I often fly in and out of LAX. Uber, Lyft and taxi riders are required to walk or take a shuttle to a lot near the airport to hail a ride. It’s very crowded in the lot and the last time I was there I had to wait over 30 minutes for a Lyft. But I learned in this article that you can take a free hotel or metro shuttle from the airport and hail a ride after you get to the station or hotel. Not only will you save money (no airport surcharge) you probably won’t have to wait as long for a ride. This tip might work at other airports, too. If it does, let us know. — MF

Author Dan Pink has mastered the art of delivering fantastic advice in 2 minutes or less. His latest Pinkcast is his 5 tips for optimizing travel to a foreign city. I concur with these 100% and do them myself. To save you 2 minutes here they are:

1. Go to the highest point in the city.

2. Buy a local newspaper.

3. Ride public transportation.

4. Go to McDonald’s (Seriously.)

5. Spend an hour in a grocery store.

But you’ll miss Dan’s humor and his persuasion if you don’t watch his pitch. — KK

You might already know you can enter a flight number in Google and get tracking information. Another easy way to find out when a flight is departing or landing and if it’s on time is to enter it in Mac OS Spotlight. Also, if you send a message with a flight number, you and the recipient can click it and see where the plane is on a map. Here’s more about this handy feature. — MF

Despite the fact that I use Google maps almost everyday for something, I didn’t know about these 5 cool functions built into the system. I wish I had known about how to share locations earlier. The hacks are presented by Steve Dotto on Dottotech channel in this short video. — KK

I just discovered Atlas Obscura has a Gastro Obscura map where you can find unusual restaurants or food museums all over the world. Anyone can contribute an entry — the requirements being that it is an awe-inspiring place or that it preserves lesser known culinary traditions or amazing architecture or decor. Way more interesting that Yelp! — CD

I just returned from visiting my grandmother in Mexico, and aside from my packing cubes which makes my suitcase manageable, this technique of folding all of my outfits together helped me get dressed quickly in the mornings without mulling over what to wear or pulling everything out of their cubes. — CD

So called “resort fees” are a sneaky way for hotels to advertise a low price then tack on an additional charge. Even if you don’t use the hotel pool of fitness center, they’ll add it to your bill. Before booking a hotel, visit Resort Fee Checker to see if it charges a resort fee. The site also has information on the price of breakfast, internet, parking, pets, and other fees. — MF

I haven’t slept in an airport in years, but I can imagine there will be a time when I have to do it again. Sleeping in Airports offers tips for making a night at the airport (intentional or not) as pleasant as possible. The site even provides a list of the best airports to sleep in (Changi Airport, Singapore) and the worst airports to sleep in (Jeddah King Abdulaziz International Airport, Saudi Arabia). — MF

I’ve used Hotwire to book hotel rooms. On the plus side, they have good deals, on the minus side, you don’t know which hotel you are reserving until after you’ve paid the non-refundable fee. But here’s a video on “How ANYONE Can Get 50% Off Hotels” that shows you how to find out which hotel HotWire is offering before you commit. — MF

One reason I like traveling to Japan is that no one there has ever tried to pull a scam on me. Not so in Europe, Mexico, and the United States, where I’ve experienced at least a few of the 40 scams presented in this infographic. A few are obvious, but there are always some surprising scams worth knowing about. Read this list to prepare yourself the next time you travel. — MF

My friend Star Simpson tweeted this useful travel tip: “Not enough people know that Google Maps has an Easter egg. If you type ‘ok maps’ into the search field it will download a map for offline use. Great if you might not have awesome cell reception where you’re going, is now a step on my packing checklist.” (For some reason it doesn’t work for Tokyo.) — MF

A helpful travel tip I received from a foodie friend was to find restaurants by searching hashtags on Instagram. This really comes in handy in places where Yelp recommendations are scarce. I was just traveling through Switzerland and searched for #Genevafood to find thousands of pictures of delicious looking food — most of them tagged with the location. This is great for me because I choose places based on Yelp food pics anyway. I clicked on the images that looked the best to me and then looked up the restaurant and its proximity. Searching hashtags also helped me find pages dedicated to local food. — CD

I am finding the new Google Translate mobile app to be indispensable when traveling. About 100 languages are available, including Kazakh, Igbo, Maori, etc. About 60 of those languages can be downloaded to your phone so you can translate offline when your phone is off, not working in the country, or out of cell range. (Instructions here.) The offline translation is text only, but surprisingly smart enough for touring needs. Having a language downloaded offline (about 40MB) also seems to help when translation is online as well (like using your phone camera to read menus and signs.) It’s all free and one of the best bargains in the world. — KK

Here’s the latest version of my travel packing list. It’s a PDF that can be edited in Adobe Illustrator (because I don’t expect anyone to pack the same things I do). As you can see, my list is broken down into sublists of different bags: charger bag, meds bag, tool bag, etc. I keep the stuff in these excellent Japanese mesh zipper bags . Now I don’t forget important things any more like I used to. I recommend that you make a similar packing list for yourself. — MF

On Google Maps: in between the standard street view, and the realistic satellite view, lies another hidden view called Terrain. Terrain is an almost artistic rendering of a physical place without all the distractions of an aerial photograph. Its crisp clarity is tremendously useful as a base map — and beautiful. To get to Terrain mode, go the “hamburger” (stack of 3 lines) in the upper left corner of Maps in a browser, and click on Terrain in the pull-down menu. — KK

I am often frustrated when trying to fly from one obscure place to another obscure place with as few stops in between. Most flight sites want you to keep the journey on the same airline. What I want is “show me ALL the flights from this airport,” and I’ll figure out a route on my own. No surprise, there’s a site for that, called appropriately enough FlightsFrom.com. I can assemble a route, sometimes with obscure airlines, that won’t show up elsewhere. — KK

I have found it useful to purchase a duplicate set of cords, cables, chargers, desktop items, earphones, etc that I carry in a dedicated bag just for travel. Increasingly I’ve added duplicate articles of clothing, shoes, hats to my carry-on luggage. They never leave. That way I don’t have to pack, but more importantly, I don’t ever forget anything. The cost of duplication is minimal for the benefits. – KK

I once walked into a hotel room and saw a large bottle of water on the desk. After I took a swig I noticed the $9 sticker on the bottle. Not wanting to pay the same price again, I started refilling the bottle from the cooler in the fitness center. Now when I travel I bring a bottle with me and head straight for the fitness center. — MF

Here’s a tip I haven’t tried yet, but it sounds like a great idea. When you’re leaving a foreign country and still have some of the local currency, take it to a Starbucks and load it onto a gift card. You can use the card later in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Mexico, and the Republic of Ireland. — MF

Another use for Starbucks cards

(This tip comes from Recomendo reader Andy Kegel) “More and more rebates come as prepaid credit/debit cards. It’s hard to find something for exactly the face amount, so I feel like I’m always gifting back part of the rebate via unspent residuals. So now I put the whole amount on a Starbucks card or similar and I can spend the entire face value.” — MF

It’s been true for a while, but some travellers don’t realize that the best currency exchange rates you’ll get will be at a local ATM, even with a fee. It is also by far the most convenient way to change money. I’ve gotten local currency from my debit card in every country I have visited (though not every local ATM will accept foreign cards — look for American credit card logos on the machine as a sign that it will.) I raised the limit on the ATM card to its max since this is my only source of currency. — KK