Ask Joan - exploring Yukon and the Rockies

My partner and I would like to visit the Yukon in June/July for about 18 days. It is so vast we need advice on what sites to visit and how to travel, air/rail/coach or car. We have a budget of about €10,000 and our preference is to fly direct Dublin to Calgary with an option of including the Rockies. CF.

The Yukon, the westernmost territory of Canada is one of the remotest places in the world with only 38,000 people in nearly half a billion square kilometres. I would suggest looking at doing the Yukon by cruise ship. The MS Noordam of the Holland America fleet will be spending summer exploring Alaska and the Yukon.

There is a 12-night cruise, land and coach tour that will visit Whitehorse, Dawson City, Fairbanks and Denali National Park. Accompanied by a tour guide with deep knowledge of the area you will get to sail the Inside Passage, see lots of amazing wildlife and enjoy excursions at every stopping point. It costs from €2,400pps, hollandamerica.com.

There is also a fly-drive holiday with Canadian Affair from Whitehorse and the planned route will take you through the Yukon and into Alaska and back to Whitehorse. The 13-day trip will see you in Beaver Creek, Dawson City, Tok, Denali National Park and Anchorage. The price from €1,715 includes car hire, accommodation, flight-seeing tour of Kluane National Park and Yukon route sightseeing tour, canadianaffair.ie, (01) 866 6700.

Canadian Affair also has a range of rail holidays though the Rockies both on the Rocky Mountaineer and independent rail tours.

There are flights to Calgary via Toronto with Airtransat.ie on Tuesdays and back on Mondays and will cost from €600 return. You can also access Calgary with Aircanada. com and westjet.com though Toronto and St. John's.

We are two ladies wishing to go on holiday and are considering Mallorca which I saw in a different light in Michael Portillo’s TV series, Great Train Journeys. Would you be able to recommend areas not too ‘touristy’, but near a beach as well as places of interest? We would like a two-bed self-catering accommodation. GH.

Mallorca is a beautiful island and has something for everyone. There is a good bus service around the island and fares are reasonable. You would have seen the old wooden train to Soller with Michael Portillo. Port de Soller is a lovely small town to stay in and is on the coast.

Otherwise staying in or near Palma de Mallorca, the city would give you access to many cultural and interesting things to do including the train to Soller. The cathedral in Palma, La Seu is a beautiful example of Gothic architecture.

Palma city is very lively and has lovely places to see, nice parks, museums, galleries and the Paseo Maritimo that is paved for kilometres. Try to avoid June, July or August as Mallorca is incredibly busy then. The weather in September is still fine with warm days.

There are some nice towns on easy bus routes from the city, to the west are Illetes and Portals Nous and to the east are Portixol, El Molinar, C’an Pastilla and El Arenal. These are a mixture of local communities and tourism.

You can find properties to rent on a variety of websites like booking.com, only-apartments.com, homeaway.com, airbnb.com and rentalia.com.

Send your queries to jscales@irishtimes.com.