Pyramid Schemes and Artifacts in Ancient Egypt

Go back into history as you move forward in time on a journey to ancient Egypt during the millennial click-over. The 15-day tour leaves Dec. 23 and includes a New Year’s Eve celebration dinner at the Winter Palace Hotel in Luxor following a day’s excursion to the Valley of the Kings. Participants will also take a Nile cruise and visit Abu Simbel, Memphis, Saqqara, Alexandria, the pyramids and the temples of Amen-Ra at Karnak, Hathor at Dendera and Horus at Idfu. Guests will also tour the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the mosques of Ibn Tulun and Sidi Rifai.

The tour will be led by Leon Rosenstein, a professor at San Diego State University, and is available for university credit.

Cost: $4,989 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles and within Egypt, ground transportation, cruise, hotels and entrance fees.

Contact: Leon Rosenstein; telephone (619) 594-6586 or Rancho San Diego Travel at (800) 862-6220.

France and Spain

Autumn sets the stage for art, music, food and fashion on a 12-day, four-city trip to France and Spain Oct. 6 to 18. Beginning with four days in Paris, guests will visit the Egyptian wing of the Louvre, the 19th century mansion Musee Jacquemart-Andre and the Museum of Music in Parc de la Villette. Visitors will attend fashion shows, stroll the Tuileries gardens and shop the city’s many boutiques.

Then it’s off to Spain for two nights in the old Atlantic seaside town of San Sebastian. A day trip along the Biscay coast includes a visit to Guernica, the historic heart of the Basque country, and lunch in a Basque fisherman’s restaurant with cliff-side views overlooking the sea.

Next is Bilbao for two days to see the new Guggenheim Museum. The tour ends with four nights in Barcelona in the fashionable Diagonal district.

There will be visits to the Picasso Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art, and a tour of the architecture of Antonio Gaudi. Barcelona has pedestrian-only streets where visitors can enjoy outdoor cafes and street musicians.

Cost: $3,650 per person, double occupancy, including deluxe hotel accommodations, daily breakfasts, many meals, inter-European flights with airport transfers, private coach transport, museum, entrance fees and guides. The tour is limited to 12 participants. Not included: transatlantic air fare.

Contact: Anne Block at Take My Mother Please Tours; tel. (323) 737-2200.

South America: Cruise

Brazil’s coast and Argentina’s capital are the features of a new Vantage Travel cruise for next year. The March 22-to-April 13 trip offers three nights in Buenos Aires for a city tour and an optional visit to Iguazu Falls. Then guests board the 1,052-passenger Norwegian Crown. There are port calls in Santos, Rio de Janeiro (with an overnight stay), Recife, Fortaleza and Belem. The ship also visits Antigua and St. Croix before disembarkation in San Juan.

Cost: $3,499 to $5,999 depending on cabin, per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Miami and breakfasts in Buenos Aires.

Contact: Vantage Travel; tel. (888) 652-7104.

Scandinavia: Architecture

Architectural tours drafted annually by Architects Abroad include Scandinavia from Sept. 24 to Oct. 7.

The tour covers industrial and product design in Denmark, innovations in landscaping in Sweden and homes and apartments in Finland. Because there is so much to see, each day’s program typically offers two alternative tours.

The tours, open to non-architects too, offer conversations with noted practitioners of the structural arts and visits to their studios.

Cost: $3,990 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, ground transportation and daily breakfast. International air fare is extra.

Contact: Architects Abroad; tel. (800) 272-8808.

Southwest: History

Join the Southwest Museum Oct. 1 to 8 on an “Ancient Places & Sacred Peoples” journey to major Anasazi and Pueblo sites including cities of stone in Chaco Canyon in New Mexico and Mesa Verde in Colorado. The trip features the International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque. Participants will get a contemporary and historical perspective of each place visited. The itinerary includes tours of the Taos and Acoma pueblos, a tour through Santa Fe’s Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and a visit to Taos’ Fechin Institute. New Mexico and Colorado will be highlighted by the golden autumn foliage of aspen trees found throughout this region.

Cost: $1,943 per person, double occupancy, including lodging, air transportation from LAX to Albuquerque, land transportation and most meals.

Contact: Vanessa Acosta at the Southwest Museum, tel. (323) 221-2164, Ext. 236.

Mexico: Colonial Cities

Learn about Mexican art and culture on an art tour to the Mexican colonial cities of Morelia, Patzcuaro, Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende, Oct. 29 to Nov. 6, with a three-day extension in San Miguel Nov. 7 to 9. This is the high season for crafts in these cities, against a backdrop of stunning Spanish colonial art and architecture in the mountainous terrain of the Sierra Madre.

Some of the tour highlights are Day of the Dead ceremonies and rituals at Tzintzuntzan; visits to artists in their studios and to workshops of artisans, many of whom still follow the ancient Anahuac and Tarascan crafts traditions; city tours; visits to museums, haciendas and colorful marketplaces; and a tour of beautiful homes and gardens in San Miguel.

Cost: $1,895 per person, double occupancy, including airport transfers, land travel, bilingual guide, hotels, entrance fees, daily American breakfast and some other meals. Air fare is extra.

Contact: Jean Grimm Mexican Art Tours; tel. (480) 730-1764.

South: Dixie’s Heart

Corliss Tours of Huntington Beach is offering an eight-day “Dixie in the Fall” tour beginning Sept. 19.

Tour members will stay the first three days of the tour in New Orleans’ French Quarter. Local sightseeing will include Jackson Square to the Aquarium of the Americas, a Creole cooking demonstration at the New Orleans School of Cooking and a paddle-wheel boat cruise on the Mississippi.

A highlight of the tour is a two-day visit to Natchez, Miss. Several of Natchez’s antebellum homes and gardens will be visited, hosted by local residents in period dress. Admission to evening entertainment events is also included.

The final two nights of the tour are spent in Lafayette, the heart of French Louisiana. Lafayette sightseeing will include a visit to the Acadian Culture Center and to Vermilon, a living history museum and folk-life village.

Cost: $1,115 per person, double occupancy, including hotel accommodations, admission fees, motor-coach transportation, airport transfers, baggage handling, 12 meals and guides. Round-trip air fare to New Orleans is additional.

Contact: Corliss Tours, P.O. Box 4042, Huntington Beach, CA 92605; tel. (800) 482-4597.

South Africa: Tennis

Combine tennis playing, big-game viewing and sightseeing on a 10-day tour of South Africa. Advantage Tennis Tours and the Tennis Players are offering a tennis safari to South Africa from Oct. 22 to Nov. 1.

Guests will have the opportunity to play tennis with members at private clubs in Cape Town and Sun City. The safari portion of the tour includes escorted game drives within a game reserve that borders Kruger National Park and a three-night stay at the Khoka Moya Lodge near Kruger. The tour will also include a two-night stay in Sun City, a resort originally built for royalty.

Cost: $4,350 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air from Los Angeles, hotel accommodations, city tours of Cape Town and Johannesburg, six game drives and various bush walks, daily breakfast, some lunches and dinners, airport transfers, all ground transportation and services of tour host. The tour is limited to 20 guests.

Contact: Advantage Tennis Tours, tel. (800) 341-8687, or the Tennis Players, tel. (310) 475-2359.

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