Summer Savings, From Africa to Ireland

It’s time to start thinking in earnest about summer vacations. I have several suggestions to make, connected by nothing other than low cost. Though some are only a week long, they can easily be extended or mixed and matched with other destinations.

* You will see the same animals, and sometimes even occupy the same lodges and eat the same meals, as those pretentious folk who pay upward of $4,000 for a classic African safari. But by limiting your stay in the game parks to four nights--which I find to be perfectly sufficient--you slash the cost. From longtime African specialist Magical Holidays, you’ll receive round-trip air from Los Angeles to Nairobi, two nights in Nairobi on arrival, four nights on safari in the game parks (with all meals and all else) and then a final Nairobi stay in a day room before returning home for about $2,430 per person, double occupancy, from June 1 to Sept. 15. Call Magical Holidays at telephone (800) 2-AFRIKA.

* By now we’re all familiar with low-cost air-and-land packages from the West Coast to the islands of Tahiti and Fiji. At around $869 to $999 per person, they’re among the great continuing bargains--from such companies as Pleasant Tahitian Holidays, tel. (800) 644-3515; Tahiti Legends, tel. (800) 200-1213; or Brendan Tours, tel. (800) 421-8446, to Fiji.

* This summer, it will be two years since the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong reverted to China, and its continued tourism slump is keeping those deals coming. The latest is from California-based Just Holiday, tel. (888) 397-9988 and Internet https://www.justholiday.com, which is offering an attractive package of round-trip air and four nights at Kowloon’s Metropole Hotel. From Los Angeles the cost per person, double occupancy, is $668 to $768 in May, and from June till August prices range from $868 to $968. No meals are included, but not to worry--in addition to some of the priciest eateries in the world, Hong Kong is also full of good Chinese food for a song.

* The cheapest bicycle tours on earth, and a stinging reproof to the high-priced firms that operate other bicycle tours, are the seven-night Irish bicycling arrangements of California-based, budget-oriented Forum Travel International, tel. (925) 671-2900. From May to September, and on itineraries ranging from Connemara to County Wicklow, they supply you with a bike for a week, shipment of your luggage from place to place, seven nights of simple guest house accommodations with breakfast and a “self-guided” itinerary (you receive written instructions of where to go, naming the stops where you have reservations for the night)--all for $570 per person, double occupancy. And if you forgo the luggage service and simply pack extra underwear and socks in a pannier carried atop the back of the bike, the price drops to $470.