Ask Tom

LETTER OF THE WEEK
For many years I have been interested in Archibald Belaney, aka Grey Owl. Born in Hastings, East Sussex, he was fascinated by the American Indians and travelled to Canada to trap beaver for fur. He married an Indian, who showed him that trapping beavers was wrong. Grey Owl preached conservation and wrote about his life at Beaver Lodge, in Prince Albert Park, Saskatchewan. My dream is to travel to Beaver Lodge. Could you advise me?
Robert Mitchell, Brighton

Belaney’s lakeside cabin is in Prince Albert National Park, in the centre of the province of Saskatchewan. The park is a huge area of wilderness and access will have to be by car and then on foot. The 12-mile Grey Owl Trail from the edge of the nearest road follows Kingsmere Lake and leads to his cabin – there is a wild campsite (no amenities) a couple of miles away. You can buy maps of the trail and campsite locally.

To get to the region, fly to Regina or Saskatoon (you’ll need to change in Toronto, but expect to pay around £400 for a return flight from the UK, assuming you’re travelling in summer), then hire a car. Alternatively, take a bus to Prince Albert and arrange transport from there into the park. Go to tinyurl.com/249b92 for information about visiting the park. Early summer is the best time to visit. You may not meet anyone else, although Belaney’s cabin attracts a small number of pilgrims each year. Let me know how you get on.

I turn 50 on 19 January – a Saturday, when my husband’s football team, Brentford, is playing away at Accrington. Strangely enough, I am not upset at the idea of spending the afternoon on the terraces (so to speak); after all, Accrington Stanley is a famous team. But I do think I deserve the treat of spending the night in a special hotel. Can you recommend any top-class accommodation close by?
Yvonne Mulder, by email

The Football League fixture computer has done you a favour. Accrington probably wouldn’t have been your first choice, but it’s a friendly place – Stanley’s ground also has some great pubs and a chip shop nearby to keep you warm on the terraces.

Three points (hopefully) for the Bees to ensure a happy husband later and you can retreat to the Mercure Dunkenhalgh Hotel & Spa (01254 398021; mercure.com , deluxe room from £160), a four-star hotel in 17 acres of parkland just two miles from Accrington station.

If you’d rather explore a little further, Accrington is close to the Ribble Valley, offering some of Lancashire’s best scenery. The northern half of the valley is dominated by the Forest of Bowland, which is great for walking.

For somewhere special and intimate, the Inn at Whitewell (01200 448222; innatwhitewell.com ) has a superb selection of individually decorated rooms complete with open fires and antique baths. The riverside suites come in at £162, and are just the place for a birthday treat that you’ll have earned in more ways than one.

We’re planning a trip from Bristol to Poland after Christmas. We’ve never visited before, but with increasing numbers of Poles in Bristol, we’re interested in learning about life there and getting a feel for the country, some of its 20th-century history, plus a couple of more touristy bits. We’d have up to a week. We were thinking of flying to Warsaw for a few days, then either flying or catching the train to Krakow for a few days. We’d also be interested in visiting the war memorials in Brest, in Belarus. Is it possible to catch the train to Brest from Warsaw? Would we need visas? Is it possible as a day trip? I’d appreciate advice on our itinerary. We’ll be travelling with our one-year-old son, so will not want long days.
Esther Nye, Bristol

Poland is a straightforward place to visit from Bristol. Warsaw, Krakow, Gdansk, Katowice, Poznan and Rzeszow are all served by regular flights from Bristol Airport with either Ryanair or Easyjet. Flights for the three of you should be under £100 in total if you’re smart about when you fly. You can continue to travel economically once in Poland – the train between Warsaw and Krakow, for example, costs around £8. This means you have to work hard to get value from a rail pass, and point-to-point fares will almost certainly work better. This is especially true since the withdrawal of the once great-value Polrail pass.

Both Warsaw and Krakow will give you a good overview of modern and traditional Poland, though with seven days you could fit in an additional town or two. At least a day exploring east of Krakow to Tarnow and Zamosc will introduce you to small-town life; both destinations have wonderfully preserved old centres.

Border procedures, customs and a four- to five-hour journey time from Warsaw preclude making a day trip to Brest. You’ll need a visa, which requires a hotel reservation and an accompanying voucher. Visas are best arranged through an agency in Belarus. Though the war memorials in Brest are stunning, this is a lot of extra travelling involved and I’d recommend staying in Poland, which has an enormous amount of its own history. Polandtour.org is a good place for further information.

I would like to go to the French Open tennis tournament in May 2008. Have you any advice on a really economical way of travelling there and obtaining a ticket?
Coral Williams, Bedworth, Warks

The cheapest way of getting to Paris from the Midlands is catching a coach – you’ll change in London and pay around £65 for the complete return journey. For around £100 you can fly direct from Birmingham to Paris Charles de Gaulle with Flybe (flybe.com ). Getting tickets for Roland Garros is a matter of filling in a reservation form (or book online via fft.fr/rolandgarros ) and keeping your fingers crossed. You have until 14 March to complete the application. Roland Garros, where the French Open is held, is accessible by Metro from central Paris. It is open year-round for guided tours and visits to the on-site museum – book ahead for the tours – and is well worth a visit if you’re a tennis enthusiast with a spare half-day in Paris.

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/dec/02/escape1

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