My favourite journey is anywhere where my family is waiting for me. As a diplomat's daughter, I grew up all over the place and for the past two years Damian [husband, actor Damian Lewis] and I have spent half the year living in London and the other in Los Angeles. Family is everything to me and it is lovely to come home to where they are.
London is the place I'll never forget. I was born here but I grew up in Norway, Nigeria, Cameroon, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Paris and Madagascar. I came back to London when I was 18 and have since found it a most romantic and exotic place full of diversity and energy.
My best childhood holiday memory is when we were living in Paris and our father and mother drove my brother, sister and I to Biarritz to see a lighthouse. My father, who grew up as an inner city boy in Glasgow, had been on an exchange programme to Biarritz when he was young. He'd stood at the foot of this lighthouse and said that if he could ever take his children there, that would be truly wonderful. We went there five years running.
The most relaxing place for me is Wales. It's God's country. Damian's family has a working farm in the Brecon Beacons and my family live in South Wales. The whole world stops when we go to Wales. We just potter about and relax – it's idyllic.
My most romantic destination is Cuba because, apart from the beauty, I adore the music. My husband and I love to dance in the streets of Havana, drink mojitos and go to the Hotel Nacional for cocktails. We'd only go for a week, while our children would be very happy with my family in South Wales.
I am the lightest traveller in the world. I don't even carry a bag if I can help it. My travel extravagance is to be able to travel with just hand luggage. I tend to pack my things in boxes and get them sent to me. It is an extravagance but travelling light adds to the quality of the adventure.
Helen McCrory stars as Cherie Blair in The Special Relationship on general release in May.
