Before she established herself as a firm TV favourite, Andrea McLean had one heck of an adventurous life.
Her equivalent to standard British childhood holidays in Spain was spending time in glittering Barbados.
When she was temping in her 20s, she worked in sun-drenched Sydney. And her backpacking period was enlivened by a seriously hair-raising bus tour of the Indian highlands.
Loose Women can be pretty dramatic, but we doubt it ever measured up!
What’s your favourite on-the-road moment?
Filming in a hot-air balloon at dawn in South Africa. The air was cool and fresh, the sky was orange and it was silent except for the occasional whoosh of gas going into the balloon. We looked at the lake below us and could see the tracks the hippos had made on the lake bed – something you would never be able to see from the shore. It was magical.
And what’s been your favourite city?
I loved Sydney when I was in my 20s. I lived there for a few months, working in bars and temping in offices. I also love Paris because it’s so beautiful and you can walk everywhere and sit outside cafés just drinking coffee and people-watching.
What keeps you sane when you’re on the road?
Being prepared. Knowing what’s to come means that when the unexpected happens (which it always does) it’s not the end of the world.
When have you been most frightened when you’ve been travelling?
Years ago, when I went backpacking, before the age of mobile phones or the internet, you really did go off-grid. No one knew where you were. The most frightening experience took place on a bus in the Indian highlands.
The bus was travelling way too fast on a dirt road through the mountains when it swerved, the driver misjudged a corner and it ended up hanging off the cliff.
Everyone screamed, baskets of chickens fell from the overhead shelf and we all had to get off.
The driver then got a tow rope, and another bus pulled us back on to the road. Everyone got back on and we carried on as though nothing had happened. My hair was practically standing on end by the time we arrived.
And your most life-changing experience while travelling?
My parents lived in Kenya for a long time, so I used to visit them. One year at Christmas there was the normal sudden power cut, so someone whipped out tin foil and rolled it down the table and placed rows of tea lights on it. Someone else brought out a guitar and began to sing.
There was every nationality – not everyone spoke English – but to me the stars have never shone brighter and I’ve never had a more simple, special Christmas than that one.
The strangest place you’ve spent the night?
That’s a difficult one to pin down. I’ve slept on the floor of a wooden hut in the far north of Thailand while trekking and under a plastic sheet slung between trees in the jungle in Sumatra.
But I think the most uncomfortable places were at the various airports I slept in while travelling, purely to save money.
The good part is you don’t get moved on because everyone thinks your flight is delayed but the bad part is that it is back-crunchingly uncomfortable and you don’t get a wink of sleep.
And the best place?
My parents borrowed a static caravan from a friend in Barbados when I was eight. I grew up in Trinidad in the Caribbean, so to us going to Barbados was like the English going to Spain – it was a short plane ride away. I remember it being wonderful.
It was right on the beach, and we woke up and ran straight into the sea every morning.
I think that holiday sparked my love of Barbados and it’s why I keep going back. It’s just a lot further to go now.
Have you ever come close to being arrested abroad?
Yes. But I’m not going to tell you why!
What’s been your biggest holiday disaster?
Ringing my parents from New Zealand to tell them I’d almost been taken in by a cult only to find they’d moved house when a stranger answered the phone. That felt pretty disastrous.
To explain – there were no mobiles or internet at the time, so they had no way of letting me know. I’d been busy travelling and hadn’t called home in a while.
McLean is the CEO of mindset membership app This Girl Is On Fire and the author of You Just Need To Believe It: 10 Ways In 10 Days To Unlock Your Courage And Reclaim Your Power, available now.
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