Where is your favourite destination and why?
Tenerife. I’ve been many places in the world and I’m very lucky, but I would say what is amazing is going somewhere to film. I was there for four and a half months, from January until nearly the end of April [filming Frauds]. I was living in the north of Tenerife, which is a place where most people probably aren’t going to. You’re missing out on a whole world of beauty up there. But then there’s the other side of the island, which is all the family hotels in the south, which I did as well because my family came out and visited. It ticks every box.
Where do you like to stay there?
I lived in a place called San Cristóbal de La Laguna which is 15 to 20 minutes from Santa Cruz in the north. I literally was obsessed with it. I have a T-shirt. It’s a little, beautiful old city you can walk around. I stayed in an Airbnb there, but when my family came out, I was fully in the south and did the whole hotel experience. We stayed in an amazing hotel called the Gran Meliá Palacio de Isora, right on the south coast. It was past all the resorty areas, and that was a really gorgeous hotel. It was so family-oriented. I’ve got an age gap of kids and I am an overgrown child. So it’s somewhere that has a waterslide and then is on the beach as well: the sand is beautiful.
What has been your favourite meal there?
At a restaurant called 3 Raices (tresraicestenerife.com). It’s a steakhouse and wine bar in Alcalá, in the south. We were just walking past all these tiny streets, going for a mooch and we fell across one of the best steak restaurants I’ve ever been to. All the food there was incredible. Someone in my family is a pescatarian and it totally catered to that. And it had an amazing wine list. I’m really into wine, and Canarian wine is stunning. With Spanish wine, you think of stuff like Riojas. But Canarian wine has all these different volcanic elements to it, and different altitudes to it. I discovered an enthusiastic love of Canarian wine and that restaurant had a great list.
What are your top three restaurants?
In La Laguna there’s an incredible restaurant called Malaka (malakarestaurant.com), which was Asian food. There was also this gorgeous restaurant that a group of us used to go to when we were filming in Santa Cruz. It is run by this really lovely American woman who moved to Tenerife: she is bilingual and everything is locally produced, locally sourced. That is called La Mordidita (instagram.com/restaurantelamordidita). And then another one, just because I’ve got a sentimental reason. We had our very final cast dinner there in one called Kon·Tiki (kon-tiki.es). That was in Santa Cruz. The food was absolutely beautiful, but it was also that we were all together.
What would you do if you only had 24 hours there?
Go to Siam Park (siampark.net). It’s the biggest water park in Europe. And if you’re anything like me, to be a 15-year-old again is heaven. It’s absolute joy, running around with a wave pool, slides — terrifying slides, not so terrifying slides, lazy river — that to me is an adrenaline-filled day of fun. Anything like that ticks a box for me because I can balance it out then by going on a beautiful cultural walk around an old town. But if it’s 24 hours, I’m going to go to a water park.
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What is the one unmissable thing you recommend doing?
Travel. If you go there for a two-week holiday and are in the resorts, essentially what you can end up doing is holidaying with other people from the same nation. You could literally come to an area in Tenerife and have the experience of like just being a Brit surrounded by Brits, and probably not have any food outside of what you would eat day to day. Whereas you are on an extraordinary island with a huge amount of culture, Canarian culture, Canarian food. There’s so much history there. It’s a volcanic island that has so much natural beauty and beautiful Spanish towns. And it’s small, for me anyway: you could drive around Tenerife in a relatively short amount of time but feel like you’re in two completely different places.
There’s so many beautiful places like Teide: the volcanic mountain right in the centre of the island. You can be at the bottom of that and it is absolutely stunning weather, then you go up it and you’re in the mist and you feel as if you’re in this kind of mystical woodland. Then you get even further and you’re above the clouds and you’re looking out across the ocean. You will also see so many amazing beaches. There is black sand in some areas and then traditional white sand, but I think it just feels magical to be on a black sand beach. It feels so other.
Is there a hidden gem you are willing to share?
I really love a gallery and in San Cristóbal de La Laguna there’s a beautiful gallery that was right next to the coffee shop that I went to every single day. It was called Galería Artizar (artizar.es/en/la-galeria). They had the most extraordinary collection that changed all the time. So, I would be like, “Oh, I’ve probably got 20 minutes before I need to be picked up. I’ll go get my coffee and I’ll go stand and look at this extraordinary art.” Then I would go in and accidentally come out with something that I didn’t need.
Where do you like to let your hair down?
I’m quite nocturnal and everything is shut during the day. If you got home from work at 8.00pm, then everything’s open; everyone’s around until 10.30 at night. And I love that style of life. I liked letting my hair down by going to one of the record shops in La Laguna.
Favourite shops?
There was a really cool record shop in La Laguna called Hey Boy Hey Girl! And there’s a really beautiful independent boutique, called Dicky Morgan. I kept coming away with various things that I didn’t need. My favourite coffee shop was called Urban Roasters. That was amazing because I’m a bit of a coffee snob. I’d pick a good coffee over a massage.
Your packing essential?
Factor 50. Everywhere I go, Factor 50.
