The Sun Is Calling in San Felipe, Baja

A three-day tour leaves San Diego May 19 by motor coach to San Felipe, Baja California. Tour members will stay at the El Cortez Hotel on the beach and tour northern Baja California. The route crosses the peninsula from the Pacific Coast to the Sea of Cortez and visits Ensenada and Mexicali. The tour also skirts the Sierra San Pedro Martir, giving a view of Baja’s highest mountain, 10,156-foot El Picacho del Diablo and later climbs the eastern escarpment of the Sierra de Juarez via the new Mexicali-Tecate-Tijuana toll road.

Cost: $238 per person, double occupancy, including transportation from San Diego, hotel room, four meals and bilingual guide. Contact: Baja California Tours, 6986 La Jolla Blvd., No. 204, La Jolla, CA 92037; telephone (619) 454-7166.

Ancient Lands

The countries of Yemen, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Oman make up a 22-day tour that travels historic routes dating back to biblical times. Departures are set for Sept. 16, Oct. 7 and Dec. 16. Participants spend five days in northern Yemen to visit Sanaa. Within the walls of this ancient city center, travelers visit a bazaar and view the architecture of mosques and tower houses built in the same mud-brick styles of 1,000 years ago. In southern Yemen, reached by air from Sanaa, two nights are spent in Aden, a multicultural seaport on the Arabian peninsula’s coast. Activities here include a tour of the old, walled city center, set in the crater of an extinct volcano; the Sayyid Abdullah Mosque; the Islamic religious center of Aden, and a break on the city’s beaches.

Across the Red Sea, travelers go to Asmara, the capital of the newly independent country of Eritrea. After a three-night stay and sightseeing at the Grand Mosque and the neoclassic Imperial Palace, the tour proceeds by air to Addis Adaba for a one-week tour of Ethiopia. The itinerary will follow Ethiopia’s “historic route,” a trail that stops at the island monasteries of Bahir Dar on the bank of Lake T’ana; Tissisat Falls, where the Blue Nile begins; the 17th-Century imperial castles of Gonder; and a complex of 1,000-year-old rock-cut churches in Lalibela. Also seen is the city of Axum, thought to have contained the Ark of the Covenant, where travelers will view ancient ruins, a palace of the Queen of Sheba and the crowns of emperors. The tour wraps up with three nights in Oman. The group is limited to 25.

Cost: $6,995 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, all meals, all transfers, escorts, tips and sightseeing. Not included: international air fare. Contact Travcoa, 2350 S.E. Bristol St., Newport Beach, CA 92660; tel. (800) 992-2003.

Massachusetts Outing

Outdoor Vacations for Women over 40 is offering a one-week tour in Massachusetts, exploring Boston, Concord and Lexington July 22-29. Members will stay in a historic Colonial inn in the center of Concord, an area convenient for walking, biking and canoeing. The group will walk from the inn to the Old North Bridge, where the first shot was fired in the Revolutionary War. Along the way, participants will pass homes and burial sites of Thoreau, Emerson, Hawthorne and the Alcotts, and explore the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.

There is time to swim in Walden Pond and paddle on the Concord River flowing under the Old North Bridge. Participants bike from Bedford to Lexington on a trail to visit the Buckman Tavern, where the Minutemen awaited the British, explore Boston’s Freedom Trail on foot, and go whale-watching out of Gloucester.

Cost: $1,750 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, meals, sightseeing fees and transportation. Not included: air fare to Boston. Contact: Marion Stoddart, Outdoor Vacations, P.O. Box 200, Groton, MA 01450; tel. (508) 448-3331.

Just Like Rob Roy

An 11-day tour of Britain starts in London, where participants stay for two days touring the city and southern England. Driving along the banks of Loch Lomond, the tour crosses heather-clad moors as it wends its way to Glencoe and an overnight stay in the Scottish Highlands, complete with a traditional evening of Scottish food, bagpipes and dancing.

Also included is the town of Perth--which provided the backdrop for some of the filming of “Rob Roy”--and a visit to the Caithness Glass Factory. From Perth, the tour veers south to St. Andrews and Edinburgh for two nights, before heading back into the English countryside, stopping at Stratford-upon-Avon, Yorkshire and Oxford. Tours are available throughout the year.

Cost: from $885-$940 per person, double occupancy, including airport transfers, hotels, touring via motor coach and local guides and some meals. Not included: air fare to London. Contact: Insight International, 745 Atlantic Ave., Suite 720, Boston, MA 02111; tel. (800) 582-8380.

Christmas Shopping

An Old-World Christmas and shopping tour to the Christmas markets in Germany and Austria leaves Dec. 1 for 10 days. The “Christkindlesmarkt” (Christmas Market) dates back hundreds of years and today still turns town squares into a wonderland. Guests visit Munich, Heidelberg, Rothenburg and Salzburg, Austria.

Cost: $1,390 per person, double occupancy, including accommodations, city tours by local guides and 14 meals. Not included: air fare to Germany. Contact: Gerhard Meng, P.O. Box 757, Portland, OR 97202-0757; tel. (503) 223-2402.

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea’s annual Highlands Sing-Sing show, a gathering of tribes for a highly decorative and costumed celebration, is part of the itinerary on a 15-day tour to this exotic land. Participants will leave Aug. 18 and attend the festival at Mt. Hagen.

Members will cruise on the Sepik River, stay at the Karawari Lodge on a hilltop, visit the coastal town of Madang and meet villagers and the Huli Wig Men in remote Tari.

Cost: $4,550 per person, double occupancy, including accommodations, excursions, most meals and all gratuities to guides and drivers. Not included: international air fare. Contact Victoria Travel, 11 W. Victoria St., Santa Barbara, CA 93101; tel. (800) 676-1241.

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