John Brennan, hotelier and host of RTE's 'At your service' describes his holidays
What's your earliest holiday memory?
It's of a touring holiday we had driving around Ireland. We did the whole west coast and also went to Cobh, in Co Cork. My father had bought a new car on the Monday, an Opel Record estate. It was the colour of a Calor gas bottle. There was a hill in Cobh that we tried to go up, and the car couldn't make it, so we drove to the Opel garage in Cork, and he got a blue car, and he drove up the hill in a blue car.
What was your worst holiday?
I've never had a bad holiday. I've had bad experiences going on holidays or coming home. One particularly bad one was coming home from Capri, in Italy, about three years ago. We were to fly back from Naples. On the road there they found a second World War unexploded bomb. When we got to the airport the plane was gone. We decided to get the train to Rome and make the plane there. Low and behold they found another bomb on the railway track. When we arrived in Rome the plane had smoke on it. We overnighted. When we arrived in the hotel there were only 10 bedrooms. With 46 on the bus, all hell broke loose. That was a disaster.
Your best holiday?
Overall, the most enjoyable holiday was on the River Shannon - myself and Gwen before we were married. We had a great time. We cruised all of Lough Derg. We were in the Maldives four years ago, and they are idyllic. And we are just back from Orlando with all the kids - 14 of us, my own kids and cousins - and we had a ball.
What would be your dream holiday?
I would take a boat and cruise from Norway down through the Suez Canal and out and around the South China Sea. It would be a Nordhavn boat. It's a motor boat; you just point it and go.
If you had your pick, who would you bring on holiday with you? My wife, Gwen. Outside of that I would take [the wine writer] Oz Clarke, and we would do South America.
Your favourite place in Ireland?
It would be Kenmare Bay, the estuary all the way out to Valentia Island and the Skelligs. The coast is so magnificent, and the quality of restaurants in Portmagee, in Cahirciveen, Kenmare and Kilmacalogue, is so high.
What holiday reading would you recommend?
I went to San Francisco three weeks ago. I bought Tom MacSweeney's new book, Seascapes, a collection of stories. I don't read an awful lot, but I had it read by the time I arrived.
Where to next?
We have a place in Spain, which we are going to in February, my wife tells me. This is a busy time for us travelwise, because we are on the road selling the hotel [Brennan owns Park Hotel Kenmare] for the winter, marketing. So this month I go to LA. We also go to Boston in February, but that's all business.
In conversation with Catherine Foley