Slowing Down in 4 European Countries

Want a trip where you don’t have to pack and unpack every day? Visit a selection of Europe’s prettiest places on a tour Sept. 22 to Oct. 7, where hotel stays are two or three days each. The first two nights are in Rudesheim, Germany, on the Rhine River, then on to 2,000-year-old Trier on the Moselle River, also in Germany. From there will be wine tasting and a day trip to Luxembourg. Next is Lake Bodensee with side trips to Switzerland. During the stay in Austria, the group will travel over the Europa Bridge to a small village in Italy. The last city is Munich, in time for the 1997 Oktoberfest closing. Guests also take a short river cruise on the Rhine, and visit famous castles and cathedrals. Cost: $3,075 per person, double occupancy, including air fare on Lufthansa, ground transportation, breakfast and dinner every day, and entrance fees. Contact: Jeannette Martin at Atlas Travel, 4150 Long Beach Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90807; telephone (800) 76-ATLAS.

Best of China

McIntosh Tours is offering an 18-day small group tour to China departing June 4 to 21, covering Beijing, Xian, Shanghai, Suzhou, Guilin, Chongqing, Wuhan and Hong Kong. Visits will be made to the Great Wall and Ming Tombs, Summer Palace and Forbidden City in Beijing; the terra cotta horses and warriors in Xian; the Silk Embroidery Institute and historic gardens in Suzhou; Chongqing; the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River; and a visit to Hong Kong.

Tour leader John Bruscemi speaks Chinese fluently and has led tours to China many times. There will be opportunities for dialogue with local town leaders along the way.

Cost: $2,995 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, ground transportation, all meals except in Hong Kong, and entrance fees. Air fare, tips and taxes are not included. Contact Iweeta McIntosh, 3028 Fondren Drive, Dallas, TX 75205; tel. (800) 23-CHINA.

Churches and Castles

England has about 10,000 medieval churches, some of which will be visited on a tour April 14 to 24. The tour focuses on the history, culture, art and architecture of the churches in the English countryside of East Anglia, where the first New World settlers came from.

The cathedral city of Norwich, country parish churches, the university city of Cambridge, castle ruins and medieval wool towns are among the highlights.

Historian Charles Farrow will meet the tour participants in London and escort them via motor coach to Norwich in East Anglia, near England’s eastern coast. The group will stay in Norwich and Cambridge and travel each day to the nearby villages. The tour will also be led by Roy Tricker, who wrote “Country Guide to English Churches.”

Cost: $2,180 per person, double occupancy, including five nights in Norwich and four nights in Cambridge, full English breakfast and dinner daily, motor coach transportation, slide show and lectures, guides, hotel service charges and gratuities. Air fare is additional.

Contact: Ancestral Tours to Great Britain; 24 Murray St., Norwalk, CO 06851; tel. (800) 846-8980.

Jewish Heritage

Rabbi Debra Orenstein, writer and teacher, will lead a series of lectures on Jewish Life in the Scandinavian Capitals, Aug. 17 to 28 on Norwegian Cruise Line’s Crown. Passengers visit Copenhagen; Stockholm; Oslo; Helsinki, Finland; and St. Petersburg, Russia. Optional Jewish Heritage tours at various ports of call will be available.

Cost: from $2,024 per person. Not included: international air fare and port taxes. Contact: Regency Travel, 10330 Friars Road, San Diego, CA 92120; tel. (800) 362-6221.

Art Capitals

The Palos Verdes Art Center is offering two trips to art capitals this spring. The first is to Washington, D.C., from March 26 to 30. This docent-led tour features the exhibits: “The Victorians,” the first exhibition of British Victorian painting in the United States; “Picasso”; “Splendors of Imperial China”; and “Six Centuries--Six Artists.” It also offers private tours of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the State Department, the Hillwood Museum, the Phillips Collection and Anderson House.

Cost: $1,096 per person, double occupancy, including all tours, admissions, hotel, transfers and air fare from Los Angeles.

The second trip is to the art capitals of Eastern Europe from March 27 to April 9, and features art tours and visits in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia; Budapest, Hungary; and Prague, Czech Republic.

Cost: $2,425 per person with air fare or land only at $1,560 per person, double occupancy, including sightseeing in each city, special art tours, first-class hotels and 14 meals. A portion of both trips includes a tax-deductible donation to the Palos Verdes Art Center. Contact: Sharon Ryan at Uniglobe Travel; tel. (310) 543-4552 or (800) 508-0444.

Literary Ireland

A literary tour of Ireland, May 23 to 31, will explore the sites that inspired James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Jonathan Swift, and other great Irish writers. Members travel from Dublin to Sligo and Galway. They will meet James Joyce’s nephew, see “The Book of Kells” and visit Connemara, where the mountains are purple with heather.

Cost: $1,649 per person, double occupancy, including air fare from New York, hotels, ground transportation, daily breakfast, some dinners, theater tickets and guides. Contact: Diana Altman, Fresh Pond Travel, Special Interest Tours, 186 Alewife Brook Parkway, Cambridge, MA 02138-1120; tel. (800) 645-0001.

Collectors in Africa

Learn how to buy tribal art on a trip to West Africa, April 4 to 13, visiting the countries of Senegal, Guinea and Sierra Leone. An experienced archeologist and art collector will lead this trip.

Cost: $2,515 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, some meals and ground transportation. Not included: air fare.

Contact: Lost World Trading; P.O. Box 365, Oakdale, CA 95361; tel. (209) 847-5393.

Wine Cruise

Wine lovers can sample the fruit of the grape harvest on a wine-tasting cruise on a seven-day eastern Caribbean sailing. Leaving Nov. 22, the cruise will feature programs dedicated to the appreciation of fine wines, including component tasting to learn how fine wines are made. Seminars and lectures will discuss varieties and labels, cooking with wine, and how to choose the right wine with dinner. Ports of call include St. Martin, St. John/St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands and Bahamas.

Cost: $796 per person, double occupancy. Port taxes and air fare are extra. An overnight stay in Fort Lauderdale is complimentary for passengers departing from the West Coast. Contact: Shelly Tompkins, Your Travel Center, 1005 Casitas Pass Road, Carpinteria, CA 93013; tel. (805) 684-6685.

Bali and Yogyakarta

Between Heaven and Earth is the title of an eight-night tour to Bali and Yogyakarta, Indonesia. In Bali, participants will visit Ulu Watu temple, the art and carving centers in the Ubud areas and the little visited pre-Hindu village of Tenganan in East Bali. In Yogyakarta, participants will experience the Borobudur ruins at sunrise, have lunch in the home of a batik designer and view his extensive art and antique collections, tour a bird market and attend workshops for Javanese wooden puppets. The itinerary allows for free time for independent exploration and shopping, and offers optional excursions such as a catamaran trip to an islet off Bali for snorkeling, rain forest by Jeep, river rafting, or a Spice Island cruise to Sumbawa, Komodo and Lombok.

Cost: $2,149 per person, double occupancy, including air fare from Los Angeles eight nights’ accommodations, daily American breakfasts and some meals, ground transportation and sightseeing. Contact: Uniglobe Exceptional Travel, 225 Avenue I., Suite 110, Redondo Beach, CA 90277; tel. (800) 508-0444.

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