THERE IS a fear in this business of taking holidays at all. The idea is that, as soon as you leave the country, the job offers flood in. It might just be a superstition, but it’s happened to me — and worse, before I had even managed to leave the country. We had booked to go to Grenada, and the week before we were due to leave, I got this offer, starting immediately. Well, it was no contest. Grenada went out of the window. You can’t, of course, insure for such things.

There isn’t a clause indemnifying you against getting a better offer. I can’t even recall what the show was now, but I’m sure it’s burnt into my wife’s memory.

The ideal situation is to know you have work waiting for you when you come back, so you can relax. When I was doing The Cherry Orchard with Trevor Nunn at the National, there was quite a long break between runs. So we went to Mauritius — we had just one child then — and had the most fantastic time. I don’t know whether they’re really good actors, but the people seem genuinely pleased to see you. Maybe they’ve all got Equity cards, but they convinced me.

The mix of great food, good wine, superb beaches, with the air full of sandalwood and spices, is hard to beat for a wind-down. I did the whole ayurvedic massage thing, caught up with some reading... it was perfect. The only problem was, I don’t think I looked much like one of Chekhov’s starving Russian peasants when I came back for the second run all tanned and healthy. I had to re-imagine myself as coming from some sunny southern part of the country.

I never really got to do the whole year-out backpacking thing. Some mates and I went to Greece when we were at drama school. You know the deal: cheapest flights possible, find a bar, then a room — in that order — try and meet some girls. Not sure we were that successful with the last part, although we managed to nail the drinking side pretty well, but one side effect was I fell in love with Greece. I’m still going there — we had a great family holiday earlier this year, in fact, on Skiathos.

Before we had kids, we went to Morocco on a self-drive holiday. We flew to Marrakesh and drove south looking for the Sahara. Nobody told me it was so far away. We went to Ouarzazate, which is a bit of a toilet, to be honest, then down to Zagora, along the Draa valley, which is just beautiful. We were in this little Renault 5 and we’d be in the middle of nowhere and people would appear when they heard the car, trying to flag us down. We never stopped. It’s a shame, but our defences were up, having been fleeced of a few quid in Marrakesh on the first night. Now I realise that it’s mandatory to arrive and get conned, but I wished they’d told me when I bought the ticket. I’d have been prepared for the stealth tax.

We didn’t stop until we reached Zagora and put up at a lovely little hotel, with lush palm gardens and very friendly staff — a real oasis. Then we drove on until we hit the tip of the Sahara proper at Tinfou, where the road just ran out. It was incredible. A sandstorm was coming from the east, you could see it dancing on the horizon. I have never suffered from horizontal vertigo before, but the scale of it — next stop, Cairo — was hard to comprehend.

Once you have kids, of course, trips like that become more difficult. There is the luggage issue — you seem to pack for nine people all the time. With babies, at least you come back with less than you took: all those nappies gradually get used up. So our holidays are more dictated by convenience now — shorter flights, easy transfers, close to the beach, safe for toddlers, the usual stuff. But I recently went by myself to Berlin, where they were shooting V for Vendetta on the giant sound stages. And I found myself at the airport with just a shoulder bag. I kept getting these instinctive twitches: Oh, my God, where are the kids? Or: I’ve lost my luggage, where is it? I had to keep giving myself a reality check — there’s just you and this small bag, Ben. Relax. I have to say, I enjoyed the feeling once I got used to it. Travelling light, you can’t beat it.

Ben Miles talked to Rob Ryan

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