Conor Faughnan, public-affairs manager of AA Ireland, talks about his holidays
What's your earliest holiday memory?It would have been August 1977, when I was eight. I remember bits of earlier holidays, but I distinctly remember being in the old Atlantic Hotel in Inniscrone, Co Sligo - people will remember Tom's Top Ten. It was there until a few years ago. The adults were clustered at the bar, shocked by the news that Elvis had died.
Your best holiday?There have been a few. The long hot summer of 1995 in Sligo was one, Lake Garda was another. But I'd have to single out Catalonia, in Spain, in 2006.
Your worst holiday?I had a package to Salou one year, and I won't be rushing back. We had two families together, so we had great fun, but the whole coast was an overcrowded, overdeveloped, excessively tattooed and football-jerseyed strip laden with testosterone. Incidentally, the worst meal in human history was served to me there. It was allegedly lasagne. Ughh!
Your dream holiday?I watched Stephen Fry in America recently, where he trekked through every state in the US being witty. That's the holiday for me. Might take me a full year.
Your recommended holiday reading?I read huge amounts on holiday. I've been christened l'homme du livre at a local bar on the French-Spanish border. I enjoyed Robert Fisk's book on the history of western intervention in the Middle East (grim but fascinating), and on I lighter note I enjoy historical fiction - Bernard Cornwell, Simon Scarrow, Conn Iggulden.
What's your favourite place in Ireland?Grafton Street, in Dublin, at Christmas; Killala Bay, in Co Mayo, for a June sunset. It's a gorgeous place when the sky is blue.
If you had your pick, who would you bring on holiday with you?No contest: the winner by miles is my wife, Lorraine. We'll travel more together as the kids get bigger.
Your next holiday?New York for a citybreak in February. I feel like the only person in Ireland who's never been there, so I'm really looking forward to it.
• In conversation with Catherine Foley
• Conor Faughnan is public-affairs manager of AA Ireland