Name Ellen Creager
Who? Travel writer for the Detroit Free Press. Her stories and photographs also run in many other publications via the Gannett and McClatchy-Tribune news wire. Her blog is called Travel Diva, which, she says, may or may not accurately reflect her personality.
Age 54
Countries Visited 38

Titanic Nominations
1. Worst Hotel Room Queen Mary, Long Beach. Former luxury liner has rooms so awful they make you want to jump overboard.
2. Worst Flight Egypt Air flight from Cairo to New York after the Hajj. Most pilgrims were sick, hacking, sneezing, feverish. I hid under my blanket for 5,000 miles. It was like spending 10 hours in a germ factory.
3. Worst Toilet Grungy squat toilet behind the Baghdad Cafe in An Nabk, Syria. The cafe was charming. The toilet wasn’t.
4. Worst Airport JFK’s horrible old Delta Terminal 3. It makes me want to run out of there screaming.
5. Worst Souvenir Local specialty wild thimbleberry jam in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, not realizing that carry-on jam is confiscated at the Houghton/Hancock airport. They must have the best jam collection in the history of US airports.