JOAN SCALESanswers your travel questions
Q We intend to take a ski holiday in St Johann, in Austria, in January. We have booked flights to Munich and were hoping you could offer us advice on the train or bus that would bring us from the airport to the resort. The train websites are not too clear about whether changes are involved. I understand the journey is about 160km. Also, on our return journey we intend to spend a night in Munich, and so we’d appreciate if you could recommend a hotel that would be convenient to the airport and sightseeing in the city.
DC, Clare
I suggest you look at three train websites:bahn.de, oebb.at and raileurope.com. The price on the Raileurope site is about €40 each way. These sites will help you plan your journey by rail. It will take between two and three hours to get to St Johann, in Tirol. Some services are direct, but most have one stop. It’s well worth booking your train journey, as the route to St Johann can be very busy.
There is no public bus from Munich airport to St Johann. However, Four Seasons Travel (airport-transfer.com, e-mail office@airport-transfer.com) offers the cheapest and most comfortable airport shuttle from Munich to St Johann.
In Munich, Hotel Mona Lisa (hotel-mona-lisa.de) is a small family-run property near the English Garden, with rates from €69 per night.
You will find some good information about Munich on muenchen.de/tourismus.
Q We are planning a cruise for June next year. We hope to fly from Dublin to Venice, then join a ship to travel around the Greek islands. Could you advise us on companies which would offer a package from Dublin?
JG, Wicklow
I have found four cruise lines that will have trips from Venice in June 2010, with voyages from seven to 14 nights. The prices I am quoting are for a cabin with sea views. They do not include getting to and from Venice or any tours or extras. Bear in mind that, with cruises, the earlier you book, the bigger the discounts.
Celebrity Cruises’ Summit (celebritycruises.com) has 14-day cruises from €854pps. Royal Caribbean’s Splendour of the Seas (royalcaribbean.com) has a seven-day Greek isles trip from €733pps. Princess Lines’ Ruby Princess (princess.com) has a 12-day voyage around the Mediterranean from €1,590pps, and Norwegian Cruise Lines’ Norwegian Gem (ncl.com) has a seven-day trip from $999pps (€673).
You can book any of these cruises with a specialist cruise travel company here in Ireland; it will also be able to arrange flights, insurance, hotels and so on. Two I can suggest are Cruise Holidays (01-8173558, cruiseholidays.ie) and E-Travel (01-4081999, e-travel.ie).
Q We have two Labradors and would love to take the occasional break in a hotel but dont want to kennel the “babies”. We take a house in the west of Ireland a couple of times a year; the dogs normally come with us, with the owner’s consent. A week or from Monday to Thursday or Friday would suit. I could walk the dogs and my wife could be spoilt with meals, afternoon teas and so on. The dogs are fully house trained and, because of their food, do not leave a doggy smell in the house. They may shed a little hair, but no more than the average blonde or brunette.
PC, Dublin
The good news is that there are hotels and guest houses that welcome pets. In some cases they have pet-friendly rooms, some charge and some do not, but in almost all places the dogs will not be allowed in the public areas.
Some of the nicest are properties in Ireland’s Blue Book. These are mainly country houses with lots of space around them, and the owners themselves usually have dogs, too. You can see which ones take pets on irelands-blue- book.com. There you will find a list that includes Cashel House Hotel (cashel-house- hotel.com), in Connemara, Aherne’s Seafood Townhouse (ahernes.net), in Youghal, Cromleach Lodge (cromleach.com), in Sligo – which also has on-site grooming – and Rathmullan House (rathmullan house.com), in Donegal.
Some other hotels that I know take dogs include Harvey’s Point (harveys point.com), in Donegal, the Kingsley Hotel (kingsley hotel.com), in Cork, Castlemartyr Resort (castle martyrresort.ie), also in Cork, the Malton Hotel (malton.com) in Killarney, the Twelve (the twelvehotel.ie), in Galway, and the Cliff House Hotel (cliff househotel.com), in Waterford.
Have a look also at Georgina Campbell’s website, ireland-guide.com, where you will find a list of establishments that welcome furry friends.
E-mail questions, with your name and address, to jscales@irishtimes.com