Oh Niamh, it’s simply impossible to select just one  place so I’ve rounded up some memorable and much-loved favourites: Carlisle Bay in Antigua, a slam-dunk for blissful family escapism, owing largely to direct BA flights and their superlative kid’s club.

The Gritti Palace Venice at Carnival time. Parading the back streets of Venice, resplendent in full 18th century regalia en-route to a masked ball may sound faintly ridiculous but nowhere else on earth can one pull off the ‘debauched aristo from yesteryear’ look with such wild abandon. With no modern trappings to spoil the illusion that you really have travelled hundreds of years back in time, the whole city is spellbindingly romantic.

 I properly enjoy the Cannes Film Festival now that it’s no longer work and there is no more charming retreat from the Croissette mayhem than La Colombe D’or in the village of Saint-Paul de Vence. This small hotel is a master class in relaxed elegance with an art collection to-die-for. Their beautiful terrace is a great place to indulge in some discrete people watching. The wonderfully unpretentious Ca's Patro March café, suspended over the picturesque cala in Deia Mallorca. Watching the kids on the beach below while filleting your perfectly cooked dorado and filthily good chips,  is simple summer heaven. Somerset.  we’ve recently converted to country life and I’ve just discovered the Somerset Lavender Farm several fields away in the tiny village of Faulkland. A fabulously fragrant spot for a cup of tea. It feels like cheating but to have the lifeline of laid back luxury that is Babington House only 5 minutes away has made the transition a lot less daunting.

Dalkey. There really is no place like home. The view from the front terrace of our Dublin home, looking out over Killiney Bay is truly spectacular and tattooed onto my minds eye forever. Bono named their latest album ‘No Line On The Horizon’ after this very vista. Famed for it’s similarity to the bay of Naples, the houses along Vico Road have largely Italian names, so glorious incongruous in the soft Irish rain. A hike up Killiney hill followed by a pint of creamy Guinness in Finnegan’s Pub is one of life’s great simple pleasures. I really do miss it.