Daniel Houghton's world revolves around travel.
The 28-year-old is the CEO of Lonely Planet, the largest travel book publisher in the world. He is also an avid travel photographer and the son of an airplane mechanic and a flight attendant.
After college, at age 24, his photography and video work caught the eye of a business mogul who would later purchase Lonely Planet from the BBC and tap Houghton to run the company.
When he's not managing the publisher — and when he is — Houghton is traveling. To date, he's taken more than 500 flights.
His best tip from years spent on airplanes? Don't book a connecting flight with a layover of less than two hours.
"The airlines will let you book a connecting flight with a layover of less than 45 minutes," he told CNBC at the Millennial 20/20 conference last month. "You're never going to make that flight."
"They'll fix it. But you're not going to get where you're going on time," he says. "So I don't book a flight with a layover with less than two hours."
While he sometimes spends up to two hours sitting in a terminal, he's never missed a flight because of a missed connection. Instead, he uses the extra time to catch up on leisure reading or work emails.
The strategy has helped him countless times.
Just a few weeks ago, for example, Houghton's flight was delayed by 30 minutes because of bad weather. But he didn't have to worry or rush to his next flight because of the 90 minutes he still had to spare.
"If you don't force yourself into really tight constraints...then it just avoids all of those issues of rescheduling and things like that," the CEO says.
Check out the advice from a 33-year-old who makes up to $60,000 per month traveling
