Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Tribune
September 17, 2019
When Dan Payne wants to do a family getaway, the Canadian actor takes his family to “Shuswap Lake (in British Columbia) for some time on a boat and wake surfing in the summer,” or he heads up “to Whistler for some family skiing in winter.” Best known for his work in “John Tucker Must Die,” “The Flash” and “Battlestar Galactica,” he reprised his role as King Beast in “Descendants 3.” Payne, 48, stays in touch with his fans via Instagram and Twitter.
Q. What is your favorite vacation destination?
A. Queensland, Australia, has always been top of the list. I would recommend traveling through the tropical rain forests of far north Queensland to the first boat you can find that will take you to the Great Barrier Reef. Then trek down south to the Brisbane area and find the best surfing spot you can.
Q. What untapped destination should people know about?
A. I got to work for an exploration company during university in the Yukon. We were up near the Arctic Circle. There were no roads for miles and miles and most of our work was with the assistance of a helicopter. It was breathtaking! The chopper pilot would often say he thought we had the privilege of leaving footprints where no one else ever had. That’s a pretty cool thought.
Q. What was the first trip you took as a child?
A. The first trip I remember was the long drive for a family summer trip to the Okanagan (in British Columbia) to hang out with cousins at the lake. We loved it so much that it became an annual thing for many years.
Q. What’s the most important thing you’ve learned from your travels?
A. Traveling is a phenomenal way to see a reflection of yourself through other cultures, cities, people, customs and religions. It has given me a better sense of self and self-awareness through that reflection, as well as taught me to try to learn and respect others and other cultures.
Q. If you could only pick one place to eat, would you choose a casual meal at a street cart or fine dining at a nice restaurant?
A. I would pick a casual meal, because I think it could possibly be closer to the authentic food of the area and it has a far more social aspect about it. And you’re outside!
Q. Do you speak any foreign languages?
A. I speak French. I love languages. I have an affinity for languages, I think. I remember traveling around Brazil for a month and by the end of the trip, I felt comfortable with basic Portuguese. I love Spanish and I do my best to absorb and speak as much as I can every time we go to Mexico.
Q. What are your five favorite places?
A. Vancouver, Los Angeles, Chiang Mai (Thailand), Airlie Beach (Australia) and Santorini.
Q. Where have you traveled to that most reminded you of home?
A. Airlie Beach. It wasn’t because of the food, architecture, vegetation or anything of that nature. It was just a feeling. I know being there with my brother helped a lot. But there was something more. It’s hard to describe except that when I arrived there, I felt like it all made sense. I believe a lot of that feeling came from the people and the welcome atmosphere that seemed to just emanate from the entire town. And I am madly in love with the ocean, too, so the town’s immediate proximity to the water also helped.
Q. Where would you like to go that you have never been to before?
A. I would love to do a Sherpa-guided trip to the mountaintops of Tibet with my family or do some shark breeding ground drift dives off the coast of the Maldives.
Q. When you go away, what are some of your must-have items?
A. Usually if sunscreen is a must-have, then I’m off to a great start. But truthfully, for me, it would be headphones and my music. I’ll often hear songs and be transported back to a moment somewhere in the world where that song was playing or I was listening to it.
Q. What is your best and/or worst vacation memory?
A. I truly hope my best vacation memory is yet to come. So far, the best one that comes to mind was the month my wife and I spent in Costa Rica. We felt like we packed that trip with almost everything possible — surfing, random feeding of crocodiles, found a phenomenal tiny hidden restaurant run by a French chef who came and never left, natural hot springs in the mountains and on and on. Just brilliant!
The worst vacation memory was when my wife and I were flying home from Australia and were suddenly forced to land in Hawaii because 9/11 had just happened. The pilot didn’t explain much except that the plane was in perfect working order, however, there was an FAA closure of all U.S. airspace. We spent four days there trying to figure out what had just happened to the world before we could go home.
© 2019 JAE-HA KIM
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