We’ve slept in hotel rooms all over the world, from Colombia to Canada to Cambodia, in everything from basic budget rooms to gorgeous $1000 a night resorts where someone magically apparates to fluff your pillow when you aren’t looking.

And somewhere along the way, we started noticing something funny.

Sometimes we sleep ridiculously well in hotels.

You know the kind of sleep. You crawl into bed after a long travel day, disappear for eight hours and wake up wondering why you can’t sleep like that at home.

Of course, plenty of hotel beds have been terrible too. We have stories. But when a hotel gets sleep right, there are usually a few reasons why. Better yet, most of them are surprisingly easy to recreate at home.

You Leave a Lot of Your Everyday Stress Behind

One of the biggest differences has very little to do with the bed itself.

At home, your bedroom exists right in the middle of your regular life. There’s laundry waiting to be folded, an email you forgot to answer, something you need to do tomorrow and possibly a mysterious pile of stuff that’s been sitting on a chair for six months.

A hotel room comes with far less baggage, at least mentally.

There’s no laundry basket glaring at you from the corner. You aren’t thinking about unloading the dishwasher. Even on a work trip, the room tends to have fewer reminders of everything you should be doing.

That separation can make it easier to switch off.

It’s one reason we’ve learned that making a bedroom feel less like an extension of the rest of the house can help. You may not be able to recreate the feeling of waking up somewhere new, but you can make home feel a little less demanding at bedtime.

Hotels Take Darkness Seriously

I’m always amazed by how dark some hotel rooms get.

Pull those heavy curtains closed and suddenly it could be noon or midnight outside and you’d have absolutely no idea.

At home, bedrooms tend to collect little bits of light. Streetlights sneak around the curtains. Chargers glow. Alarm clocks shine across the room. Then the sun starts creeping in far earlier than you’d like.

A good hotel often eliminates most of that.

If you love the pitch-black hotel-room effect, blackout curtains are one of the easiest things to copy at home. You can also take a quick look around your bedroom at night and see how many tiny glowing lights you’ve stopped noticing.

You might be surprised.

Hotel Rooms Are Often Cooler

Temperature is another big difference we notice when we travel.

Hotel rooms often have individual heating or air conditioning, so we can cool the room down before bed. And after a hot day exploring somewhere tropical, walking into a cool room and climbing under the covers feels especially good.

At home, it’s easy for bedrooms to get warmer than we realize, particularly in winter when the heat is running or during a Canadian summer when the house has been warming up all day.

If you consistently sleep well in cooler hotel rooms, experiment with lowering the bedroom temperature at home before changing anything more expensive.

Sometimes the simplest change makes a noticeable difference.

Fresh Hotel Bedding Just Feels Good

There’s something wonderfully satisfying about climbing into a freshly made hotel bed.

Crisp sheets. Fluffy pillows. A duvet that hasn’t somehow migrated halfway out of its cover. Someone else made the bed, which may honestly be part of the appeal.

Hotels put a lot of thought into that first impression because the bed is one of the first things you notice when you walk into the room.

At home, bedding tends to become invisible. We keep sheets longer than we probably should, pillows flatten slowly enough that we barely notice, and making the bed can become one more chore to get through.

You don’t need luxury hotel linens to recreate the feeling. Fresh sheets you actually like, comfortable pillows and bedding that suits how warm or cool you sleep can go a long way.

And yes, freshly washed sheets still feel fantastic even when you’re the person who had to wash them.

The Mattress Can Make a Huge Difference

Then there’s the obvious one: the actual bed.

Hotels know people judge them heavily on sleep quality, so many put serious thought into their mattresses. A good hotel bed needs to work for thousands of different guests while holding up to constant use.

Meanwhile, mattresses at home have a sneaky habit of getting old gradually.

You don’t wake up one morning and suddenly discover your mattress has become uncomfortable. It happens slowly. A little sag here, a little less support there, until you spend a night somewhere else and suddenly realize how much better another bed feels.

If that keeps happening every time you travel, it may be worth looking at the bed you use the other 350-ish nights of the year.

You can even bring home a bed as comfortable as a good hotel’s rather than saving that level of comfort for the handful of nights a year you’re away.

Being Somewhere New Does Play a Part

Travel itself changes the rhythm of your day.

