What It’s Really Like to Travel With the ‘Today’ Anchors, According to the Morning Crew Themselves

While the spotlight will shine on nearly 10,500 world-class athletes from 206 countries at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics kicking off this week, the most familiar faces to American audiences just might be the Today show hosts and anchors, who will be pulling double duty as part of the NBC Olympics broadcast team covering the games.

The morning show’s Hoda Kotb, Al Roker, Savannah Guthrie, and Craig Melvin have packed their bags as they shift over into sports mode, all returning as veteran Olympic journalists, who have traveled together to previous games.

But their greatest moments often remain off camera, the crew tells Travel + Leisure before they jet off to Paris .

“In London, we were all stuck in this car together and there was so much traffic,” Guthrie recalled. “At the stoplight, Al’s like, ‘See you guys later!’ He jumped out, took the Tube, and beat us by an hour and a half! He’s a pro!”

In fact, Roker is always ready to hop onto public transportation. “I love the Paris Metro,” he added. “In fact, when I land at Charles de Gaulle, I usually take the train. Depending on what time you land, it’s 90 minutes to get into the city, and it’s less than an hour on the train!”

It’s that kind of precise and strategic skill set that has made the Today team learn to play as hard as they work when they’re covering the 19 days of Olympic competition. Despite the long hours working together, they admit they also tend to spend their in-between hours together as well.

One memorable moment was at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics when they planned a hot tub party, but only two of them got in. “Al and I went out in our skivvies and got in the hot tub,” Guthrie said. Roker agreed, “It was great! It was one of my all-time favorite pictures!”

The odd hours with the time difference often means they’re out enjoying the cities when no one else is. After getting off the air at 1 a.m. once in Asia, the were all still “wired,” as Guthrie described, and decided to go out. Roker wrapped first and got to the bar ahead of the others. “I’d start ordering apps and drinks, so that they’d all be laid out and they could hit the ground running,” he said. “We enjoyed it so much they ran out of bourbon….”

“To be fair, they didn’t have enough bourbon stocked,” Melvin added.

With more epic moments sure to happen in the City of Light, we chatted with the four Today stars about what they’re looking forward ahead of Paris 2024.

What’s your favorite place to go in Paris?

Hoda Kotb: I’ve gone to Paris a couple of times with my mom — it’s one of my favorite travel memories. We just loved walking on the Left Bank and along the Seine. It wasn’t so much a particular spot, but a coffee shop in the rain, looking at the art. We stayed in the tiniest hotel, and loved it. It was what Paris should feel like.