I am lucky to be able to go to incredibly luxurious places, but I like to travel in the old-school way too. Not long ago I was in Miami, and afterwards I went backpacking to Mexico, staying in hostels for £7 a night. But my favourite place is Porthcothan Bay near Padstow, in Cornwall, watching the sunset on the cliff edge. That is the best thing in the world.
I did have surfing lessons this summer, and I used to surf when I was little – really got into it; but it’s just too hard to carry the board! So I tend to take a float in the sea and I body surf, and body board. Surfing is really difficult and you can’t just throw yourself at it. We did have a surfboard and we used to take it down, but we never really used it because where we went isn’t wavey enough. But I did lessons this summer at surf school.
I spend a lot of time in Cornwall. While Covid-19 meant we couldn’t go abroad, I think we went to Cornwall seven times last year. We camp. I like it because it’s very rural; there’s no phone service; Dad cooks on a barbecue every day – breakfast, lunch and dinner. We’re just by the sea with loads of dogs and fresh air.
These days, we don’t drive down there in a camper van, but we have done. It just took another two hours to get there. And we go at Christmastime; when it’s Boxing Day everyone runs in the sea with no wetsuits, everyone just goes in and goes crazy.
We go in a big group, there are six of us kids in my family, and all our friends who come are like family; we’ve grown up with them. My parents went to school with their parents – we’re talking years of friendship.
You can follow Mia Regan on Instagram: @mimimoocher
Portraits by German Larkin for TAG Heuer
