Educational Trips to Great Britain and U.S.S.R.

Community College Tours has added two tours to its 1989 travel program for mature travelers who are California residents.

Each tour group is accompanied by a professor from a California educational institution. Lectures are given before departure dates at colleges in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas. In addition to extensive sightseeing, the tours emphasize history, geography and art history.

One tour, “The Best of Russia and Scandinavia,” begins in London (following a flight from Los Angeles or San Francisco) and proceeds to Denmark, Sweden, Finland and the Soviet Union, where six cities are on the itinerary: Leningrad, Novgorod, Kalinen, Moscow, Smolensk and Minsk.

The return route includes Warsaw and Posnan in Poland, Berlin and Arnheim in West Germany and once again to London via Calais, France. Scandinavian cities en route include Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki.

Meals Included

The tour covers 23 days. Departures are June 27 and July 4. Three meals daily for 17 days in the Soviet Union are included, and at least one meal daily in the other cities. The tour price is $3,295, including round-trip air transportation.

A second new tour on the Community College Tours program is “British and Ireland Panorama.” It’s a British history tour covering England from north to south, and includes visits to cities in Ireland and Scotland.

Beginning in London, the visit highlights such historic sites as Stonehenge, Plymouth, Lynton, Swansea, Blenheim, Stratford, Coventry and York. In Scotland there are stays in Glasgow, Inverness and Edinburgh, with stops in between at quaint villages and on the Isle of Skye. In Ireland the trip includes Dublin, Limerick, Killarney and Wexford.

The “Britain and Ireland Panorama” 22-day tour leaves from both Los Angeles and San Francisco July 1. Most meals are included, as are services of the tour guide, bus and ferry transportation in the United Kingdom and round-trip air transportation between Los Angeles or San Francisco and London. Per-person price is $2,495.

More Tours

Other 1989 tours by CCT include:

China and the Yangtze River: 23 days, $3,695.

Classical Europe, including London, Paris, Lucerne, Venice, Florence and Rome: 24 days for $3,395, including a seven-day cruise of the Mediterranean with stops in Greece, Turkey and Yugoslavia.

Nile River and Greek Isles: 16 days, $2,995.

For complete information and itineraries, call toll-free (800) 527-3137, or write to Community College Tours, P.O. Box 620620, Woodside, Calif. 94062.

Meanwhile, Golden Tours for Senior Citizens, the Southern California nonprofit travel club for mature travelers over age 50, has released its list of tours for 1989. It includes cruises, day trips and air and motor-coach trips (or combinations of both).

One of its most popular features, motor-coach trips to destinations in the Southwest, run from three to nine days and are leisurely paced, with deluxe motor-coach transportation.

Destinations for April and May include Death Valley, Phoenix, Mammoth Lakes, Carlsbad Caverns, Grand Canyon and Yosemite national parks, plus frequent trips to Las Vegas and Laughlin, Nev. Parking for all motor-coach trips is available at no charge at two pickup points, in Alhambra and Pasadena.

Longer tours scheduled for April and May departure include: “Dixieland Delight” (10 days), Washington, D.C. (eight days), Panama Canal Cruise on the Bermuda Star (21 days), Mississippi Queen Cruise (12 days), Washington State Cascade Loop (six days), “The Colorful Ozarks” (nine days) and a Caribbean Cruise on the Costa Riviera (eight days).

Membership in Golden Tours is a modest $5 a year and entitles members to join all tours at published prices, plus receive an eight-page monthly bulletin filled with travel opportunities of every description for the mature traveler.

For more information, call (213) 283-7876 or (818) 289-6271. To join Golden Tours, send your check for $5 to Golden Tours, Box 1070, Alhambra, Calif. 91802.

Another dependable tour operator in California is Poole Tours, which has been transporting mature travelers for 16 years. Poole has published its 1989 “Travel Planner” that lists 19 tours to destinations in the United States and Canada. Tours range from five to 24 days, traveling by air or motor coach or a combination of both.

The “Travel Planner” shows tours that begin this spring, along with others tied in with seasonal activities, such as the Portland Rose Festival tour in June; an Alaskan Extravaganza in August; the New England Fall Foliage, including eastern Canada, in September; Hawaii in October; Thanksgiving in the Valley of the Sun, with sightseeing in the Phoenix area, and a choice of three Christmas sojourns--to San Antonio, Tex., the Luminarias Festival of Lights in Albuquerque, N.M., or the Old English Christmas at the Empress Hotel in Victoria, B.C., which includes a tour of Vancouver.

The Poole Tours “Travel Planner” lists complete itineraries, prices and other details. For a free copy, call (2132) 283-3412 or (818) 285-9775. Or write to Poole Tours, P.O. Box 990, Temple City, Calif. 91780.