Orla Kiely on Japan with children, Sandymouth, and her life in travel

'I love beaches, but I can't lie there doing nothing'

Fashion designer Orla Kiely has created a limited edition apron for Sport Relief 2016

Camping in France as a child was thrilling but terrifying.

I remember piling into my dad's car and heading to Le Havre. From there, we drove to a campsite in Brittany. We hadn't camped before, so it was very exotic. My siblings and I spent time catching lizards and messing around in our tents. A storm hit one night and we had to hunker down from the thunder and lightning.

Dublin is changing.

I grew up there and still visit regularly. My favourite neighbourhood to explore is Sandymouth, to the south-east of the city centre. It's very hip and cool and feels a little like New York, thanks to all the lovely cafés, pubs and restaurants. Take my advice and go for lunch at The Old Spot.

I'm not a good sailor.

Catching the car ferry to Ireland once was particularly bad. We could see the boats being thrown around in the harbour and the crossing itself was just awful. I think it took about six hours and everyone around us was being sick.

I'm plotting a trip to Cuba.

My son went last year and said I need to go soon before it changes too much, so I'm in the throes of planning a trip to Havana.

Japan was a total adventure.

We went about 10 years ago and the kids' eyes were popping out of their heads almost the entire time. We visited Tokyo and Kyoto and stayed in a colossal hotel, which was quite 1970s, with big aquariums filled with exotic fish. The best bit though was taking a cable car to the top of a mountain with geysers bubbling away below and watching locals boil eggs in the sulphuric springs, which came out of the water jet black.

Beach bliss: Orla loves St Martin's in the Isles of Scilly (Getty)

I love beaches, but not to lie there doing nothing.

I much prefer wrapping up in a woolly jumper and going for a long walk along a lovely beach somewhere. St Martin's in the Scilly Isles is one of my favourites.

Venice is pure magic.

It's particularly lovely during winter. I remember hearing the sirens going off in the night and looking out the window and seeing all these men in their waders hastily putting up the walkways as the city began to flood.

There's something to see around every corner in Iceland.

Mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, volcanoes. It was extraordinary. We spent 10 days driving around the country's ringroad and barely saw another car. We treated ourselves to some five-star luxury at the end of the trip by booking into Hotel Budir on the remote Snaefellsnes Peninsula, which Jules Verne wrote about in Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

Bologna surprised me.

I used to pass through en route to Florence and never gave it a second thought. But I decided to have a look around and was blown away. It's the most beautiful medieval city and the food is fantastic, but that's to be expected. What I loved was that it's a real Italian working city and not like a giant open-air museum.

Dinner in Paris was memorable.

We went to La Fontaine Gaillon, a restaurant owned by the actor Gérard Depardieu. The menu was quite seafood-heavy, but one of the party didn't eat fish and ordered the only meat option available, a classic French dish called Andouillette. We didn't know what it was, but it turned out to be pigs' intestines. She cut into it and this pungent stench flooded the table.

Fashion designer Orla Kiely has created a limited edition apron for Sport Relief 2016, available from HomeSense and TK Maxx