Between now and Christmas new flights will start to seven European destinations. Gerry Mullins has the lowdown on each of them
FUERTEVENTURA
The obvious attraction of Fuerteventura is its winter sunshine, a feature that few European destinations can offer. Part of the Canary Islands, off the coast of Morocco, this Spanish territory is very popular with the Irish. Fuerteventura's sheltered east coast has some of the best beaches and water sports in the Canaries; its dry interior is dotted with whitewashed villages, windmills and clusters of palm trees. Aer Lingus starts flying to the island on November 5th; return tickets start at about €175, including taxes. Two good websites to try for booking apartments are www.espanabreaks.com and www.ownersdirect.co.uk.
ALMERIA
This is Aer Lingus's eighth route to Spain, indicating our enduring love of the country. Almeria is on the Costa del Sol, between Malaga (about 160km to the west) and Alicante (about 250km to the northeast), at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains. The range is crowned by the magnificent Alcazaba, an Arab fortress founded in the 10th century. The fort's hefty walls and towers dominate the city and command magnificent views. Almeria is also an ideal base for exploring Andalusia, particularly Grenada and Malaga. From the city's harbour visitors can also take a ferry to Melilla, a Gibraltar-style Spanish enclave in Morocco. Flights to Almeria begin on November 2nd; return tickets start at about €135, including taxes. To rent an apartment in Almeria, try www.holiday-rentals.com. A useful site to compare local car-hire prices is www.travel.yahoo.com.
BORDEAUX
If you fly to Bordeaux to bring back wine, you are following a tradition that goes back several hundred years. In 1740, for example, 4,000 caskets of wine were shipped from the French city to Ireland, four times more than went to England. Some of it was probably supplied by the "Wine Geese" of Bordeaux, descendants of the Wild Geese, who fled Ireland after James II was defeated in 1691, and settled into the wine trade in France. Local vineyards bear the names Lynch, MacCarthy, Dillon, Phelan, Hennessy and Barton, after 17th-century settlers. It might be enjoyable to visit all 18 Bordeaux wineries that claim Irish ancestry. Check before setting out, however: some don't have facilities for visitors; others don't welcome visitors during the grape harvest, which is normally in October. Flights from Dublin to Bordeaux start on September 25th and start at about €75 return, including taxes. For more information about Bordeaux, and the rest of France, visit www.franceguide.com.
SALZBURG
The Austrian city is best known for two quite different musical connections: it was the birthplace, in 1756, of Mozart, and it was the home of the von Trapp family of The Sound of Music. Mozart's Geburtshaus (birthplace) and Wohnhaus (residence) are two of the city's most popular attractions. The latter contains more musical instruments, sheet music, letters and other memorabilia than the former, and it also houses the Mozart Sound and Film Museum. A combined ticket for both houses costs €10 an adult. The enduringly popular Sound of Music tour costs €30 an adult, lasts four hours and takes in many of the film's locations. Visit www.salzburg.info for more information. Aer Lingus starts flying to Salzburg on December 20th. Return tickets cost from about €120, including taxes.
CRACOW
Cracow is Poland's third-largest city; it is also one of its oldest, and the only one whose architecture survived the second World War. The city illustrates Poland's intriguing history better than any other. Its Old Town, a Unesco world heritage site, features Gothic churches. Nearby is the Kazimierz, which was a centre of Jewish culture for centuries, before the Nazis killed most of its residents. The area fell into decline after the war, but it has enjoyed a renaissance since Steven Spielberg's film Schindler's List sparked an interest in its preservation. Six kilometres west of the city are the Nazi extermination camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau. Visiting them can be a profound experience. The best way to get to the area is by train from Cracow, which takes two hours. Shuttle buses transport visitors between the camps, or you can walk along the route of the old railway line between them. For more information visit www.explore-krakow.com or www.poland-tourism.pl. Flights from Dublin to Cracow begin on November 1st; return tickets start at about €130, including taxes.
WARSAW
The Polish capital suffered more than any other eastern European city at the hands of both the Nazis and the Red Army. About 700,000 of its people - more than half the city's population - died, and all but a few of its 350,000 Jews were deported to death camps. By the end of the war, 85 per cent of Warsaw's buildings had been destroyed. After the war an enormous amount of restoration work was done, and Warsaw is now a large, cosmopolitan city, with numerous museums and other attractions. The city's Old Town has been restored to its former glory, but it probably won't be enough to make Warsaw as popular as Cracow with visitors. This route is likely to appeal most to the 40,000 Poles who have moved to Ireland since their homeland joined the EU. For more information visit www.poland-tourism.pl. Aer Lingus already flies to Warsaw from Dublin. Its flights from Cork begin on November 1st; return tickets start at about €125, including taxes.
RIGA
Like Cracow, Riga is a Unesco world heritage city. The Latvian capital, with its pretty old quarter and art-nouveau architecture, is a busy cosmopolitan city that dates much of its importance to the 1930s, when it was an ideal base for the West to keep an eye on neighbouring Russia. Ethnic Latvians are a minority in their own capital, with Russians making up nearly half of the population. Riga offers Irish visitors a chance to look at the former Soviet bloc without having to leave the psychological comfort of the European Union. Lying close by the city are white sandy beaches, although they might not prove as attractive in midwinter as the ski resort at Valmiera, about 100km away. This forms part of the beautiful Gauja National Park, a deep valley dotted with castles, reminiscent of Switzerland. Flights from Dublin to Riga start on November 3rd; return tickets cost from about €115, including taxes.