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Joan Scales answers your questions

Joan Scales answers your questions

What are the top attractions in Australia?

My wife and I hope to go to Sydney to see our son in January 2009. We have nothing planned yet, but ideally we would like a two-night stopover on the way there and the way home.

We would also like a few days on the beach in Australia and some sightseeing, but not too much travelling, when we get there. One or two internal flights when we are there would be okay.

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We won't be staying with our son as we are not prepared to rough it, so we would appreciate some good accommodation suggestions in the Sydney Harbour area. TH, Tipperary

The first thing is flying there. One of the easiest routes is with Etihad (www.etihad.com) from Dublin via Abu Dhabi, where you could soak up Middle Eastern culture and weather. Abu Dhabi is just an hour from Dubai, giving you two cities to explore. Etihad also operates from Brisbane on Thursdays, allowing you to explore two great Australian cities before returning home from there.

In Sydney, the Shangri-La Hotel and the Marriott are both overlooking Sydney Harbour and the Opera House and are lovely, top-quality hotels with fantastic views. Rates in January are from AUD289-325 (€150-170) per night. www.shangri-la.com and www.marriott.com. While staying in Sydney you could take the harbour cruise, climb the bridge, visit the Opera House and enjoy the city's beaches, restaurants and shopping.

Taking your trip beyond Sydney, I have three choices for your. Rent a car and tour the Blue Mountains and Hunter Valley wine region, which is very accessible from Sydney. If you do not want to drive, there are a number of good tours to this area.

Alternatively, take a flight with Qantas (www.qantas.com) or Virgin Blue (www.virginblue.com.au) to Brisbane and explore the laid-back pace of life in this sunny city.

From here you can take a car and explore southern Queensland's beaches, spas, national parks and the natural wonder of places such as Noosa and the Gold Coast. You can fly back from Brisbane with Etihad.

My other suggestions is that instead of touring you take a flight from Sydney to Hamilton Island and enjoy a few days on the Great Barrier Reef, swimming, snorkelling, sailing and just relaxing. You can explore these ideas on www.australia.com and a good travel agent should be able to put together a package for you or make the bookings you require.

We have a camper van, three children (18, 15, 10), and do quite a lot of travelling around Europe. I think our favourite trip was to the snow in March. We would love to go to the snow after Christmas, leaving Ireland on December 27th. Where is the best place to go for lots of snow at that time of the year. In March we went to La Grand Bornand in the French Alps, which was truly beautiful. As we are travelling with our camper van, we do not want too long a drive. I have done some research but I'm not sure if we would have snow.

We would like to stay at campsites that are decorated with Christmas trees and lights, as my 10-year-old is big into Santa.

CM Wexford

To find good snow in Europe at Christmas you have to head towards the Alps and upwards. The closest place for what you are looking for will be the French Alps and there are a number of campgrounds that open for winter. You can check out a selection on www.campingo.com.

One country that does a really good Christmas is Austria and although it is a bit further to drive, there are some lovely picturesque places to stay and there will be snow. I was in the Gastein Valley earlier in the year and it was a lovely place for family holidays. The good thing about going there is that despite being about 1,300km from Cherbourg, there is motorway most of the way. There are two nice camp grounds that would be suitable for your family, www.kurcamping-gastein.at and www.camping-bertahof.at. The Gastein Valley has a good variety of things to do in winter, with skiing, snowboarding, sledding and two great thermal centres for swimming and saunas.

How safe do you consider hotel-room safes to be, both in Ireland and abroad? Are there any statistics?

RM, Cavan

Generally I have never had a problem with hotel in-room safes, but I have heard of belongings being stolen from safes.

I can find no statistics on the incidence of theft from hotels. The better the quality of the hotel, the less the likelihood there is of things going missing. Most hotels will also give you the option of using the main safe.

If you have any doubt about the level of security in a hotel, bring it to the attention of the manager or keep your valuables on you at all times.

• Send your questions, with name and address, to jscales@irish-times.ie