Whether he’s starring as fun-loving Adam on Workaholics, the ultimate Treblemaker in the Pitch Perfect franchise, the youngest of the Righteous Gemstones siblings, or cohost of the This Is Important podcast, Adam Devine’s work schedule may, ironically, look like that of a true workaholic. But he always prioritizes time for travel.
“I do a thing with my friends that we call one-day vacays,” the 42-year-old actor-comedian told Travel + Leisure last week of the tradition that he’s done about a dozen times, though it’s slowed down in recent years since he’s become a father.
Sometimes that means he’ll reach out to a friend and choose a city that they haven’t been to together to visit for a day, while other times the getaway is around a sporting event or concert. Most recently, he and another pal from Nebraska traveled back to their home state just for a University of Nebraska–Lincoln Cornhuskers’ football game and flew back the next day.
Adam Devine
With Adam Devine
Best trick for getting over jet lag?
Um, is drinking a good tip? You’ve got to plan out when you’re sleeping on the plane as much as you possibly can. But also, telling yourself that you don’t have jet lag and just powering through. Mind over matter. If you’re in a different country or place you haven’t been before, it’s exciting to be there, so it’s just powering through.
Most unusual item you always pack?
I’m such an old man—I travel with a portable sound machine with white noise. It’s so embarrassing that I have to sleep with this thing. I also need to sleep with like four pillows and have to call down for extras. My wife is always annoyed because I’m always stealing her pillow. She’s like, ‘Can I have a pillow or two?’
Go-to room service order?
A club sandwich is a go-to, but I’m a breakfast guy, so if they serve breakfast all day long, that’s usually what I’m doing. If I’m in America, I get an American breakfast with two eggs, some bacon, and maybe even ham—I’m wild like that. Then I get really wild and get coffee, orange juice, and water, because you never know what you’re going to want to drink in the moment.
Favorite sports stadium to watch a game?
The Intuit Dome, where the [Los Angeles] Clippers play, is unreal, and then SoFi Stadium, where the Rams and the Chargers play, is just unbelievable. It’s like an architectural marvel, like being inside a spaceship. I’m pretty amazed by both of them.
Celebrity friend who makes the best travel companion?
My guys from Workaholics, Blake Anderson and Anders Holm. They are my best friends, so traveling with them is like traveling with your brothers. I was just at F1 [in Las Vegas] with them. We had a show [for the This is Important podcast] there and stuck around and watched some of the race. Hanging with those guys is the best and easiest. We’re all chaos agents. And then you get the three of us together, and it’s a true tornado of fun.
After all, there’s something thrilling about taking in a game on the road. “When you go to a sporting event in your town, and you just come home, it’s less of a thing,” he said. “When you’re in a different city, you get to explore the local cuisine, bars, restaurants, and nightlife. And when you’re in a hotel lobby, you run into all the other fans of the event—it’s a nice camaraderie.”
That’s exactly what made Devine the ideal person to step in as Marriott Bonvoy’s Fanbassador this NFL season, introducing hotel keycards designed by six global artists, doubling as souvenirs called “Keysakes.” Available at select properties near major games in New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Mexico City, Dublin, London, Madrid, and Berlin, at pop-up events in NFL cities, or by creating your own online, these souvenir keys can unlock prizes, Super Bowl tickets, and even the chance to stay overnight in the Super Bowl Sleepover Suite at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, the night before Super Bowl LX on Feb. 8. But fans need to act fast as the Keysakes entries must be received by Dec. 8.
Marriott Bonvoy
Additionally, thanks to the 15-year partnership between the NFL and Marriott Bonvoy, the program is also offering the hotel’s loyalty members the chance to use their points to bid on five other once-in-a-lifetime Super Bowl experiences through Marriott Bonvoy Moments, from sideline game access to walking the red carpet at the NFL Honors.
“I’m a Marriott Bonvoy boy, so this was an absolute strike zone for me,” Devine said of his partnership, following in the footsteps of last year’s Fanbassador, Jason Kelce. “I remember his commercials from last year, and seeing the Marriott Bonvoy Super Bowl Sleepover Suite, and thinking how cool that was.”
