We love India and go to a nice place there, just south of Bangalore. One year they tried to make it festive for us by sticking cotton wool in the trees and playing Pat Boone records!

But Australia completely seduced me, especially Western Australia. For a time I wanted to go and live there. Whenever I arrive somewhere new I always get a map straightaway and find out where the good restaurants are. The best hotel I've ever stayed in was probably the Mount Nelson in Cape Town which is lovely. I have favourite hotels all over the place that are not necessarily grand but have got a bit of charm. When we're in New York we stay at the Algonquin Hotel which is lovely and charming and they look after us very well.

I love the actual travelling, particularly by train. I am very extravagant about things like train journeys. I have been on the Orient Express and the Blue Train, which are both marvellous.

I have had a few bad experiences . . . I could write a book about bad hotels. It's the thoughtlessness that gets me.

I arrived late at a hotel in Bristol not long ago and I was hungry. When I tried to order something from the '24-hour Menu' in my room, I was told that it wasn't served beyond 11.30pm! My worst holiday was a cruise that I went on once . . . it was disappointing in the sense that there wasn't anybody on the ship that I would ever want to meet again in my life.

My best meal abroad brings me back to Australia . . . a Christmas spent on a beach in New South Wales with friends. We had wonderful fresh prawns, oysters and wine.

It was just perfect.