Arabian Days and Nights While Sailing on Two Seas

The Harvard Alumni Assn. is sponsoring an 18-day tour called “Through the Arabian and Red Seas” that visits lesser-known sheikdoms and kingdoms of the Saudi Arabian peninsula beginning April 22. Travelers will sail from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Aqaba, Jordan, following the route of traders in ancient times.

Included are cultural visits, lectures and briefings by lecturers, including Adm. Stansfield Turner, former NATO commander and CIA director, and E. Roger Owen, former director of Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

Participants will fly to Dubai for two days of sightseeing before boarding the Song of Flower for a two-week cruise. Accommodations aboard the vessel are limited to 150.

Cost: $7,475 per person, double occupancy, including cabin, all meals, all land excursions and transfers. Air fare is extra.

Contact: Peck Judah Travel Service, 582 Market St., Suite 312, San Francisco, CA 94104; telephone (800) 336-7790.

Europe: Cruise

The Whittier Elks Travel Club is hosting a European waterways trip on the Elbe River from Budapest, Hungary, to Berlin beginning July 3. Via motor coach, travelers will visit Budapest; Prague, Czech Republic; and Bratislava, Slovakia.

Next, guests will board a river vessel that stops at Melnik, Czech Republic; Switzerland; Meissen, Germany, to tour the porcelain factory; Dresden, Wittenberg and Magdeburg to see German cathedrals and markets; and Berlin for a two-night stay in a hotel.

Cost: $3,995 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, hotels, most meals and some sightseeing.

Contact: Bill Wallis, Whittier Elks club chairman; tel. (562) 943-4778.

Spain: Highlights

Sixteen-day trips to Spain are available on various dates between April and October.

Travelers will meet in Madrid and begin by circling Spain, heading north from Madrid to Santander, southeast to Barcelona, past orange and almond orchards to Pen~iscola and on to Valencia. They will travel inland to Granada and visit the Alhambra; then it’s southwest to the Costa del Sol and Torremolinos, where they can swim and lie on the beach or visit a village in the hills above the coast. Later, they will visit the Rock of Gibraltar for shopping before arriving in Seville to see a flamenco show.

Cost: $1,260 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, 21 meals, baggage handling, entrance fees, taxes and tips. Round-trip air fare is extra.

Contact: Gwen Jones Travel, 4533 Fairfield Drive, Corona del Mar, CA 92625; tel. (949) 760-0777.

Mexico: Colonial Gems

A nine-day architectural and culinary tour into the cities of old Spanish Mexico is available from April 7 to 16. Participants will visit several private colonial homes and haciendas for receptions. Dinners will be hosted each night in a different historic colonial patio restaurant.

While participants are based in a monastery-turned-hotel in the hillside town of San Miguel de Allende for six nights, there will be side trips to Guanajuato, Dolores Hidalgo and Queretaro.

Guests will also stay in Morelia in a 250-year-old hotel. A side trip to Lake Patzcuaro is planned.

Cost: $1,595 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, airport transfers, hotel accommodations, daily breakfast and dinner, and all sightseeing and entrance fees.

Contact: Frank Tysen Private Adventures, 15012 Del Gado Drive, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403; tel. (818) 501-4100.

Eastern Europe: Music

Blue Heart Tours is offering a “Rhapsodies 2000” spring tour to attend the music festivals of Prague and Budapest. Diana Hollander, the midday host at WGMS-FM, a classical music station in Washington, D.C., will lead the tour May 20 to 30, and the station will broadcast live from some of the festivals.

Included in the tour are tickets to events such as a magic show; a program of Dvorak at the Smetana Hall in Prague, performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; a concert of the Prague Spring Festival performed by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra; and a performance of the ballet “Giselle” at the Budapest Opera House. Participants will also attend dinners that feature Bohemian music and dancing.

In Prague and Budapest, guests will see places where renowned musicians and composers have lived and worked. There’s also a trip to Karlovy Vary (Old Carlsbad) in the Czech Republic, where Beethoven, Bach and numerous emperors and other luminaries traveled for spa and rest treatments. Nonmusical activities will include a stop in Bratislava, on the way from Prague to Budapest, for a visit to the Old City; a day cruise on the Danube River; and a horse show and lunch in the Puszta area.

Cost: $3,699 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from New York, hotels, some meals, entrance fees and performance tickets.

Contact: Blue Heart Tours; tel. (800) 882-0025.

California: Yoga and Art

Global Live Art, an organization that provides painting workshop vacations around the world, is offering a trip filled with yoga and painting in Sebastopol from May 3 to 5. The trip will consist of meditation, yoga and collaborative and individual painting. Designed for all levels of yoga and artistry, the workshop will be led by artist and Global Live Art owner Carole Watanabe and professional yoga instructor Jill Minye. Guests will stay at the Gravenstein Station Inn in Sebastopol.

Cost: $610 per person, double occupancy, including two nights’ accommodations at Gravenstein Station Inn, breakfast each morning, all lunches and one dinner.

Contact: Deb Gorman; tel. (707) 824-0884.

Wyoming: Skiing

Cross-country skiing in and around Yellowstone National Park can be enjoyed on two excursions scheduled by Off the Beaten Path. (Snowshoes are also available.) The “Wildlife of Yellowstone” trip operates Jan. 29 to Feb. 5 and Feb. 5 to 12. Days 1 through 3 are spent touring the Mammoth Hot Springs and Lamar Valley areas on the lookout for bison, elk, coyote and wolves. Days 4 through 6 are spent around Old Faithful. The trip wraps up on Day 7.

Cost: $2,295 per person, double occupancy, including lodging, all meals, transfers and guides.

The “Winter Trails” adventure runs Jan. 29 to Feb. 4 and Feb. 19 to 25. It offers skiing in the Lamar Valley, at Tower Falls, at Swan Lake Flats and at the B Bar Ranch.

Cost: $2,395 per person, double occupancy, including lodging, meals and transfers.

Transportation to Wyoming is extra on both tours.

Contact: Off the Beaten Path; tel. (800) 445-2995.

Canada: Trains

An “East-West Trans-Canada Rail Journey” that begins in Toronto is being offered this winter and spring. Participants will fly from LAX to Toronto for a two-night stay and a city tour of Toronto, a trip to Niagara Falls with lunch atop the Skylon Tower and a visit to the 19th century town of Niagara-on-the-Lake. On the third day, guests will board the Canadian to Vancouver.

Guests will have a cabin while traveling across Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan and through the Canadian Rockies.

A morning arrival in Vancouver, British Columbia, allows time for a city tour with lunch, dinner and a theater performance. The flight to Los Angeles will be the next afternoon. Winter or spring departures are available, Feb. 20 or April 25.

Cost: $1,595 per person, double occupancy, including air transportation from LAX to Toronto with return from Vancouver; three nights of Silver & Blue Class train service; 16 meals; sightseeing and admission fees.

Contact: Great Western Tours; tel. (800) 344-7090.

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