How I Travel: Tracee Ellis Ross Does Not Want Adventure on Vacation

Kaitlin Menza
·8 min read

Tracee Ellis Ross is not a train person, nor is she a boat person. “I like a boat, but I don’t want to travel by a boat, you know what I mean? I just want to go out on a boat,” the actor says while discussing her preferred means of transportation. Right now, she’s in the process of becoming a car person: This week she launched a new campaign with Mercedes-Maybach EQS SUV, the first all-electric vehicle from Mercedes-Maybach. “I love elegant. I love chic. I love sleek and effortless,” she says. “It’s either some fancy first-class airline on the plane or a beautiful Mercedes.”

An avid traveler, Ellis Ross is also working on a docuseries about solo travel with Roku, which she promises will celebrate and encourage those who “live their lives on their own terms.” Ahead, Tracee Ellis Ross discusses her very particular terms for travel, including her ideal pool temperature, the types of sweats she needs to fly in, and why she returns to the same destinations again and again.

Her go-to flying outfit:
I travel in sweats, but I call them fancy sweats. Right now, my favorites are Pangaia. I have them in almost every color, and I buy an extra large. I have a real issue with being cold, so it’s sweats even in the summer. I like a hoodie, because even if I don't put it over my ears when I'm cold, it is very practical. Before the pandemic I was always like a wiper downer, but if you are sleeping on a pillow, you can put the hood up and have that be what your face is touching, and if you're cold, you can pull it around your neck almost like a scarf. What I love about the Pangaia sweats is that they have pockets not only in the pants but also in the sweatshirt, and they're deep pockets. You can put your AirPods or phone in there and you won't feel like they're going to fall out. I am also somebody who does a compression sock, but the compression socks where your toes are out and they go all the way up to my thigh, above my knees. They have changed everything for me.

Why she always carries on back-up clothes:

Because I have lost luggage in the past, I always have my big tote purse and a roller bag that I could live out of for a week if I needed to. You have to learn the lesson once and then you're done. You're like, Okay, that will never happen again. I'll never be without all of my shoes.

How she stays hydrated in flight:
I play a game with myself on the airplane of “How much water can I drink?” I can get down two liters for a European flight.

Her priorities when planning a vacation:
My life is so jam-packed. I work it with military precision. So a couple of things that are really important to me: a hotel room that has sunlight. It makes me just get up and go in a really wonderful way. Food is a really big one. I mean local food—I don't want to go somewhere where they've figured out how to turn a tomato into foam. I'm not that person. That's one of the things I do, research-wise. Where would the tourists not know? Those are the two big things: food and a room with sunlight.

Why she likes to vacation in the same place again and again:

Without giving away any of my special treats, for my privacy and for safety reasons, there's a place I’ve been going with a group of friends every year for 20 years. It is still the quintessential vacation for me. Being in a beautiful place that I've been to before, there's a sense of knowing the area, so it's not about exploring or adventure, but doing what I [already like] to do. But they're all wonderful things! I eat the same things when I go there.

And the truth is, I have another spot in Mexico that I go to by myself. I go to the same hotel, same hotel room, and I've been going for 10 years. My ideal vacation is a place that my body knows, that I know. Where I don't have to [think], “If I go to this restaurant, is it going to be good?” My ideal is somewhere that I know and love.

The amenity she needs in her hotel room:

Bathtubs. They're disappearing. They're literally disappearing! And one of my travel hacks is when you arrive at a destination, if you can't get in the pool or the water, get in a bath and just settle your body and let it realize where you are. To me, it is a luxury when a hotel room has a bathtub.

And the one she can do without:

I know that fragrance is a really big part of a lot of hotel experiences now. I think it's lovely, and some hotels have extraordinary fragrances, but I have a really sensitive nose. Often they have that fragrance in the sheets—I have had to strip beds in the middle of the night, like a crazy person, and wrap my T-shirts around the pillowcases. I’m like the princess and the pea.

How she makes herself at home while traveling:

Wherever I go, I very much create [a sense of] home by completely unpacking. Most of my friends don't unpack their bags, they live out of the bag. I unpack, even if it’s just what I need for that time there. I also do wipe downs in hotels the same way I do airplanes. I'm one of those people.

Her most memorable road trip:
My brother Ross was getting married somewhere deep in California. It was maybe a four-hour drive, and my dad and I got in my convertible Mercedes. Between him packing his food and me packing my things, you would've thought we were going away for a year, or moving out of Los Angeles. We had the top down for a bit. I had a bandana tied across my forehead so it wouldn't get too [sun-exposed]. We made one pit stop. It was a really fun, fantastic road trip. It was almost like a weird reality show. Anyone faint of heart should not have been sitting in the backseat.

Her travel pet peeves:

I'm very confused by people who travel without socks. I don't want to see people's feet. I don't want you even walking through TSA with your bare feet on the floor. It makes me want to barf. And that's not to say I'm afraid of feet. I think feet are wonderful things! But I had a really bad scenario with a guy sitting next to me once who took his shoe off and I thought I was going to die of the odor. I've never been more grossed out in my life. I've seen people walk into the bathroom on the airplane without shoes, and it's more than I can handle. It's more than my nervous system can handle.

Oh, and people who don't cover their mouths when they sneeze or cough. You can put your face in your shirt! The other thing that cracks me up is when people are wearing a mask and they take the mask down to sneeze. What is that about?! That's what the mask is actually for!

What makes for a great vacation pool:

The truth is, I don't love a hotel pool, because there's usually lots of people. What makes for a great hotel pool is that there's no people around it. A warm pool drives me crazy. I grew up with a warm pool, because warm pools are the most ideal situations for kids; they'll stay in them for hours on end. I love a proper, nice, cold pool; I'm not a big swimmer, but I love to go in for a dip. The ideal pool scenario for me is two chairs next to each other, where one chair's in the sun and the other one's in the shade, so that I can switch off without having to negotiate.

My least favorite thing about hotel pools is when you have to go and get there early and put your magazine on the pool chair. You'll not even get me at that pool. I would prefer to open the door of my room and lay on my floor on a towel in a puddle of sun than go out to that pool!

Where she wants to go next:
I'm dying to go to Japan. I had a trip scheduled; it was all planned out, and I mean all planned out. The movie I was doing ran three weeks over and it was very upsetting. The movie, Candy Cane Lane, was worth it, but nonetheless, I'm dying to go to Japan, and I'm dying to go to Spain. Those are two places I've just always really wanted to go.

Originally Appeared on Condé Nast Traveler

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