The 40-year-old stage and screen actress, who is married to actor Damian Lewis and splits her time between London and LA, reflects on her travels.

by Marianne Gray, Source Magazine, July 2009

Can't leave home without ...

Well, obviously shoes! I am the lightest traveller in the world. I don't even carry a bag if I can help it. I'm blind as a bat and often leave home without my specs, my phone and my keys. Wherever I go, I like to be there 100 percent. There's nothing worse than people taking phone calls during lunch or whatever.

Favourite journey

Anywhere my family is waiting for me. As a diplomat's daughter I grew up all over the world, and for the past two years my husband Damian and I have split our lives -- spending half the year living in London and the other half in L.A. Everything is family for me and it is lovely to come home to where they are.

Most relaxing place to go

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 putter about and relax, and it's idyllic.

Most romantic destination

I would love to go to Cuba with Damian, because apart from the beauty I love the music. We'd dance in the streets of Havana and go to the Hotel Nacional for mojitos. Our children would be very happy staying with my family in Wales.

Best childhood holiday memory

We were living in Paris when our father and mother drove me and my brother and sister to see the lighthouse at Biarritz. My father grew up in the inner-city Glasgow and had visited Biarritz when he was young. He had stood at the lighthouse and said that if he could ever bring his children there, it would be wonderful. I only realised then that my father had once been a child, too. We went there five years running.

Places still to go ...

I'd love to go to Brazil at carnival time in Rio de Janeiro, but all of South America is on my list. Living in L.A., we've met so many South Americans and I'd like to see their real cultures, not the watered-down North American versions.

The place I'll never forget

London is the most exotic place in my life. I was born there, but I grew up in Norway, Nigeria, Camaroon, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Paris and Madagascar, so first came to the city aged 18. I have always found it a most romantic place, full of diversity, energy and individuality. I love the laissez-faire attitude.

Helen McCrory stars as Narcissa Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, released on 17 July.

Caption: World view: (from top to bottom) The lights of Los Angeles; 'Idyllic' Wales; Helen dreams of drinking mojitos in romantic Cuba; the lighthous in Biarritz.