Rain & Shine

Inside track: When booking hotel accommodation, the smallest details will tell you the standard of the service provided.

If you're only asked for your phone and visa card numbers at first, be careful, because how much information you get then normally gives a good indication of the hotel's quality. First impressions matter, and if the garden and bins are untidy it will probably be the same inside. A smile speaks volumes, and hospitality is one of our prime concerns when grading accommodation. Margerie Ronayne, AA hotel inspector

Cool for kids: Catch the many attractions in Westport House Country Estate in Mayo, including its period furnishings designed by Richard Cassells. The estate, developed over 30 years, has an animal and bird park, ball pond, pitch and putt course, a playground, boating area, antique shop, art centre, miniature railway, dungeons, supabounce, pinkie rabbit and old kitchen tea room. Westport House Country Estate, Westport, Co Mayo, Ireland: tel 098 25430/27766. Adults €24, child €15, family ticket €60 before 11 a.m. Louise Holden

Watch out: Where nobody has walked on them, the slopes of sand-dunes deserve a closer look, preferably where the sun is catching the sand at an angle. With any luck, you'll see a whole network of tracks. Little paw-marks grouped in fours, with shallow dashes in between, are the tracks of the field-mouse, Apodemus, complete with prints of its tail. Even smaller - like toy-town railway tracks - are the footprints left by beetles: this delicate tracery is everywhere, crossing the "ski slopes" between the clumps of marram grass. Michael Viney

Stars and gripes/Chris Doran - Singer

Best holiday: When I went to Crete just after You're a Star. I went with my best friend Kelly, who was great support during You're A Star so it was nice to go away together and relax. Our accommodation was lovely and the people were very friendly. It was like Ireland but without our weather.

Worst holiday: When I went to Tunisia about four years ago. It's not that I didn't like the nightlife, it was that there wasn't any nightlife. I didn't realise that there was a religion out there that didn't allow nightclubs or pubs outside, so every activity was in the hotel. - in conversation with Fiachra Ó Cionnaith

Off the shelf: A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East by Tiziano Terzani, Flamingo, £7.99

Warned by a fortune-teller not to fly in 1993, Italian-born Terzani continues his job as Asia correspondent for Der Spiegel by travelling overland and by boat, consulting fortune-tellers in every country he works in. In March 1993, a UN helicopter crashes in Cambodia with 15 journalists on board - including the German colleague who had taken his place. Extraordinary and thought-provoking. Rosita Boland

Get out: Where to go, what to see: For entertainment listings, see The Ticket, every Friday in The Irish Times, or go to www.ireland.com/ theticket

For other events see the What's On column in the main paper every Thursday and the Saturday magazine