Buddhist Festival, Feasts and Flowers

A 19-day trip to attend the Great Thimphu Teschu Buddhist Festival in the Dragon Kingdom of Bhutan also stops in India, Thailand and Nepal. The tour leaves Los Angeles Sept. 23 and is led by art professor Paul Kravagna of Cal State Northridge. The itinerary has been planned around the culture of the Buddhist religion, the native celebrations and folklore festival of Teschu. Participants visit Bangkok, Thailand; Katmandu and Patan, Nepal, and artisans’ shops in Tibet. The tour continues on to Delhi, visiting the Red Fort. Visitors also travel to Bagdogra and Darjiling to the Tibetan monastery at Ghoom. In a four-wheel-drive, members ride to Shiliguri and Phuntsoling in Bhutan. The next two days are spent at the Thimphu Teschu Festival with its masks, dances and ceremonies. The tour continues to drive through Bhutan’s Himalayas to Punakha and Paro, a sacred capital of Buddhism, and returning to Delhi and Bangkok.

Cost: $4,989 per person, double occupancy, including air fare, hotels, two meals per day on tour, and invitations to special festivities and functions. Contact: Connie Swanson Travel, Sears Overlake Store, 2200-148th Ave. N.E., Redmond, WA 98052; telephone (800) 767-1977.

Bettering the Bahamas

Have fun in the sun on the Exuma Islands, Bahamas, while conducting research on threatened rock iguanas. Participants can meet these unusual lizards Oct. 21-29 on a field excursion called “Iguana Research in the Exumas.” Participants live aboard the R/V Coral Reef II, an 80-foot research vessel owned by Shedd Aquarium. Each day teams will collect data on the behavior, measurements, population density and nesting sites of the rare rock iguana. The research will provide scientific information to protect these threatened island dwellers. Two different populations will be studied in this region, and three different species of rock iguanas may be observed.

Participants will have time for swimming, snorkeling, bird-watching, exploring and photographing wildlife. The 90-mile Exuma Island chain sweeps from Beacon Cay in the north to Great and Little Exuma in the south.

Cost: $1,425 per person, double occupancy, including accommodations on the boat and all meals. Not included: air fare to George-Town, Bahamas. Contact: Shedd Aquarium, 1200 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605; tel. (312) 939-2426, Ext. 3311.

Irish Matchmaking

An eight-day trip for single men and women to the Matchmaking Festival in Lisdoonvarna, Ireland, leaves Sept. 28. The festival has been a custom for generations in this village in the western section of County Clare. Old-fashioned Irish fun includes lively days and nights of dining and dancing till the wee hours. After spending a weekend in Lisdoonvarna, participants will travel to the coast to view the cliffs of Moher, rising 700 feet from the ocean. Then on to Galway and a two-night stay in Dublin before returning home.

Cost: $1,695 per person, double occupancy, including air fare from Los Angeles, lodging, transportation with guide, full Irish breakfast daily and four dinners, taxes and service charges. Contact: Frances Reps, Amorosi Travel International, 25201 Paseo de Alicia, Suite 100 Laguna Hills, Calif. 92653; tel. (800) 959-9227.

Wilds of the Amazon

Join an eight-day Amazon river workshop with naturalist and guide Diane Lovell on June 17 leaving from Miami for Peru. Participants will take jungle walks, small boat tours to remote waterways, visit Indian communities in isolated areas and view the rain forest and its wildlife. Lovell will lecture and lead hands-on projects while observing artifacts and artwork from the jungle. Over a great number of years, various fish and other marine animals have developed bizarre features and body characteristics to cope with life in the Amazon’s murky waters.

Cost: $1,995 per person, including air fare from Miami, meals, tours, entrance fees and nature talks. Not included: air fare to Miami and departure taxes. Contact: International Journeys, 17849 San Carlos Blvd., Fort Myers Beach, FL 33931; tel. (800) 622-6525.

Rushing Mt. Rushmore

A nine-day motor-coach tour that begins in Utah leaves June 7 and Aug. 17 to see historical and cultural sights on the way to Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota. The itinerary includes a tour of Salt Lake City and the Mormon Tabernacle and Temple Square; the Western town of Jackson Hole, Wyo., with Yellowstone National Park and Old Faithful; Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyo.; the historic Black Hills mining town of Deadwood, S.D.; the Crazy Horse Memorial Statue in South Dakota and Mt. Rushmore. On the return, stops include a recent excavation of prehistoric mastodon bones; Cheyenne, Wyo., and Denver. Cost: $1,435 per person, double occupancy, including round trip air fare from San Diego or LAX, airport transfers, hotels, most meals and guides. Contact: AFC Tours, 11772 Sorrento Valley Road, No. 200, San Diego, Calif. 92121; tel. (619) 481-8188.

Thinking Big

Play with the elephants in Sri Lanka on an eight-day tour that also visits the ruins of an ancient civilization, sandy beaches, spice lands and large plantations of tea, rubber and coconuts. The tour leaves Los Angeles monthly.

Participants start with a visit to Pinnewala, 65 miles from Colombo, the capital city of Sri Lanka. Elephants are reared and nurtured here in natural surroundings. Guests will get a chance to feed and pet the babies or take a ride on the backs of the older elephants. The group visits Sigiriya’s rock fortress. Halfway up the rock are frescoes. Thirteen miles from Sigiriya is the Dambulla rock temple, where a sculpture of a gigantic Buddha has been carved out of solitary rock. Dotting the lake city of Kandy are antique stores, and arts and crafts shops. Cost: $2,650 per person, including air fare from Los Angeles, hotels, all meals, sightseeing in air-conditioned motor coaches and local guides. Contact: Elephant Trail: (818) 592-6044 or (818) 709-5011.

More Sri Lanka

A 14-day tour of Sri Lanka leaves Los Angeles July 28 and will be escorted by Sonali Marcelline, former Public Relations Director for Air Lanka. The tour focuses on historical areas such as Kandy, Sigiriya and Dambulla. Also seen are the tea plantations of Nuwara Eliya, the Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage and gem-cutting facilities in Ratnapura. Participants will be in Sri Lanka at the time of the annual elephant parade. Cost: $2,325 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, breakfast and lunch daily, tours and transportation. Contact: Lanka Way, 605 S. Marengo Ave., Suite A, Pasadena, CA 91106; tel. (818) 795-2661.

How Quaint

A 10-day town and country tour of England leaves Sept. 16 from San Francisco. Participants will stay at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane in London and at Charingworth Manor in the Cotswolds. A half-day overview tour of London and a tour of Portsmouth is offered as well as stops at Windsor Castle, Blenheim Palace, Hidcote Gardens and Iford Manor and Gardens. Cost: $3,089 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from San Francisco, airport transfers, touring and many meals. Contact: Barbara Gross of Bryan International Travel, 98 Battery St., Suite 302, San Francisco, CA 94111; tel. (415) 986-0967.

Italian arts

Italian design and the applied arts are the focus of an escorted 14-day tour led by interior design and furnishings writer Patricia Beach Smith. Departing Sept. 18, the itinerary includes major attractions in Milan, Verona, Vicenza, Venice and Florence. Participants may extend the tour to spend time in Rome. Cost: $3,485 per person, double occupancy, including air fare from Los Angeles, hotels, daily breakfast, most dinners, all sightseeing and entrance fees and guides. Contact: TOC Travel, 4208 N. Freeway Blvd., Suite 121, Sacramento, CA 95834; tel. (800) 505-2505.

The Times is not responsible for changes in prices, dates or itineraries. These should be confirmed with travel agents or tour operators.