» Sarah Michelle Gellar knows the best spot for martinis in Florence

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Sarah Michelle Gellar says she loves to dive deep into research when it comes to planning her next vacation.

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“I’m the girl who, whenever I would get a job in a foreign country, the first thing I would do — back in the ’90s — is get the Fodor’s Guide for the city I was going to and just start reading it like a novel and learn everything I’d want to do,” she says. “Obviously, Google makes that easier now.”

The 47-year-old actress calls herself an Anglophile. She loves London for its theatre and shopping scenes but is also partial to the coast of Cornwall and little fishing villages like Mousehole. She says Italy is another favourite destination for her family, but she just got back from a trip to Paris, which was even better than she remembered.

“I stayed at the Peninsula. It’s in a great area, right by the Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Elysses and you can walk everywhere from there,” she says. “As a native New Yorker, I like to walk places.”

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Along with returning for a reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, directed by Oscar-winner Chloé Zhao, Gellar has also teamed up with rail booking site Trainline to help promote its Ticket to Summer Travel in Europe campaign.

Hyping up trains wasn’t a big stretch for the actress. “I joke that I watched too much Bond growing up because I always thought trains were the most glamourous way to travel,” says Gellar. “As I got older, I also realized that train travel isn’t just glamorous, it’s actually so much easier, and it lets you enjoy the journey more.”

Gellar recalls one particular group trip that involved a London to Paris leg. She and a friend decided to take the Eurostar instead of flying, since they didn’t want to schlep all the way out to Heathrow — the rest of the group made the hop to the continent via plane. “We had the easiest afternoon and got right into the centre of town and had lunch and relaxed, and when we met back up with everyone else, they were all haggard after dealing with a day of airport drama,” she says. “And I realized in that moment how much easier train travel can be, especially in Europe.”

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As for her next trip, Gellar says she wants to take her family — husband Freddie Prinze Jr. and two children, Rocky and Charlotte — to explore Spain. Sicily — the destination of last season’s White Lotus — is also on her list. Gellar is a fan of the HBO series, “though I’d prefer my Sicily vacation to have less murder,” she jokes.

Here are the hard-won travel hacks Gellar has learned over a lifetime of vacations and work trips.

Google Maps is your best friend while travelling — but not just for directions.

I keep Google pins in my phone for all the cities I like to visit. I’ll pin a restaurant that I love, like Langosteria in Milan, or a restaurant that someone mentions in passing. If I think. “Oh, next time I go to that city I would love to try that,” it gets a pin. Or if I see a place on someone’s Instagram and think to myself, “Oh I have to remember that I’d like to try that place,” I’ll just stick a pin it it on Google Maps.

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Rebecca Gayheart just called me and she’s like, “I’m taking my daughter to Paris for spring break, can you give me a list of recommendations?” I was like, “yep.” And I literally just clicked on my Google Maps for Paris and shared my saved pins with her so she could go to all my favourite places.

But sometimes you find the best places just having a wander around.

In Paris, we wanted to go to lunch, and all I wanted was French onion soup. Yes, I know, very cliché. So we just wandered around and found the first little cafe along the way. They barely spoke English — my French is minimal — and we ended up having the loveliest afternoon. They were so welcoming to us, and the food was insane. And it was literally a random walk-in, no searching, no Googling reviews, just wandering around. That doesn’t happen if you plan literally every moment.

Go ahead and check a bag — but keep a change of clothes in your carry-on.

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I used to try so hard to be an under-packer until I realized there’s no reward for that. It’s not like you get to the end of your trip like, yay, you made it in just a carry-on! So I’ll go ahead and check a bag. Places like London have such strict rules about bottle sizes, you can only bring a few small bottles of liquids in your carry-on. That’s hard for me, because I need my skincare and my makeup, especially when I’m travelling for work. And when I travel with my family, I’m the one responsible for bringing the Benadryl and the Pepto-Bismol and all the other important stuff that nobody else packs, like sunblock.

I do keep a single change of clothes in my carry-on, regardless. Even if it’s something simple, if I accidentally spill on myself, and want to change my clothes, then I know I have that option.

Here’s where to stay for the best martinis in Florence.

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I’m such a hotel girl. Like I could be Eloise at the Plaza and be very happy.  One of the best hotels I ever stayed at was in Florence. We stayed at the Hotel Lungarno, and I thought it was just incredible.

It had the most phenomenal bartender and this tiny little library bar — the martinis were amazing — but there was something just so Italian about it. It felt so special, and the service was amazing. And it’s right in the centre of town so you could walk everywhere, which is the best way to explore Florence.

The best family activity while travelling involves food.

One of our favourite things to do when we travel is we to take cooking lessons wherever we go. It’s a great activity, especially with the kids. You get to learn about local fare and local spices, and a lot of times they have cooking classes inside people’s houses.

We took a pizza-making class in this woman’s apartment right in the heart of Florence, which was amazing. And in Tuscany we went to this old farmhouse and cooked pasta, and it’s just one of my favourite things to do. I just want to eat in Italy, basically.

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You have to power through jet lag.

The second I get somewhere, I just live on that time zone. The first time we did a big trip to Europe with my kids, they kept saying, “Oh my gosh, it’s this time in L.A., it’s that time in L.A.” And I said, “You have to stop that right now. You have to pretend that this is the only time zone that matters now.” It’s the only way to get through it.

We usually travel to Europe on an overnight red-eye flight, so that you can sleep on the airplane and then hit the ground running, get tired and go to bed.

A good book almost always beats the spa for vacation relaxation (almost).

I love to read. There’s nothing better to me than sitting on a balcony, looking at a new view when you’re tired before bed and reading a few chapters of your book. I’ve just started the new Hunger Games book Sunrise on the Reaping — I love the Hunger Games — my daughter and I are reading it at the same time and we’re talking about it together. I have to get her to be quiet though, because she gets all these spoilers on TikTok. I don’t wanna hear your spoilers, kid!

When I’m travelling, a lot of the time I’ll want to go to the spa, but I never do because it feels like such a waste of time. I want to be out doing stuff, not just staying in the hotel. Although we did go to this wonderful hot springs spa in Tuscany — Terme Di Saturnia — and part of being there was doing all the treatments. For me, a spa has to be part of the trip, of immersing myself in a new destination, instead of just getting spoiled.

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