Rome2Rio is a service that connects multiple transportation systems along a route to help you get from one city to another, or simply across a large metropolitan area. For example, if your day trip to the pinball museum requires bus, subway, ferry, and light rail travel, this app will show you all the segments, times, and prices for the entire trip on a map.
happy cow is a secret guide to the kings and queens of plants. The app shows you a map of all the vegan and vegetarian restaurants in your location, plus veg-friendly places and organic markets nearby. I use it every time I’m in a new city and believe me, I stay well nourished. The listings are global.
Buy some security
Americans have a few options to get through airport checkpoints more quickly. US citizens can register TSA Precheck. It requires a security check, including a background check and fingerprinting, which is usually performed at the local airport. But once you’re cleared, you can go through security in an expedited PreCheck line. It usually lasts less than five minutes and you never have to take off your laptop or shoes. The Transportation Security Administration used to occasionally grant PreCheck status to travelers it deemed “low risk,” but the agency recently stopped doing so. Now the only way to get PreCheck is to go through the process. It costs about $80, but many credit cards offer it as a benefit, so check yours.
If you are interested in TSA PreCheck and travel abroad often, also consider paying a little more for Global Entry. This costs $100, includes TSA PreCheck, and allows you faster and easier entry into the US and airports in other countries (77 airports total).
The popular alternative is Clearwhich offers many of the same luxuries as TSA PreCheck, except it’s run by a private company rather than the U.S. government. It skips document verification and instead uses biometric scanners. Clear costs $179 a year for an individual, and there’s a discount for additional family members. Clear has been expanding and now has dedicated fast lanes at 57 U.S. airports.
Those options require signing up, paying fees, and waiting for approval, but here’s a free tool you can use now to speed up re-entry at the end of your trip. Mobile passport control is an app developed by the US Customs and Border Protection agency. If you are a US or Canadian citizen, you can upload all of your customs declaration information to the app and present it with your passport when you enter the US. Up to 12 people can submit their customs information in a single request through the app, so if you are traveling internationally with your family, MPC can save you a lot of time. It operates at 33 airports and entry points; see the US Customs website for the list. The entire process is a little complicated (hey, it’s the government!), but the website has clear instructions.
Pack your technology
Our advice for international travel has always been to pack the necessary power adapters that will allow you to use your electronic devices in your destination country. But what we really want to emphasize is that you must bring multiple adapters; some for your laptop and others to charge your smaller devices. You’ll lose at least one, guaranteed, but also these things are usually made quite cheaply and can break or break without warning, so having backups can be essential.
Another time-tested tip is to put Air tags on your luggage so you can track lost, stolen or misplaced bags. That’s a great tip to follow. But if you’re an Android user, AirTags won’t work with your phone. Instead, get a Chipolo tracker. There’s the compatible keychain One point ($28) which works great for luggage, and credit card form Card Point ($35), which fits in a wallet or passport cover. Both can be tracked using Android’s native Find My Device app. If you also want to track your children or pets, try Jiobit Smart Tagwhich works anywhere in the U.S., is more expensive (it costs $130 and requires a cheap cellular data plan to connect to the GPS), but Jiobit can find your loved one if they stray from the group tour at the ice cream factory.
Machine translation is improving at a phenomenal rate and its growth has resulted in an explosion of dedicated portable translation devices. This is a type of single function touch screen phone that you talk to or hold when someone else is talking and it translates your speech into your native language. It’s the same concept as Google Translate, but on a dedicated device that’s faster and more powerful. A good portable translator allows you to have a real conversation in two languages when you keep it between the two people speaking. We have tried some of them; our favorite is the Pocketalk Plus voice translator. The $290 price includes a global data SIM card so you always have a connection to your cloud-based translation software.