· The only regular passenger service to the Canary Islands is Trasmediterranea's weekly car ferry from Cadiz in southern Spain. This leaves on Tuesday evenings, arriving in Las Palmas and Tenerife on Thursdays, and returns from the islands on Saturdays, reaching Cadiz on Monday mornings. The ship, the JUAN J SISTER, was built in 1993 and has the usual amenities, including cabins, a restaurant and a swimming pool. See trasmediterranea or contact the UK agents, Southern Ferries southernferries.co.uk.

There are various possible routes from Manchester to Cadiz by train. It would theoretically be possible to leave on Monday morning via London, take the Eurostar to Paris, then the overnight "trenhotel" to Madrid, and the high-speed train via Sevilla to Cadiz. However, such a journey would allow little margin for delays, and would give no time to visit places en route. A more leisurely journey could include time in Paris, Barcelona, Sevilla or wherever.

Train times can be checked in Thomas Cook's European Timetable which is available in many libraries, or on bahn.de (for all Europe), sncf.fr (for France) or renfe.es (for Spain). There is also much useful information on European train journeys on seat61.com.
Geoff Hamer, Southall

· Getting through Europe is fairly easy by train; raileurope.com is a good place to organise Eurorail tickets and timetables. As far as I know the only company that offers a boat service to the Canaries from mainland Europe is Trasmediterranea. If you do book using this company, I would strongly advise phoning their offices in Cadiz before you leave just to confirm your booking. They have a very pleasant English speaking receptionist, who we found very helpful when we arrived at Cadiz to find our campervan wasn't booked on the boat! Hope this helps.
James Watt