Well-known local faces reveal their favourite places to visit in Northern Ireland
A new deluxe version of Patricia Schultz’s bestselling travel book 1,000 Places to See Before You Die hits the shelves this month, and it includes three local gems — the Giant’s Causeway, Mournes and Belfast. Here, five prominent NI people tell Leona O’Ne
‘I spent childhood holidays in Portrush, met my wife there and now we take the kids to our caravan’
Cool FM DJ Pete Snodden (39) has the fond est of memories from Portrush in Co Antrim. As a child he spent his summers in the seaside town and now he, wife Julia and their two daughters Ivana (8) and Elana (5) replicate those idyllic summer breaks.
“We spent an awful lot of time in Portrush when we were growing up,” he says. “When I was a child we had a touring caravan and we used to go to the Margoth Caravan Park there, in Skerries. When I was a kid we went there every summer and I remember it like it was yesterday.
“It was the first time that I remember being allowed to go into the town on my own. I remember going to T-Shirt City and getting myself a printed baseball cap. My mum had given me £5 and I went to the shop, bought the cap myself and walked back. I was maybe nine years old. It was just amazing. Even at home in Bangor I wouldn’t have been allowed to walk down into the town by myself, so it was a big deal.
“I spent lots of very happy days in Portrush and have such good memories. I remember going to the Dolphin Fish and
Chip Shop, which is still there, and getting fish and chips which always tasted so much better than anywhere else. We had this touring caravan and there was a bunk bed in it. I slept in it and I thought this was the best thing ever.
“I am an only child, so I would have been going up there in the summer not knowing anybody, but you always found friends on the caravan site.
“I just have loads of really happy memories from those times. Fast forward 10 years and I ended up going to university in Coleraine and was around Portrush all the time, going to Kelly’s and Traks and all the nightclubs. That is where I met my wife.
“And now, fast forward another 15 years, we have a caravan in Portrush and we bring our girls there. We spend most of the summer there and Portstewart and all the way up the north coast.”
Pete says that he would recommend Portrush as one of the best places to visit before you die.
“It’s got the best beaches and views, great food, entertainment and ice cream,” he enthuses.
As far as his favourite place in the world goes, Pete says California wins every time.
“Before we had children, my wife and I did a fair bit of travelling,” he says. “We were in Australia, China, Japan and America. My favourite place out of the lot was California. We went there on our honeymoon and a couple of times after that. We stayed in Hollywood on our honeymoon and in Santa Monica at the end. One of my favourite memories is from a restaurant in the Ven- ice area. We got out of the taxi to go in and Chris Martin from Coldplay was standing on the pavement. I thought I can’t walk past Chris Martin without saying something.
“He was in the middle of a conversation with his PA and I just said that I was sorry to interrupt him, but that I was a massive fan of his music, worked on the radio and played his music all the time and I just wanted to say hello. He said no problem, that he was just in the middle of something, but would come in and see us in the restaurant in a minute.
“We went in and sat down, and as we were having our main course Chris Martin suddenly came over and said he was sorry about that but we should get a picture together.
“A lot of people don’t like LA, but I think it depends on where you go. I absolutely loved it. Santa Monica is amazing. I have this dream of us some day taking the kids to California. I want to hire a convertible, put the two kids in the back and drive that coast from Santa Monica to Paradise Cove, stopping at all the beaches. I just love that part of the world and the attitude of the people. It’s just a really, really cool spot with really chilled out people.”