My Life In Travel: Actor Toby Jones

First holiday memory?

Being huddled under towels, freezing cold, on the beach at Little Haven, in Pembrokeshire. I think I overestimated how much time I could spend in the sea. I still go there with my children, and my mother runs the Pendyffryn Trust, which provides holidays in Little Haven and Broad Haven for post-operative children and their families.

Best holiday?

Two holidays in my mid-teens, in the Lot in France, helping to build my aunt's house on top of a hill. Six of us spent two summers helping the roofers out.

What have you learnt from your travels?

Travel makes me feel that the world is shrinking. It also focuses the question, "What do I need?", on every level.

Beach bum, culture vulture or adrenalin junkie?

If I'm on my own, I'm a culture vulture, and head off to museums. There's a new book about a guy who visits places such as power plants and sewage works instead of museums, which I think I'd like to do. But when my kids are with me, it's all about beaches.

Greatest travel luxury?

My laptop is indispensable, but the greatest luxury is travelling first class. If you can lie horizontal on a plane, that's about as luxurious as it gets.

Where has seduced you?

When we filmed The Painted Veil in China, we got to visit some incredible mountains in Guangxi province. It's a unique landscape, with hills and mountains unlike any others, with very sheer slopes. It was totally remote and being there felt like old-style travelling.

Better to travel or arrive?

I love travelling, particularly on my own. I enjoy transit, because I like doing two things at once – writing or reading while moving forward. If I'm travelling with children, it's all about arrival.

Worst travel experience?

I have a list of them. On my first solo trip, to Amsterdam, I was ripped off by someone who befriended me within about an hour of arriving. I had terrible motion sickness on a bus from India to Kathmandu and spent most of the journey with my head hanging out of a window. I sat next to two gigantic women eating curried eggs throughout a 36-hour coach journey from Sumatra to Java. And during an allergic reaction to medication in Mexico City I grew a second head. It was horrible.

Best hotel?

Without question, the Cipriani in Venice. It was sensational. You'd order a drink at the bar, and it would be in your room by the time you got there.

Favourite walk/swim/ride/drive?

In Antigua, swimming at sundown on Pigeon Point beach, which is lovely.

Where next?

To Belfast, then a holiday in Marseille.

Toby Jones stars in 'The Sickie', shortlisted in the Rushes Soho Shorts Film Festival, 28 Jul-3 Aug (www.rushes.co.uk)