Keegan-Michael Key Has Some Travel Advice and It's Not What You Might Expect (Exclusive)
- - Keegan-Michael Key Has Some Travel Advice and It's Not What You Might Expect (Exclusive)
Angelina LiuAugust 24, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Keegan-Michael Key speaks to PEOPLE about his travel tips and favorite trip memories while celebrating National Waffle Day with Choice Hotels
The Key&Peele alum thinks you can never over-pack.
Key emphasizes the importance of packing the night before and getting a good night's rest
Keegan-Michael Key has some simple but smart travel advice to help avoid headaches and pack in more fun.
The comedian, 54, spoke with PEOPLE exclusively on behalf of Choice Hotels (whose Comfort Inn brand hosted a waffle lounge ahead of National Waffle Day Aug. 24), offering up his go-to strategies for low-stress getaways and sharing how breakfast, especially waffles, brings back warm memories.
“If you think you're overpacking, you're not,” Key says with a laugh. “You're going to feel so good when you're in the hotel and go, ‘Oh, I forgot the—wait a minute. No, I didn’t. It's in the second bag.’ Everyone says you only need one bag, but that second bag full of miscellaneous stuff? You always end up needing something from it.”
He also swears by one simple rule: “Always bring extra socks and extra underwear.”
“There’s going to be a day where you're like, ‘Oh, I didn’t know we were going on that hike,'" he explains. "Then you come back to the hotel all sweaty and think, ‘I'm so glad I packed that extra underwear.’”
Courtesy Choice Hotels
Keegan Michael Key serving waffles for Choice Hotels
Because he frequently travels for work (a recent favorite was to Sydney, Australia to film Play Dirty with Mark Wahlberg, out on Prime Video Oct. 1), says he’s learned to prep smarter over time.
“Pack the night before,” he says. “This is something I’ve changed about myself. I used to try to get more sleep and pack in the morning, but now we do everything at night. Literally the last thing we do is take out the garbage and zip up the bags.”
The shift, he admits, came after a few debates with his wife, Elle Key. “I have to go on record: She was right,” he says. “Even if you sleep a little less, you’ll sleep more soundly knowing everything’s done.”
Jamie McCarthy/Getty
Keegan-Michael Key and Elle Key
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Although his current travel tends to be by plane, Key says his favorite travel memories are rooted in road trips from his childhood — and they smell like waffles.
“My dad had a camper, and we'd go visit family in Salt Lake City,” he recalls. “We did these cool cross-country treks when I was younger. Breakfast was really important. It was that time we spent together as a family.”
“There was a stove in the camper, and my stepmother would make waffles,” he says with a luahg.
on People
Source: “AOL AOL Entertainment”
