Exclusive: Amanda Seyfried on the New ‘Mamma Mia’—and Why She’s Going to Target for Her 40th Birthday

When it comes to family travel, Amanda Seyfried is not about sugarcoating reality. “I literally try not to travel with my kids because it’s stressful,” the actress told Travel + Leisure about her daughter Nina, 8, and son Thomas, 4.

Case in point: While flying back home to New York after visiting her sister in Los Angeles, her son threw up for the first time in his life—in the middle of a flight. “We were still two hours from landing and he had just eaten lasagna, so just imagine,” she said. He also vomited again on the car ride home, and to make matters worse, Seyfried caught the stomach bug herself once she was home.

Seyfried said there’s “literally no secret” to surviving a long flight with kids, and admits it’s often all about keeping her youngest one occupied on a device. She opted for the Amazon Kindle Fire, which “you can throw around and [it] won’t break.”

Her first-hand experiences are exactly what inspired the Mamma Mia star to create the Make it Cute Playhouse Experience at Philadelphia’s The Bellevue hotel. Designed for families with young ones, the suite stay includes a welcome kit, Levain cookies, valet parking, and most importantly, an assembled plastic-free playhouse from Make It Cute, the company Seyfried founded with her childhood friends in 2021. The best part? Families can take the playhouse home with them when they check out.

“Any good hotel makes you feel like there’s a familiarity and coziness,” Seyfried said. “Having these really cute playhouses is incredibly distracting for the kids, so the parents can unpack and have some semblance of peace—not to say that you don’t have peace when you have kids, but it’s harder to find.”

She says the play houses don’t just give kids something to do, but that it also gives little ones their own space since, “hotel rooms just aren’t geared for kids to have fun.” 

Seyfried grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a small city about 60 miles northwest of Philadelphia, and was excited to collaborate on a project with such an iconic property in her home state. Located in Philly’s tony City Center neighborhood, The Bellevue was founded in 1904, and was once considered one of the most glamorous and luxurious hotels in the country.

“I love collaborating with something that’s so Philly, born and bred,” she said of The Bellevue. “It’s such a beloved landmark.”

She hopes the hotel package will help ease the burdens of traveling with children—something she’s been doing ever since becoming a mother. In fact, she filmed “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” on location right after her daughter was born. “She doesn’t remember any of it, but she turned six months when we were on the island of Vis in Croatia,” Seyfried said. “It was just crazy to have a baby in a tiny village on an island—we had to bring all of our diapers beforehand!”

Jet-setting has been a big part of Seyfried’s daughter’s life from an early age. They’ve mostly centered around Seyfried’s work, plus occasional family trips. “It’s just so easy to travel with her now,” Seyfried admits. “She’s 8, but she’s like a little adult.”

Their first true family vacation was to Budapest, and they even brought their dog, who had to travel with 80 pounds of special JustFoodForDogs meals. They also considered taking their bearded dragon along, but ultimately decided against it. 

“My second kid is a pandemic baby, and it was wild bringing him overseas last year,” she said. “It was a pain to get there, but everything falls away once you land and you’re like, ‘We live in a crazy, beautiful world with a lot of amazing people.’” 

Once the family was there and settled in, Seyfried realized that the Hungarian capital was pretty kid-friendly, and she loved taking her children to its beautiful parks. Seeing her kids interact with other children was especially moving to her.

“You realize that kids have the capacity to relate and can communicate with anybody,” Seyfried said. “It was just the most beautiful thing in the world … Kids need to see things, meet people, and swim in oceans and engage in things that aren’t home.”

When she was a child herself, Seyfried developed a deep love for travel, especially for trains. One time, after driving to Florida from Allentown, the Seyfried family took the Auto Train back. “I just remember thinking, this is heaven on Earth, because we’re just going so fast from south to north, with our big minivan on the train somewhere,” she said.

She still loves trains and takes the Amtrak weekly from her upstate home to New York City. She enjoys watching the views along the Hudson River. “If you get the right seat, getting into the city that way is just so romantic,” Seyfried said. She’s also a fan of the “beautiful” new Moynihan Train Hall, where she likes to pick up mini-cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery for her kids. 

But despite being a certified world traveler, when it comes to her 40th birthday, she’s planning on keeping it local. “I’m gonna travel 25 minutes to my local Target,” she said. “My friends are coming in from the city, all girls—no offense, boys—and we’re going to get brunch and get a little tipsy. I’m gonna have cash on hand for everybody, and they have to spend it all. That’s my plan. Everybody who’s invited knows about it!”

Even though she’s staying in town for her birthday, Seyfried knows the transformative power that travel can have—and she wants her kids to experience it as much as they can.

“I’m entering a period of my life where I am responsible for making sure my family travels, but I just feel like there’s never a right time because of work,” she said. “But I know once we land in the Serengeti, Tokyo, Oslo, or Buenos Aires, it’ll be just epic. With kids, it doesn’t ever feel like the right time. Just book the tickets and travel.”