
The singer and actor, best known for The Hobbit, The Fast and the Furious and Beauty and the Beast, throws himself into every global destination he visits – and yet, for him, no place is quite like his homeland of Wales.
Luke Evans always wanted to be a global citizen – he’s travelled the world, starred in blockbuster films like The Hobbit trilogy, the Fast and the Furious movies, starred in Disney live-action films Beauty and the Beast and Pinocchio, starred in West End musicals and taken every opportunity to travel to dream destinations. However, the globetrotter’s lifestyle started in a very small circle.
“I come from a working-class family, so money didn’t come easy,” the 45-year-old recalled of his childhood in Wales in an interview with Travel & Leisure. “We had to think about how much we were going to spend on holidays.”
He was born in Pontypool and grew up in Aberbargoed. His early family holidays were caravan holidays (what the British call a camping road trip), with him and his cousin’s family crammed into his dad’s Ford Cortina, towing a three-person camper. They would travel through coastal towns and forests across the UK, including the Forest of Dean, Aberystwyth, Tenby, Saundersfoot and Cornwall. “We rarely left Wales because it was right on our doorstep,” he says.
The first plane trip he remembers taking with his parents was to Benidorm, Spain, a trip he calls “a habit that was formed.” “It was cheap and cheerful and we could afford it, so we made the most of it,” he recalls of “the wonderful time we had there.”
Those early years of wandering planted a seed deep in Evans’ soul. Today, his passion for travel permeates his every fiber, reflected not only in his Instagram posts but also in his memoir, Valley Boy: My Unexpected Journey, which hits shelves in November. “The greatest gift you can give yourself or others is to travel,” he says. “It embraces you as a person. It allows you to see the world and humanity in a completely different light.”
At the end of the year in 2024, Evans embarked on his dream vacation – to Cape Town and Botswana. The inspiration for this trip came from an accident. For more than ten years, every time Evans returned to Ibiza (where he has a property), he would stay at the family-run agricultural tourism hotel Atzaró Hotel for a day or two. “I always loved my time there. Last year, I saw some postcards on the counter with their other resorts, such as a great hotel in Cape Town and a safari in Botswana.”
Just after leaving the South African city, the location of the Atzaró Cape Town Hotel amazed him. “It’s actually not big, but it’s really – no exaggeration – at the foot of Table Mountain,” he exclaimed. “From the front of the hotel, you can have a 360-degree view of Cape Town, the bay, the sky, the ocean, Lion’s Head and Devil’s Peak. The view is amazing. I really want to stay there longer.”
Hotel manager Xander is not only hospitable, but also serves as Evans’ hiking guide. Instead of taking the shortcut of the aerial cableway to Table Mountain, he led him up the two-hour steep steps. “I hate aerobic exercise, but if there was such aerobic exercise every day, I might do it,” the action movie star admitted. “Every 20 minutes, we would stop and turn around to enjoy the view, so we climbed another 500 feet. Then we reached the top of the mountain – it’s really flat!” He said that the effort to enjoy the beauty of Camps Bay along the way was well worth it, and called the walk “very satisfying”.
Afterwards, he headed to Azaro Okavango, where two giraffes strolling in the fields came into view, followed by several warthogs. He immediately knew that this safari would be very special. “You have to be escorted back to your lodge at night because there are natural animal crossings for leopards, hippos, buffalo, monkeys, baboons, warthogs and aardvarks,” he said. “It’s really special.”
Every time he looked back, he was amazed by the wildlife: from spotting hippos in his luxurious wooden apartment home to driving to a dry lake and seeing 30 giraffes, from newborns to old ones, even capturing them fighting with their horns and shaking their necks. Even more incredible, they witnessed a great wild dog kill of a young gazelle. Another time, a cheetah walked right up to their truck, and they sat quietly and watched. Every blink was like another drama in the animal kingdom.
“On our last drive, our guide Albert spotted a leopard, which is probably one of the hardest animals to see,” Evans said. “I mean, they’re so well camouflaged, and he drove us right up to this incredible animal. And we saw not just one, but two.”
Driving one night, the driver turned off the engine, and the two sat and stared at the sky, which was free of light pollution. “It was just like this camouflage of frogs and insects and animals – it was deafening,” he said. To preserve the magic of nature, Evans recorded the sounds of nature. “Now I go to sleep with it every night!”
