GO ASK JOAN: Your travel questions answered by JOAN SCALES
We wish to visit our daughter in Hong Kong, at Easter, probably travelling around March 17th-April 10th. Is this a good time to travel? We want to spend a few days in Hong Kong to acclimatise and recover from the flight, then spend a week or so relaxing and sightseeing in another Asian country, before returning to Hong Kong for a few more days shopping and sightseeing. Can you please advise the best flight option; does it have to be through Heathrow? Is it a good idea to upgrade flights, and can you suggest possible additional destinations and options for beach trips?
– FMG, Omagh
The weather in Hong Kong at that time of year will be improving after the winter, but you can have cloudy, misty days, drying up more as it goes into April.
There are many airlines that operate to Hong Kong. You will need to shop around to get the best deal. Virgin Atlantic and British Airways have good prices. After Christmas, British Airways usually has a sale for long-haul flights, and I have seen good discounts on business class fares.
BA also has a premium economy fare to Hong Kong that will give you extra leg room in a separate economy cabin, for a price between economy and business class. Alternative airports are Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.
You could combine your trip to Hong Kong with a tour of China. The Sino-Irish Travel company (tel: 01-6761371, sinoirishtravel.ie) will be doing two tours of China near the dates of your planned trip, on March 29th and April 19th.
When it comes to beach trips, you could spend a few days at the Gold Coast Hotel in Hong Kong, from where a shuttle will take you from downtown to the beach in under an hour. You can relax here with views of the South China Sea (see sino-hotels.com).
Macau, fast developing into one of the premier resorts in this region, is within easy access. Other resort areas worth considering are Hainan Island, China’s Hawaii; Bali; Phuket; Malaysia and the Philippines. Cathay Pacific and Air Asia have extensive networks of flights in this region at reasonable prices (cathypacific.com and airasia.com).
Golf in Tenerife
We are in our 70s and intend to go to one of the Canary Islands in February, preferably Tenerife. I am looking for a very good hotel with a golf course, where we would stay for seven to 10 days and then spend two to three weeks in an apartment or a villa close by, having use of the hotel facilities and also the golf course.
– JVD, Louth
Both Ryanair and Aer Lingus will have flights to Tenerife in February.
There are eight golf courses in Tenerife, six of them on the south coast. The principal five-star golf resort is the Abama Golf and Spa Resort in Guia de Isora. It is a luxury resort with both full-service hotel and villas. They have some good deals that combine golf, lessons, spa treatments and meals (see abamahotelresort.com). The Sheraton la Caleta resort is also nice, and has special rate arrangements at four golf courses (sheratonlacaleta.com).
The Hotel Vincci Tenerife Golf is beside Golf del Sur, which has a good links course (vinccihoteles.com). The Hotel Las Madrigueras has guaranteed tee-times and free buggies at the Golf Las Americas course (hotellasmadrigueras.com).
When it comes to renting an apartment or villa, you will find a good selection of quality private rentals on the website holidaylettings.co.uk, and on booking.com there is a good selection of rentals in resorts and complexes with pools and other facilities.
Affordable Amsterdam
My daughter and her boyfriend are travelling to Amsterdam at the end of January and are looking for cheap and central accommodation. Do you have any suggestions?
– JC, Dublin
The best option for them is to consider staying in a hostel. The advantages, apart from the price, is that there are usually organised events and cooking facilities at hostels. See hotelworld.com and hotelbookers.com. Rates are from around €15 per night in a dorm room, and around €75 for a twin room. Hotels to consider are the trendy budget property citizenM (around €90 per night, citizenm.com), or easyHotel, which is part of the easyJet empire (from €49 per night, easyhotels.com).
Email queries, with your name and address, to jscales@irishtimes.com