Montecito-Sequoia’s Family Vacation Camp opens June 20...

Montecito-Sequoia’s Family Vacation Camp opens June 20 for its fifth season. Weekly rates begin at $245 per adult for accommodations, meals, activities, instruction. A choice of cabins or rooms in the lodge. The camp is operated by Virginia Barnes, ex-San Jose State University educator.

Activities include canoeing, sailing, tennis, archery, stream fishing, riflery, gymnastics. (You pay extra for riding and water skiing). The camp is 65 miles east of Fresno between Kings Canyon and Sequoia national parks. Figure on about a five-hour drive from Los Angeles. Details by dialing toll-free (800) 227-9900 (California) or (800) 451-1505 (outside the state).

Europe Travel Planner

Western Europe is discussed in a new 44-page booklet prepared by the European Travel Commission. Although experienced travelers will get little out of this publication, neophytes might find it helpful. Sketchy highlights on individual countries (transportation, food/drink, holidays). Its best feature is a map in the centerfold with a chart that provides the distances between cities. On the same page, prices are given for Eurailpasses, the Scandinavian Rail Pass and the Benelux Tourrail Pass.

Readers are instructed where to write for literature on each of the 23 nations. The back of the book provides information on passports, visas, weather, electrical current, tipping.

Again, the information is brief, but first-timers might find it worth the $1 postage. For a copy, write to European Travel, Box 1754, Rockefeller Center Station, New York 10185.

French Tax

In a campaign to lure visitors, France will lower the value-added tax on four-star hotels by 62% beginning Wednesday. This follows a VAT reduction on car rentals that went into effect earlier.

Meanwhile, vacationers searching for condominiums/apartments in Paris and on the French Riviera are turning to a company in New York. (Studio apartments on the water in Villefranche rent for $325 a week during the off-season.) This same company lists other properties in London and on the island of St. Martin in the Caribbean.

Write to Riviera Holidays, 31 Georgian Lane, Great Neck, N.Y. 11024.

Travel Accessories

Dozens of travel accessories are recorded in new catalogues published by two Southern California mail-order houses: folding canes, luggage tags/locks, rain boots, plastic raincoats, clocks, duffel bags, adapter plugs, shavers, first-aid kits, money belts and holsters, passport wallets, immersion heaters, inflatable hangers, electric clothes-steamers, mini-irons. These and other items.

Send a 25-cent stamp to Travel Accessories & Things, 177 Calle Bella Vista, Camarillo, Calif. 93010 (catalogue contains travel tips in addition to a list of accessories).

Wahlstrom Travel Aids, 21225 Nashville St., Chatsworth, Calif. 91311, requests a large self-addressed stamped envelope for its catalogue.

Colorado Hideaway

A new mountaintop retreat above Colorado’s Beaver Creek will welcome guests this summer. Trapper’s Cabin is set in a grove of aspen trees. Sleeps 10 guests. On the expensive side ($225/$275 a night) but here’s what you get: lodging, all meals, unlimited horseback riding, fishing and transportation to and from the cabin from Beaver Creek Village. Trapper’s Cabin was built with the vacationer in mind who wants to escape the daily grind. No television, no telephones. Only the cry of the wind and the voice of a nearby river.

There’s a hot tub on the porch, a player piano in the lounge. Sunset rides along with nature hikes. The chef promises gourmet meals, exotic hors d’oeuvres (buffalo salami, smoked rattlesnake).

Write to Mary Morgan, c/o Trapper’s Cabin, Beaver Creek Resort, P.O. Box 915, Beaver Creek, Colo. 81620, or call (303) 949-5750 (extension 5633).

Hotels in Britain

Doris Carpenter of Long Beach asks for the name of “a quiet hotel in England’s Cotswolds.” I have fond recollection of a marvelous old mansion called Lords of the Manor in Upper Slaughter. Only 15 rooms, a superb setting. Windows frame sheep grazing on rolling green hills (green as only green can be in England).

Lords of the Manor, Upper Slaughter, England.

Hotel guidester Egon Ronay gives high marks to a newly restored country hotel near Cheltenham called The Greenway. Ivy climbs the walls. Mullioned windows offer garden views. Wood fires in the reception/lounge areas. Deep sofas, individually decorated rooms. Dinner by candlelight.

This is a convenient base for exploring Broadway, Chipping Campden, Moreton-in-Marsh, Bourton-on-the-Water, Painswick. The old manor dates from the 1580s.

The Greenway, Shurdington, Cheltenham GL51 5UG, England. Rates: 95/170 double. Small bedrooms for single occupancy, 75.

California B&Bs;

Eight B&Bs; have joined ranks for the convenience of motorists traveling the California coastline, north from the redwoods to Santa Barbara south. The network is known as the California Inn Style. Members are the Ginger Bread Mansion, Ferndale; the Toll House, Boonville; Mendocino Village Inn, Mendocino; Ten Inverness Way, Inverness; the Babbling Brook Inn, Santa Cruz; the Jabberwock, Monterey; the J. Patrick House, Cambria, and the Glenborough Inn, Santa Barbara. For a brochure, write to the Babbling Brook Inn, 1025 Laurel St., Santa Cruz, Calif. 95060, or telephone (408) 427-2427.

Learning French

“Live the good life--not as a tourist but as a neighbor.” This is the invitation being extended again this year by Andree Penney, a Californian (born in France) who has been operating a summer language school in the South of France since 1973. Students (all ages) settle in at Penney’s 17th-Century country home at Lablachere in northern Provence. Besides language lessons, the five-week program includes overnight visits to Carcassonne, Cordes, Greouxles-Bains, Arles (the village where Van Gogh did some of his most prolific work), Aix-en-Provence, Grasse (famous for its perfumes) and Millau. The school/tour sessions wind up in Paris (three days). The price ($3,900) includes round-trip air from Los Angeles, the train from Paris to Penney’s village, accommodations (at Penney’s home, plus 11 nights in hotels while sightseeing), meals (except for Paris). Dates are July 20-Aug. 17. Contact Penney, 18 Mandrake Way, Irvine 92715. Telephone (714) 786-7701.

Reader Recommendations

Arizona--Janet and Kenneth Reeling, Camarillo: “Had a delightful experience when we visited Sipapu Lodge, a B&B; in the beautiful red rock country of Sedona. Decor in each room is Indian or Old Southwest, and hospitality in this private home is very family. Rates are $40 to $70 and include a large breakfast. Contact Lea Pace, P.O. Box 552, Sedona, Ariz. 86336.”

France--Joyce Zoubul, Long Beach: “Now that summer is approaching, I’m reminded of my vacation to Paris last July and the tour guide who made it so memorable. Readers should contact Betty Disney, an art historian who offers tours to all art museums in Paris each year during July. Tours are private and cost $30 U.S. an hour for one to six people. Her knowledge is extensive, her enthusiasm infectious and her accent 100% American. You can contact her at 3716 Colorado St., Long Beach 90814, (213) 438-2286.”

Because of the large number of reader recommendations, we regret that only a select few can be used. They must be brief (typewritten or printed). Only one recommendation per reader, please. Note: Recommendations will not be used unless prices and addresses are included.