I’m a celebrity, get me into there: these are the hottest celebrity-endorsed travel experiences right now

My teenage son Alfred and I are back at the Bear Grylls Survival Academy Base Camp – a tent made from parachute silk, half camouflaged by undergrowth on the Halkidiki coast in mainland Greece. We’ve spent the morning roaming the woodland with our instructor Georgios and a loose herd of small children and their parents, finding suitable branches for fire-making, whittling sticks into arrows for protection, and learning the basics of outdoor survival. Sitting under the canvas on logs, striking flints to send showers of sparks onto kindling, there’s a sudden flurry of activity at the entrance. It’s Bear Grylls himself, who strides in wearing his own-brand blue hiking snood, hunkers down and starts helping a young boy with his flint. There’s an awestruck moment, then he takes to the floor, answering questions. “The qualities you need to survive? Quiet courage, kindness – because you could be spending a lot of time with people in distress – and ultimately, never give up, never say die.”

Of course, it may not be that surprising that adventurer and TV presenter Grylls should turn up at a survival academy named after him. But he has several around the world, from a flagship site in the Scottish Highlands to one in the Dubai desert – and a busy media career, not to mention his duties as the UK’s Chief Scout. This is his first time at the Sani Academy, and he’s using the trip to check over the teaching programme and experience the landscape for himself. “This has a really versatile terrain, with forest, coastline and dunes, but more importantly, it has families,” he says. “Some of our survival courses are very intense, but we’ve tried to make this accessible, to give people a taster over a couple of hours. It’s about doing something outside together as a family, having fun and learning skills, which is not just a sport or dependent on a device.”