Ask Joan: Fun in Orlando, steam trains in the Harz Mountains and by the sea in Santander

We want to take our two sons (aged eight and 13 ) to Florida. Having never been I am confused about which theme parks to go to. We would like to visit Universal Studios and Kennedy Space Center as well as some Disney parks. We think about seven days in Orlando with a week at the beach would be good.
– MC, Dublin

Florida is a great family holiday and your children are at good ages to enjoy it. There are three major theme parks in Orlando: Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and SeaWorld and lots of other smaller ones including some excellent water parks.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal tops my list, especially the Forbidden Journey ride. Seeing the manatees and walruses in SeaWorld is special too.

The parks are vast and a day can pass quickly. Disney World alone could take a week to explore. It can be quite tiring walking around, especially in the heat. Dividing the day is a good idea: the parks are open late into the evening so you can go in early and take a break during the afternoon.

Planning your stay is the key to getting the best out of your trip: see britguideorlando.net and there are plenty of videos on YouTube.com.

Tickets are quite expensive and there are various combinations. Attractionticketsdirect.ie has an office in Dublin and good prices for tickets.

Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canavaral is about an hour from Orlando. Check the launch programme here ksc.nasa.gov, you could be lucky.

The main tour operators to Florida from Ireland are
touramerica.ie, sunway.ie and americanholidays.ie. They can all provide a two-centre holiday with car and flights. Expect to budget in the region of €900-€1,400 each. For the beach part of the holiday you have the choice of Atlantic or Gulf coasts. You could book it yourself, but it might be more expensive as the flights alone are nearly €700 each.

Four of us want to explore the narrow-gauge and heritage railway s of northern Germany in June. We can fly with Aer Lingus to Hannover, which is probably the nearest airport to the region in which we are interested (other options are Hamburg and Berlin). We would like to include the Vulcan Express, the Harz Mountains and Rü desheim . We would like a trip lasting about seven to 10 days. We're looking at either putting our own package together or finding a company that would do it. – RH, Dublin

The Harz Mountains have a large steam rail network, still used by commuters and tourist. Information is available on hsb-wr.de.

Hannover is a good hub because, by train, it is under two hours from Berlin, Hamburg and Wernigerode, where the steam railway starts from. It is also the most beautiful town in the Harz Mountains. The journey to Koblenz on the Rhine is just under four hours. For prices and timetables see bahn.ie.

The Vulkan Express only runs on certain dates and should be booked in advance, information is available on vulkan-express.de.

The advantage of planning your own holiday is that you could fly back from Frankfurt. Aer Lingus allows you to fly into one airport and out another when you use the multi-city option on the booking page. You could also contact railshop.ie for advice on train travel in Germany and
railholidays.co.uk. See also
germany.travel/en.

Send your questions to jscales@irishtimes.com