Want to know how to travel in style, just like the pros? We check in with frequent fliers to find out how often they fly, their favorite destinations and what they never leave home without.

Juliana Dever
Juliana Dever

Name: Juliana Dever

Occupation: Actor, Producer, Travel Blogger, Goat Cuddler

Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri

Residence: Los Angeles, CA

College: Moscow Art Theatre, Moscow/acting

Website: cleverdeverwherever.com & julianadever.com

Twitter: @CleverDever

Facebook: CleverDever Wherever

Instagram: cleverdever

YouTube: Juliana Dever

Short bioJuliana Dever is a travel writer, photographer, actor, and TV host. As an avid traveler, Juliana is always on the search for the local’s perspective. This has led her to volcano-top gatherings with the entire population of a Greek Island, camping with Bedouins in the Middle East and visiting with camel breeders in the Gobi Desert. Her thirst for connecting to other cultures and their people became the catalyst for her travel blog cleverdeverwherever.com. When Juliana is not traveling she is working in television, best known for her role as Jenny Ryan on ABC’s Castle. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @CleverDever.

How often do you fly? 100,000+ per year, so several times a month, typically.

How many countries have you been to? 42, I think.

How many continents have you been to? 5

Earliest travel memory: Driving to Branson, Missouri, with my parents and autistic sister, who had to use the restroom, but was not always known to wait until we found one. We were in a stretch where there was nowhere to stop so the whole family sang “Celebration” by Kool & The Gang (her favorite song) for 30 minutes straight while my dad frantically drove, searching for a gas station.

Favorite American city: San Francisco, but I also love the gothic romance of New Orleans’ French Quarter.

Favorite international city: Oh I hate choosing, but I think I could easily live in Amsterdam.

Friendliest people in the world: Ireland.

Country with the meanest immigration officers: Germany.

Favorite World Heritage Site: THAT’S hard to narrow down. I’m going to say Iguazu Falls for natural, a tie between Petra and Ephesus for ancient and Red Square for man-made.

Favorite airline: I’d fly Virgin everywhere if they had a larger domestic route structure. But of the US carriers—United.

Favorite aircraft type: 787 Dreamliner.

Aisle or window: Aisle—I’ve got pictures to take!

Favorite airport lounge: Heathrow’s United lounge has loads of light and space, but the SAS lounge in Sweden has way better food.

Favorite international airport: Copenhagen. Beautiful, super modern, tasty meal choices. It’s well laid-out, but maybe to my own detriment. Between the time I landed there and finally made it to claim my bag, I was hooked in by the shopping and had several pairs of wild stockings and snagged a fabulous raincoat by a Scandinavian designer. I almost forgot I was still at the airport!

Favorite hotel: I’m not good at playing favorites. Amangiri in Utah, Rosewood anywhere.

Favorite travel credit card: Chase Mileage Plus Club Card.

Favorite island: Iceland.

Favorite beach: Marara Beach in Bora Bora for that Castaway feel (while still knowing you’re not marooned and forced to make friends with a volleyball).

Favorite fancy restaurant: I love Michael Mina at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Not only is the food fantastic but the service is fluid and perfect, and I’m basically BFFs with the sommelier at this point. Internationally, my tastebuds are still in Piemonte, Italy. Try the Borgo Vecchio restaurant. It’s on a terrace overlooking the hills of Barolo and Barbaresco with, of course, a fantastic Truffles d’Alba tasting menu.

Favorite hole-in-the-wall: Big Lebowski bar in Reykjavik.

Favorite bar: Cambrinus in Brugge. One of the fun places to sit down and get a Westvleteren 12, that delicious and rarest of elusive Belgian trappist ales.

Favorite fruit: Passionfruit, lilikoi, maracujá, maracuyá, fruit de la passion—I love it so much I’ve learned to say it in five languages and counting.

Favorite food: Pasta with cream sauce and truffles.

Least favorite food: Meat.

