Inspecting the Pieces That Make Up Berlin

Discover the art and architecture of Berlin on a 14-day tour that begins June 16. Participants take a trip to Grunewald, a popular woods for hiking and lake swimming. Guests will also visit Peacock Island and the zoo.

Guests experience Berlin’s culture through its museums, the Botanical Gardens, Charlottenburg Palace, the State Opera House, cabarets and Berliner Ensemble Theater (founded by playwright Bertolt Brecht).

Lectures focus on Berlin’s history as a royal residence in the 15th century, and Frederick the Great’s re-creation of the city, turning it into a major cultural capital of Europe through liberal reforms and generous patronage of the fine arts. Guests learn about its devastating 20th century history and current reconstruction to make the city once again the capital of a united Germany in 1999.

Cost: $2,525 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles to Berlin, airport transfers, accommodations, daily breakfasts, one dinner and entrance fees. Contact: Institute for International Programs, 770 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90017; telephone (213) 891-2282.

Spanish Treasures

“The Treasures of Spain: Art, Architecture, Interiors, Culture and Cuisine” is the theme of a 14-day travel-study tour of Spain scheduled June 23 to July 5, sponsored by UCLA Extension. The tour is open to all but is geared to artists, designers and architects.

Visitors explore Spain’s important historic sites, museums, palaces and mosques to trace the influences of the Iberians, Greeks, Romans, Jews, Moors and Christians on Spain’s art and culture.

In Madrid, participants will visit the Prado, the Royal Palace, the Reina Sofia Museum and the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection in the Villahermosa. From Madrid, there are day trips to the Roman aqueduct in Segovia and to San Lorenzo de El Escorial.

Guests are driven through Andalusian villages with stops in Jerez de la Frontera and stay overnight in the Parador in Ronda.

Participants visit the prehistoric cave paintings of Cuevas de Pileta. The tour concludes with a visit to Barcelona to explore the works of the modernists, including Gaudi, Miro, Picasso and Dali.

Cost: $3,750 per person, double occupancy, including course fee, round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, 12 nights in hotels, daily buffet breakfasts, some meals, museum entrance fees and land travel. Contact: UCLA Extension, 10996 Le Conte Ave., Room 414, Los Angeles, CA 90024; tel. (310) 825-9061.

Native Southwest

“The Southwest: Native American Culture and Spirituality,” part of the University of California Berkeley Extension program, will be led by Leslie Gray, a Native American psychologist and expert on shamanism.

The tour to Taos and Santa Fe, N.M., runs Sept. 26 to Oct. 4 and will focus on the core philosophy, world views and spiritual values of Native Americans. Participants explore pre-Columbian cliff dwellings on pink stone mesas, underground ceremonial kivas and canyon walls etched with petroglyphs. Other highlights include meeting with Indian elders, listening to native storytelling and visiting a purification lodge.

Cost: 2,250 per person, double occupancy, including course fee, hotels, some meals, entrance fees and transportation within New Mexico. Transportation to Albuquerque is not included. Contact: UC Berkeley Extension, 1995 University Ave., Berkeley, CA 94702-7019; tel. (415) 252-5230.

Jewish Heritage

During the 16th and 17th centuries, Spaniards of Jewish heritage fled Spain to Mexico and then to northern New Mexico to escape the Spanish Inquisition. That their identities were hidden for centuries because they adopted Catholic practices is the subject of a one-day seminar, part of an eight-day tour to New Mexico July 23 to 30.

Stanley Hordes, Ph.D., will lead the seminar on the Jewish experience in New Mexico.

The lecture is followed by a walking tour of historic German-Jewish Santa Fe and then of Las Vegas, N.M., a well-preserved Victorian-era town where Jewish families have maintained their religious and cultural practices. Guests also visit the first New Mexico cemetery with Jewish and Catholic markings on the headstones.

There is time for shopping, guided museum and pueblo visits and a Native American storytelling segment. Guests stay four nights in Santa Fe, two nights in Taos and one night in Placitas.

Cost: $920 per person, double occupancy, including the seminar, folk art class, land transportation, lodging, 10 meals, two museum entrance fees, two pueblo entrance fees and guides. Not included: air fare to Albuquerque, where the tour begins and ends. Contact: Aventura Artistica, 151 Sherry Lane, Del Mar, CA 92014; tel. (800) 808-7352.

Photogenic France

Visit the Eastern Pyrenees and Barcelona, Spain, on a photography trip to France and Spain from Oct. 4 to 15.

The group begins in Ceret, the village loved by painters Matisse and Picasso. Then in Collioure, the seaside village made famous in the paintings of the Fauve school (Matisse and Derain), the group will photograph the rust, gold and red of the Roussillon vineyards during the last week of the grape harvest, the fall colors of the landscape, and the mountain vistas from Mt. Canigou.

Members will also visit the medieval walled city of Carcassonne and travel south into Spain to visit Barcelona. There the group will visit landmark architectural sites and the Picasso Museum. There will be an opportunity to photograph the narrow streets of the medieval quarter and watch the Catalan dance called the Sardanna, performed on Sunday mornings in front of the cathedral. Guests can also try tapas and drink sangria in Spain and sample fresh sardines and local red wine in French Catalonia.

Cost: $2,750 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare within France, accommodations in a variety of hotels, some meals, ground transportation in Catalonia and Spain, and museum fees. Contact: Photographic Tours of Europe, 3920 W. 231st Place, Torrance, CA 90505; tel. (310) 378-2821.

Edinburgh Festival

A 10-day trip to Edinburgh, Scotland, that departs on Aug. 6, will be led by Ellis Pryce-Jones, University of Nevada Las Vegas professor of theater arts. The highlight of the trip is the Edinburgh International Festival. Featured is the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the famous Military Tattoo, Scotland’s annual outdoor military spectacular set against the backdrop of Edinburgh Castle.

Cost: $2,535 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare and first-class accommodations at the Learmonth Hotel, daily breakfast, and day tours to Glamis Castle, Hopeton House, Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh Castle and Rosslyn Chapel. Contact: University of Las Vegas, Michelle Baker; tel. (702) 895-3394.

Walk and Yodel

Hike through the Tirol of Austria and the Dolomites of Italy with the Museum of Natural History July 10 to 17. The walking tour will be conducted at a relaxed pace by geologists and naturalists. Participants will fly to Innsbruck and set out from Fiss, a Tirolean village set in an Alpine meadow and ringed by snowy peaks and views of the Kaunertal Glacier.

The hotel base is in the well-preserved Italian village of Castelrotto, which offers access to the Sassolungo, “the Matterhorn of the Dolomites.” Walks wind among wooded areas and past farmhouses.

Cost: $1,696 per person, double occupancy, including accommodations, most meals and professional local walking guides. Air fare is not included. Contact: Travel Program, Natural History Museum, 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90007; tel. (213) 744-3350.

Biking the Rockies

Womantours of Driggs, Idaho, will be leading two inn-to-inn bicycle tours for women in the Canadian Rockies. One tour, Aug. 30 to Sept. 5, follows the Icefields Parkway from Banff. Highlights include glacier and wildlife viewing. The second tour, also starting in Banff, lasts 10 days, Sept. 6 to 15. Passing through the heart of the Canadian Rockies, this trip includes visits to five national parks and overnight stays at three hotels with hot springs.

Cost: $950 for the first trip and $1,350 for the second, per person, including lodging, breakfasts and dinners, experienced guides, maps and a support van. Contact: Womantours, P.O. Box 931, Driggs, Idaho 83422; tel. (800) 247-1444.

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