Dominic Cambell, artistic director of Bealtaine, talks about his holidays
What's your earliest holiday memory?I have early memories of going to Blackpool and spending ages going up and down the Golden Mile. I remember parking in a multistorey and making tea with a portable gas stove. We didn't have a great deal of money, but on the way home as a treat we'd have a bag of chips.
What was your worst holiday?Myself and my partner decided to go from Spain to Morocco a couple of years ago and carved out a month for the trip. We took a taxi after landing in Seville, but we left a coat with everything in it, including passports, in the back of the cab. All we had was the cash in our pockets. So our month's holiday lasted for five days. First we talked our way into the hotel.We had to go to the consulate for papers just to get out of the country. My favourite thing about the trip was the Frank Sinatra songs they played on the train.
What was your best holiday?One of my best holidays was taking my dad to Paris for a weekend last autumn. It was something that we had talked of doing for a while. The other best trip was working at the Trinidadian carnival, making costumes. People travel the streets, covered in mud and powder paint, with musical instruments made from scrap. The bands are hypnotic, and if you are on the street someone can grab you, smear you with paint and you are part of it.
If budget or work were not a restriction, what would be your dream holiday? I'd go to Bhutan, as it didn't really enter the 20th century and only got television 10 years ago. I would also love to go to China and do the silk route in reverse.
If you had your pick, who would you bring on holiday with you?I would have to bring my partner, as she is more fun than anyone else.
What's your favourite place in Ireland?I go to the northwest a lot and like the rough coasts of Sligo and Donegal. I'm looking forward to going to Inishowen for the last day of the Bealtaine festival. There will be dawn chorus, with a concert of people singing on the beach as the sun comes up.
Your recommended holiday reading?Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski. He was Poland's first foreign correspondent, in the 1950s, at a time when Poland had no contact with the outside world.
Where will you go to next?I'm going to England to see a whole pile of friends and go to my brother's wedding. I will drive through England and Wales along beautiful roads from Hereford to London which I haven't travelled since I was 18.
** Dominic Campbell is artistic director of Bealtaine (www.bealtaine.com), the festival celebrating creativity in older people, which runs until the end of the month
** In conversation with Genevieve Carbery