Airlines are reluctant to tell passengers the real reason a plane is late, or how long a delay will actually last. But if you go to your airline’s special cargo website, you’re more likely to get the real story. I’ve also found FlightAware to be an accurate source of information about delays. — MF

Certain airlines offer very low prices on flights, and then charge for things most airlines include. On Frontier, a carry-on bag is $35-$60. I avoided the fee by using luggage that was small enough to be considered a “personal item” (It has to be under 14" high, 18" wide, 8" deep). A lot of backpacks will meet the size requirements. I have a Swissgear rolling bag, similar to this one. It held enough summer clothes for a 4-night trip, plus a gadget case, a toiletries bag, and my 13-inch laptop with charger. — MF

A Global Entry pass is a true bargain if you do any international travel. You don’t need to wait in line for immigration at reentry to the US. But it also serves as validation for the TSA Pre-check short-cut for security screening at most major US airports. Much shorter lines. To get in the program requires an appointment to get fingerprinted and $100 every five years. Well worth it. — KK

I have two US passports, both valid and official. Because I travel overseas so much, I often have my passport tied up in getting a visa somewhere, so I have the second passport available. This gives me some breathing room. It’s also useful if you are traveling to countries that don’t recognize Israel and you have an Israel stamp in your passport. To get a second US passport you apply as if you are renewing your passport by mail and add a letter requesting a second passport. Instructions here. — KK

Scott’s Cheap Flights is a free newsletter that finds amazingly inexpensive flights all over the world. The newsletter includes Google Flights and Momondo links, so you can book the flight yourself. The latest newsletter has a roundtrip flight from Los Angeles to Stockholm for $343. — MF

My international flight to Los Angeles was delayed for 10 hours. The airline didn’t tell me I was eligible for compensation, but a friend told me about an app called AirHelp. I entered my name and confirmation number. Instantly, AirHelp told me the airline was obligated to pay me about $700. AirHelp did all the work, and about a week later I got the money, minus a 25% commission for AirHelp, which was a small price to pay for not having to do anything. — MF

There are occasions while traveling that you want to enter a country with a one-way ticket, but that country requires an onward ticket to enter. This is a job for Best Onward Ticket which will sell you a legit onward ticket that you use only to get in and then they cancel after 48 hours. It costs $12. Much easier than booking a ticket yourself and cancelling because it avoids byzantine fees and hidden charges. I have not personally used this service yet, and other similar services in the past have gone belly up, so buyer beware, but this outfit gets good reviews and I find the hack useful so I’m mentioning it. Let me know if you’ve tried it. — KK

I’ve been exploring the vast territory of Central Asia, sometimes known as the Silk Road. Between the Caucuses in the west, and remote parts of China in the east, these places are exotic, beautiful, vastly varied (deserts to alpine) sufficiently developed to be fun, yet devoid of tourists. In the near future these will be prime tourist destinations. But right now it can be hard to navigate and occasionally hard to get visas. By far the best resource is a website, called Caravanistan, run by a English-speaking couple that has the clearest, most up-to-date information on the practical aspects of traveling along the Silk Road. Not what to see, but how to see it. Highly reliable, immensely helpful, and always inspiring. — KK

If you are in LA, 5 Every Day is one of my favorite smartphone apps. It’s very simple and its purpose is clear: it recommends five things to do in Los Angeles that day. Art openings, lectures, art house movies, music, food, etc. Many of the events are free. If you come to LA for more than a couple of days, install it on your phone. — MF

Whenever I travel I search for my destination at the Atlas Obscura website. It will yield dozens of very obscure, very offbeat attractions in the area. How else can you find a nearby museum of parasites, or trail of doll heads, or a restaurant of robots, underground tunnels, or a store for time travel? — KK

My first choice when seeking exotic destinations is to check this list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. These are 1000 culturally significant places worth preserving, which means they are usually the best places to visit. While many sites are well known, many more are little known gems. Most counties have at least a couple. I’ve never been disappointed traveling to a World heritage site. — KK

