Dominic Monaghan's holiday heaven and hell My iPod, great food, a little bit of an adventure - something that you don't know is going to happen and then it just happens out of the blue - animals and maybe a little bit of football. I always carry a snake stick, which is like a hooked stick that I use to wrangle the head of snake. I also take a couple of cameras: one is a point-and-shoot that I don't mind if it gets wet and then another that I keep a little bit more safe. Smile. If you can't speak the language and you don't know what's happening, just smile. I've found that I've got myself out of a lot of potentially sticky situations by just coming across as friendly. People sometimes get annoyed and frustrated and angry and then you smile and you find that it makes all those things fade away. I'd like to go to the Cook Islands and see what that's all about. I'd also like to go to Tahiti, Christmas Island, Easter Island, Madagascar and Kangaroo Island. I like islands. ...and disasters? I did a job in the Ukraine and that was pretty miserable. I was excited before I went but I just found it disappointing. There wasn't a lot to do and I had a broken foot at the time. The food wasn't fantastic, the political infrastructure was a mess and I didn't find the people to be that open or nice. I just didn't enjoy it. What's your worst experience on holiday? I went to Venice when I was younger with a bunch of friends and our coach was in a minor collision on the motorway, which meant we missed out flight back from Italy to England. Looking back on it now it's part of the story of the trip but it wasn't much fun having to sleep at the airport for overnight. On my way back from Manchester recently my suitcase got completely shredded and some of my clothes were ruined. I got outside the airport and it's the only time I've been happy to see the paparazzi. I said: "It's great you guys are here, have a look at this," and I showed them my case and then I walked them with me to lodge a complaint with the airline. The airline did reimburse me for the damage though. The Ukraine was pretty miserable for hotels. They shut room service round about six o'clock and we usually worked until about eight so we'd have to go to sleep hungry because we weren't staying near any restaurants. I remember calling reception to ask for a 6.30am alarm call and the guy said: "Yes, that's fine, but can you just call me at 6.25am to remind me?" It was the best hotel on offer because we were in a pretty bleak location. I avoid package holidays and all 18-30-type scenarios. Anywhere where there's a large glut of young people on a first holiday; groups of loud giggling 17-year-olds. I do get lingering autograph hunters and that can get a bit hectic because you find yourself in this scenario where one person in the group knows who you are but they all come over to get pictures with you and then you spend the rest of your time with these people just constantly taking pictures. Bureaucratic nonsense at airports drives me crazy. I once had some guy confiscate my hand luggage and keep me waiting in customs for an hour while he read my diary. He actually read my personal diary. I had been writing in it as I was waiting and I wrote, "They've got me waiting in customs, I don't know why they're doing the big check on my stuff. When you're getting into America they make out it's like getting into Mecca. When he finally let me through the guy said to me: "Welcome to Mecca." There was nothing I could do about it though because if I'd kicked up a fuss he would have put me through another four or five hours of rubbish so I just walked out. Wild Things With Dominic Monaghan will be broadcast on Channel 5 at 8pm on Friday, November 9.