Richard E Grant: My Life In Travel

'They thought I was a spy who'd swum over from the Egyptian coast'

First holiday memory?

A game reserve called Mlilwane in Swaziland. There was a tame resident warthog called Lady Jane that you could sit on, which is exactly what a seven-year-old boy wanted to do.

Best holiday?

Petit St Vincent island resort and Mustique, in St Vincent and the Grenadines. The former for total privacy and absence of phones, TV and internet, and the latter for highly social, deluxe haute couture Bel-Air-on-sea delights.

Favourite place in the British Isles?

Piccadilly Circus. I never cease to be thrilled coming out of the Tube and standing in the middle of the West End.

Ideal travelling companion?

My wife and daughter, because they are the best company I know.

Beach bum, culture vulture or adrenalin junkie?

Beach bum - the white sand, blue sea, palm tree and coconut cocktail cliché wins every time.

Greatest travel luxury?

Time - enough to get away for as long as possible, especially on Boxing Day to escape the post-Christmas doldrums.

Where has seduced you?

The Cotton House hotel on Mustique and the Coral Reef Club hotel in Barbados, which has excellent food, service, beaches, gardens and tennis courts.

Better to travel or arrive?

Airports and flying are the penalty you pay for travel. I rely on Sleepeaze pills to knock me out.

Worst travel experience?

A full - and I mean full - body search at Eilat airport. I had been diving in the Red Sea and I think they thought I was an Egyptian spy because they kept trying to convince me that I had swum over from the Egyptian coast.

Favourite walk/swim/ride/drive?

Chapman's Peak Drive between Cape Town and Cape Point. It's a spectacular road carved out of the mountainside, which leads to Noordhoek beach and is as wide and empty as you could wish for.

Best meal abroad?

La Petite Maison restaurant in Nice opposite the Opera House in the old city. They do lobster linguine and truffle sandwiches, the like of which I have never tasted anywhere before.

First thing you do when you arrive somewhere new?

Have a bath. That affords 15 minutes to acclimatise yourself.

Dream trip?

Outer space before I fall off my perch. I've dreamt of doing this ever since Neil Armstrong stepped on to the moon.

Favourite city?

London - I've lived there for 24 years and still feel as if I have only begun to discover all it has to offer.

Where next?

India - I've never been, having always worried about getting ill, but always wanted to go.

'The Wah-Wah Diaries: The Making of a Film' by Richard E Grant, is published in hardback by Picador, £16.99