Ode to the Road of Composers’ Lives

Follow the life of Mozart and Bach on a 17-day tour that starts June 23 in Vienna, Austria. Mozart is the focus in Vienna, Salzburg and Prague (Czech Republic). In Germany, guests see where Bach was born (Eisenach), where he was imprisoned (Weimar), where he visited his son and the King of Prussia (Potsdam) and where he spent the last 27 years of his life (Leipzig).

Participants attend concerts in each city, get a private demonstration on the only existing authentic Mozart pianoforte, played in the room where Mozart was born, listen to the organ Bach played at St. Thomas church in Leipzig, have lunch in the Arnstadt Inn where the Bach family had a reunion every year, and visit cultural and historic sites in Berlin.

Cost: $3,590 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, most meals, motor-coach transportation, guides and concert tickets. Not included: international air fare. Contact: Now Voyager International Tours, Deer Lane, Pawlet, Vt. 05761; telephone (800) 399-3656.

Ski Minnesota

A cross-country ski trip for women over 40 leaves Feb. 26 for six days. Participants stay in a country inn with folksy Norwegian decor in Callaway, Minn., near the Canadian border where wildlife can be spotted. Guests ski on groomed trails and untracked logging roads in Itasca State Park.

Cost: $925 per person, including lodging, meals, guides, trail fees and ground transportation. Not included: air fare to Minnesota. Another ski tour to Yosemite on Feb. 4 is available. Contact: Outdoor Vacations for Women Over 40, P.O. Box 200, Groton, Mass. 01450; tel. (508) 448-3331.

Thailand’s Countryside

The 16-day Explorer’s Siam tour, which takes travelers away from the usual Thailand attractions out to the countryside to meet the people, leaves Jan. 28. From Bangkok, participants journey by canal to Thon Buri, where the lifestyle of old Siam survives, to northern Chiang Mai, a center of folk art for the hill tribes, to the Huai Nam Dang National Park for rafting and elephant excursions and back to Bangkok.

From there, the group takes off for the jungles of Khao Sok National Park and visits a remote island off Krabi for strolling on the beach, snorkeling, dancing and a traditional feast. Other available dates are Oct. 21, Nov. 18 and Dec. 23, 1995.

Cost: $1,795, including hotels, most meals, ground transportation, entrance fees and guides. Not included: air fare to Thailand. Contact: Bolder Adventures, P.O. Box 1279-P, Boulder, Colo. 80306; tel. (800) 642-2742.

Italy’s Art

A 13-day Italian art study tour to Rome, Pompeii, Assisi, Siena, Florence and Venice departs March 23 and is led by Otis College of Art and Design instructor Judith Corona.

In Rome, guests visit the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and Borghese galleries. Pompeii, Sorrento and the Isle of Capri are visited before going to Florence to examine the works of Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Raphael. Guided tours of the Uffizi, the Pitti Palace, Church of Santa Croce, the Accademia and Piazza del Duomo are planned. In Assisi, participants go to the Basilica of St. Francis to see the frescoes of Giotto and Cimibue.

The stay in the medieval town of Siena will focus on the Sienese school of painting with visits to the Cathedral, Town Hall Palace and the fan-shaped Piazza del Campo. Visits are made to craftsman studio in the Tuscan and Umbrian countryside. Venice is the last stop with a visit to the Basilica of St. Mark and the Galleria dell’Accademia.

Cost: $2,870 per person, double occupancy, including air fare from Los Angeles, hotels, daily breakfast, some lunches and dinners, entrance fees and transportation. Contact: Art Adventures International, 18139 Coastline Drive, Suite 2, Malibu, Calif. 90265; tel. (310) 230-9299.

History Afloat

American History, from Colonial times to the Civil War, is the focus of a two-week Clipper Cruises voyage from Jacksonville, Fla., to Washington, D.C. The Nantucket Clipper departs Oct. 24 with a historian who will lecture about the history of each area seen. Stops are made in Savannah, Ga.; Ft. Sumter National Monument and Charleston, S.C.; Wilmington, Del.; New Bern, N.C.; Norfolk, Richmond and the James River in Virginia; the Chesapeake Bay and Baltimore, and Alexandria, Va.

Cost: from $3,600 per person, double occupancy, including meals. Not included: round-trip air fare. Contact: Clipper Cruises, tel. (800) 325-0010.

Round the Campfire

Paddle through the Florida Everglades on six-day winter canoe trips to the Ten Thousand Islands area on the northern border of Everglades National Park. Eight departure dates are available Jan. 14 through March 21.

This wilderness area is home to more than 300 species of birds, including egrets, pelicans, osprey and spoonbills. Participants may also encounter dolphins, alligators and manatees as they paddle through mangrove islands, bays and lagoons. Guests will camp in base camps and have a chance to lounge by the water, fish and hike. Guides will lecture on the natural history of the area as well as teach the group how to paddle and camp.

Cost: $645 per person, double occupancy, including meals, camping gear, canoes and guides. Not included: air fare to Fort Myers, Fla. Contact: Wilderness Inquiry, 1313 5th St. S.E., Box 84, Minneapolis, Minn. 55414; tel. (800) 728-0719.

Gold Rush Country

Spend two days white-water rafting, two days canoeing and one day cave exploring along the Stanislaus River in Northern California April 10 and June 19. Professional river and cave guides will lead participants. The group will stay in hotels or cabins each night.

Cost: $849 per person, including transfers from the Sacramento airport, hotels, most meals, guides and equipment. Not included: air fare to Sacramento. Contact: Lost World Trading, P.O. Box 365, Oakdale, Calif. 95361; tel. (209) 847-5393.

Cajun Springtime

Creole and Cajun cuisine and jazz and gospel music are the frills of a nine-day cultural history tour called Springtime in New Orleans and Louisiana’s Plantation Country.

The March 22 tour, sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, visits historic homes, old plantations and gardens from New Orleans to Baton Rouge to New Iberia. Louisiana cuisine specialties such as bread pudding with whiskey sauce, chicken and sausage gumbo, and crawfish are menu highlights.

Cost: $2,497, double, including lodging, land transportation, and most meals; air fare not included: call Learned Journeys, P.O. Box 30626, Santa Barbara, Calif. 93130; tel. (800) 682-6191.

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