12 travel essentials to reduce stress before, during, and after trips

Journy is a service that acts as your personal travel planner for as little as $25 per day. They'll book your hotel, make your reservations, and keep your preferences and any pre-booked plans in mind. You'll email and chat with your personal travel designer, check out a draft itinerary they mock up, and respond with what you do and don't like.

Once you like the plan, your designer will handle all the bookings. Then they'll deliver a final version to you via the app or in a PDF, so you can refer to it all in one spot. In other words, they think of everything you don't want to (booking reservations at international restaurants, navigating dietary restrictions, avoiding tourist traps, grouping desired locations into efficient days, etc).

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• I tried an online concierge service that solves the most stressful part of traveling for only $25 a day

CLEAR is a friction-free security process at airports, stadiums, and arenas that scans your eyes or fingerprints so you can skip the winding main line and get to the flight gate, concert, or game faster. In an airport, that means you can bypass the line that waits to show a TSA agent their boarding pass and ID. Instead, you can head to a kiosk to confirm your identity (fingerprints or retina), past the stop-point, and right to the X-ray machine. It's even better when used with PreCheck.

From there, you can add up to three adult family members for only $50 per year each, and kids under 18 are free and don't need to enroll.

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• How to get 2 free months of a CLEAR membership and bypass long airport security lines
• The newest way to beat lines at the airport involves quickly scanning your eyes or fingerprints — here's how CLEAR works
  

Scribd is not only the best e-reading deal on the market, but it's one of the best for in-flight entertainment. Don't waste packing space on hardcovers you'll finish en route. Instead, you can do a free 30-day trial (or an unlimited $8.99 monthly membership or $12.99 for a dual subscription to The New York Times and Scribd) and download your titles for easy offline reading, annotating, bookmarking, and highlighting.

Each service has its perks, but Scribd is preferred over Audible and Kindle Unlimited for its unlimited access to books, magazines and news, and audiobooks from all major publishers, plus the lowest monthly fee.

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• My all-time favorite reading app gives me access to unlimited books and audiobooks for $9 a month
• I've been subscribed to this $9 reading app for 3 years — here's why it just hit 1 million subscribers
• Scribd and The New York Times have launched a joint subscription — get access to unlimited audiobooks and the news for $13 per month

A wallet you can take to the airport that keeps your IDs, money, passport, and even your boarding pass in one convenient place is a great way to cut down on airport stress. Our personal favorites are the Cuyana Passport Case (left) and the Bellroy Travel Wallet (right) thanks to their superior designs.

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• The best women's wallets you can buy
• The best travel wallets to hold your passport, boarding pass, and more
• This simple passport holder is one of my best travel buys

One of the biggest perks of having Amazon Prime, aside from the fast, cheap shipping, is Prime Video. You can stream from a large library of movies and TV shows for no added cost. Prime members can also download certain titles for easy offline viewing, which is perfect for plane rides with or without in-flight entertainment.

It's an even better deal if you're a student, in which case you can sign up for Amazon Prime Student — which doesn't cost anything for the first six months.

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• 29 useful Amazon Prime benefits to know that go beyond free 2-day shipping

If you want to be comfortable while traveling, you'll probably need to make peace with some seemingly odd contraptions. The Trtl Pillow is one of those products. It's a soft, lightweight fleece that uses a few stiff ribs to lend support on one end of the scarf. After careful consideration, it's our pick for the overall best travel pillow you can buy. Another major bonus is that it's not as bulky as other airport pillows, so you can keep a relatively low profile and save yourself some packing room.

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• The best travel pillows you can buy
• I tried the cult-favorite Trtl travel pillow to see if it's worth the hype — and I don't know how I ever flew without it

The right credit cards can make a world of difference. For Insider Picks senior travel and finance reporter David Slotnick, that means the American Express Platinum Card and the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card, which he pays $1,000 in annual fees for between the two.

As David explains, "The Chase Sapphire Reserve offers 3x points per dollar spent on all dining and travel — so the vast majority of your purchases during a trip — as well as an annual $300 travel credit that offsets a big part of the annual fee. It also includes numerous protections including trip and baggage delay insurance, trip interruption coverage, and primary rental car insurance, as long as you use the card to pay for your trip. The card also offers access to airport lounges through the Priority Pass program, which you can read more about here.

The AmEx Platinum offers 5x points on airfare purchased from the airline and pre-paid hotels reserved through AmExTravel.com, but doesn't have the same level of protections as the Sapphire Reserve. It does, however, offer a number of useful credits, and significantly more extensive lounge access within the US.

Both cards have no foreign transaction fees, and come with rich bonuses for new card members. The Sapphire Reserve offers 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points when you spend $4,000 in the first three months, while the AmEx Platinum offers 60,000 AmEx Membership Rewards points when you spend $5,000 in the first three months."

Away suitcases have earned their spot as a cult-favorite travel hack by solving most of the annoyances travelers encounter with luggage. Its suitcases, which are available in four sizes, come in a strong but lightweight shell, have 360° rotating wheels that can adapt with you, interior compartments designed to help you pack smarter, and its carry-on sizes also include an ejectable built-in charger. Starting at $225, they cost less than name brands of comparable quality, with the added plus of coming with a lifetime warranty.

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• This sleek $225 carry-on suitcase can charge your phone and only weighs 7 pounds — and it's just what modern travelers need
• The best carry-on bags you can buy
• The best checked luggage you can buy

Stowaway Cosmetics makes minimalist collections of nice makeup that are designed in portion sizes meant to be finished — so they're already travel-sized. An Every Day Kit ($79) comes with the essentials: BB cream, concealer, lipstick, cheek/lip rouge, eyeliner, and mascara in a little makeup bag. Even if it isn't your go-to makeup at home, it may be nice to have a set already ready and packed in your suitcase, especially if you travel frequently for work. Plus, since they're a system, you won't need to spend much time worrying about if your concealer matches your foundation.

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• A new cosmetics company solves one of the most annoying things about buying makeup

They may seem like they're taking up vital suitcase space, but once you own them, you'll find yourself relying upon them frequently. You can organize your luggage by category or outfit for ease and efficiency, or use one to separate your dirty laundry from the clean clothes as you travel. Paravel's packing cubes come in three sizes, are made from smooth nylon, and have a small window to preview what's inside.

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• The best packing cubes you can buy

PackPoint is the packer that you wish you were. It will build a packing list for you based on length of travel, weather at your destination, and any activities planned during your trip. To get started, all you have to do is enter your destination, departure date, and the number of nights you'll be there. You can add your own items in that aren't pre-populated (medications, for instance) to make sure they're checked off an in your bag for sure. Minimal labor required on your part, and all the perks of having a patient, omnipotent packing concierge. There are in-app upgrades for better features, but it's free to download.

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• 8 travel apps under $5 that will make your next trip smoother