Famous Traveling Companion: Who Would You Choose?

Recently, those of us at IndependentTraveler.com asked our Facebook and Twitter followers which famous person, living or dead, they would want to travel with.

If Susan P. Brackett gets a chance to travel with her pick, she’ll have to bulk up on passport pages. She chose Hillary Clinton, who visited 112 countries and flew more than 956,000 miles during her time as U.S. Secretary of State.

Everyone else who responded to our poll chose slightly less traveled companions. But only slightly: Rick Steves got a couple of votes and we’re pretty sure he’s probably visited close to 100 countries, even if he hasn’t flown some 900,000 miles.

Another celebrity with multiple votes was Michael Jackson. We’re not exactly sure why he would have made a good travel companion, but you’d probably never have to wait in a security line again if you were in his entourage.

A couple of writers also made it into the list of famous folks our readers would like to travel with, namely Oscar Wilde and Shakespeare. Facebook follower Runaway Brit, who chose Shakespeare, explained her choice: “He would entertain me with stories, plays and poems along the way.”

We decided to ask a few folks in the IndependentTraveler.com office who they’d want to travel with. Here’s what they came up with:

Sarah Schlichter, Editor: “I’d like to travel with singer/songwriter Dar Williams, who seems like she’d be a friendly, down-to-earth travel companion — and she could play my favorite songs during long layovers.”

Travel Smarter! Sign up for our free newsletter.

By proceeding, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Sign Up

Ashley Kosciolek, Copy Editor: “Tina Fey because she’s hilarious, a great writer and she hates cruising, so I’d love to pick her brain.”

Aubrey Manzo, Public Relations Specialist: “Betty White. She seems like the ultimate travel partner: feisty, always up for a good time and able to bring humor into any situation — plus we’re both animal lovers, so we’d definitely add a few animal encounters to our itinerary.”

Morgan Balog, contributing writer: “I would travel with Jeff Goldblum, because let’s be honest, who wouldn’t want to travel with that dude?”

My own pick? Anderson Cooper. He seems like he’d be a lot of fun and he knows everything there is to know about everything. Plus, knowing everybody as he does, he’d probably be able to get us behind the scenes everywhere we went.

Who would you want to travel with and why?

– written by Dori Saltzman