You may have walked for hours sightseeing, spent the afternoon swimming or simply been away from your normal routine. We’ve had plenty of travel days where we’ve walked 20,000 steps without even thinking about it. By bedtime, everyone is done.

There’s also something mentally different about climbing into a bed in a completely new place.

Sometimes that works against you. We’ve absolutely had nights where unfamiliar noises, strange pillows or a glowing hotel thermostat kept us awake.

Other times, though, being somewhere different seems to help break the usual bedtime patterns we fall into at home.

The easiest way to figure out what’s happening is to notice what you consistently love about your best hotel sleeps. Is the room colder? Darker? Is the mattress firmer? Are you spending less time staring at a screen before bed?

Those little clues are useful.

Give Your Bedroom One Main Job

This may be the hardest part of the hotel experience to recreate.

A hotel bedroom mostly exists for sleeping.

Your bedroom at home may also be your office, laundry sorting station, late-night TV room and temporary storage area for everything you haven’t figured out where to put yet.

We’ve definitely been guilty of this.

When your bedroom constantly reminds you of unfinished jobs, it’s much harder for the room itself to feel restful.

You don’t need to turn your bedroom into a minimalist showroom. Even moving work somewhere else, clearing a few cluttered surfaces and making the room feel calmer can change how it feels when you walk in at night.

Steal the Best Ideas From Hotels

One of the perks of staying in so many different places over the years is that you start noticing the little things that work.

If you sleep incredibly well somewhere, pay attention.

Maybe you love having two different pillow options. Maybe the room is darker than yours at home or the duvet is lighter. Maybe you like having almost nothing sitting on the bedside table.

Take the ideas home with you.

You can experiment without spending much at all, then put your money toward the changes that make the biggest difference for you.

Don’t Save Your Best Sleep for Vacation

Most of us spend far more nights sleeping at home than we ever will in hotels.

So if you keep coming home from trips talking about that amazing hotel bed, it’s probably worth figuring out exactly what made it so good.

Make your room darker. Try sleeping a little cooler. Replace the pillow that’s been flattened into a pancake. Put fresh sheets on the bed before you leave on a trip so you come home to something that feels almost as inviting as the hotel you just left.

And if your mattress has clearly reached the end of its useful life, maybe it’s finally time.

After 20-plus years of sleeping our way around the world, we’ve learned that there’s no single secret ingredient that makes hotel sleep better. Usually, it’s a bunch of small things working together, plus the underrated pleasure of knowing nobody expects you to take the garbage out in the morning.

You probably can’t arrange hotel housekeeping at home. The blackout curtains, however? That idea you can steal.

Some of our favorite hotel rooms;

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It’s no secret. Between this website and our social media channels, Micki and I get a lot of questions from people all around world. My favorites though, are the ones from aspiring nomads.

These are questions from readers who have seen a bit of the world or have never even left their home country. The ones who sit in front of their computer screens for hours each day poring over travel sites and travel blogs and wondering why they’re still doing the 9 to 5 thing. The ones who deep down know there’s more to life than what they’ve experienced, and are just trying to find a way out of the box that they call everyday life.

These messages get me stoked because deep down they further my belief that there are others who share our passion to explore the world. To live outside the norm of society. Who question the validity of what it means to follow their dream.

First off, I want to say that living a nomadic lifestyle isn’t for everyone. It’s not even always for us. However it’s always an option for those willing to make it a priority.

Yup, I said it. Nomadic lifestyles aren’t for everyone.

This brings me to the point of this post. You see, a few months back, I got an email from a fellow asking for a few tips on beginning a nomadic lifestyle with his wife and daughter. They had already gotten a glimpse of what’s behind the nomadic curtain and had decided that their current life wasn’t cutting it anymore.

They had come to a crossroad. They were about to sell their house and leave everything they knew behind to see what the world could offer them. The problem was they were starting to get a little nervous about their decision. You see, it still wasn’t too late to call off their nomadic dreams.

I think they just wanted confirmation that they weren’t about to make the biggest mistake of their lives.

Months later, after re-reading my reply to them, I feel that there are probably a few others that need that same encouragement.

