Been There, Done That? Check Out New Options

The experienced traveler has seen the Changing of the Guard, the cliff divers at Acapulco, the Taj Mahal. Such a traveler, weary of the picture-book sights to which everyone goes, craves something new, different and somewhat exotic--but still inexpensive.

For this type of traveler, there are some unusual trips being offered this spring, priced so well that they need to be booked now, in winter, before space is gone. Here are four examples:

Holy Land: For Holy Year 2000, fully escorted one-week tours of the Christian sights of Israel are available for as little as $1,495.

Tal Tours, telephone (800) 825- 9399 or (516) 825-0966, is the price leader, charging $1,495 for departures in March and $1,695 in April and May (excluding Easter/Passover week, April 16 to 23). The per-person price (double occupancy) covers round-trip air fare from New York, accommodations, two meals a day and five days of tours on what the company calls a “generic Christian” itinerary.

One virtually free arrangement is given for every five people booked (provided a minimum of 15 travel together), creating a potent incentive for organizers.

Galapagos Islands: A Canadian tour company is offering a week in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, including air fare from the United States and a seven-day cruise to the islands of blue-footed boobies, giant tortoises and tropical penguins, for only $1,695 per person, double occupancy.

Marine Expeditions, tel. (800) 263-9147, will fly you round trip from the U.S. to Quito, Ecuador, on Continental, put you up for two nights at the Hilton Colon Hotel and fly you to Baltra, in the Galapagos. There you board the 100-passenger Marine Ambassador, which is staffed with botanists and zoologists who will accompany you on twice-daily landings. You spend one more night in Quito when homeward bound.

The price from March through May, including air fare, is $2,055 from the West Coast, per person.

Vietnam: How about two weeks in the People’s Republic of Vietnam for only $1,407 for round-trip air fare from Los Angeles and accommodations for 14 nights?

The Untours organization, tel. (888) 868-6871 or (610) 565-5242, is offering this price for departures from March 1 through May 20. It includes lodgings in guest houses for one week each in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (the former Saigon). With the advice of the English-speaking proprietors, you are free to tour the cities or venture into the countryside as you wish, without rigid planning or escorts--hence an “untour.”

The company’s Web site is https: //www.untours.com.

Africa: Get yourself to New York and you have a chance to visit peaceful, democratic Senegal.

Between March 1 and May 27, Africa specialist Magical Holidays, tel. (800) 228-2208, will fly you on Air Afrique to Dakar, capital of the former French colony, and put you up for five nights at the pleasant Croix du Sud Hotel, all for $999 per person (double occupancy). Single supplement is $175.

You’ll have tours of the vibrant, French-inflected city and of nearby Goree Island, a former slave transit center that has been transformed into a moving (if harrowing) memorial to slavery’s victims.