OUR SECOND ANNUAL: Tours for the Thinking Person : A look at some of 1994’s most intriguing ‘goal-oriented’ vacations. The bottom line: There are more than ever to pick from, and competition is bringing some prices down.

What satisfies a thinking traveler most? An up-close look at artifacts worthy of the Smithsonian Institution? A panorama pulled from the pages of National Geographic magazine?

That first possibility is the enduring hope of Smithsonian officials, who in more than 20 years of sponsoring escorted tours have built up to a schedule that this year includes 300 departures to worldwide destinations. The Smithsonian Study Tours and Seminars program, based in Washington, D.C., anticipates some 7,000 passengers in 1994.

The second of those two travel scenarios, meanwhile, has set many gears grinding in the nearby offices of the National Geographic Society. In September, the society dispatched its first-ever escorted tour, an eight-day exploration of Colorado and New Mexico. For 1994, the On Tour with National Geographic program has scheduled 10 different itineraries, each likely to attract the same stripe of affluent and inquisitive traveler that the Smithsonian program aims for.

Thus begins perhaps the most genteel rivalry in the travel trade--and thus do academically inclined American travelers have more vacation options to ponder than ever before. Want to take measure of rumblings within Costa Rica’s Arenal Volcano? Stroll through the philatelic bureau on one of the Falklands? Ascend by helicopter to a remote lodge in the Canadian Rockies? Dig for dinosaur bones in Wyoming? All are possible, for a price. Costs usually range from $1,700 to $7,500 per person (excluding air fare) for journeys of eight to 16 days, though some shorter and more affordable trips are offered.

The Smithsonian and National Geographic programs are hardly twins. Most obviously, Smithsonian’s schedule of departure dates is more than 20 times as long as National Geographic’s. Beyond that, Smithsonian’s offerings include more tours that are tightly focused on a particular theme, often with special attention paid to museums, the arts or natural sciences. One three-day seminar this spring in Washington, D.C., will concentrate exclusively on picture frames in American art. The National Geographic programs, at least so far, suggest a broader approach; they’re likely to mix culture with natural history, and often rely on scientists and writers associated with the magazine as lecturers.

Still, both programs fit into a burgeoning trend in the travel industry: the rise of the goal-oriented vacation--in which travelers aim not only to escape their daily routines, but to widen their understanding of the world. Museums and university organizations have joined private-sector tour operators in jostling for the attention of such travelers, and many travel professionals expect the “thinking trip” market to get even more competitive in coming years. (For some top picks from this year’s museum- and university-sponsored tours, see related stories on this page.)

“Americans are now well-traveled, and they’re looking for more than the sights,” says Bryan DeLeo, who directs National Geographic’s On Tour program. “They’re looking to learn and experience, to meet local people, and find out what’s going on and what the history is.”

One sign of heightened competition, and the struggling world economy, is in the pricing of 1994’s tours. Of 98 itineraries listed in Smithsonian’s catalogue of international tours, 37 are offered at lower prices than in 1993.

Another side effect of this rush to offer specialized travel, ironically, could be homogenization. As institutions scramble to strike up alliances with premier local outfitters and international tour operators, they often end up doing business with the same specialists. In 1994, National Geographic and Smithsonian are both acting as sponsors of voyages arranged by the tour operator Academic Travel Abroad, Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based firm that specializes in arranging travel programs for nonprofit groups. It’s entirely possible that one of these days, groups of Smithsonian and National Geographic travelers may find themselves side by side in the same remote body of water, seated in canoes operated by the same local concessionaire and reserved by the same international tour operator.

Here’s a quick look at some of this year’s offerings from each of these granddaddy nonprofit organizations.

SMITHSONIAN STUDY TOURS/SEMINARS

The Smithsonian program, which took its current form in 1975, unabashedly aims for the most educated and often most wealthy travelers, noting in its catalogue the “rather exclusive company” a Smithsonian traveler keeps. The range of subjects and destinations among the Smithsonian’s 300 or so departures is no less impressive.

Even confining yourself to this year’s river trips, you find among the itineraries the Orinoco, the Nile, the Elbe, the Rhone, the Danube, the Green, the Mississippi, the Hudson, and the Salmon. Most tours, riverine and otherwise, run 7-15 days and cost $2,000-$5,000 (per person, double occupancy, air fare excluded). Smithsonian also offers seminars lasting 4-5 days and carrying prices of $900-$1,200 (per person, double occupancy, air fare excluded).

