GO ASK JOAN: From Rabat for Christmas to snowshoeing and seeing Australia Zoo down under JOAN SCALESanswers your travel queries
Family trip to Australia Zoo
I am a 13-year-old girl and a huge Steve Irwin fan. After he died my parents said they would bring me to Australia Zoo when my baby brother was three. He is now four and I still haven’t been there. They keep putting it off but I was thinking that if I had good flights and a hotel to show them, then we would end up going. I would like to go to Queensland for three weeks, go to Australia Zoo and also the Great Barrier Reef. Could you please advise flights and a hotel for us? What time of year would be best?
– AK, Tipperary
Steve Irwin’s memory lives on in the work of Australia Zoo and you will love visiting it. Queensland has around 300 sunny days a year so it is great to visit at any time of the year.
If you think of Australia with a horizontal line running through the middle of it, then the top half is best visited during our summer months, when the temperature is warm and not too hot. So, for the Great Barrier Reef, then May-October is the best time. Fares are a bit less then too.
When visiting Australia Zoo (australiazoo.com.au), you could take a day trip from Brisbane or stay in Maroochydore on Australia’s Sunshine Coast. Not only are you near the zoo but you will be close to some of Australia’s best beaches. The zoo has coach pick-ups from 11 locations around the Sunshine Coast from Noosa to Caloundra at about €3.75 per person return.
Cairns, in north Queensland, is known as the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. Why not spend a week there exploring the surrounding rainforests, including Daintree National Park, and take a day trip to the Great Barrier Reef? The islands off Cairns, including Green Island and Fitzroy Island, have top snorkelling and aquariums.
If you travel to Australia before June 10th and back by June 26th then the fares are a good bit cheaper. I looked at some dates and airlines and Emirates (emirates.com) came in the cheapest for your family, at about €3,500. Flying with Emirates or Etihad Airways will mean only one stop on the way to Australia and the taxes are lower in the Middle East.
When it comes to accommodation, the best value is to rent self-catering or serviced apartments or houses. Try stayz.com.au, where you will find hundreds of apartments and houses to rent. Maybe stay a week in each place and you will find it better value than staying in hotels all the time.
Also, for planning your trip the australia.com site is very useful. If your parents would like help in putting this all together, I can suggest they talk to the following travel agents: 01-7047188 (australia.ie) or 01-6777888 (trailfinders.ie).
Bringing the family to Rabat
I have a business trip to Rabat between Christmas and New Year. I am hoping the family could join me. Are there direct flights or package holidays to Morocco from Dublin? I did some research on hotels in Rabat but many popular ones are booked up. Are there holiday resorts nearby that might be better?
– BCM, Dublin
The only direct flights to Morocco over the winter are on Saturdays to Agadir with Aer Lingus and that would mean flying on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve. Sunway Holidays has package holidays to Morocco, on the same days.
Flying via the UK or Paris is expensive. Jet4you.com and Air France have flights from Paris to Rabat, almost every day with fares around €300 each not including the Dublin-Paris leg. Easyjet has flights on Tuesday and Saturdays to Agadir and every day to Marrakech from London Gatwick. You could drive or take the train from there to the popular resorts of Agadir and Essouria.
Sunway is the main operator to Morocco from Ireland and it has contract rates with many resort hotels and may be able to source reasonably priced accommodation for your family. 01-2886828, sunway.ie.
Snowshoeing specialist
Does any Irish travel agent organise guided snowshoeing holidays for beginners, or can you recommend a company which offers this type of holiday? I’m unable to ski but would love a winter holiday.
– MH, Cork
I don’t know of any Irish company that organises snowshoeing holidays. But all Irish winter holiday agents offer holidays in resorts where you can hire snowshoes and find local guides to take you out.
Topflight says that their local reps will arrange snowshoeing and in St Johann, the Kaiser Ski School offers guiding. Bad Hofgastein has snowshoeing through the national park and Avoriaz in France is good for snowshoeing too. I have seen a lot of guided snowshoeing in New Hampshire around the Mount Washington Valley and Bretton Woods area (mwvshitouring.org, brettonwoods.com).
Franceoutdoors.com offers guided trips in France and in January and February it has an organised trip to Queyras in the French Alps for a week which costs around €750pps including accommodation, meals and guiding but not flights.