Go Advice: Your questions answered
Q I am planning to visit Alaska in May with three friends, aged 40 to 60. Our plan is to travel to Anchorage and tour from there. We will stay for two weeks and are interested in wildlife and some good walks, with museums and shopping thrown in. Any information on hotels, car rental and weather at that time will be very much appreciated.
MOS, Limerick
I have had a look at options for your trip and also talked to the Alaska tourism office in London. You can fly from Shannon with Delta via New York and Seattle in May from about €800 or with Continental from about €1,100 return. No Irish tour operator specialises in Alaska, but a good travel agent should be able to book flights and hotels for you.
The Alaska tourism office replies: "A great base for these ladies in May would be Anchorage. See the Anchorage Convention Visitors Bureau website, www.anchorage.net, for advice on planning a trip and booking tours.
"There are lots of good hotels to stay in, and for a truly Alaskan experience they might like the Captain Cook Hotel (www.captaincook.com, about $255 [€200] per room per night) or the boutique Copper Whale Inn (www.copperwhale. com, about $135 [€105] per room per night.
"Anchorage is surrounded by the Chugach Mountains and warmed by the waters from the Pacific Rim. The city has a moderate maritime climate with low humidity that contributes to Anchorage's comfortable temperature. From mid-May onwards temperatures should be 13-16 degrees. It is a great city to walk around and has one of the best museum/art gallery experiences in North America.
"Using Anchorage as a base you can have a city/cultural experience and then jump in a fixed-wing aircraft or floatplane and fly over glaciers or go bear or whale viewing.
"The key to comfort is to dress in layers: comfortable walking shoes, T-shirts, jumpers, a fleece and a raincoat are essential to enjoy some of the outdoor activities. Mid- to late May is a better time to travel than early May, when the weather has had a chance to warm up. The UK website is www.travel-alaska.co.uk. It lists tour operators around the UK that specialise in Alaska."
Q At Christmas I would like to spend four or five days away. I am on my own so would welcome suggestions for holiday breaks that cater for singles but are not aimed at matchmaking. I would just like to spend the few days in the company of other mature adults, all of whom have one or more common pastimes. I am interested in walking, learning to play golf, other unusual outdoor activities, learning more Spanish or walking the Camino de Santiago. I would only have five days at most, say from Tuesday, December 23rd to Saturday, December 27th. I would prefer somewhere in near Europe but would settle for the UK if there was something suitable there.
MM, Wexford
I have found some holidays over Christmas that may be what you are looking for. Solos Holidays (www.solosholidays. co.uk.), a UK company, has trips to Lake Garda and Sorrento, in Italy; Bavaria, in Germany; Prague, in the Czech Republic; and UK cities such as Leeds and Oxford. All of the holidays involve some activity, sightseeing, walking tours, race days and outings to historical sites, and there may be one that will appeal to you. You can see full details on
The Spanish courses I have found are all for a week or two weeks over Christmas. See www.escuelai.com and www.donquijote.org/english.
Trips to the Camino de Santiago do not begin until March.
Q I would like to visit Iran, preferably independently. Would you advise it, and have you any suggestions as to how to go about it?
TF, Dublin
You can certainly go to Iran as an independent traveller, but you will require a visa. Apply to the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 72 Mount Merrion Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin (01-2885881, IranEmbassy@indigo.ie).
IranAir (wwww.iranair. co.uk) flies from London Heathrow to Tehran three times a week. BMI (www.flybmi.com) has five flights a week.
As to whether I would advise your trip, I would direct you to www.fco.gov.uk, the website of the UK foreign office, so you can consider the official advice.
Perhaps it would be best to take an escorted trip. Explore (www.explore.co.uk), an adventure-tour company, is planning two trips for next year, one of them a walking tour. You can get further details from Maxwells Travel, 1 Hawkins Street, Dublin 2, 01-6793662.
My colleague Laurence Mackin says the new edition of Lonely Planet's guide to Iran is very good. Ryszard Kapuscinki's book Shah of Shahs, on the last years of the monarchy, is fantastic for getting a flavour of the country and the temperament even though it is not a recent book.
• E-mail questions, with your name and address, to jscales@irish-times.ie