Drift Along on Idaho’s Historic Salmon River

The San Diego Natural History Museum will sponsor a journey on the Middle Fork of Idaho’s Salmon River Aug. 5 to 11. This trip combines camping and river travel while learning about the natural history of a mountain ecosystem. The 100-mile journey takes place in the River of No Return Wilderness Area on old-fashioned wooden drift boats.

These boats accommodate two passengers and a guide. At the end of each day, guests drift into a camp that is set up. Fresh supplies, ice and beverages will be flown in midway through the trip. The trip is limited to 16 participants, who will be escorted by Michael Hager, executive director of the San Diego Natural History Museum.

Cost: $2,595 per person, including air taxi service from Boise to Stanley, all ground transportation, one night in a hotel in Stanley, five nights on the river, all meals on the river including wine, the services of professional river guides, return air taxi from the Salmon River to Boise, and a tax-deductible donation to the museum.

Contact: Spectrum Tours, P.O. Box 50608, Santa Barbara, CA 93150; telephone (805) 969-9665.

Lights on Russia

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is offering a curator-accompanied trip called “Jewels & Treasures of Imperial Russia” June 30 to July 10. Anthony Kampf, museum curator of mineral sciences, will lead the tour to see Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Cost: $3,430 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, some meals and entrance fees. Air fare is extra.

Contact: Christine Robison at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County; tel. (213) 763-3350.

Italy’s Cinque Terre

Take an eight-day tour to the Cinque Terre and the hill country of Tuscany on three dates, May 2 to 9, July 25 to Aug. 1, and Sept. 19 to 26. The tour begins in Genoa and participants will travel along the Ligurian coast to a sea-view hotel in Rapallo.

Guests visit Portofino and Santa Margerita before heading south to walk along the sea between some of the hidden villages that make up Cinque Terre. A brief stop in Pisa is made before continuing on into the Tuscan hill country for visits to Volterra and San Gimignano. En route to Siena the group will tour a crystal and glassware factory. The final stop is the Renaissance city of Florence.

Cost: $1,695 per person, double occupancy, including accommodations, daily breakfast, airport transfers, all ground transportation and an Italian-speaking guide and historian. Air fare and meals are not included.

Contact: The Gurnham Group; tel. (800) 475-0004.

Gardens and Villas

Alpine train rides to reach rare plants in the 13,000 foot-high Jungfrau mountains is on the agenda of a tour of the Swiss and Italian Lakes region, designed for those interested in gardens, architecture, art and history.

The tour, limited to 17 participants, is scheduled for June 6 to 16. Starting in Geneva, the tour will visit lakes Brienz and Como and end in Pallanza on Lake Maggiore.

Touring is by motor coach, crossing some classic Alpine passes, including St. Gotthard, Susten and Jaun, all about 7,000 feet high.

Among the gardens featured on Lake Como are those of the Villa Melzi, once a hideaway of the composer Liszt, and Villa Serbelloni, now owned by the Rockefeller Foundation.

Scheduled for horticulture fans is the Taranto Botanic Gardens, created by a Scotsman in the early 1900s.

Cost: $3,500 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, transfers, touring, entrances and most meals. Not included: international air fare.

Contact: Ingatours, 5 The Dell, Pinner, Middlesex HA5 3EW, UK.; tel. (800) 786-5311.

Pyrenees, Please

Backroads International is offering a 13-day adventure through the Pyrenees Mountains, which straddle the France-Spanish border. Departures are May 5 and 26, June 9, Sept. 1 and 29 and Oct. 13. The tour, for 15 to 21 travelers, features stops at the Virgin of Guadalupe shrine at Jaizkibel, Spain; Pamplona, Spain; San Sebastian, the birthplace of St. Ignatius of Loyola in Spain; the Spanish Civil War shrine village of Guernica; and the new Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

Cost: $2,950 per person, double occupancy, including internal air and bus fares, two guides, 11 nights’ lodging, 11 breakfasts, seven lunches and four dinners.

Contact: Backroads International; tel. (800) 227-7889.

Arizona Riding

Grapevine Canyon Ranch offers one-week horseback riding tours of Apache country 80 miles southeast of Tucson. The Arizona ranch, open year-round, also gives participants a chance to do cowboy work. Rides to Ft. Bowie or the Chiricahua National Monument canyon are $55 extra.

Cost: $945 to $1,070 per person, double occupancy, per week, depending on accommodations. Three meals daily are included. Transportation costs to the ranch are extra.

Contact: Grapevine Canyon Ranch; tel. (800) 245-9202.

Best of Zimbabwe

Gallery Asha will be conducting a tour to Zimbabwe in Southern Africa. The 12-day tour runs from July 24 to Aug. 7. Participants depart from Los Angeles, arriving in Harare on July 26. Guests will take an early evening city tour, then will travel to the ancient ruins of the Monomatapa Empire, also known as Great Zimbabwe. Also on the itinerary is a night in Inyanga on the eastern border of Mozambique to tour the area and view the local waterfalls.

Guests will travel to Victoria Falls, Lake Kariba and Hwange National Park. At Hwange National Park the group will view animals in the wild during an early morning and afternoon game drive. Lake Kariba will be the rest and relaxation point on the return to Harare.

Cost: $4,583 per person, double occupancy, including air fare from Los Angeles to Harare, all in-country ground transportation, hotels and some meals.

Contact: Julie Ward, Gallery Asha, 6225 Canterbury Drive, Suite 101, Culver City, CA 90230; tel. (310) 717-3124.

Sailing Myanmar

Asia Transpacific Journeys is offering a five-day sailing adventure (weekly departures year-round) through the wild waters of Myanmar’s Mergui archipelago. Here 600 jungle-shrouded islands provide some of the last bastions of uninhabited wilderness in Southeast Asia.

Sea kayaks and Zodiac dinghies provide transport up island rivers for closer inspection of the rain forest.

Cost: $849 per person, double occupancy, including accommodations and some meals. The trip can be booked separately or as an extension for other small group programs in Myanmar, Thailand and beyond.

Contact: Asia Transpacific Journeys, 3055 Center Green Drive, Boulder, CO 80301; tel. (800) 642-2742.

Ireland’s West Side

The New England Aquarium in Boston is sponsoring a tour to the west coast of Ireland May 17 to 24. The tour’s emphasis is on the Dingle Peninsula and combines culture and natural history with visits to Bunratty Castle, Tralee, Killarney, the Ring of Kerry and the Blarney Castle. Guests visit the Cliffs of Moher and Burren.

Cost: $1,850 per person, including international air fare from Boston to Shannon, breakfast and dinner daily, accommodations and motor-coach transportation.

Contact: Jeanne Rankin at Travel Department of the New England Aquarium; tel. (617) 973-6562.

Tibet by Horseback

Ride with Tibetan nomads whose life and culture have changed little in the last 1,000 years on an 18-day expedition July 8-25. Days will be spent riding a 150-mile loop through northern Zoergai Prefecture. In the company of Khampa wranglers, travelers will visit alpine valleys, small hamlets, Buddhist temples and nomadic families whose lifestyle revolves around herding yaks. Linda Svendsen will be the trip leader.

Cost: $3,600 per person, double occupancy, including hotels or guest houses, ground transportation, wilderness camping gear and traditional meals.

Contact: Boojum Expeditions, 14543 Kelly Canyon Road, Bozeman, MT 59715; tel. (800) 287-0125.

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