From silver travel tips for Spain and the East to a family trip to Paris, Joan Scales answers your travel questions
Senior travel offer to Spain
I am thinking of going on the senior travel offer to Spain - Benelmadena or Fuengirola - after Christmas. I would like to visit Seville, Granada and Toledo on day trips or possibly overnight stays. Could you advise me if the above resorts would be any way convenient for trips further afield?
MK, Dublin
Both of these resorts are less than an hour to Malaga city where you can take trains or buses onwards to lots of places in Spain.
Seville would be the closest, with the train journey less than two hours. It is also a spectacular trip as it goes over the mountains by Ronda. Ronda is also a lovely town worth visiting too.
Toledo is the furthest place away and you will have to go via Madrid to get there. Trains from Malaga to Madrid take about three hours, and Toledo is only about a half-hour from the capital on the high-speed train.
The train to Granada is not a good idea, as you have to change and the time between trains can be long. There is a bus service and it takes about two hours.
For train timetables, see renfe.com, and for bus timetables see alsa.es and ctsa-portillo.com.
You will also find that there will be day tours from Benelmadena and Fuengirola to various cities and places of interest and your hotel will have details. See also andalucia.org, the website for Andalucia tourism for details of cultural events.
To the East
for seniors
My husband and I would love to visit the East, perhaps Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan or China, and to be away for three weeks or less. We are a fairly active retired couple in our 60s. What is the best time to go? If you think an escorted tour is the best, do you know any Irish companies who do this?
PR, Galway
If you are fairly active, then I think a trip with Intrepid Travel may suit you. It has a journey that begins in Thailand, heads north to Chiang Mai, then down the Mekong river by boat to Luang Prabang (Laos), then on to Vientiane, Lak Sao and ending in Hanoi (Vietnam). It is a 15-day trip and would certainly give you a great insight to Asia. It costs from €1,150pps, not including airfares.
This is one of a variety of trips organised by Intrepid Travel. See the full brochure on intrepidtravel.com.
Another way to explore the Far East - China, Japan and South Korea - is to take the Asian Legacies Tour with the Travel Department in March or September.
This 15-day trip is a mixture of staying in luxury hotels in Beijing and Shanghai with tours and trips, and a five-night cruise to Japan and South Korea on Royal Caribbean's Legend of the Seas on a full-board basis.
This trip will include such highlights as visiting Beijing's Forbidden City, Imperial Palace, Tiananmien Square, the Great Wall, the old town of Shanghai and Pudong, and Fukuoka and Busan in Japan.
The price from €2,199 includes flights with British Airways, all accommodation, most meals, guided tours and trips. Tel: 01-6371600 or see thetravel department.ie.
Train travel
in France
We are thinking of combining a holiday in Antibes, where we will have the use of an apartment, with a trip to see our friends in Luxembourg. We would like to travel by train, but we have no idea
how much this would cost or how to go about booking it. Would you know if it is feasible?
SD, Dublin
Luxair (luxair.lu) has flights from Dublin to Luxembourg four times a week and a one-way fare is around €140. You could also consider flying to Charleroi with Ryanair and taking the train. Once you are in Europe, getting around by train is easy.
Luxembourg to Antibes
will take 10 to 13 hours with
one or two changes along the way. Usually, the more
changes, the cheaper the cost - expect the fare to be about €100.
Look at the following websites for booking train journeys: bahn.de; voyages-sncf.com; raileurope.com and also Seat61.com.
You could then fly back from Nice to Dublin with either Ryanair or Aer Lingus.
Family fun
in Paris
We are a family of four, with two boys (15 and 12) travelling to Paris next March for four days. Can you recommend some good quality centrally-located hotels, also city tour operators (not the hop-on hop-off bus companies) that would cover most of the main historical sights. What's the best way to travel to Disneyland for a day trip and is it better value to purchase day passes online?
KR, Clare
Hotel rooms in Paris tend to be small, even when paying a good price. As your boys are a bit older, you could take
advantage of the Novotel Tour Eiffel hotel deal, where it gives you a discount on a second room.
Four nights for the four of you would be around €1,200, including free breakfast for the boys. This hotel is well located for seeing the sights. It also has a swimming pool, which is rare in a city, novotel.com.
An apartotel is also a good idea for a family group, where you have the services of a hotel with an apartment. The Citadines Group (see citadines.com) has a number of properties in Paris, all are well located and you can expect to pay about €270 to €300 per night.
To feel like a Parisian, you could rent an apartment from Paris by Numbers, an Irish company. It has a good variety of properties and you can expect to pay from €900 to €1,200 for a two-bedroom accommodation. See parisbynumbers.ie.
Getting to Disneyland Paris from the city centre is easy. Take the RER A train towards Marne la Vallée-Chessy to the entrance. Tickets cost about €14 return. Tickets for the two Disneyland parks at the gate are €69 and can be bought from attractionticketsdirect.ie for €54, including Fastpass, which gives you quicker access to most of the rides.
There is a good selection of guided tours of Paris available, besides the hop-on hop-off buses. The Bateaux Mouche trips on the river are a great way to see some of the fine buildings of the city. Other tours are specifically for children, walking, cycling, history or architecture-based. You can see details on parisinfo.com/en.
E-mail questions, with your name and address, to jscales@irishtimes.com