Would you recommend a honeymoon trip to Albania?

Q My daughter is considering taking her honeymoon in Albania in mid-September. All the hotels she’s looked at have rave reviews and it’s comparatively cheap. What are the drawbacks and do you have any recommendations or alternative suggestions that may be cheap? She’s on a tight budget.

Richard S

A Congratulations to your daughter and her spouse-to-be on their marriage – and inspired choice of southeast Europe for a honeymoon. Albania is certainly a budget destination, with friendly and hospitable people and plenty to see – as well as a 240-mile Adriatic coastline, where the water will be warm and the beaches largely empty in September. I recommend anyone with an interest in off-beat destinations to travel to Albania and explore widely. Yet for a honeymoon, I fear the Albanian experience may be just a little too erratic. It does not have the touristic sophistication of its neighbours on the Adriatic, Greece and Montenegro. Those alluring destinations are much more expensive, but I wonder if I may offer another neighbour, North Macedonia? This fragment of former Yugoslavia shares with Albania the beautiful Lake Ohrid, and at the northeast corner the town of Ohrid is a gem.

It has a deep history (with Unesco-listed churches); narrow, flower-strewn cobbled streets; tasty places to eat and drink at 1990s prices; and a very pleasant lake beach. As I mentioned in April, Lake Ohrid is roughly the size of Rutland, though rather more scenic. “Lake Como on the cheap,” is one description I have heard from a leading travel industry figure. All in all, an excellent location for a budget honeymoon.

For your daughter’s convenience, Tui has started this year offering package holidays from London Gatwick and Manchester to Ohrid at very attractive prices. On 13 September, a week at the Villa Nika is just £433 per person, including flights from Gatwick (with luggage), transfers and accommodation with breakfast. The couple can certainly spend a day visiting Albania, on a circuit of the lake, and then decide if they want to travel back for longer.

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Q I’m confused! I’m travelling to Australia next February and then embarking on an 18-night cruise from Fremantle that is going to New Zealand and returning to Sydney. My question is do I need to get an NZeTA? I read on the New Zealand immigration site that cruise passengers are deemed to hold a visitor visa.

George J

A It looks pretty clear to me that you do need an NZeTA. New Zealand introduced its “Electronic Travel Authority”, catchily known as NZeTA, as well as an International Visitor Levy (IVL), shortly before the Covid pandemic. Not everyone is fully aware of how it works. Basically, if you are not an Australian or New Zealand citizen, you need to have this online permit (and pay NZ$35).

The New Zealand authorities say: “If you do not have a visa you must have an NZeTA before you join your cruise. When you check in for your cruise you need to show evidence of your NZeTA or visa to check-in staff.”

I agree the government website is confusing. It says: “When you arrive at your first New Zealand port you will be deemed to hold a visitor visa.” But I believe this ambivalent statement means only that your NZeTA is upgraded to the status of a visa. Your cruise line or travel agent should be able to let you know for certain – but I fear they may also be confused.

When applying for the permit, be warned that “intermediaries” pay search engines to appear at the top of the rankings. They charge high fees without adding any obvious value. When I searched for NZeTA, I was served up with a company based in eastern Europe, using a Colombian internet address, which charges €99 (£85) for something that should cost NZ$52, the equivalent of £25. The next result down was “govnewzealand.com” which has nothing to do with the New Zealand government. The site you want is nzeta.immigration.govt.nz – or better still, the app, which avoids a NZ$6 surcharge that is (oddly) applied for using the website.

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Q I read your article about ticket office closures. Do you really think the plan is to free up staff to help customers? They really think we’re stupid if we’re supposed to fall for that. Staff will be cut, no doubt about it.

Martin J

A It seems clear that more than 1,000 station booking offices across England are set to be closed as the government seeks to cut costs. Ministers – and the train operators – say that the number of passengers using ticket offices has halved since the pandemic from 24 per cent to just 12 per cent, while half of all tickets are now bought online. The argument is that passengers will actually benefit from ticket office staff moving onto the concourse and platforms, where they can assist travellers. One source told me: “The closures are actually a consequence of our policy to increase support for passengers.”

You raise a good point, though: since this is intended to save cash, how can that happen unless the number of staff is reduced? I have put that to the train operators, who say that there will be greater productivity (because ticket office staff, they say, are working only half as hard as before), and that happier passengers will spell more revenue for the railway.

I genuinely hope that this is a move that benefits both the rail industry finances – which are currently being bankrolled by the taxpayer – and the passenger. But I can also see that station staff could be in line to be cut when further reductions in spending are ordered. In Sweden this summer, I was shocked to see that the railway enterprise has recently removed all station staff in a bid to control costs; passengers needing assistance are told to call a helpline.

All I can say is: I will be watching intently to see that the government and train operators are as good as their word.

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Q We are lucky enough to be borrowing a friend’s villa just outside Cannes for two weeks later this month. It looks idyllic, but just in case we want to leave the pool behind and go out to explore, what day excursions do you recommend? And should we rent a car?

Mary F

A Let me answer the second part of your question first with a firm “No”. Traffic in the south of France in July and August is terrible, and you would spend hours sweltering in queues of cars. Fortunately, the rail line that runs along the Côte d’Azur is fast and reliable, so I recommend you travel by train for my suggested days out. They involve some walking, for which you might wish to avoid the 10am to 4pm peak heat of the day.

The first trip involves just an eight-minute train ride from Cannes to Juan-les-Pins. From the beach here you can begin a walk around Cap d’Antibes, a splendid stroll that takes a couple of hours. You are rewarded with a coastline delivering inspiring views, handsome mansions and shady avenues. Follow the shore all the way around to the port at Antibes and you are close to the station for an 11-minute rail journey back to Cannes.

Further east (and 40 minutes by train from Cannes), the de facto capital of the French Riviera, Nice, is a joy. Start in Vieux Nice, the ancient heart of the city, at the colourful market at Cours Saleya, and thread your way through to the old port (now bristling with superyachts). A stroll along the Promenade des Anglais, the long seafront thoroughfare is an essential part of the experience. Above the city, museums devoted to Marc Chagall and Matisse are rewarding if you like their art. The latter is adjacent to a 16th-century monastery.

You could end this day out by adding a favourite location of mine: Villefranche-sur-Mer, the pretty fishing port that is one headland beyond Nice – and feels like a more serene world altogether. It’s six minutes by train from Nice Ville (and around 50 from Cannes). Ideally, take the steep paths and lanes over Mont Boron, which divides Villefranche from Nice. Your reward: yet more stirring views – and the chance of glimpsing Sir Elton John, who has a house there.

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