Actress and best-selling author Marilu Henner is an avid traveler who isn’t afraid to go away alone or with a plane full of relatives. These days, though, she enjoys taking road trips with her husband and two sons. “There’s something about being on the road, taking turns putting on different CDs, that really bonds a family together,” said Henner, 57. “You also get some of the best pictures from these types of vacations.”
Q: What is your favorite vacation destination?
A: My family has really gotten into taking road trips. There’s nothing like taking a family road trip to get to know one another really well! I was never a national-parks person in the past. My husband, who is from Utah, said, “We’ve got to take the boys to some national parks and show them things all kids should see.” That was that and I fell in love with it. We’ve gone from everything to the Grand Canyon to Yellowstone to Yosemite. We try to hit a couple national parks every summer.
Q: Where are your favorite weekend getaways?
A: I love to go to places in California, like Santa Barbara, Ojai and Julian.
Q: What are your favorite hotels and restaurants?
A: The hotel that I was the most impressed with is the Peninsula (peninsula.com) in Hong Kong. I also really like the Mandarin Oriental (mandarinoriental.com) in Bangkok. My favorite vegan restaurant in the world is Sublime (sublimerestaurant.com) in Fort Lauderdale. In New York, I like the Blossom (blossomnyc.com), Josie’s (josiesnyc.com) and I Cru (cru-nyc.com). Other great places are the Millennium (millenniumrestaurant.com) in San Francisco, which is fantastic, Sage’s (sagescafe.com) in Salt Lake City and Alinea (http://www.alinea-restaurant.com) in Chicago.
Q: What kind of research do you do before you go on a trip?
A: I always do research, and now the kids get involved in things to do too. One of my sons specializes in obscure facts and finding off-the-beaten-path items. I also like to check out happycow.com, which is for finding vegan and vegetarian restaurant options. That’s how we found a great whole-wheat pizza near our hotel when we went to the Grand Canyon. We also found a place that served a great portobello burger near San Simeon, Calif., using that site.
Q: Where would you like to go that you have never been?
A: I’ve never been to Alaska or Maine or India.
Q: What were some of your most memorable vacations?
A: In 1982, I was in Hong Kong and feeling very alone in the world. I got on this tram that goes up this hill and saw that the guy running the tram was watching an episode of “Taxi” on a little TV. He looked at me and expected me to speak Chinese, because the show was dubbed.
Q: How do you try to fit in when you’re a tourist?
A: I explore neighborhoods and talk to people and am open to new experiences. I’m a real walker, and I just love to walk. I’m not afraid to speak a foreign language, even if I don’t know it. When I got to Madrid to shoot a film that ended up being postponed for two weeks, I didn’t speak any Spanish. But I got by with my little Italian and French and the universal language of a smile.
For more from the reporter, visit jaehakim.com.
