More than a visit, it’s a true encounter

Spot a travel trend early enough and you might save yourself time and money. Today we’ll talk about a couple of ways to do both.

A current trend is learning vacations, which have become a hot ticket throughout the world. Some of us veg on a beach when we vacation; I favor active travel that focuses on encountering new ideas and people.

The best source of these learning vacations is, increasingly, the tour-operating industry of Canada, which offers them at more reasonable prices than U.S. tour companies. At least a dozen Canadian tour operators price their adventure vacations below the levels usually found in the U.S.

The key player is G.A.P. Adventures of Toronto, (800) 465-5600, www.gapadventures.com, which launched a small, low-cost program of people-to-people tours in Central America 14 years ago. It has grown and prospered, and today runs trips throughout the world, including visits to Antarctica aboard its own expedition cruise ship.

G.A.P. operates dozens of small-group tours (each limited to 12 participants) to colorful destinations, in many cases priced at an average of $90 a day per person, plus airfare. It achieves those rates primarily by using small, locally owned inns and guesthouses and occasionally rooms in private homes.

Participants travel by public bus, tractor, boat and horseback.

Groups are led by spirited tour guides determined to break down barriers between tourists and the local population. They’re ingenious in arranging meetings between the two groups.

G.A.P. sends tourists to Africa, the Amazon, Morocco and southern Spain, Asia and the South Pacific, and to the region in which it specializes: Mexico and Central and South America.

Travelers say they return enlarged in spirit and understanding, and that they’ve paid less for their cultural adventure than on more commonplace tours.

G.A.P.’s Antarctic cruises sell for as little as $2,870 for a 10-day program (not including airfare to the embarkation port of Ushuaia, Argentina), which is about $2,000 per person less than on many cruises. The ship is the Explorer, built for Antarctic explorations in 1969 by travel pioneer Lars-Eric Lindblad.

In Central America, G.A.P. is challenged by British Columbia’s Tours of Exploration, (800) 690-7887, www.toursexplore.com. The organization’s tours, which are somewhat more expensive, use standard hotel accommodations and include many meals.

They are led by naturalists, including zoologists and archeologists. A 16-day bird-and-wildlife-viewing tour of Costa Rica for $2,130 (not including round-trip air to San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital) is impressive.

Travel writer Lucy Izon recently created the website GreatLearningVacations.com to list tour programs of this sort. The site includes many offerings and is a major service to people who don’t want a boring vacation.

On to another trend: While Europe is off the radar for many Americans this year because of the high cost of the euro, Sicily has become a hot destination. But scarcely anyone knew of an easy way to get there and back -- until now.

Starting June 13, the 16-year-old Italian carrier Eurofly will offer nonstop, once-a-week service between New York and Palermo, Italy, Sicily’s capital, for around $900 round trip.

The new flights will replace an awkward flight to Rome, followed by either a change of plane, a long wait and a further flight, or a train ride from Rome to Palermo.

Departures are on Saturdays; on other days, the carrier will fly nonstop to Bologna, a gateway to Tuscany, or nonstop to Naples, another gateway to Sicily. For information, see www.euroflyusa.comor call (800) 459-0581.