Beyond personal vacations, Evans’s work has given him the greater gift of not only being able to go to places at will, but also of getting to know people around the world. His most recent film, Taipei Weekend, which premiered in November, was shot in the Taiwanese capital, and he traveled through the city, from the mountains to the Taipei 101 skyscraper to fishing villages – and of course, sampled the local cuisine for which it’s famous.
“We ate at Din Tai Fung about 72 times and ate everything in the restaurant – we even tried the stinky tofu,” he said. “If you can handle the stink, it’s fine.” He says his driver would go to the local market and come out with plastic bags full of duck meat, which he tasted from gizzard to bill. “Everyone was so welcoming and really friendly,” he says.
Similarly, while shooting in New Zealand for The Hobbit trilogy, which ran from 2012 to 2014, Evans immersed himself in all things New Zealand. “I drove alone for a week from the north of the South Island to Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers, took a helicopter hike up the glaciers, and drank from a river that had been flowing in the middle of the glaciers for thousands of years,” the explorer says. He also watched whales, sampled Rotorua’s hot springs, enjoyed high-quality grass-fed meats, and even learned to fish for kahawa on the beach. “I had a taste of life,” he recalls. “I really had a taste of life!”
He was also impressed by the people. “The people there are so charming, friendly, happy, and they say hello to you when you walk down the street, and I always love that,” he says. “In fact, when I go back home to London and walk down the street and no one catches my eye, I feel like I’ve lost that sense of familiarity that I had as a New Zealander.”
Traveling the world with such an open mind has allowed Evans to reflect on encounters around the globe. “I realised that we are all one,” he says. “We just look different, we eat different, we live different, we sing different, everything is different, but we are the same. That’s something I’ve really realised on a deeper spiritual level through travelling.”
Evans is equally welcoming to travellers who want to explore places he knows well, like London, where he has lived for 27 years. He says everyone visiting London for the first time should start by hitting the must-sees, including Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, St Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.
But then his advice is to “go beyond the obvious” and head to the ancient neighbourhoods of East London, including Whitechapel, Bethnal Green, Shoreditch and Dalston. “These places are amazing and there’s always something going on,” he says, explaining that there are antique and food markets, a canal that winds through the area with paths along the sides, Victoria Park for a stroll and a swimming pool at London Fields.
On Sundays, he likes to visit Columbia Road Flower Market. Turning down a Victorian street, “it’s like a jungle, with banana trees, palm trees, flowers, everything.” Then he recommends the Royal Oak, which serves a delicious Sunday roast and a pint of Guinness. Afterwards, he wanders the backstreets, stumbling upon cafes and vendors selling their wares. “It’s a very special place,” he says.
When it comes to Wales, Evans recommends the Pembrokeshire coastline, which is “absolutely stunning” and dotted with castles and “so many UNESCO beaches.” Also worth putting on the map: Tenby, the mountains of Anglesey—including the tallest Snowdonia, which you can climb on foot or by steam train—and St. Davids, one of the oldest and smallest cities in the world.
“The beaches are gorgeous, the water is crystal clear, there’s wildlife everywhere, seals and dolphins, and the best fish and chips in Wales,” Evans raved. “The Welsh people are lovely – they’re welcoming, curious, and just a great bunch of people. I’m proud to be one of them.”
Frank
Luke Evans’s experience is simply a real-life inspirational film! Born in the working class, he made his way in Hollywood with his talent, but he never forgot his hometown – this attitude of “never forgetting where you came from no matter how far you go” is so popular.
Brian
Giraffes strolling in front of the window, leopards passing by the car, and falling asleep at night with wild white noise… This travelogue of Botswana is more vivid than National Geographic, and I immediately added Africa to my must-go list!
Jeff
Dare to taste Taiwanese stinky tofu, eat New Zealand kahawa fish, and even duck beaks – it turns out that real travelers are “foodie warriors”. Next time I go to Din Tai Fung, I must order all 72 tributes! (Laughs)
Ben
Compared to the stereotyped check-in attractions, the Victoria Park Canal and Columbia Road Flower Market he recommended are the romance that only locals understand! The combination of Sunday roast + Guinness stout is a textbook of British life.
Oscar
Pembroke Coast is praised as a wonderland, and St. David’s is the world’s smallest city Easter egg… This wave of hometown promotion is more heartfelt than the tourism bureau’s promotional video. I immediately want to try the “best fish and chips in Wales”!
Dennis
We look different, but we are essentially the same – this sentence extracted after traveling to so many places is the most precious gain of global travel. This worldview is more beautiful than the scenery. (By the way, please share the African white noise audio!)