My life in travel Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen
Despite once opting for Blackpool over Bali, the TV personality remains a fan of far-flung opulence
MY FAVOURITE BAR IN THE WORLD is Le Mahogany Bar at the Dinarobin Hotel in Mauritius. It’s ridiculously beautiful, tropical and open to the elements. It’s also very formal and grown up and I love that. I like being able to wear a shirt and tie while in the middle of a desert island. Mauritius is a place that is still totally under explored by the British. For me, it has the harmonious trifecta of an Indian Ocean experience, French cuisine and a British social system. And Dinarobin is no question the best hotel on the island but it is almost unheard of.
AS SOON AS LOCKDOWN LIFTS, my wife Jackie and I want to break for the border to a really comfortable hotel in Wales. Château Rhianfa in Anglesey and Bodysgallen Hall in North Wales both do British country house living in a really relaxed and authoritative way. I love their authenticity; they don’t do tricked up.
THERE IS NOTHING BETTER THAN having a beachside suite where you can throw open the curtains, step out, watch the sea and have the sand between your toes. Just to know that there is so little to do is such a ridiculous luxury, especially these days.
I HAVE BEEN SELFEMPLOYED ever since I left college but for some reason I still get that wonderful naughty feeling on a Monday morning on holiday, thinking I should be at work.
NOW THAT WE HAVE A FOUR-YEAR-OLD GRANDSON, we may have to rethink our family holidays. Whereas our girls had their books and used to enjoy our incredibly long lunches in Mauritius or Sandy Lane, Barbados, my grandson is like a puppy on a beach. He needs to be occupied and physically active. So we may have to incorporate something that has never been included before on a Llewelyn-Bowen holiday, and that is the dreaded A-word: activities! If he wants to do abseiling, rock-climbing or anything involving a weatherproof raincoat and Kendal Mint Cake, I will pay someone to take my place.
I AM VERY BAD AT breaking-in a new holiday. I’m a creature of habit. Holidays and being away with Jackie or with the family are incredibly important to me. And I think there is something very comforting about the Edwardian idyll of going to the same hotel every year: they know what you want and they know what you like. But I do get that that is a bit on the dull side and that you should break out of your comfort zone now and again.
I WAS BEING FLUNG TO PLACES I WOULD NORMALLY NEVER GO when I presented [the travel show] Holiday for the BBC. So they were very surprised when I turned down Bali and said I wanted to go to Blackpool. I love Blackpool. I think you should find things that interest you, that are under your nose. I still think I am the only person in the world who has made a holiday film about Birmingham!
ONE OF THE PLACES THAT REALLY SHOOK ME was Lisbon. I was astonished by how sophisticated and beautiful the city was. I thought the ornate, wrought iron external lifts that take you across the city were stunning. And I USED TO BE A CRUISE SCEPTIC but we spent 10 days on the Steam Ship Sudan, exploring the Nile. It was organised by Audley Travel for our 30th wedding anniversary. They were very good and it was extraordinarily beautiful. The SS Sudan has been used in many Death on The Nile screen adaptations and still has the original panelling and copper bathtubs. I’d merrily sit in the bathtub watching the Nile go by, gin and tonic to hand. I did feel underdressed on board, though: I lacked a top hat and monocle…
ONE OF THE LEAST LUXURIOUS PLACES THAT I HAVE ever visited was the presidential suite of the Burj Al Arab in Dubai. We went when the children were little and the staff just didn’t quite have a grasp on the service you’d expect. I mean, you can say “Sir” too often; and the 6ft mound of Ferrero Rocher was rather annoying, although the children
absolutely loved it! My address book secret in Dubai is the Zabeel Saray Hotel. It looks like an Ottoman palace and feels like you are properly in Arabia.
TRUTHFULLY, MY ULTIMATE NIGHTLIFE EXPERIENCE IS to just walk back to my suite along the beach after a lavish Frenchified meal by the Indian Ocean. Neither Jackie nor I are great clubbers or dancers, so we are drawn to places that don’t have much of a nightlife. Venice and Mauritius are great examples of this: I mean, Venice is completely dead at 8pm and Mauritius is gorgeously quiet. Our daughter Hermione is getting married next year and she is getting terribly worried we are going to slope off before the dancing really kicks in. She is trying to find all sorts of ways to ensure that we will stay awake until dawn with her.