Drink of choice (in the air and on the ground): In the air: red wine. On the ground: I love trying whatever is local and fresh; something that is part of the region or culture—that’s one of the great parts of travel!

Favorite travel movie(s): I’m captivated by The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. I think I’ve watched it three or four times. I love that he found himself and his courage in life through traveling. He wasn’t a fierce adventurer or an extreme athlete, he was a regular guy that pushed himself past his own fears to discover what he, and the world around him—was made of. I can so relate.

Favorite travel show(s): Three Sheets and its host Zane Lamprey. Of all the iterations he and that format have gone through, that’s still my favorite. It combined travel, drinking, wit, and some great interactions with locals. I also loved how the show brought the learning in every episode. I loved finding out the facts of how certain spirits originated or that cool drink recipe.

Favorite travel book(s): If we’re talking guide books, I’ve always enjoyed Rick Steves and his encouragement to get off the tourist track. His books have great advice about small towns you wouldn’t think to visit and bigger towns to avoid that are too touristy. My other favorite travel books are histories of cities or even fictionalized accounts that stay true to the sense of place. I loved reading Orhan Pamuk’s “Snow” while traveling through Turkey, and I found “Venice, A New History” by Thomas F. Madden fascinating while staying in Italy.

Right now I am reading: Scratching the Surface” by Jeff Greenwald and “Silence of the Grave” by Icelandic author Arnaldur Indridason.

Favorite travel website(s)—besides JohnnyJet.com, of course! I use trip advisor a lot, though I don’t always heed there advice since I feel like it’s easily skewed. Otherwise, truthfully, I google away.

5 things you bring on a plane: Flight 001 concave eyemask, Bose noise-cancelling earbuds, Nozin nasal sanitizer (to keep from getting other people’s germs), airplane socks, and a scarf that doubles as a wrap for when I get cold.

What do you like least about travel? Flying.

Favorite travel app(s): Time Out, Spotted by Locals and the Paris Metro app.

Most embarrassing travel moment: I have a bad habit of being extremely confident in translation. Most of the time it works, but in Russia I failed terribly. I was convinced that a man at a Moscow buffet was asking my friends and I to roll up our sleeves because we would get meat on them. I don’t know why, but I was convinced. I was wrong of course, he just wanted to coat check them because the restaurant was too small to carry those coats with us. Of course this dawned the “meatsleeves” madrigal song we sang for months.

I’m embarrassed but I haven’t been to: India

Worst travel moment: Chasing down the keys for an Airbnb in Vienna. After a nine-hour day of driving from Warsaw through Slovakia, even though we found occasional Wi -Fi to update her on being stuck in a major Slovakian traffic jam, the owner made no accommodations for us to get the key. We had to wait in the rain, after loads of traffic, to get an address of her contact, which she then gave incorrectly. Imagine 10:30 at night, in the rain, wandering into bars looking for Wi-Fi to get out a text or a call, hanging out in the wrong neighborhoods, knocking on the wrong doors, finally meeting with someone in an outlying neighborhood late at night to get a key. Jeez we were hangry! We spent the night there and then left the key on the table and moved to a hotel the next day.

What’s your dream destination? Right now? Maybe Greenland. I’m thinking polar bears and icebergs.

Favorite travel charity: I’m excited about the new Kind Traveler platform! You get to give a small donation to a preferred local or global charity; and as a reward, you get an exclusive discounted rate to book directly with Kind Traveler’s curated hotel properties.

Best travel tip: Small bags! I have a collection of bags I’ve picked up from either LeSport Sac or Flight 001 that I fill with specific items. There’s the electronic cords/adapter bags, hair products bags, I love my clothes compression bag, my onboard amenity kit bag, etc.—most of these bags are already packed and ready to throw into my luggage on short notice. I can also keep everything organized and easily move from location to location on the road, which is hugely helpful when you’re traveling to multiple destinations on one trip.

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