The two actually had a chance to meet at Kelce’s Super Bowl party last year. “He was a Workaholics fan, so he came up to me and started quoting Workholics, which was cool because I’m a fan of his,” Devine said. “He’s a great guy—enormous! It’s hard to have a conversation because I’m just speaking to his navel. But he picked me up in the palm of his hand and sat me on his shoulder, and we were able to keep a conversation going!”
All joking aside, Devine’s football fandom runs deep, with this upcoming Super Bowl being his fifth. “It’s always so fun,” he said, with last year being especially memorable as a Kansas City Chiefs fan. “But even when I don’t have a dog in the fight, it’s still unbelievably fun because the atmosphere is so crazy and everyone’s so excited.” The most unbelievable moment he’s experienced was sitting on the field level of SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, when Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg performed at the halftime show in 2022. “It was the most epic concert I have ever been to in my life, and it was in the middle of a football game!”
Long before he started traveling as a sports fan, Devine was jet-setting for work. As a touring stand-up, he cherished the opportunity to get to know the cities he played, calling Kansas City, Indianapolis, and San Antonio among the highlights. “It’s just so fun to go into these towns for one or two nights and experience their culture. I love doing the tourist-trappy things, as well as finding out where the locals go. They usually have one or two restaurants that people are like, ‘You’ve got to go there.’”
When it comes to his own recommendations for his hometown of Omaha, the first order of business is getting a whiskey-marinated steak from The Drover. “I don’t even know what that means exactly—it just means it’s so good. It does not taste like whiskey because that would be disgusting,” he said of the “classic American steakhouse” that’s “very Midwestern and very Omaha.” Another must: The Old Market district, filled with restaurants, bars, and breweries. “People are always milling about, and it’s all cobblestone roads and very cute. If you do those two things, you’re going to get a sense of how nice people are in Omaha and what good food and drink we have.”
Julia Terjung/Peacock via Getty Images
Now living in California’s Orange County, his work has also taken him far from home, like to Berlin for the Pitch Perfect spinoff series Bumper in Berlin and to Peru and The Bahamas for his own adventure series Bad Ideas With Adam Devine. But his favorite was the North Shore of Hawaii for the 2016 comedy flick “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates.”
“We had such a great time while shooting the movie, and I became such good friends with Zac [Efron], Aubrey [Plaza], and Anna Kendrick,” he said of his costars. “When I’ve shot in other cities, none of my family and friends really want to visit me, but I shoot in Hawaii, and suddenly I’m getting requests every weekend. It was a very fun place!”
Adam Devine
His zest for travel and adventure has expanded past his own reality show and into a momentous event in his own life: his destination wedding in Cabo San Lucas to actress Chloe Bridges. Though it was Covid-19 that changed the location of their 2021 nuptials, it turned out to be quite fitting. “It was just so nice having family and friends come down to Mexico,” he said, noting that there were some family members who hadn’t ever been on a plane. “We were away from everything. The wedding was on a beach, and everything was outside, and it very much fit our lifestyle. We live on the beach, and we’re always outside, so it was nice to do that.”
Adam Devine
Now the couple are parents to toddler Beau, born in February 2024, who has already gotten a jump start on traveling, with about eight plane trips under his belt. “He’s actually pretty good at it,” the dad of one said. “We’ve had one instance where we went to Kansas City for a wedding, and he absolutely hated it for whatever reason. But every other flight, he’s been good.”
The family is now preparing for Beau’s biggest trip yet to Hawaii in January, when Devine will be playing in a celebrity golf tournament. “We’re excited-slash-terrified,” Devine admitted. “We don’t let him look at an iPad or phone normally, so on a flight, our rule is broken. He’s allowed to watch as much Ms. Rachel as his little heart desires.” The tot is also a new fan of Super Monsters. “So I’m thinking, well, we’ll get him on the plane, fire up some Monsters, and we should be good to go.”
No matter what it takes to get there, Devine is proud to be able to introduce Beau to the world at such a young age. “I didn’t get on a plane until I was like 14 years old, so to go anywhere or do anything was such an event,” he said. “I hope we make the world a smaller place for Beau, so he feels like he can just get on a plane, go somewhere new, and see people in different cultures and different ways of life, and it just feels normal. That way, he knows people from every walk of life, so he’s not going to stay in a little bubble.”
