Nobody gives expert travel tips like travelers. So we’re asking our guests to share their favorite experiences and hard-won advice.

This week, we chatted with Ryan O’Sullivan, who spends more time traveling than he does at home—both for work and pleasure. We found him on Instagram after he took a picture of his wife napping in a Minute Suites. Ryan’s account is @graceissleeping, “Napping at home and around the world.” So he’s a bit of a nap expert (or at least married to one!).

Your account is only pictures of your wife asleep around the world. What’s the story behind that?  

We travel 3-4 times a month, some for work and some for pleasure. But we’re always traveling. We don’t have kids, so we go everywhere—Europe, Ibiza every year, Asia, Hong Kong, Japan. We might hop on an hour flight from our home in Phoenix to San Diego. Or spend the weekend in Miami. I travel all the time for work and have friends all over the place. So we visit friends, take group trips or just decide what we want to try!

My wife also has a talent to take a nap anywhere. I started taking pictures of her on our journeys and started an Instagram account as a joke among our friends. She is really asleep in these photos!

How did you find out about Minute Suites?

Since I travel quite a bit for fun and work, I’m on a plane almost every week. I first stumbled upon Minute Suites on a layover after a red eye. I got a full hour of sleep in between flights, which was a game-changer. Now I can plan a red eye with a longer connection and book a Minute Suites. It’s much more pleasurable than wandering in the gate.

That’s what we did when I posted the picture. We were off to Montreal for my 40th birthday.

We left Phoenix at 2:22am and had a 3-hour layover in Charlotte. We stayed up all night to catch our flight, because we knew we could crash during our layover. We were in a much better mood when we met our friends at our hotel in Montreal!

Tips for traveling to Montreal?

My favorite hotel in North America is Hotel St. Paul in the Old Port of Montreal. The best room is the Black Suite, and I always stay there. We stayed five nights and spent a lot of time with friends.

One of the best nights was at Bord’Elle, a supper club with a great menu, good wine and burlesque performers. One of the performers, Lavender May is a friend. She does a great show and was able to get us in. Another night we ate at Joe Beef, which is rustic, local, seasonal. It has amazing wine. I would highly recommend diner at both places.

What’s your biggest traveling tip in general?

One is always be loyal to an airline: get your status and get better assigned seats every time. I’m fiercely loyal to American Airlines.

My next tip is to book through airports with the most flights in and out of your city in case something goes wrong. Say you’re flying to New York. I would book a flight through JFK instead of Newark, which is much smaller.

I learned that through one of my worst travel experiences, which happened last year. There was a big storm in Chicago, and I was flying out of O’Hare back to Phoenix. My flight got delayed and the entire airport began shutting down. When my flight was officially canceled, I couldn’t find anything else until 9am the next morning. By then, there was no hotel available. For the first time ever, I slept on the airport floor.

Too bad there isn’t a Minute Suites there yet! I would have been there in a heartbeat.

So where are you headed next?

Tomorrow, I’m headed to New York for work. It’ll be nice to be in the city. But the next vacation destination for my wife and me is Bermuda. Neither of us has been there before, so we’re going there to celebrate New Year’s.
Do have traveling tips to share? Whether you’re a seasoned traveler like Ryan or more of a homebody who’s taken a trip or two, let us know at info@minutesuites.com, subject line: Traveler Tip!