimed in with some surprising lost and very eventually found stories of their own. Visit http://insideflyerus.wpengine.com/link/?11843

Tales from Behind the Iron Curtain…
Someone much smarter than I really needs to get to work on this time travel thing because I desperately want to visit the Soviet and Eastern European countries prior to the fall of the Soviet Union, as the posters in this thread were able to do.

Some of the anecdotes shared are just remarkable. The entire thread is a terrific read, and even includes some stories about Franco’s Spain and accounts of Soviet-bloc citizens who traveled to the West pre-fall. See http://insideflyerus.wpengine.com/link/?11844

Best Travel Thought Experiments of 2014

If You Only Had the Guts To Do It, Where Would You Go?
We all probably have places we would like to visit–if only they weren’t so darn dangerous, or so darn difficult to get to. In this thread, tijlover asks: “If You Only Had The Guts To Do It, Where Would You Go?”

Read more at http://insideflyerus.wpengine.com/link/?11845

Why Do People Sleep on Planes?
Sleeping is typically a private matter. We allow ourselves to do it in our homes or hotel rooms, when no one other than our close family is around … with the notable exception of airplanes.
In this thought-provoking thread Warks asks why so many people feel like this airplane exception is permissible. See http://insideflyerus.wpengine.com/link/?11846

Best Thread Title of 2014

And last but not least, the Best Thread Title 2014 award goes to missregangrace, with the brilliantly overdramatic–“Will I die on a TigerAir flight?” Read more at http://insideflyerus.wpengine.com/link/?11847