There are two types of travelers: the ones who glide through the airport like it’s a spa day … and the rest of us, silently unraveling in a TSA line that hasn’t moved in 12 minutes. Or, if you’re Joshua Jackson, maybe thinking about why that one bag had to be checked.
Spring break season has a way of exposing everyone’s breaking point. The overpackers. The barefoot-through-security crowd. The person who suddenly decides to reorganize their entire carry-on at the conveyor belt. And while it’s easy to assume celebrities are bypassing all of this on private jets with green juice in hand, the reality is a lot less glamorous: Plenty of them are right there with us, clutching boarding passes, bracing for delays and wondering why airplanes are somehow always freezing (cough, Rachel Zoe).
Because no matter how famous you are, travel has a way of humbling you. It’s the great equalizer (for most): a shared experience built on mild discomfort, questionable snacks and the slow realization that someone nearby is about to do something deeply annoying.
We asked a mix of celebrities — from Liam Neeson and Kathie Lee Gifford to Bunnie Xo — about their biggest travel pet peeves, and let’s just say … some stars are just like us.
Whitney Leavitt (reality star, Dancing With the Stars / Secret Lives of Mormon Wives)
“When people do their skin care on an airplane. That is literally the worst place you could do your skin care. There’s so much bacteria in the air. Do not do your skin care on a plane.”
Josh Duhamel (actor/director, Preschool)
“Not being able to put my chair back during takeoff on an airplane.”
Joshua Jackson (actor and spokesperson for Get Body Checked initiative)
“My pet peeve about traveling with a young child is that I really, really try to never check a bag. I’m pathological about this because I travel a lot and have always traveled a lot. It has ended relationships in my life — both friend and romantic. I’m like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. We cannot take all this stuff.’ And now I’m like, I have a hockey bag full of stuff just to get to the airport. It’s crazy.”
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Rachel Zoe (stylist and reality star, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills)
“Being cold. I always dress so warm, like I’ll wear a massive coat in the middle of summer because airplanes are so cold.”
Ryan Phillippe (actor, One Mile: Chapters 1 and 2)
“Flight delays.”
Matthew Lillard (actor, Scream 7)
“Americans abroad who don’t respect where they are, culturally.”
Liam Neeson (actor, Cold Storage)
“Airports. Period. If I never see another airport for the rest of my life, it will still be too soon.”
Kevin James (actor, Solo Mio)
“Just getting on a plane. I hate planes. I don’t like flying, especially across the ocean. I never like doing that. I don’t want to drink too much where I’m just knocked out … because that would make me sleep. So it’s like, how do I kill the time? I try to bring movies … to entertain myself so I don’t realize that I’m flying. I’m getting better with it, but I get anxiety.”
Bunnie Xo (author of Stripped Down: Unfiltered and Unapologetic)
“Getting stuck on planes. I haven’t had that happen to me, but my security had to sit on the tarmac for seven hours once when he was flying out to us. How is that even humane? Traveling in general is just a pain in the ass.”
Kathie Lee Gifford (TV host and author of Nero and Paul )
“Rudeness. I don’t put up with it.”
Hilarie Burton Morgan (actor/activist, True Crime Story: It Couldn’t Happen Here)
“People who are mean to TSA and the flight attendants. I’ve worked in the service industry — you better shape up and be nice to these folks because they’re in a little restaurant hotel in the sky, and it’s not fun for them either.”
Andrew McCarthy (actor and author of Who Needs Friends)
“Some people love driving and find it relaxing. I find it stressful. I truly am terrified of highway driving. I stay almost entirely off interstates and drive back roads.”
Ty Herndon (singer and What Matters Most author)
“I have found that traveling at this age, I’m a grumpy old man. I get car sick. I’m going through manopause. I try to pray a lot and keep my cool. … My husband says I’m high maintenance, so I’m working on that.”
Jennie Garth (actor and I Choose Me author and podcast host)
“I do not like it in the hotel when they give you a plastic cup wrapped in plastic. It’s the flimsiest little cup — what are you going to do with it? I don’t appreciate an uncomfortable mattress. I don’t appreciate how they tuck the sheets in so tightly. I gotta pull that all out. I’m sorry — all your hard work and I’m just gonna ruin it. Traveling is also hard for me because I have specific food things being a vegan. It’s really hard to find things [on the go] that aren’t full of cheese and butter and meat in our country. I usually pack my own food.”