Celebrity traveller

ADVENTURER and broadcaster Ben Fogle, 42, lives in London with wife Marina and children Ludo, six, and Iona, four.

WHAT IS YOUR MOST MEMORABLE HOLIDAY?

A family trip we took last year to Harbour Island in the Bahamas. It’s rustic, basic but incredibly beautiful. We rented a little house and lived like locals. We were there nearly five weeks and felt like part of the island’s fabric.

We did lots of snorkelling and swimming; the children loved the water. There was great seafood. They had delicious conch – one of my favourite dishes. They do an amazing Bahamian version with spices. I love island life full-stop. Everything there is kind of perfect.

AND YOUR WORST?

I’ve always loved the outdoors and very earthy holidays. The one that didn’t go to plan was a rafting trip Marina and I did in Värmland in the heart of Sweden. You lash big timbers together to build your raft then float down the river for 10 days, camping and cooking. There was terrible weather and my knots weren’t particularly good so the whole thing started to fall apart. We got wet, cold and hungry but in retrospect it was funny.

HOW DO YOU SPEND YOUR TIME ON HOLIDAY?

I don’t get to read enough so this is the most exciting thing – it’s holiday heaven. I usually choose travel or history books but I’ve just got into fiction. I love Scandinavian books.

WHICH GADGET IS ESSENTIAL?

My iPad – I have a gadget that converts it into a satellite tablet. I use FaceTime to read bedtime stories from faraway places.

BEST HOLIDAY READ?

I loved A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. It’s a story about a grumpy, elderly man. Everyone misjudges his character and as the book progresses, you realise that he’s actually amazing. For the final hour of reading the book I couldn’t stop crying.

WHERE WOULD YOU REVISIT?

Outer Mongolia and Papua New Guinea. They’re very different – the former has sweeping deserts and snowy plateau while the other is tropical jungle – but both are unspoilt by tourism.

WHERE NEXT?

Tanzania for another series of New Lives In The Wild where I live with people in remote places and, as a family, we’re off to Austria. We’ve been going for years and my wife is half-Austrian.

We go up into the mountains near Salzburg and become cast members of The Sound Of Music wearing dirndls and lederhosen. Part of the movie was actually filmed at my mother-in-law’s house!