OUR SECOND ANNUAL: Tours for the Thinking Person : 10 TOP MUSEUM TOURS

Ann H. Waigand, publisher of The Educated Traveler newsletter, compiles an annual directory of museum-sponsored tours for her subscribers. Here, she has selected 10 favorites from the nearly 300 trips in her 1994 directory, available to subscribers later this month. (Subscriptions to The Educated Traveler, available at P.O. Box 220822, Chantilly, Va. 22022; telephone 800-648-5168, cost $39 for six issues per year.)

Tours are arranged in chronological order. Travelers should note that prices are per person, presuming double occupancy, and are subject to change. Some prices include most meals and side trips; others don’t.

Indian Summer in the South Pacific

March 3-23; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1130 State St., Santa Barbara 93101; tel. (805) 963-4364, Ext. 336

Itinerary includes Nadi, Fiji; Auckland, Rotorua, Queenstown, Milford Sound and Christchurch, New Zealand, with visits to homes of collectors and artists’ studios; Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Cairns, Australia. Meetings with private collectors along the way. An optional extension to the Australian Outback, visiting Ayers Rock and Alice Springs. Co-sponsored by Friends of Photographic Art; curator-led “photo shoots” during free time. Tour leader: Karen Sinsheimer, the Santa Barbara museum’s curator of photography. Cost: $5,685, including air fare from Los Angeles.

The Mexican Mural Renaissance

March 3-13; The Phillips Collection/The Corcoran Gallery of Art/The National Museum of Women in the Arts, c/o International Seminar Design, Inc., 4202 38th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20016; tel. (202) 244-1448

Includes visits to murals by Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and works by major women artists of the period: Frida Kahlo, Maria Izquierdo, Olga Costa. Tour travels to Mexico City, Chapingo, Cuernavaca, Morelia, Guanajuato and Guadalajara. Cost: $2,850, excluding air.

Turkey With A Twist

May 5-22; Textile Museum Tours, c/o Experience Abroad, 6014 Namakagan Road, Bethesda, Md. 20816; tel. (301) 229-2899

Highlights include a private tour and reception in the Istanbul gallery/home of Belkis Balpinar, textile scholar and founding curator of the Vakiflar Museum of Carpets; tours in Antalya and to Perge and Aspendos, Greek cities founded in the first millenium BC; a visit with a group of Turkmen villagers in the Taurus Mountains; excursions to Kalkan and Marmaris, Bodrum and Kusadasi. Cost: $3,737, including air from Washington, D.C.; $2,890 without air.

Ireland: A Glorious Past

May 21-June 4; University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; c/o Academic Arrangements Abroad, 50 Broadway, New York 10004; tel. (212) 514-8921 or (800) 221-1944

A tour concentrating on Ireland’s archeological heritage, including Bronze and Iron Age sites. Visits range from a guided tour of the National Museum, led by the museum’s director, to excursions to Cistercian abbeys and megalithic tombs of the third millenium BC and include the Dingle Peninsula, the Burren and the Aran Islands, the north coast of County Mayo. Tour leader: Dr. Bernard Wailes, associate curator of European archeology, University Museum. Cost: $4,360, including air from New York.

Art and Artists of Coastal Maine

July 18-26; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Art Tours and Travel Department, 401 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco 94108; tel. (415) 252-4190 or (415) 252-4191

Itinerary includes Boston/Cambridge (Massachusetts); Portland, with a reception with Maine artist and art historian Tom Crotty; Camden, and a meeting with Dorie Homer, grand-niece of painter Winslow Homer; Vinalhaven, and a visit with Robert Indiana, one of the last Warhol-generation luminaries; craft schools, galleries and studios on Deer Isle; a day on Mt. Desert Island, and tours of art museums in Waterville, Skowhegan, and Kennebunkport. Cost: $1,560, including air from San Francisco.

The Wild and Scenic Missouri River

Sept. 1-7; The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, 1 Wade Oval Drive, University Circle, Cleveland, Ohio 44106-1767; tel. (216) 231-4600, Ext. 214

A boating trip on the upper Missouri River that was explored by Swiss artist Karl Bodmer. Mounted in conjunction with the museum’s exhibition of 19th-Century prints depicting Plains Indians of the American frontier. Cost: $845 per person, excluding air.

UCLA Tuscany Tour

Aug. 29-Sept. 11; UCLA Wight Art Gallery/UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, c/o Crown International Travel, Inc., 10801 National Blvd., Suite 510, Los Angeles 90064-4243; tel. (310) 475-5661 or (800) 421-9537

Small group exploration of Florence, Siena, and the Chianti region of Tuscany, focusing on art, food, and wine. Includes visits to private homes, gardens and collections, and, in Chianti, a stay at Badia a Coltibuono, an ancient Romanesque abbey now home to a family of Italian winemakers. Tour Leaders: Henry Hopkins, Director, Wight Gallery; David Rhodes, Director, Grunwald Center; Eve Borsook (Florence guide), art historian and author of “The Companion Guide to Florence”; John Dore Meis (Chianti guide), author of “A Taste of Tuscany.” Cost: $6,775, including air from Los Angeles.

Pacific Northwest Indian Art and Culture

Sept. 8-14; The Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, c/o Learned Journeys, 3412 Calle Noguera, P.O. Box 30626, Santa Barbara 93130-0626; tel. (805) 682-6191

Tracing the cultural history of the coast’s Salish, Kwakiutl and Nootka Indians through visits to Vancouver, Victoria, Strathcona Provincial Park, Alert Bay and Ft. Rupert. Tour leader: Native American museum curator and local anthropologist. Cost: estimated to be $1,850, including air from Los Angeles.

Beijing to Hanoi by Private Train

Oct. 25-Nov. 12; American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York 10024-5192; tel. (212) 769-5700 or (800) 462-8687

Traveling on the China Orient Express, with visits to Beijing, Xian, Chengdu, Kunming, Guilin (in China); Hanoi and Haiphong (in Vietnam), and Hong Kong. Optional extension to Saigon and Angkor Wat (Cambodian temple). Cost: $6,890, excluding air.

Solar Eclipse in Bolivia

Oct. 31-Nov. 9; Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles 90007; tel. (213) 744-3350

Visits to La Paz; the archeological ruins at Moon Valley; Tiahuanaco, Bolivia’s most important archeological site, and the Gate of the Sun, thought to be an ancient observatory; Potosi, a 16th-Century silver town; Sucre; Tarabuco Indian market; Lake Titicaca; Kallawaya Museum, plus an overnight train ride to eclipse-viewing area on the high plains. Cost: about $3,700 per person, including air from Los Angeles.