My life in travel Alan Cumming
The actor on exploring Scotland with Miriam Margolyes and finding magic in the Big Apple
I TRAVEL AN AWFUL LOT, and I really love it. When I do concerts, I arrive in a city with my band (who are all my friends), we do a concert, and then we go out. It means we get this amazing snapshot of a city or a town – you just trust you’re going to meet nice people, who are going to tell you about fun places.
I JUST FILMED A TRAVEL SHOW with Miriam Margolyes in Scotland. We were there in August for three weeks, and we got to know each other really well and had such a laugh. We took a sleeper train up from London to Glasgow, where we both have quite a lot of history, as I went to drama school there and Miriam’s dad was a doctor from the Gorbals.
DURING OUR TRAVELS, WE MET A SCOTTISH GAELIC RAPPER in Ardgour and recorded a song with him. We went to Ullapool, which I adore. In Inverness, we stayed in a guesthouse run by this lady who’s a witch, and another time, I worked with a lady to make an Alan-and-Miriam tartan. We went to Sir Walter Scott’s house, Abbotsford [near Galashiels in the Scottish Borders], which was interesting, and Cawdor as well. Eventually we ended up in Edinburgh, and Miriam came to see my cabaret show at the Edinburgh International Festival. It was such fun.
FOR A PERFECT HOLIDAY, I NEED VERY LITTLE. I love just going to places with sunny climates and really flopping – no activities, just lying down – so I just take a massive amount of sunscreen and books. I like going to places where your phone doesn’t work.
I’VE MADE A FEW FILMS IN CANADA, which I’ve really loved. It is so amazing and vast,
and Banff in particular is incredible. I also did a film with Jackie Chan in Shanghai [the yet-to-be-released The Diary, filmed in 2018], which was an incredible experience. Sometimes you’re just arrested by the very energy of a place, and I felt that in Shanghai. I also shot a wee bit in Budapest a long time ago, and really loved it there. I went to the Gellert Baths, which
were amazing.
NEW YORK IS MY FAVOURITE CITY. No matter how much time I spend there [Cumming lives in Manhattan], I still feel every day is a potential
adventure. I walk out the door and something magical always happens.
I REMEMBER THE VERY FIRST TIME I WENT TO LONDON – it felt like going abroad. That was when I was still at primary school, about 10 years old, and we went around all the sights. I also went on a school trip to Koblenz in Germany as a young teen and on another to stay with a family in France one summer. I really fell in love with France then.
I WENT TO AN INCREDIBLY REMOTE PLACE IN AUSTRALIA called Coober Pedy, an opal-mining town where 70 per cent of the people live underground because it is so hot. I even stayed in a hotel underground. Then I flew in a little plane to the world’s largest cattle station [Anna Creek Station] and we went to the little bar at the William Creek Hotel in William Creek that is actually the one they go to in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. It was such a great experience; I loved it.
I DID A SAFARI A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO IN SOUTH AFRICA with Grant, my husband. It was a very green one and it was incredible just to be close to those animals. I have been on a couple of whale-watching trips, too – one of them more successful than the other. The first was when I was filming in Vancouver, Canada, and all I saw were porpoises. But then I went on another in Santa Barbara, California, and what we saw was incredible – it was like the whales were showing off for us.
I LOVE AN AIRPORT LOUNGE. I don’t mind a long layover if there’s a lounge, and I absolutely hate it when there’s a delay checking in or at security as I just think, “This is eating into my lounge time!” I always have a Bloody Mary in a lounge.
DURING THE FIRST LOCKDOWN, my husband and I were at our place in the Catskill Mountains [in New York State]. It was so beautiful and magical. I love it
there – it reminds me of growing up in Scotland – and it was so amazing to just spend a concentrated amount of time there. I completely slowed down. Seeing the seasons shift so slowly and being there for every subtle little change, I just loved it.
MY BUCKET LIST OF TRAVEL mostly involves trains. I would love to do the Trans-Siberian Express trip from St Petersburg to China, and I would love to go on the Ghan train across Australia – that would be a magical adventure. I’ve not really been to South America – it’s the biggest hole in my geographical life – so that’s somewhere I would really like to go and find out about.
Baggage: Tales from a Fully Packed Life by Alan Cumming (Canongate, £18.99) is out now. Miriam and Alan: Lost in Scotland starts in November on Channel 4 and All 4