Exploring Small Villages of Germany and Austria

Get a close-up look at the small villages and medieval towns in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on a tour that runs July 4 to 18. Tour leader Ray Fike has family in Germany, so guests get to visit their home for a German-style barbecue and visit their bakery for a tour and sampling. The itinerary includes Bad Durkheim, Rothenberg, Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Heidelberg in Germany; Salzburg, Austria; and Lucerne, Switzerland. Guests will take a Rhine River cruise and ride a train through the Alps from the German border to Reutte, Austria.

Cost: $3,480 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare, lodging, two meals daily, baggage handling, ground transportation, entrance fees and guides.

Contact: Travel With Ray, 21495 Silvertree Lane, Trabuco Canyon, CA 92679; telephone (949) 589- 6779.

Australia: Singles

Meet singles from Australia on a tour to the land Down Under Oct. 18 to 29. Single travelers will visit Sydney, the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef. Highlights include the Sydney Opera House, the Kuranda Rain Forest, the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and a cruise on the Brisbane River. In between are evening socials with Australian singles.

Cost: $3,695 per person, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, ground transportation, hotels, most meals and sightseeing.

Contact: Frances Reps of Sailair Travel; tel. (800) 759-5800, Ext. 4094 or (805) 640-6583.

Africa: Safari

The Santa Ana Zoo is offering a 12-day safari to Botswana on Nov. 14. Participants will journey to the Okavango Delta, an oasis in the middle of the Kalahari Desert. Guests will glide on the delta in a dugout canoe and explore the savanna in Land Rovers in search of wild dogs, leopards, cheetahs, buffalo and elephants on day and night game runs. Accommodations throughout Botswana will be in luxury tented camps.

Optional trips are also available to Cape Town, South Africa, and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Space is limited to 16 travelers.

Cost: $4,995 per person, double occupancy, including air fare from LAX, ground transportation, accommodations, most meals and a $200 donation to the zoo.

Contact: Ron Glazier at the Santa Ana Zoo; tel. (714) 647-6598.

Costa Rica: Wildlife

An 11-day natural history tour to Costa Rica departs LAX July 15. Designed to expose participants to the diversity of rain forest wildlife, the tour will visit eight national parks and reserves, including Monte Verde, Arenal Volcano, Palo Verde and Carara. By walking, boating and driving through the parks, the group will be able to view the complexity of the rain forest.

Potential observations include sloths, monkeys, huge butterflies, exotic birds (more than 800 species), strangler fig trees, orchids and bromeliads, marine turtles, poison dart frogs, crocodiles and active volcanoes. Activities also include the Rain Forest Aerial Tram, soaking in hot springs and optional river rafting and exploration of the forest on horseback.

The tour will be escorted by Norm Cole, a professor of ecology at Orange Coast College, and by Costa Rican naturalists.

Cost: $2,995 per person, double occupancy, including superior accommodations, most meals, sightseeing, guides, entrance fees, ground transportation in Costa Rica and round-trip air fare from Los Angeles. A three-day extension to Tortuguero National Park on the Caribbean coast is available for $595.

Contact: Norm Cole, tel. (949) 497-1818, or Park East Tours, tel. (800) 223-6078, Ext. 321.

Old South: Boat Trip

Enjoy an old-fashioned Christmas on the Delta Queen Steamboat Co.’s American Queen Dec. 21 to 28. The cruise begins and ends in New Orleans, with stops at Natchez and Vicksburg in Mississippi, and St. Francisville and Baton Rouge in Louisiana. Antebellum homes, Civil War battle sites, Cajun music and food and a bonfire to light the way for Papa Noel on Christmas Eve are included on the itinerary.

Cost: $1,596 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from LAX, transfers and all meals and entertainment on board. Deposits must be received by June 15.

Contact: Don Eslinger at Historic Tours of America, 20325 Seabright Lane, Huntington Beach, CA 92646; tel (714) 536-3434.

Midway: Battle History

The Battle of Midway during World War II is the focus of a tour to Hawaii and Midway Atoll, June 27 through July 5. Commemorative ceremonies are part of the tour program, sponsored by the International Midway Memorial Foundation in Rockville, Md.

Adm. Thomas H. Moorer, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is a featured speaker.

The tour begins at Pearl Harbor, where the war started for the United States, and ends on the battleship Missouri, where Japan’s formal surrender was accepted. Participants will cruise Pearl Harbor and take a charter flight to Midway Atoll for three nights. On Midway, the tour focuses on the atoll’s military, political and commercial history.

The code breakers will be honored June 29 in Honolulu. One of them, Capt. Forrest R. Baird, will escort participants through their former facility.

Special evening activities include a black-tie dinner, a Hawaiian evening at Hickam Air Force Base and dinner on a submarine.

Cost: $2,895 per person, double occupancy, including hotel accommodations, some meals, air-conditioned motor-coach transportation, membership in the Midway Memorial Foundation, porterage and round-trip air between Honolulu and Midway. Air fare to Hawaii is extra.

Contact: Bob Folliard at BF Tours; tel. (800) 966-7269.

Bali: Beaches

Geotrax, along with Valle Travel, is offering a 19-day trip to Bali leaving June 10 from Los Angeles. The trip will include visits to the many craft centers around Ubud (where guests spend several nights) and Mt. Batur (with hikes and events scheduled), plus beach stays at Lovina and Candidasa with opportunities to snorkel.

Cost: $1,500 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air from LAX on Malaysia Air with a stop in Kuala Lumpur, accommodations, daily breakfast, van transportation around Bali and entrance fees to cultural events.

Contact: Valle Travel at (800) 527-2077.

France: Burgundy

A canal barge trip called “Wine Lovers and Boaters” begins in Paris Oct. 16 and lasts 10 days. L’Escargot is a 24-passenger canal barge, which will stop in Dijon and Beaune to see chateaux, abbeys and vineyards.

Cost: $1,999 per person, double occupancy, including three nights in a Paris hotel, five nights barging with all meals, sightseeing by private motor coach, round-trip TGV express train from Paris and taxes. Air fare is additional.

Contact: Joanna Matos at Stevenson Buena Park Travel; tel. (562) 598-2424.

Canada: Indians

A Smithsonian study tour of the Pacific Northwest Indians of coastal British Columbia will run July 31 to Aug. 9.

The tour will begin in Vancouver, then move on to Vancouver Island and some of the small islands in the Queen Charlotte and Georgia straits. This Pacific coastal area is home to dozens of native peoples. Guests will meet master carvers of elaborate masks, and see totem poles that preserve tribal mythologies.

Highlights include the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver; Alert Bay’s U’mista Cultural Centre; a Kwakiutl Nation tour of the tribe’s ancient village and petroglyphs, followed by a dance performance and salmon feast; Quadra Island; and the Cowichan Native Heritage Centre and village in Duncan, “the city of Totems.”

There will also be opportunities to fish, hike or whale watch.

Ron Libertus, Indian art historian and professor of Native American studies at the University of Minnesota, will be the tour leader.

Cost: $2,295 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, ground transportation, all meals and entrance fees. Air fare is extra.

Contact: Smithsonian Study Tours; tel. (202) 357-4700, Internet https://www.si.edu/tsa/sst.

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