Ask Lonely Planet: Jump on board and start your holiday in ruins

The ancient city of Petra, in Jordan, is one of the must-see sights of the Middle East. Photo / Alan Gibson

My girlfriend and I are hoping to travel to Europe and the Middle East next year. After making our own way through France, Italy and Greece, we are looking at joining a bus tour though Turkey, Syria, Jordan and possibly Egypt. Which tour company would you recommend, and is there an option of "hop-on, hop-off" so we can spend extra days in some places?
Craig Bowater

You'll find that most of the companies in New Zealand offering tours to the Middle East do so as agents for the UK packages. Many of these companies offer tours to all the places you've mentioned and some can tailor the package to suit you and how long you wish to spend in each place. These include Dragoman, Economic Expeditions, Exodus, Imaginative Traveller, Kumuka, Oasis Overland and On the Go.

Closer to home, try House of Travel, United Travel, Tours 4 You and the Australian-based Passport Travel. Flight Centre and Intrepid Travel also have packages to the Middle East.

There are no "hop-on, hop-off" bus tours such as you would find in the UK or Ireland. However, you can easily travel independently by bus throughout the region. Most national buses will take you to almost any place of any size, and it's often the only means of getting to some areas.

Although you can sometimes use domestic bus services to take you over borders, there are also direct international buses that run daily and link different countries. For example, you can get to Damascus from Istanbul (30 hours) or Ankara, from Damascus to Amman (seven hours), and from Amman to Cairo by a bus-ferry combination (16 hours). This is a cheap way to get around.

For more detailed information, consult Lonely Planet's Middle East guide.

However, be warned: although buses in the Middle East are the most reliable, comfortable (for longer journeys, at least) and popular means of getting around, you will be subjected to loud videos on long-distance journeys and there will be passengers smoking around you. See it as all being part of the Middle Eastern experience.

As part of your trip planning, be sure to read the travel advisories for the countries you're thinking about visiting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade's (MFAT's) website: safetravel.govt.nz.

Rural French fancy
We are spending a week in Brittany then travelling south through France and Spain. In France we would like to visit the Dordogne and the Basque country but wonder if it is feasible to get around using public transport rather than a car. In the Dordogne we would like to see Lascaux, Sarlat, Perigueux, Rocamadour and Cahors.
Liz Edwards

The Dordogne, and the neigbouring regions of Limousin and Quercy, are in many ways the rural heartland of France. This is the land of the black truffle and the fattened goose, a province of jewel-green fields, dark oak forests and silvery rivers where medieval towns and hilltop villages sit alongside towering chateaux. The food is rich, the wine is red and the architecture is delightfully rustic. The Dordogne has an astonishingly rich ancient heritage too, with the highest concentration of prehistoric sites in Europe, including the stunning cave paintings of Lascaux, which are no doubt on your itinerary. You will have a wonderful time exploring the towns and villages of this region on your way to Basque country.

As always in rural France, the best way to explore the countryside is by car. The bus network is patchy and operated by a number of companies, and not all the places you intend to visit are serviced by rail. At the height of summer, however, the roads get congested with holiday traffic and you might find public transport the better option. The best way to get to Perigueux by train is from Paris' Gare d'Austerlitz. There are at least five trains a day via Limoges ($110, three to five hours). To get to Sarlat-la-Caneda by train from Perigueux, you need to take a rather roundabout route and change trains at Le Buisson, so you'll find the bus a better option here with two to four services daily ($15, 1 hours). This bus service usually goes via Montignac, your hop-off point for visiting the caves of Lascaux. To get to the caves from Montignac, you'll find that hiring a bike from the tourist office or a bicycle rental shop is the best way to go.

Moving on to Cahors in Quercy, you'll need to take an SNCF bus to Souillac and a train from there ($28, three hours, two daily). This is where you will run into some difficulties, though. Bus services around Quercy are a real mess and are designed mainly to transport schoolchildren. Getting to Rocamadour would be very difficult. If you haven't decided upon a car up to this point, then this is where a short-term car hire would be of most use.

To get to the Pays Basque capital of Bayonne, you will need to travel by train from Bordeaux ($52, about two hours). If you intend to visit the various beach resorts along the coast here, such as Biarritz, St Jean de Luz and Hendaye, then you'll find the bus connections adequate. St Jean Pied de Port, the final stop for pilgrims before they cross the border into Spain, makes for a pleasant day trip from Bayonne. The train journey here ($18, one hour, five daily), as you go up the Nive Valley to St Jean, is just stunning. If you decide to stay a while in St Jean, then we recommend you hire a bike to explore the surrounding hills and try a little of the local wine and cheese.