What's your Traveler IQ?

It's time for another Question of the Week: Travel is one of those things that you'd get really good at if you did them all the time. Unfortunately, few people get to do it all the time—including the staff of Budget Travel. So we're pooling our knowledge: We ask you a question, you share your advice, and then we spotlight the most helpful tips in a future magazine issue. This week's question is:"I’m going to Buenos Aires in February. I already know where I'm staying, but I need recommendations for restaurants and shopping. I’m also visiting the Mendoza wine region for a few nights and would love suggestions on which vineyards to visit, plus ideas for any other important sites in the area." —Marilyn Holstein, Managing Editor

News, and then more news, of the amazing, indestructible kitten that (accidentally) flew in stowed luggage from Fort Lauderdale to Dallas has thoroughly touched and exasperated us all. Please, people, don’t check your kittens in your luggage. In the meantime, if I’m brought to a smile by the sight of that wide-eyed feline one more time—or hear one more joke of the “cat's out of the bag” or “first flight at kitten hawk” variety—I will not be responsible for my actions. Please don’t look at photos or video of the kitten’s (adorable) story here, or here, or here. And do not, for the love of all that's sacred, reward the Daily News by looking at this colorful kitty-chart illustrating the heroic, nearly cat-astrophic (if you can't beat 'em...) flight. Finally, here’s your inevitable Google search, which you shouldn’t do.

Schmap.com offers free travel guides to more than 200 places in the U.S., Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Schmap mashes up local listings with zoomable city maps. Restaurants, museums, and stores are marked with icons. You can bookmark favorite attractions for printing out later. The website makes it easy to find what you want. Click on a city name, such as Miami, then click on your interest, such as "top attractions," and then scroll through a list of attractions matched with photos and descriptions written by professionals (such as the writers of WCities guidebooks) and amateurs. The company says that more than 50 million Schmap Guides have been downloaded in the past couple of years. I found that the guides are great for planning out a day's itinerary, especially because of a tool that lets you measure the footsteps between two destinations. But I found the guides to be weak on trustworthy recommendations about what to see. Schmap.com also offers free software you can download to your PC to build your own custom guide for sharing or printing. Unlike the travel guides described above, I found the tool for creating custom maps wasn't as easy or speedy to use as other services, such as Trip It, which we've blogged about previously. People who upload images to the photo-sharing website Flickr and who add descriptive tags to their photos may receive an email in their in-box, inviting them to contribute their photo to a Schmap map. You won't get paid for the privilege, but you'll be able to feel satisfaction that your photo of a hotel room, restaurant, or attraction will help other people plan a better vacation. Editors from Schmap troll Flickr for photos they like, so you never know... EARLIER Photo-sharing website Flickr has got some new tricks.