That inspired me to share this letter with any other would be nomadic travelers who wonder if it’s the right choice to forgo a traditional 9 to 5 for a life on the road. In truth, this letter is geared more towards older nomads with kids, but most of it can apply to anyone tired of the daily 9 to 5 grind.

A message and a few tips to those dreaming of becoming a nomad.

Congrats on taking a big step towards changing how you view life. Bet you’re starting to get a little nervous right about now. Maybe even doubting your choice occasionally…

I only have one thing to say, don’t worry about it!

Being a nomad is awesome and rewarding and I’ll let you know a little known secret. Just don’t tell anyone else…. You can always settle down someplace new or go back to your old life any time you want.

I can’t guarantee that  everything will always be sunshine and roses for you, but I can guarantee you 100% that you will never view life the same way again.

You’ll realize that you have options. That there are other ways to live your life contrary to what most of your friends and family think. That you don’t have to get on the pathway of bigger house, nicer car, more expensive toys and work, work, work until you’ve climbed that golden corporate ladder.

100% Guaranteed you will never view life the same way again.

You’ll realize that there are other paths. Other more rewarding pursuits. It will help broaden your mind and your soul to all the possibilities the world has to offer.

That’s not to say there won’t be pitfalls and hard times but at least you’re seeing the world while you’re doing it.

The best advice I can give you, especially when you have a child with you, is go slow.

A nomadic lifestyle is as much about the journey as it is the destination and not the speed in which you go about it.

Long stays

If you’re traveling as a family, then living out of a tiny backpack in an even tinier backbacker dorm probably won’t cut it for long as well. Things like couchsurfing also gets really hard when there’s a group of you.

You’ll want to look at Airbnb and long stays more. Housesitting is another cheap option if you can get into it. For shorter stays, there are even hostels that accommodate families.

Looking for a great deal on your next Airbnb? Click here to get a $35 USD credit (we get a credit too)!

If you can cook for yourselves most of the time you’ll save heaps. Stay away from expensive anything unless it’s something you’ve always dreamed of doing and you feel like splurging.

Saving money

Chances are you’ll have more time than money so seek out free museum or discount travel days. Check out the local papers for any deals or discounts and remember that parades and most outdoor festivals are free entertainment.

Walk and take the metro whenever you can! Search out discount airlines and get a train pass only if it totals less than airfare or includes an overnight stay to save money. It sounds simple but accommodation, getting from point a to b and food will be your biggest expenses.

If you can, always have your first night after a long travel day pre-booked. You can check out other places the next day once you have the energy and patience.

Read next: How to save money for travel.

Taking your time

The best advice I can give is to go slow and don’t push you or your family to their breaking point. With children, you’ll always need to have a little extra energy in reserve in case they need to lean on you. If you manage your time right, travel with kids can be amazing.

Remember if your family isn’t happy, you won’t be either so spend a little extra time in the pool or the park and a little less checking out another once-in-a-lifetime, can’t believe I’m actually seeing it with my own eyes, monument/temple/church/waterfall/peak/sunrise/sunset/view, etc.

Remember if your family isn’t happy, you won’t be either.

Also remember that you have nothing to prove. How long, how far you go and what you see is up to you. You can stop any time, whether it’s a few months or a few decades. By leaving it all behind you’ve already proven that you can pack up your life and make your dreams of a better one a reality.

Don’t trash your friends’ lifestyle

At first, it’s hard to break away from traditional living, and your family and friends might even resent you a little for it, but don’t trash their way of living unless you want to alienate them. Make sure they know that your choices are what you feel are right for you, not necessarily what’s good for them.

Chances are that they’ll eventually realize that they have more options as well and you might be surprised who you see on your doorstep in the middle of wherever one day.

Lastly, being a nomad isn’t about just packing up your things and constantly moving. New destinations are exciting and thrilling but the most important aspect is just enjoying where you are and what you’re doing while you’re doing it.

Hope this message finds you well. Good luck on your new life and take it one day at a time.

Like most nomads, one day you might wake up in the city you want to call home for a while and when that happens, don’t fight it, just realize that you can always move on again if the mood strikes.

To me, being a nomad is about choices, not necessarily destinations and becoming one is the first step to choosing how and where you want to live your life.

Congrats on making that choice and enjoy the freedoms that come with it!

Safe travels,

Charles

Read next: 31 Tips for Better Family Travel.