My holidays: Todd Emerson

Actor Todd Emerson loves exploring new cuisines on holiday. Photo / Supplied

Todd Emerson, aka Bilkie from TV3's Westside, shares his holiday highlights and travel tips.

What was your greatest holiday?
Six weeks in Spain starting in Barcelona and driving down the country to spend time in Andalusia. We followed this by having a theatre holiday in London. Sixteen shows in 10 days. Exhausting and expensive but we came away inspired and well fed.

And the worst?
Anytime I've been staying in a resort with too many other tourists! I'm not sure I'll be going back to Bali in a hurry.

If we bump into you on holiday, what are you most likely to be doing?
Eating! I love exploring new cuisines. I'll eat anything once, although I haven't come across anything too weird yet. I was eating a "mystery stew" once in Europe when I found an eyelid with eyelashes attached on my spoon ...

What's your dream destination?
It's constantly changing, but on my list is a safari in Africa and exploring the coast up the Adriatic Sea from Greece up to Croatia. Oh - and eating my way through France while cruising down the canals on a houseboat.

What's the dumbest thing you've ever done when travelling?
Leaving my passport in Barcelona and not realising until trying to cross into Gibraltar and Africa.

What will you always have in your hand luggage?
Noise-cancelling headphones and a good book.

Complete this sentence - I can't travel without...
Friends or family. It's way more fun when you're sharing it with people.

What's the best thing you've brought back from a trip?
Weirdly, some antique measuring spoons I bought in a second-hand shop in Spokane, Washington. I probably use them every day.

Favourite airport to land at?
Auckland. Because no matter how great it's been, it's always good to be home again.

What's the next trip you've got planned?
No holidays in sight for me this year, but I am heading off around the country to a bunch of arts festivals later in the year with a theatre show called Daffodils. It's a beautiful true story about a couple who fell in love in the 60s, set to a bunch of classic Kiwi songs everyone knows and loves. See you there.

Todd Emerson plays Bilkey on Westside on Sundays at 8.30pm on TV3, and is in The Deliberate Disappearance of My Friend, Jack Hartnett at Q Theatre, Auckland, from July 24.