Traveling with the Stars: Mark Steines
— -- Mark Steines kicks off his 15th season with Entertainment Tonight next month. The co-anchor of the syndicated entertainment news magazine show and photography buff has traveled to South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. His photography book, See the Light: A Passage to Sierra Leone, comes out later this year and all proceeds go to Lighthouse Medical Missions. He shares his travel highlights and tips with Kelly Carter for USA TODAY.
Q: Where have you been recently that you liked or were surprised by?
A: In April I went on a 10-day trip to Sierra Leone with Bob Hamilton, a pediatrician in Santa Monica, and Lighthouse Medical Missions. It surprised me in many ways — the fact of just how brutal life is for those people. At times I felt like I was on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean because of how rough it is. I was surprised to see the spirit of the people. Their lows are so low, which only makes their highs even more joyous than ours because they really know how difficult life can be. So when something does come along, even when it's a piece of candy, they get so much joy and satisfaction and happiness from that. You're like, 'Wow, it's just a piece of candy.' One piece of candy causes a massive stampede. I took a bunch with me to give out. It centers you and brings you back to remind you what's really important.
Q: What's the best place you've ever visited?
A: Going inside the Great Pyramid and standing inside both the King's and Queen's chambers. I never in a million years thought I'd be standing (there), let alone at the base, escorted inside by Zahi Hawass, who is a well-known historian of Egyptian history and artifacts. That and exhuming the mummies while we were there. We were behind the scenes for a special on exhuming mummies. Hugh Downs was the host of the show. We walked across the desert and you'd see a femur bone or skull. They had just unearthed a family crypt. They took all of the artifacts there, marked everything and stored them so they wouldn't get robbed.
Q: What's the most surprising/unexpected place you've ever visited?
A: In Madagascar flying in an old Russian Antonov airplane, landing on a dirt runway and watching the locals cut the head of a cow off and sacrifice it for the team that I was covering. And then eating their local fare as a sort of celebration. I was like, "Oh, oh, I get it. There's no hotel right? We're just going to sleep here on the ground." But that was part of what I was committed to do. This was in 1993 when I was with KCAL-TV in Los Angeles and before I went to ET.
Q: What's your favorite vacation spot?
A: Kauai. We (he's married to former Miss America Leanza Cornett) got married there in 1995. We made our first son there. We celebrated our 10-year anniversary there. It's a very magical place for us. We don't get to go enough. With the boys (they're 5 and 7) now we're trying to do stuff they can really get into. There's not a whole lot there for little kids so we've been doing the theme park stuff with them. I do like to be comfortable when I travel and there's a certain hominess about it for us. It's a combination of the spirit of the island, how magical it is there, how remote it is and the peace and quiet because we're always in the madness of a big city and the crush of a big event. At the Princeville (resort), where we stay, there's a certain level of being pampered. We know where everything is… all of the little burger joints we want to go to, the restaurants that we like to hang out in. It's like a second home.
Q: Can you offer an insider tip or recommendation for your favorite vacation place?
A: This sounds so lame but I like staycations. Because I'm gone so much, I like to be home (in Santa Monica, Calif.). We've created a really lovely environment to be in. We are exploring the Ojai area, too, because we're purchasing a home there. That's going to be our getaway retreat. Ojai, Calif., is almost like us moving Kauai a little bit closer.