Checking in... Robert Bathurst
Travelling with a celebrity
MOST MEMORABLE PLACE YOU HAVE TRAVELLED TO?
NEVSEHIR in Cappadocia, in central Turkey.
WHAT MADE IT SO SPECIAL?
IT WAS 1980, with civil unrest and the film Midnight express had scared away all the tourists. Four of us stayed in a deserted hotel and toured the troglodyte city with no one else around.
WHAT WOULD YOU RECOMMEND A NEWCOMER SHOULD SEE?
NOWADAYS, tourism there is much more organised and you can take a balloon ride over those weird rock formations.
Read up on the history of persecution that led people to create this extraordinary underground city.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE LOCALS?
IN 1980, the hotel owner tried to beat down our door demanding group sex. I’m sure things will have changed.
WHAT CAN YOU NEVER TRAVEL WITHOUT?
EVER since we got lost in a forest in the Pyrenees, in deep cloud with no sun to guide us, I take a compass.
EARLIEST HOLIDAY MEMORY?
We LIVED in Ireland and hired a motorboat on the River Shannon, going through the wide, occasionally very wild and choppy, loughs. I remember everything crashing off the table, my father struggling with the wheel and our dog shivering with fear.
WHO IS YOUR IDEAL TRAVEL COMPANION?
I’D Be much less adventurous without my wife victoria. However, it does mean that our walks usually end long after dark.
FAVOURITE HOTEL?
VILLA Maroc in essaouira, Morocco.
MOST MEMORABLE MEAL?
ON HONEYMOON in Mexico, I had a chicken taco in Oaxaca and salmonella for the next six weeks.
WHEN AND WHERE WAS YOUR LAST TRIP AWAY?
THIS January and February we’ve been in New Zealand and Australia.
WHERE NEXT?
We have only just got back, but the South Downs Way in spring feels appealing.
HOW DO YOU RELAX ON HOLIDAY?
CAFE, local newspaper and, yes, another coffee please. ROBERT is playing Sgt Wilson in Dad’s Army Lost episodes, airing on UKTV channel Gold later this year.