if you spend a lot of time in the shell, i like using the following for easier directory traversal:

• fzf and its shell bindings for fuzzy-matching arguments
• z for jumping to “frecent” directories
• zsh-z (a native zsh port of z)
• bd for going back directories

and some zsh settings which make cd silently act like pushd/popd:

# autopushd         : make cd act like pushd (alias doesn't work properly)
# pushdminus        : use -1 instead of +1
# pushdsilent       : prevents printing stack on each cd
# pushdtohome       : `pushd` to ~/
# pushdignoredups   : dont add duplicates to stack