From Paris Hilton to Prince Harry, the famous people we've spotted on holiday – and what they were doing

Private jets? Many of them fly with budget airlines, actually - © Getty Images
Private jets? Many of them fly with budget airlines, actually - © Getty Images

From a thirsty Christopher Biggins to a grumpy John Cleese, Telegraph Travel's contributors have spotted dozens of celebrities overseas. Here are some of our most memorable sightings. Share yours using the comment box below.

Ryan Giggs - at Sandy Lane in Barbados, being chased down the beach by two girls screaming his name. He dived in the water to escape.

Richard E Grant - in a tiny hilltop village in Provence - wearing a giant pashmina while wandering through the market.

The Black Eyed Peas - in Tokyo. A fellow journalist I was travelling with went up to them, very excitedly, and said: "Oh my God you are the green eyed turtles!". Slightly embarrassing...

Spotted by Charles Starmer-Smith

I was sitting outside Perpignan airport and saw a man wearing a skinny mod suit and a trilby and said "Who does that guy think he is? Pete Doherty?" He then came and sat next to us and had a cigarette – it was Pete Doherty.

I also saw once saw Jamie Carragher on his own on a racing bike in Interlaken. I said "Jamie Carragher!" and he said "Yep"

Spotted by Greg Dickinson

Paris Hilton at Malaga airport, with a security guard carrying her chihuahua in a leather, floral dog carrier. Seriously.

Spotted by Grace Howarth

John Inverdale - at the Louvre in Paris talking loudly and with a certain amount of knowledge about French history.

Aleksander Kwaśniewski - then the President of Poland, in Klosters. He was sitting at the next table. We got talking about English cheeses, after he had been offered Stilton by the waitress and said rather loudly that the English couldn't make cheese. I begged to differ and asked him why people kept referring to him as Mr President, thinking he was President of the Polish cheese marketing board or some such...

Spotted by Nick Trend

Prince Harry - with his face painted blue and covered in glitter, at Secret Garden Party, a festival in Cambridgeshire.

Spotted by Sophie Hughes

Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn - at a tiny restaurant in Glossa, Skopelos, with three American friends, loudly discussing the ins and outs of childbirth.

Christopher Biggins - in Porto Cervo, Sardinia - asking a friend whether "happy hour" had begun.

Mark Bright, the footballer - in The Gambia, patiently discussing the beautiful game with a sunburnt and over-talkative Englishman.

David Moyes - during his Everton days, waiting to board the same easyJet flight from Amsterdam.

Spotted by Oliver Smith

Richard E Grant: big fan of scarves - Credit: GETTY
Richard E Grant: big fan of scarves Credit: GETTY

Peter Crouch and Abbey Clancy at Forte Village in Sardinia. The 'down to earth' couple were on my easyJet flight home too.

Spotted by Kaye Holland

Anne Hathaway - in a Brooklyn coffee shop with some regular Joe-type, non-famous friends. The rest of the staff and clientele were so damn cool about the whole thing that my friends and I were forced to pretend we were similarly blasé, instead of taking conspicuous selfies with her in the background (which we longed to do).

Less impressive was Richard Blackwood, the "comedian" and DJ - in Zante, circa 2005. He was trying to get the bouncers to create a VIP area for him in a nightclub, which they managed by tying a sad-looking piece of rope to cordon off his table – approximately two feet from everyone else in the club…

Spotted by Helen Coffey

David Baddiel and Richard Wilson (aka Victor Meldrew) - sitting together on the Paris Metro. I wondered if it would be funny to say "I don't believe it" in French and see if they noticed. But decided not to.

Chandler from Friends (Matthew Perry) - filming something by a Metro station in New York. The film crew were becoming impatient with passing tourists and their flash photography interfering with the cameras. (It wasn't me, honestly.)

Bob Geldof - immersed in a WB Yeats book, on an easyJet flight from Marseille.

Spotted by Jolyon Attwooll

Who did we spot in St Tropez? - Credit: GETTY
Who did we spot in St Tropez? Credit: GETTY

Annie Lennox - in Marrakech a few years ago, having drinks at the Riad El Fenn, discussing Arabic literature with Esther Freud and Alan Yentob

Joan Collins - at the Byblos in St Tropez having lunch, while at the pool young playboys shook methuselahs of champagne in the air, spraying their thong-clad model girlfriends. I also saw P Diddy on his yacht, surveying the crowds on the beach from the back deck.

Olivier Martinez - at the Concours d'Elegance in Delhi, railing about how he wouldn't do interviews with any Rupert Murdoch press

Spotted by Lisa Grainger

Jamie Redknapp was on my easyJet flight to Porto. I was thinking that he probably didn't have to pick up his own luggage, then saw him next to me at the baggage carousel.

Spotted by Emma Featherstone

Billy Connolly - having breakfast in a Wellington hotel ahead of a day's shooting for The Hobbit. "I'm getting a bit old for all this sort of thing," he grunted. I also saw Stephen Fry on the same trip, coming though the airport at Christchurch.

Spotted by Adrian Bridge

They don't always go to Cornwall - Credit: GETTY
They don't always go to Cornwall Credit: GETTY

Gareth Gates - in a service station on the M1. A friend and I were dressed as Gandolf and Legolas (we were on a Lord of the Rings road trip). We saw him leaving the loos, and ambushed him. He took one look at us and ran off.

David and Samantha Cameron - on Salinas Beach, Ibiza, watching their kids surfing.

Spotted by Joe Plimmer

Ian Botham - snowploughing down a slope in Courchevel wearing a red all-in-one ski suit.

Arnold Schwarzenegger - arriving at a restaurant in Munich. He was shorter than I thought, although that might have be an illusion because he's so wide. He was surrounded by a fluttering entourage, and after a few words with a waiter, disappointingly, they all left.

John Cleese - on a beach in Ibiza in the Eighties. When he went into the sea (waving his arms about and all but doing one of his silly walks - seriously) me and my friend left a note on his sunlounger asking for an autograph, then went back to pick it up and talk to him. We were too young and tongue-tied to say much, but did say there was a waiter in our hotel who was just like Manuel. At which point he got grumpy.

Spotted by Cat Weakley

Ian Hislop - in Megeve, France, swiftly exiting a pretty basic bar called The Cocoon.

Spotted by Henry Druce

Emma Watson - she hopped into the same ski gondola as me in Meribel, wearing a chic ski ensemble and with an overexcited ESF instructor in tow.

Rod Stewart - at the next table eating brunch in a restaurant in Dubai. He was trying his very hardest to keep a low profile - I don't think he was in the mood for autograph requests.

Spotted by Victoria Monk