These items help you drift off to sleep, light the way, make the cut and put pain at bay

Flexibility is the strong point of a long lean double-headed task light, a slim stick-on reusable cold gel pack, a rubber thimble with an embedded safety blade, and a hybrid tent hammock you can suspend between two trees.

Here's a nasty surprise about travel reward cards: Time is not on your side. That's not the only gotcha

You’re planning a vacation for June, and you’ll be enjoying the benefits of the new travel credit card you applied for just for its rewards points. In your dreams. At least, your short-term dreams. The world moves quickly but getting those rewards points? Not so much.

Films and programs for the week of April 22: Discovering Yosemite, running the Appalachian Trail, hiking Joshua Tree

A weekly round-up of travel-related films and programs

Before Robert Louis Stevenson was famous, he was captivated by California. What better place for a scandalous liaison?

People did their best to persuade a young author that the object of his affection was a bad match. But he was adamant. Trace the lovelorn steps in California of the author whose books "Treasure Island" and "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" would make him famous: Robert Louis Stevenson.

• Travel

In SoCal, cool and close to home for weekends at the end of April (and a little bit of May)

• Travel

There's a way around those crowds in Malta