Family fun in Ireland, tickets to Faro and Uffizi

Our extended family is going on a self-catering holiday in Ireland this year. We are looking for six houses together, near a beach and village. It's hard to get six together.
AOB, Limerick

Trident Holiday Homes is the largest manager of holidays homes, with 600 properties in 50 locations, mostly four-star quality. They have the Waterville Holiday Houses, surrounded by mountains and 15 minutes from the Blue Flag beach at Derrynane. In nearby Waterville you will find some great places to eat. The Ring of Kerry and Killarney Lakes are nice days out too. The weekly rate is from €645 in July to €790 in August, including utilities.

In Liscannor, Trident has three- and four-bedroom houses by the sandy beach and just metres from the village for shops and restaurants. Liscannor is ideal for exploring the coastal towns and villages of Clare and close enough for the children to join surfing classes in Lahinch. Prices are from €510 in July to €687 in August. See tridentholidayhomes.ie

In Wexford, the St Helen's Bay resort is a hotel, golf club, spa with two- and three-bedroom cottages, located close to Rosslare and on the coast. There are good facilities for children, and prices range from €540 to €800 from June to August. See sthelensbay.com.

The Castlemartyr Resort has a good selection of luxury two- and three-bedroom houses and lovely grounds that children can explore. There is also a golf course, spa, and the beaches of east Cork such as Ballycotton and Garryvoe are only a short drive away. The
houses can be booked through
naturaltretreats.ie and cost from €1,190 to €1,499 per week.

Does Aer Lingus plan to have any cheap flights or sales in the near future? I want to fly to faro in June and a return flight is €300, which seems much dearer than I've ever paid.
ROS, Dublin

Aer Lingus does have sales from week to week and the easiest way to find out when the sales are coming up is to sign up for the email newsletter on aerlingus.com. Discounts lately have been in the region of 10 to 20 per cent.

Ryanair has cheaper flights to Faro on its site, around €200. Ryanair usually release sale fares about four to seven weeks before hand. However, Faro is a popular summer destination and I think it is unlikely that fares will go down much between now and June. The trend for the past year is for fares to keep increasing, sometimes by a euro or two every day. Be flexible in your dates to get the best prices. You can see a spread of the fares for the whole month on the skyscanner.net website; choose the whole-month option.

We are visiting Florence in June and I was trying to buy tickets online for the Uffizi gallery. I just can't figure out which is the "official" one – the fee for booking online seems excessive (€22 for two tickets) which is on top of the ticket price.

You are right to check – there are dozens of sites that would appear to be the Uffizi Gallery, but are not. They charge additional fees, which as you say, appears to be €11 each in this case. The official site is uffizi.firenze.it/en, you can buy tickets here, €6.50 each. Specialist exhibitions are an additional fee. The ticket website can be very slow, and there is a telephone service that charges a booking fee of €4, Tel: 0039 055294883. Or better still just take a chance and queue on the day. The queues are not usually too long.
Send your queries to
jscales@iristimes.com