Traveling with the Stars: Greta Van Susteren

— -- Television personality Greta Van Susteren is based in Washington, D.C., but hops the globe for her current affairs show On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, now in its seventh year on Fox News. She shares her travel highlights and tips with USA TODAY.

Q: Where have you been recently that you liked or were surprised by?

A: In the last six weeks I was in Massachusetts doing a favor for (former) Governor Jane Swift. I spoke to her class at Williams College in Williamstown. I had never been to Williamstown before. I was intoxicated by the thought of wouldn't it be nice to live in a small town in New England? So I loved that.

I've (also) been to St. Louis (where) I had the thrill of throwing the first baseball out to the best player in all of baseball, (St. Louis Cardinals) Albert Pujols, but I bounced the ball. I love St. Louis. I'm from the Midwest. There are all these great Midwestern cities that have rich histories and wonderful neighborhoods. St. Louis looked spectacular. It was great weather and a beautiful city.

Q: What's the best place you've ever visited and why?

A: There are two places and they're very different. One is the Yukon Territory, Canada, because when I was a college student I went on a geology expedition. We lived in the mountains. We climbed mountains and climbed glaciers. It was breathtaking.

The other is Pyongyang in North Korea. Because North Korea has been hermetically sealed from the world since 1950, they have no other culture. They have virtually no commerce but it is interesting. It's like everything came to a dead stop in 1950. Pyongyang is a port city and there's a river running through the city. If you can look through the decay of years of not having any money, you can see that underneath is the most spectacular beauty that I have ever seen. Beautiful winding rivers. Old buildings. Now I am certainly not a fan of Communism and Stalinism, don't get me wrong. But it was absolutely fascinating. It really is their culture. Now, all cultures sort of bleed into each other. You can go to any American city and get food from all over the world, which in some ways, is quite lovely. I love the hermetically sealed nature of one culture.

Q: What's the most surprising/unexpected place you're ever visited and why?

A: Buenos Aires with my husband in, I think, 1988. There was a window of time when the dollar was the most powerful currency down there. We could go into the best restaurant in town and order the most expensive food, best wine, best everything and we'd get a bill for $12. We felt like gazallionaires because the dollar was so powerful.

Q: What's your favorite vacation spot and why?

A: (Hometown) Appleton, Wisc. I can go there and nobody cares what I do for a living. It's my old friends. We go to Cleo's bar that has Christmas decorations up 365 days a year. We walk up and down The Avenue (College Avenue). We go out for a fish fry. We go bowling. To me, it is the best place to be.

Do you want to know the best of all? I wanted to interview B.B. King, who to me is everything. When I was in high school we used to drive up and down The Ave. We'd have an 8-track and the car was stuffed with 10 girls. We'd sing The Thrill is Gone at the top of our voices to the 8-track. During the O.J. Simpson case I happened to meet B.B. King at some Ted Turner function. He came up to me and said, "I so much wanted to meet you.…" He agreed to do an interview on his bus when he was playing in Appleton about two months later. I bought about 15 or 20 tickets and took all of my high school friends. We walked up The Ave to Cleo's bar and sat around and had a ball. Can you imagine going back to your hometown and interviewing B.B. King when you've gone up and down The Ave with an 8-track?

Q: Can you offer an insider tip or recommendation for your favorite vacation place?

A: Even in Appleton there's a lot to do. For 10 bucks you get two sandwiches. You can pull out a blanket and go down to the river and watch the boats go up and down the river and sit and talk. My recommendation right now is to find ways to spend money because that stimulates the economy, but if you are creative, I bet there are things in your community that you have never seen.