It’s not entirely accurate to say that Kamie Crawford flies by the seat of her pants as the host of the classic MTV reality show “Catfish.” But she does brace herself for the unexpected when exploring and exposing those outrageous online relationships nationwide.
“Because of the nature of the show, I’m constantly in limbo waiting to find out where I’m going and who I’m going to be talking to,” says Crawford, a former Miss Teen USA winner who started her gig in 2018. “Usually, I don’t find out where I’m going until I get a call or an email a few days before I leave. And I don’t even know the story until I get to the destination.”
Crawford has traveled to Alabama, Wyoming, Florida, Nevada and Alaska in the past few months alone. (She also trekked Gran Canaria, Spain, late last year to film the ninth season of MTV’s “Are You the One?,” which is currently on hiatus.) “There is no production schedule because we are filming year-round,” she explains. “I’m really all over the place all the time!”
Crawford adds that not only does the spontaneity help keep the long-running series “fresh and exciting,” but it’s also enabled her to become a go-to travel expert. Aside from her “Catfish” duties, she recently started creating popular TikTok videos in which she gives tours of her array of hotel rooms. “It’s interesting because every single room is a little different and has its own flair,” she says. And the viewers, she notes, “love seeing their towns represented, no matter how small!”
During a rare break in the action, Crawford unpacked her travel essentials for CNN Underscored.
After spending hours trying to get comfy on an airplane seat, Crawford soothes her sore back with a plush and flexible heating pad. “I must have it on me in my hotel room no matter what,” she says, noting that her electric pain reliever extends from her neck to her tailbone. It also has six heat settings and an automatic shutoff.
Crawford admits this vitamin-enhanced lotion is a more practical choice but a necessary one. “No matter where I travel, the water is different everywhere, and I just never know how it’s going to affect my skin,” she explains. And forget travel-size! Crawford makes sure to pack a large pump bottle in her checked bag.
All those stuffy long-haul flights, time-zone changes and creaky hotel beds are just, well, exhausting. To help revive puffy eyes, Crawford applies these coconut, cucumber and caffeine-infused patches. “My makeup artist used them on me and they were so amazing that I had to buy some for myself,” she says.
At just 1.75 ounces, Crawford shares that her tiny tube of preservative- and fragrance-free ointment is the ultimate solution for everything from scrapes to dry and dull lips. “I have one in every single travel bag and in my car — it’s just insane how much I use it,” she says.
“I’m a Matcha girl and need to have one every place I go,” she says of the heart-friendly Japanese green tea. Instead of frantically searching for the closest Starbucks, Crawford just dumps a packet of presweetened powder into her milk. She likes her beverage cold but notes that adding hot milk is super for a sipper.
Crawford says this odor-trapping spray is the “perfect travel item” because it freshens the smell of every used bathroom. “My friend and I just went on vacation together and she was like, ‘This is the most amazing thing ever!’” Crawford says. She singles out both the Lavender and Tropical Hibiscus scents.
Crawford boasts that her massage gun is ideal for getting the kinks out of her sore muscles “without spending $200 on a spa trip.” Indeed, the cool tool releases tension and knots, speeds up recovery and relieves pain and discomfort with the press of a button. She adds that it’s small and light enough to “just throw in your bag.”
Crawford packs at least five different kinds of headphones. “I need at least one pair with a jack so I can plug it into an airplane TV because the ones they offer are never good!” she says. Her sound splurge? These wireless noise cancelers that provide theater-like audio. “On a flight, I need them just for sanity purposes,” she says. “People are loud!”