ASK JOAN:Your travel questions answered
St Petersburg to the Baltics: A friend and I would like to visit St Petersburg, with a possible add-on holiday in the Baltic region. We understand that there are experiences to be had from visiting during different seasons of the year. We would appreciate your advice on this, and also about the need (or not) to organise a guide to make the most of the visit.
– JC, Dublin
One of the easiest and most comfortable ways to visit St Petersburg is as part of a Baltic cruise. There are a number of cruise companies that have trips during the summer season, which is lively with festivals. The added advantage is that guides are normally provided and you do not need a Russian visa if you arrive by cruise ship.
The following cruise lines have trips from Copenhagen visiting the Baltic and Scandinavian cities: princess.com, seabourn.com, silversea.com, ncl.comand msccruises.com. A good cruise agent can advise on prices, as there are often special deals from Ireland which include the flights. Try e-travel.ie cruiseholidays.ie, jgt.ieand kingtravel.ie. The Travel Department organises a number of tours to Russia during the year and over nine days, you get to visit Moscow and St Petersburg with guided tours in each city. The nine-day tours are from €1,450 including flights, accommodation and tours, see thetraveldepartment.com.
The best time to travel to this region would be May to October. Outside of these months, the weather may be too cold or unsettled. The famous White Nights are from around June 10th to July 2nd.
If you would like to go it alone, SAS, Air France, Lufthansa and British Airways have flights for €300-€400 if you book in advance. Leave plenty of time to apply for a visa.
We would like to know the most efficient and cheapest way to travel around the US. Our intended targets are Atlanta, Tampa, Seattle, Vancouver, Chicago or New York in
spring. Is it possible to purchase an air rambler ticket? We would be spending some days and even weeks at each of the destinations and expect to make the trip from Seattle to Vancouver by road – would that break the sequence? Ideally, we'd like to use Shannon airport.
– MAM, Limerick.
There is no rambler ticket for the US and to get the best value, you would have to book specific dates and generally buying outside the US is cheaper. From Shannon, there are transatlantic flights with Aer Lingus, United, US Airways, Delta and American Airlines to various gateway cities. There are low-cost carriers on some of the routes such as jetblue.comand flyfrontier.com.
Planning this trip will take time, but you should be able to get all the flights for well under €1,500 per person. Use the multi-city or multiple destinations options on the websites.
Car hire abroad
Our family is visiting South Africa over Christmas. We have hired a car with Hertz. I remember you advising travellers who hired cars in certain destinations, to watch out for extras such as additional insurance being imposed by the car hire
company. You gave the name of an insurance company that covers such eventualities for a nominal premium. Our rate from Hertz includes taxes and, I hope, insurance.
– PM, Clare.
Car hire always throws up questions as the rules vary from place to place and company to company. Generally, rates are quoted with CDW (collision damage waiver) which will be the basic insurance you need to drive in the country you are in. The additional insurance to cover the excess, fire, theft of personal belongings and extra drivers varies widely.
The excess, and you should ask how much it is, will be the amount you have to pay if you have an accident, lose keys, have a blowout, damage the windscreen etc. It can be from €100 to €2,500 depending on the country and the type of car.
Personal items left in the car are not covered under the basic insurance.
You can take out an additional insurance policy to cover all these eventualities and things like an additional driver for around €3.99 per day from carhireexcess.ie.
Send your questions with name and address to jscales@irishtimes.com