Along with the program’s research expeditions, the seminars are the most thematically focused of Smithsonian tours. The research expeditions feature hands-on experience in rugged conditions, often contributing to research projects in the U.S. and abroad. Seminars are usually unaffiliated with research efforts, but packed with data. On March 14, for instance, a six-night wolf-tracking expedition begins in Banff and Jasper national parks, Canada, featuring briefing at the Calgary Zoo, hiking in search of prints and kill sites, lectures from a local wolf biologist, and a demonstration of radio telemetry in wolf tracking. (Price: $1,975 per person, double occupancy, air fare to Calgary excluded.)

For travelers seeking a broader focus, Smithsonian offers more than 100 different “study tours” in the U.S. and abroad, each led by a guide with a specialty in the arts or natural sciences. Similar tours, but featuring larger groups and lower prices, are available through the Smithsonian Odyssey Tours classification.

Among the most affordable trips offered this year: Springtime on the California Deserts, March 12-18, which includes a briefing by curators at the Palm Springs Desert Museum, guided wildflower and wildlife walks, hiking in Anza Borrego and Joshua Tree, and cottage lodgings for two nights at a Palm Springs guest ranch near the base of the Santa Rosa mountains. Price: $1,395 per person, double occupancy, most meals included, air fare to Palm Springs excluded.

Among the most exotic trips: Northwest Passage Aboard the Icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov, July 20-Aug. 5, which begins in Anchorage, proceeds via air and iceberg-strewn water through Russian-held islands, Inuit villages, the Bering Strait and various islands above the Arctic Circle, returning by air via the village of Resolute and the city of Toronto. The ship includes 56 cabins and two helicopters, the better to land on ice-clogged shores. Prices for standard cabins start at $13,070 per person, double occupancy, including most meals, air fare to Anchorage and from Toronto excluded.

For more information: Smithsonian Study Tours and Seminars; Smithsonian Associates; 1100 Jefferson Dr. SW, Room 3045; Washington DC 20560; telephone (202) 357-4700.

ON TOUR WITH NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

The idea of the On Tour trip, says program director DeLeo, is to offer programs “that reflect the variety of topics that one finds in reading National Geographic magazine--some geography, some art, some architecture, culture, natural history, wildlife and science . . . “

The lecturers who lead travelers through these programs usually have strong ties to the magazine. Bill Bryson, author of a 1992 National Geographic article about Europe’s Main-Danube Canal, in June will lecture a tour group on the same waters. William Graves, editor of the magazine since 1990, will lecture on a 13-day July expedition to the Aleutian Islands and the Russian Far East.

National Geographic tours are marketed most heavily to those who already hold society memberships, and carry prices comparable to Smithsonian’s. (The society counts about 9 million members, each of whom receives National Geographic magazine and pays dues beginning at $21 yearly. To take a National Geographic tour, you must become a society member.)

The most affordable tour of the organization’s Spring-Fall ’94 catalogue: National Parks of Utah and Arizona, an eight-day program that includes Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks and the Grand Canyon. Lecturers are Otis Imboden, a National Geographic staff photographer from 1962 to ’82 (who will accompany the group departing Las Vegas Sept. 15), and Scott Thybony, author of the National Geographic book “Canyon Country Parklands” (who will accompany the Oct. 6 group). Groups sizes are limited to 35. Price: $1,680 per person, double occupancy, including some meals, excluding air fare.

The most exotic trip in the catalogue is probably a 15-day journey to Irian Jaya, the Spice Islands and Bali, with departures Sept. 16 and Sept 23. That itinerary includes nine nights aboard a 19-cabin cruise ship, an introduction to Asmat people, and village visits that feature terraced rice fields and the steaming volcano Gunung Api in the Banda Islands. Tobias Schneebaum, an anthropologist who has lived for several years among the Asmat, is a lecturer. Prices begin at $4,850 per person, double occupancy, including most meals, excluding air fare.

The National Geographic Spring-Fall catalogue includes six different tours (some are offered more than once, yielding a total of 12 planned group departures). If business goes well, DeLeo says, the 1994-95 Fall-Spring catalogue will probably include 10 different itineraries.

For more information: On Tour with National Geographic; P.O. Box 96097; Washington, D . C . 20090; tel. (202) 857-7500.

*

-- GARDENS: a global guide to botanical excursions: L15

-- ART & ARCHEOLOGY: one woman’s Southwest trip L16