KEY POINTS:
We have the opportunity to spend two days in Dublin, en route to a wedding in Glendalough, County Wicklow. What would you suggest as the main attractions and activities that would give us a feel for the city in such a short space of time?
Rowena Anderson
Ranked
among the top destinations in Europe, Dublin is a city of legendary spirit and charm. It's a down-to-earth, friendly and small-scale city that's perfect for discovering on foot on a two-day visit.
You may want to start your visit at Trinity College, Dublin's oldest and most beautiful university, established by Elizabeth I in 1592. Trinity's most talked-about attraction is the world-famous Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript dating from around AD806, making it one of the oldest books in the world. A walking tour of Trinity's grounds departs every 40 minutes from the College Green entrance.
Dublin Castle is nothing to turn your nose up at and is also home to the Chester Beatty Library, one of Dublin's best museums. Entry is free, and includes rare books, miniature paintings, illuminated texts and one of the finest collection of Chinese jade books in the world, plus clay tablets, costumes and other objects.
You could easily spend at least half a day at the National Museum and National Gallery. Standout highlights include the museum's Bronze Age gold and Iron Age Celtic metalwork, the gallery's cracker of a Caravaggio and the roomful of works by Ireland's pre-eminent artist, Jack B Yeats.
St Stevens Green and Merrion Square are two of Dublin's most attractive open spaces. Staying with the outdoor theme, take a stroll through Temple Bar, the city's cultural quarter. The maze of cobbled streets running from Trinity College to Christ Church Cathedral hosts an assortment of quirky galleries, shops, restaurants and bars.
If you're partial to a bit of James Joyce, the James Joyce Centre (www.jamesjoyce.ie) features both permanent and temporary exhibitions on aspects of Joyce's life and work.
To visit as many of Dublin's attractions as time allows, the two-day Dublin Pass costs around $105 and gives you entry to the city's 30 top attractions.
Mediterranean magic
Next September we plan to spend a week in Drasnice in Croatia. We plan to travel by train from Rome to either Ancona or Pescara in Italy and take a fast ferry to Split. Once we arrive in Split, are there buses that travel the coast road to get us to our final destination of Drasnice, or would you recommend we hire a car?
Sue and Dennis White
The Croatian resort of Drasnice is on the lovely Makarska Riviera on the Dalmatian coast, around 76km south of Split, 150km north of Dubrovnik and off the island of Hvar. It's a lovely, low-key, coastal resort area, popular with families who enjoy its laidback Mediterranean ambience, great opportunities for water sports, pebbled beaches and secluded coves for swimming.
Italy's SNAV (www.snav.it) ferries run daily from Ancona to Split until mid-September, and from Pescara to Split during the first week of August. The Ancona-Split route takes 4.5 hours and one-way fares start at $60. Your ferry departs at 11am and docks in Split at 3.30pm.
Ancona is three or four hours from Rome by train, depending on the type of service. A slow train leaves Rome's Termini at 6am and arrives in Ancona at 10am. Ancona's train station is around 1.5km from the ferry terminal.
When you arrive in Split, you'll find the bus station is conveniently located right next to the harbour. The bus trip to Drasnice (www.ak-split.hr; $10) takes around 1.5 hours. If you'd prefer, you could arrange a taxi transfer from the port with a company such as Split Transfers (www.splittransfers.com) for around $200.
Croatia has an excellent bus network and you can travel up and down the coast by bus to visit Dubrovnik and Split, or catch a ferry to an island. If you decide to hire a car, you'll find the usual car rental chains represented in Split and Dubrovnik.
Flying visit to Beijing
I am travelling from London to Auckland via Beijing in January. I arrive in Beijing at 2.10pm and fly out at 11pm. Would there be enough time to make a dash to see something of the city (for example, the Great Wall?).
Rebecca D
There is always a great temptation for travellers to try and make a one-day-dash to visit an international city while in transit.
However, remember that you're likely to be tired, jet-lagged and not as mentally alert as you'll need to be if you're going to make your few hours' escape from the confines of the airport a success.
Beijing's Capital International Airport (en.bcia.com.cn) has a good range of shopping and dining, and if you head to the 3rd floor you'll find a recreation and entertainment centre. You can experience a Chinese tea ceremony, visit the pedicure and beauty salon, rent a room in the time-meter hotel and have a sleep, play a game of chess or watch a movie in the cinema hall.
If you'd prefer to travel further afield, you won't have too many daylight hours as you'll be visiting Beijing in winter and arriving mid-afternoon. Many attractions, including the Forbidden City, close at 4.30pm in winter. Having said that, you could easily make it into central Beijing and soak up the atmosphere of Tiananmen Square as night falls.
You're probably cutting it too fine to visit the Great Wall, though. The well-preserved Badaling section is only an hour's drive from central Beijing, but you'd need perhaps eight hours to do the tour comfortably.
Express buses from Capital International Airport run into Beijing every 30 minutes and the trip takes around 45 minutes. The one-way fare is around $2.50.
Alternatively, you could arrange a four-hour in-transit sightseeing trip to Tiananmen Square with a company such as Tour Beijing (www.tour-beijing.com; from $125 for one person).
You'll need to check with your travel agent about the visa requirements for a short stopover, or contact the Chinese Embassy (www.chinaembassy.org.nz/eng).
