Sarah Michelle Gellar gets by with a little help from Friends‘ Monica Gellar.
When planning vacations, the actress, 47, tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview that she lives by a famous quote Courteney Cox’s character once said in the popular sitcom: “Rules are good. Rules help control the fun.”
“That’s me. That’s definitely me,” Gellar — who has partnered with Trainline for its new “Ticket to Summer Travel in Europe” campaign — says with a laugh. “I want to have a plan, but I also understand that not everyone’s like that.”
“I am a type A person, so I keep Google Maps with pins of everywhere I want to go and everywhere I’ve been,” she continues. “I’ll send them to people, and they’ll be like, ‘This is a 17-day trip that you’ve just given me,’ but I’m like, ‘It’s just options.’ ”
Adds Gellar: “[You have to] plan, plan, plan, and then have a backup for your plan. And you have to be able to pivot and be able to be flexible sometimes.”
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According to Gellar, one place she loves to travel to is Europe — and she enjoys getting to go there with her family: husband Freddie Prinze Jr. and their two kids, daughter Charlotte, 15, and son Rocky, 12.
“We’re definitely an Italy family, there’s no question,” she says, explaining, “I think the thing about Italy that’s so great is that there are places for all of us to do things.”
“For me, I love to go to Florence and see all the artwork and the Galileo Museum, and just see the history. And then my son, he wants to go to Rome and see the Colosseum and see the Vatican and everything that he’s read about,” Gellar continues. “My husband wants to go to Tuscany and drink wine and eat truffles, and my daughter then wants to go coastal and be on the water. Italy has all of that for us.”
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Another hot spot that Gellar loves to travel to in Europe is England. “I’m definitely an Anglophile,” she says, referring to people who greatly admire the country.
“I love going to small fishing villages outside. It feels like going back in time, and I love the history of London. I love seeing that,” the mom of two continues.
“I just had a wonderful trip to Paris, and I forgot how much I love the French countryside as well,” Gellar adds of other European travels. “[It was great] getting out and seeing Normandy and Versailles and all the places that are just a quick train ride away.”
Gellar’s love of Europe is what makes her partnership with Trainline for their summer travel campaign such a perfect fit — especially given her love of utilizing the mode of transportation.
“I’m someone that has always loved train travel. … It’s always been a glamorous way of traveling for me,” she says. “When you have kids, and you have to plan these trips, the least time in the air, the better.”
“There’s just this anxiety that you have on planes that you don’t on trains,” adds the Buffy the Vampire Slayer star. “You know, for me, the OCD planner – flights get canceled, pilots don’t show up, you miss a connection. But Trainline just makes it so easy, as everything is in your native language. It takes away all that stress of finding terminals and where your train is, and if for some reason you miss it, there are 40 more options that can get to the place you need to get to on time.”
Gellar tells PEOPLE that she is looking forward to using the company’s services this summer, when she and her family make their way back to Europe.
As for where the group might head, she says, “We haven’t done Spain yet with the kids. I think that’ll be coming up soon. I want them to see that.”
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