Ask Joan: your travel queries answered

Would you have any suggestions for three 60-year-old women who want to go to Greece for about 10 days in May or September? We are very active and lively, enjoy good food and are very fit – our hobbies include hill-walking and swimming. We'd like to visit three or four locations and stay in four-star accommodation.
– JM, Dublin
The good news this summer is the new flight to Chania in Crete with Ryanair. Crete is big enough to travel around and offers a mix of landscapes and experiences, with a great variety of accommodation.

Chania at the western end of the island is a good starting point. It and Rethymon are lovely Venetian port cities. You can drive the whole length of the island towards Sitia, but the road beyond Aghios Nickolas is dire. If you don’t want to drive, there are buses.

Crete has some great gorge walking including the famous and quite difficult Samaria Gorge. You will find plenty of hill-walking here. See explorecrete.com.

The Sproadic Islands of north east Greece, Skiathos, Skopelos and Alonissos are very pretty and good for walking. Tourism is slightly less developed but there are some nice hotels. There are ferries between the islands. Getting there is a bit more difficult: an Aer Lingus flight to Athens and then by air to Skiathos with olympicair.com or by bus to the port of Volos. Skiathos has well developed hiking trails and amazing beaches, skiathostraveller.com.

In the western Cyclades the islands of Sifnos, Serifos and Milos have been bypassed by mass tourism, though popular with Greeks. Sifnos is renowned for having the best food in Greece. Milos is where the famous statue of Venus, now in the Louvre, was found. Serifos has quaint bays, lovely for swimming. See visitgreece.gr.

We are three families with eight children under six, who would like to go on holiday together. We would like independent living space with a shared pool, preferably nice villa accommodation. Near a beach, with direct access from Dublin, and close to a town with amenities are top of our list.
– CL, Dublin
Look at the Santo Antonio Resort in the Algarve. It is a golf resort, with tennis, soccer and a spa. Depending on size nice villas cost from €990-€1,800 a week in July. See Jamesvillas.ie for more details.

Near Marbella, the Alanda resort at Elviria has nice big apartments around a pool area with terraces and is ideal for a group of friends.
alandaclubmarbella.com.

We have booked flights from Belfast to Bordeaux in July and are planning to go to San Sebastian in Spain for two weeks. We would like to use public transport. Do you know any websites where we could rent an apartment or house in San Sebastian?
– MG, Belfast
San Sebastian, also known as Donostia is accessible from Bordeaux by train and the trip will take three to four hours, depending on time of day. From Bordeaux you will need to change at Bayonne or Dax, see voyages.sncf.com for train times and fares. Passengers usually change at Hendaye for the local train service to San Sebastian. Search renfe.com for the Spanish train times, the station is known as Irun-Hendaya. Returning, you may have to stay overnight if your flight is early.

The following companies rent accommodation in the city, feelfreerentals.com, emyrent.com, friendlyrentals.com, and apartmentosarrizul.com.

Send your questions to jscales@irishtimes.com