PHILIP BOUCHER-HAYES:What's your earliest holiday memory?
Getting off the train in Killarney in – can you believe it? – the sunshine. It was 1975 or 1976, and it was as traditional an Irish holiday as you can get. I think I had my first 99 cone there, and I remember because it ended up on the pavement before I was halfway through it.
What was your worst holiday?I haven't had a bad holiday. Wherever I have been, usually with my wife, we always extract something good out of it. For work I have travelled to so many places, including conflict zones and the aftermath of the tsunami. So when it comes to holidays, it is "glass half full". However, there are a couple of train stations in India I won't be going back to.
What was your best holiday?I was lucky enough to spend a year backpacking around southeast Asia (Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand) with my wife when we were still boyfriend and girlfriend in the late 1990s. The region was experiencing a currency crisis, which made us overnight millionaires and meant that we could stay a long time. It changed me and my outlook. I'd never looked at Ireland from the outside, and it gave me an appreciation of what it is like. The trip also ended up informing the book we wrote together. We were in countries where food is prepared every day from scratch, with no convenience culture. There is a lot more work put into food, and it is a social glue that binds people together.
If budget or work were not a restriction, what would be your dream holiday?There are a few places I really want to go to. I really want to see Ethiopia and all of the "-stans" in central Asia. I find that part of the word fascinating and have never spent time there. I really want to see Alaska. However, I have the limitation of an eight-month-old baby, which really changes the kind of holidays you can go on.
If you had your pick, who would you bring on holiday with you?My wife and I have been travelling together for 15 years. We are travel buddies as much as husband and wife.
What's your favourite place in Ireland?Last year for work I drove 20,000 miles around the country and saw parts of Ireland that I had never seen before. It was a revelation and a privilege. I particularly learned how much of the country I didn't know but thought I knew. When Ireland is in full bloom, so lush and so green, it is hard to think of anywhere better in the world.
Your recommended holiday reading?The back of my eyelids. I always bring a novel (such as Graham Greene), but it is usually left unread.
Where will you go to next?I am open to suggestions. All dream destinations such as the Alaskan wilderness are off the agenda with an eight-month-old baby, so I have no clue where we will go next.
Basket Case by Philip Boucher-Hayes and Suzanne Campbell is published by Gill Macmillan, €16.99. His programme, Buyer Beware, begins on RTÉ television soon.
In conversation with GENEVIEVE CARBERY