Combining sea and the sights

GO ASK JOAN: Want to combine snorkelling and culture, find a good deal in Oslo or get a senior travel card overseas? Joan Scales…

GO ASK JOAN:Want to combine snorkelling and culture, find a good deal in Oslo or get a senior travel card overseas? Joan Scalesanswers  your holiday queries

My husband and I would like to go for a 10-day holiday in September that is a mix of sun and culture. We are both really interested in food and love to explore new cities and take part in snorkelling or scuba and other water-based activities.

So far, island hopping in Greece, Sicily, visiting Istanbul or Egypt have been suggested but we don’t know where to start or what to choose. We have a normal sized holiday budget and won’t be going luxury!

EM, Dublin

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Istanbul is a busy city, lots to see and do, great culture and sight-seeing and you could combine it with another place for the sea. Maybe a two-centre trip with a resort in Kusadasi, Antalya, Alaçati or Olüdeniz would work. All of these resorts have great hotels and watersports, particularly Alaçati.

You can fly direct to Istanbul from Dublin with Turkish Airlines. See thy.com and tourismturkey.org.

Island-hopping in Greece would also allow you to combine culture and activity. Aer Lingus flies to Athens until the end of September. Spend three days in Athens visiting the New Acropolis Musuem, exploring Monasteriki and enjoying the city.

From there, the hardest part will be deciding which islands to visit. I have enjoyed some good snorkelling in Skiathos and Skopelos in the Sporades Islands of north east Greece and in Paros on the Cyclades. The Ionian Islands of Western Greece are also recommended, for wreck diving. See gnto.gr.

When it comes to Egypt and the Red Sea, the snorkelling and diving is excellent, with many dive sites and schools along the coast.

There are only charter flights to Egypt from Ireland and this would mean travelling for one or two weeks.

Package holidays to the Red Sea in September cost in the region of €700 to €1,000 per week, with falconholidays.ie and sunworld.ie. Choose the best hotel you can afford as food can be and miss in Egypt.

Sicily is easy to get to in September with direct flights from Aer Lingus on Wednesday and Sunday to Catania in the south. There is a good website for advice on watersports in Sicily, divesicily.com.

Sicily would be a good place to visit for the complete mix of what you are looking for, food, culture, cities, and watersports. See also bestofsicily.com.

Fine dining in Italy is better value than other countries, so a flick through the Michelin Guide should be on the cards, viamichelin.com.

Oslo on a budget

I have booked a two-night break for myself and my husband in October to Oslo. The flights were an amazing €48 for the two of us including taxes and charges, but I soon realised why – Oslo appears to be a very expensive city. We are on a tight budget and I am finding it very difficult to find a hotel within our price range. Also, not knowing the city, I’m afraid if I do find a hotel within budget that it may not be in a very nice place.

Given that we are only there for two nights it would be great if you could suggest somewhere (hotel or B&B) in a decent part of the city for €110 to €120 a night for a double room with breakfast (maybe I’m asking for a miracle!)

SB, Dublin

That was a great deal on the flights and it is well worth it to visit Oslo. See visitoslo.com for details of the city and getting from Rygge Airport to the capital, which takes an hour.

There is a local hotel group in Norway called Rica Hotels and their properties in Oslo, the Victoria and Holbert Hotels, are well located for visiting the city and making the most of your trip.

They are principally business hotels and so rates go down at the weekend. You can access them on rica-hotels. The rates may be a bit less on hotels.com. Watch out for their autumn sale which begins soon.

The Radisson group also has a number of hotels in downtown Oslo and provide a reliable quality hotel in the €90 to €130 range.

They have some good rates depending on the day of the week and the advance purchase rate will provide additional discounts and to keep to your budget, radisson.com.

Travel scheme for seniors

Are there travel schemes in other countries similar to the Ireland Golden Trekker, referred to last week in Go? A senior citizen told me that when buying a train ticket in Spain, he showed his passport and so paid a reduced rate.

T O’C Cork

The Golden Trekker is an innovative scheme and I don’t know of any other countries doing such a great deal for seniors.

On many international rail routes, there are discounts for over 60s. You usually show your passport when buying tickets to get the discount. If you book in advance, some online systems will allow for you to put in your age and calculate the fare based on that.

Discounts on bus journeys are usually only for long distance routes. Depending on the journey, some countries have railcards that entitle you to discounts.

If you were planning on doing a lot of travel around Europe, then a rail pass might be the best option. Similar to the Interrail pass used by students, they are available to everyone and can be purchased from Usit, 66 Oliver Plunkett Street, Cork, 021-427 0900, usit.ie.

For travelling by public transport, the Thomas Cook Timetables guide is a must for rail travel planning, thomascookpublishing.com.

Another great site for rail journeys is seat61.com.

For travel in the UK take a look at railpassdirect.co.uk.

Greyhound buses in the US give a 5 per cent discount for people over 62, greyhound.com.

Email your questions, with name and address to Jscales@irishtimes.com