A tour in the Galapagos was one of our best vacations ever. There are no hotels so you live on a boat, which travels during the night so you wake up in the cove of a different island each morning. Each island is a different biome (inspiring the idea of evolution for Darwin). You spend the day actively hiking around the islands encountering myriad perfectly tame animals and birds. While there are large cruise boats, the key is to sail on a small boat to minimize transit times ashore. Go to Happy Gringo to find diverse small boat tours, rated by previous customers. They are utterly reliable and 1/3 the cost of others. — KK

The Te Papa Museum in Wellington, New Zealand has a permanent exhibit, Scale of Our War, that is almost worth going to New Zealand to see, and should certainly be on a must visit list if you happen to travel there. Weta Workshops, the folks who made all the props and special effects in the Lord of the Rings movies and other Peter Jackson productions, created a set of sculptures to mourn the disaster of the WWI battle of Gallipoli, Turkey, which was the seminal trigger for New Zealand independence. Weta created 2X lifesize versions of soldiers and nurses in the war that are hyperreal in their detail, from each hair on their arms, to flies on their frayed jackets, the 2X scale of threads in the cloth, and uncannily realistic flesh and faces, all at twice the size. You are looking up, in the embrace of these large beings, like a child in the arms of its parent. I’ve seen statues and art, ancient and modern, around the world, and no sculpture has been so emotionally potent as these. Worth going out of your way to see. — KK

My family and I are obsessed with escape rooms. Twelve people are locked in a themed room (theater backstage, 1940s Hollywood private eye office, alchemist’s laboratory, etc.) and given one hour to solve clues to get out. You’ll quickly get over any shyness of strangers as you collaborate to beat the clock. There are escape rooms all over the world. I recommend Escape Room LA in downtown Los Angeles. — MF

Since I live in the San Francisco metro area, I get a lot of out-of-town visitors. My favorite place to take them is the Exploratorium, along the bayside waterfront. It is the original hands-on science museum, and still the world’s best hands-on learning experience. Many of the interactive exhibits now common at science museums around the world began here; the Exploratorium has all of them and many more found nowhere else. This sprawling temple of innovation and maker-goodness can easily occupy me — even after my 50th visit — for four hours or more. (I normally get saturated after only one hour in other museums.) Of course while it is perfect for kids of all ages, every Thursday evening it’s reserved for adults, and crowded with innovators and artists of all types. — KK

I spent almost four hours lounging in this Papasan float on the 4th of July and it’s now my favorite purchase of the year. Half my body stays in the water, so I’m able to stay cool while basking in the sun. The only drawback might be how easy it is to relax — time went by so fast, I got sunburned. — CD

Four years ago I went on a vision quest in the Inyo Mountains guided by Rites of Passage. It was transformative and one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself. If you’ve ever considered going on one or want to learn more about it, I very much recommend the book I read to prepare called Quest: A Guide for Creating Your Own Vision Quest. I might not ever get the guts to go back out there again, but revisiting this book and going through it’s exercises is an enlightening journey inward. — CD

This inflatable two-person kayak is perfect for beginner couples. It’s sturdy and easy for one person to steer, and it even survived when we took a scary turn toward some fast flowing water — although it’s better for floating down flat water. The best part is it’s really comfortable to sit in and it took less than 40 minutes to both set up and deflate. We bought this a month before summer for $80 and right now it’s $115, reviewers say the price fluctuates between seasons. — CD

I’ve had the AllTrails app for 4+ years now, but I’ve been using it more often since I moved from SF to San Jose. I needed to find local hiking routes and I love that I’m able to filter by elevation, distance, and route type (e.g., loop, out & back, point to point). Since it’s been around for a while now, there are a lot of reviews for each hike and that’s really helpful because I like to avoid any trails where I might run into a mountain cat. — CD

Leave it to the Japanese to sell toy models of prehistoric invertebrates. Not fierce dinosaurs, or ancient predators, but spineless slugs and amorphous marine creatures extinct millions of years ago. The Favorite Store offers two of my favorites, inexpensive anatomically accurate soft casts of Opabinia and Anomalocaris. (Use chrome to translate).— KK