Go Advice: Your questions answered
Q My Irish-born daughter and her children would like to come to Ireland in May and spend some time by the coast, in a self-catering four-bed house or cottage, directly overlooking the sea and in close proximity to a lighthouse.
LdG, the Netherlands
There is one house I know that is actually a lightkeeper’s house. It is one of the restored properties of the Irish Landmark Trust, at Loop Head in Co Clare. It has only three bedrooms, but it may be worth a look. It has a spectacular setting on the cliffs with fantastic sea views. It costs €770 a week to rent in May. You can see details on irishlandmark.com
Otherwise, you can see a wide variety of properties on rent in Ireland on homeaway.com. This site allows you to choose the type of property you are looking for easily. It has more than 400 houses with sea views and four bedrooms. The hardest part will be to decide which your daughter will like best. You can also search for “lighthouse”, to find a selection of houses that mention the word in their descriptions.
Q I hope to travel from Madrid to Malaga by AVE, Spain’s high-speed train, in April. I cannot find a way of booking tickets on the internet or seeing how much it will cost.
JF, Dublin
You can book tickets on Spain’s national rail website, renfe.com, although the site is not very user friendly. You can change the language to English by scrolling down the left-hand side to the bottom corner. When you move on to the next page, however, it returns to Spanish.
If you do not have Spanish, persevere: you will be able to figure it out eventually. Idameans one-way and ida y vueltais return. Compraris buy. The price of the web fare from Madrid to Malaga is about €34.
Q We are a wedding party of 13 looking to go to York in May and would be grateful if you could provide us with good routes.
GM, Dublin
Ryanair (ryanair.com) has a service to Leeds-Bradford twice daily most days of the week. I have seen fares for €40, including taxes and charges. Leeds is about 40km from York.
Also about 40km from York is Doncaster airport, which is getting a new service operated by Aer Arann (aerarann.com) for Aer Lingus Regional. Fares in May are about €82, including taxes and charges.
The alternative is going by ferry, but prices will probably not be much lower than these unless you hire a minibus. There are rail connections from both Leeds and Doncaster to York. See nationalrail.co.uk.
Q I have booked flights with Aer Lingus to Madrid for February 14th-19th, over the midterm break, with my 13-year-old daughter. We are on a particularly tight budget, and need a hotel about €50 per night.
Also, what would be considered as must-dos for Madrid that would be memorable for a teenage girl? I am thinking flamenco dancing or a similar show for one evening, but I also need pointers for daytime. She’s too fond of shopping and thinks that is all there is do in cities, so I need tips to avoid spending every day traipsing around stores – though I’m happy to head to a flea market for a visit.
JF, Westmeath
Madrid is a great city with plenty to do. It is full of wide boulevards, great architecture and striking statuary.
Begin by taking the metro from the airport to the city centre. It is very reasonably priced and the best way to get around. It is also much faster than taking buses or taxis. For accommodation I can suggest you try booking.com, which has a good selection of hotels from €40 to €60 per night. Pick one that is centrally located, near Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor, Plaza Santa Ana or La Latina. Hostelworld.com also has a good selection of budget hotels in your price range.
Things you must do in Madrid include seeing all or some of the most famous museums – the Prado, Reina Sofia or Thyssen – as well as the royal palace.
For €72 you could buy a three-day Madrid Card to give you free entry to many museums, the zoo and theme parks, as well as on tour buses. It also provides discounts in shops and restaurants. Tour buses are a good way to see the city, and with the card you can use them as much as you want. Other places to see are the Parque Retiro, the area around La Latina and El Rastro, the flea market.
Madrid is a great city to walk around. You will discover lots by doing just that. I came across a flamenco show one evening in a bar on Calle de los Cuchilleros, behind Plaza Mayor – very authentic.
There is a list of bars and restaurants with flamenco on gomadrid.com. You can also book a dinner and show from about €34.
Visit Taberna la Fragua de Vulcano (Calle Alvarez Gato 9, Nuñez de Arce, on the corner of the Plaza Santa Ana) for typical tapas at reasonable prices. It is in a lovely old building with an interesting interior.
I know you want to avoid shopping, but Madrid has such style that you will have to walk down Calle Fuencarral for your daughter to breathe it in. If she has holiday money she may find something special here to remind her of her trip.
E-mail questions, with your name and address, to jscales@irishtimes.com
