Pitching the Tent in Anza-Borrego Park

Families looking for something to do over the Thanksgiving weekend can go camping in Anza-Borrego State Park, south of Palm Springs. A guided trip to California’s largest state park runs Nov. 29 to 31. The tour includes easy hikes and family activities, all meals and campground accommodations. Guests need to supply their own tent and sleeping bags.

Cost: $100 per person; $65 for children. Optional motel reservations are also available.

Contact: Family Adventure Tours, 1164 Alvira St., Los Angeles, CA 90035; telephone (213) 939-2819.

British Heritage

Jerren Travel Service is offering its fifth annual British Heritage Aviation Tour, which departs from Los Angeles Aug. 26 and returns Sept. 9. The tour begins in Edinburgh, Scotland, for the Edinburgh Tattoo, a program of military fife-and-drum bands at a lighted castle courtyard in the evening. Guests will also visit the Scottish countryside before moving on to York, Hadrian’s Wall and Stratford-upon-Avon to see Warwick Castle and the cottages of the Cotswolds. Next is the Duxford Air Show in Cambridge.

Participants will also tour the American Air Museum at Duxford and the Shuttleworth Collection, which is an airplane museum in hangers near Cambridge. In London, participants will go sightseeing and then attend the Farnborough Air Show.

Cost: about $3,000 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, hotels, daily breakfast, three dinners, entrance fees and ground transportation.

Contact: Jerren Travel Service; tel. (714) 731-8020.

Sea of Cortez

Horizons West Guided Travel Adventures is organizing tours to Mexico’s Sea of Cortez. The four- to six-day tours are available year-round. Guests stay at the La Unica wilderness resort. Located south of Bahia de los Angeles, La Unica is only accessible by boat. There guests will go fishing, kayaking, diving and hiking.

Cost: from $725 per person, including hotel, all meals and guided hikes. All transportation is included from San Diego.

Contact: Horizons West Guided Travel Adventures; tel. (800) 430-2544.

Wine Tasting Cruise

Join three of Napa Valley’s vintners on the April 12 Eastern Caribbean sailing aboard Holland America’s Veendam. Scheduled to be on the cruise are Rob McNeil of Mumm Napa Valley, Tim McDonald from Beaulieu Vineyards (BV) and K.R. Rombauer from Rombauer Vineyards. Each vintner will host a wine-tasting session. The cruise sails from Fort Lauderdale to the ports of St. Kitts, St. John, St. Thomas and Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas.

Cost: $1,482 per person, double occupancy, including cruise, round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, hotel in Florida before the cruise, transfers, port charges and taxes.

Contact: Litwin Travel, 15250 Ventura Blvd., No. 110, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403; tel. (818) 789-8250.

Mongolia’s Birds

The Massachusetts Audubon Society and the American Birding Assn. are offering a tour of Mongolia’s natural history and culture May 22 to June 7. The group will visit mountain, steppe desert and wetland habitats, where participants will be able to see a variety of wildlife and wildflower displays, as well as some of the world’s rarest birds. The trip will coincide with the spring wildlife migration that passes through Mongolia en route from tropical Asian wintering grounds to northern breeding grounds.

Tour leaders are Christopher Leahy, director of the Center for Biological Conservation at Massachusetts Audubon Society, and Ayurzaryn Bold, a Mongolian ornithologist and president of the Mongolian Ornithological Foundation.

Contact: Massachusetts Audubon Society Natural History Travel Program; tel. (781) 259-9506, Ext. 7411, or (800) 289-9504.

Belize New Year’s

The Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography is offering a New Year’s expedition to explore the natural and cultural world of Belize, Dec. 26 to Jan. 3, led by Mark Silberstein, director of the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Reserve at Moss Landing, Calif.

Belize’s barrier reefs, cays and coast will be seen on board the 182-foot, 30-passenger schooner Rembrandt Van Rijn. Excursions will be made to Manatee Hole in Belize’s Southern Lagoon; Half Moon Cay National Monument, noted for harboring thousands of nesting red-footed boobies and frigate birds; Monkey River to see howler monkeys; and the Caribbean village of Placentia, where the locals will put on a festive dance program. Coral reefs and tropical fish abound for those who like to snorkel.

Additional destinations include a wildlife reserve, the Cockscomb Jaguar Sanctuary, Belize City and the Maya archeological site of Altun Ha, where a large carved jade image of the sun god Kinish Ahau was found.

Cost: $2,795 per person, double occupancy, including accommodations, some meals, and local transportation. Air fare is not included.

Contact: Heidi Hahn, Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography; tel. (619) 534-5647.

Cooking Up Italy

L’Amore di Cucina Italiana--”love of Italian cooking”--offers the experience of Italian culture and cuisine both for the novice and experienced cook. Weeklong programs combine cooking, dining, shopping and touring in Tuscany. Dates are: April 21 to 28, Sept. 22 to 29, Oct. 1 to 8, Oct. 8 to 15.

Guests stay at the Locanda di Praticino, in the village of Pomino, just outside of Florence. Dating back to the 15th century, the locanda, a restored farmhouse, and other buildings on the property, were originally the summer residences for the bishops of Fiesole. Guest rooms, with private baths, have recently been renovated. In addition to vineyards, tennis court, pond and pool, the property also has views of the countryside.

Each one-week program includes five days of cooking instruction (three hours each) emphasizing Tuscan and Mediterranean cuisine. The teachers are cookbook authors-Cordon Bleu instructors Cristina Blasi and Gabriella Mari. Hands-on instruction teaches preparation of food, presentation and historical aspects of cooking. Following each class, guests share the prepared meal, accompanied by the appropriate wines.

In addition to the cooking classes, the itinerary includes visits to the museum of a porcelain maker, an afternoon of wine-tasting and lunch at a vineyard, trips to historic and nearby villas and villages, and olive oil tastings. There is also ample time for shopping in the shops of Florence.

Costs: $2,195 per person; $1,995 non-cooking spouse/friend, per person including ground transportation, lodging and meals. Air fare is not included.

Contact: Ralph Slone of Inland Services, 360 Lexington Ave., New York, NY 10017; tel. (212) 687-9898.

Dressing for Oaxaca

The Southwest Museum of Los Angeles is sponsoring a 10-day travel excursion to Oaxaca, Mexico, as the culmination of its Oaxacan textile and costume exhibit. The trip is scheduled for March 12 to 21 and will be led by artist-teacher and Oaxacan specialist Raoul de la Sota.

The focus of the program will be on the indigenous culture of Oaxaca along with a myriad of foreign influences and will include visits to archeological sites, such as Mitla, Monte Alban and Lambityeco. Visit are planned to museums such as the Frissell, the Tamayo and State Regional Museum with its gold and textile collection. Much attention will be given to the local artisans and their work; participants visit them in their native villages.

Experts in weaving, clay sculpture and pottery, embroidery and woodcarving will demonstrate and explain the mythology and symbolism of indigenous folk art.

Cost: $1,999 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, first-class hotel, all guided sightseeing, private bus, 16 meals, a dinner-dance show and tips. Optional is a day with chef Susana Trilling as participants shop for and then prepare a typical meal. There is also an optional three-day extension to visit the excellent beaches at Santa Cruz Huatulco.

Contact: Southwest Museum at (213) 221-2164, Ext. 230, or for information, call professor De la Sota at (213) 255-9913.

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