Off to Greece and Turkey: Journey by Land and Sea

USC classics professor Dick Caldwell will host a tour to Greece and Turkey this summer. Sporades Tours is offering 14 days in Greece (June 21 to July 4), which will include Athens, the Peloponnesus, northern Greece and two islands. Then it’s 13 days in Turkey (July 5 to 17), which will include the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, a four-day yacht cruise and Istanbul.

Cost: $3,480 per person, double occupancy, for both countries. Price includes transportation, lodging, admissions, guides and most meals. Air fare is extra. Participants don’t pay until they arrive. They can join all of the tour or just a portion, and pay accordingly.

Contact: Sporades Tours, 13101 Laurinda Way, Santa Ana, CA 92705; telephone (714) 744-9188.

Pacific: Islands

Enjoy a classic South Seas adventure, “The Slow Boat to the Marquesas Islands,” from May 2 to 20. The boat is the Aranui, a 343-foot-long working freighter. The ship will deliver cargo to some of the most remote islands in the South Pacific. Accommodations are provided in air-conditioned cabins, each with a private bathroom. On board is a swimming pool, sun deck and library. Guests can go hiking to archeological sites, swimming, snorkeling, horseback riding and scuba diving. On the islands, craftspeople will open their homes to visitors. Paul Gauguin’s grave site will be visited on Hiva Oa.

Cost: from $4,200 per person, double occupancy, including cabin, all meals and ground transportation. Air fare is not included.

Contact: Nature Encounters, 9065 Nemo St., West Hollywood, CA 90069; tel. (310) 247-4540.

Pacific: Midway

The International Midway Memorial Foundation is offering a World War II history tour to Midway Island June 27 to July 5.

Beginning in Hawaii, the program explores the Pearl Harbor connection to the Battle of Midway before guests take a charter flight to Midway Island.

The tour features a reception at Hickham Air Force Base, tours of U.S. carrier berths as they were in 1942, a black-tie dinner and a 1940s-style hangar dance as well as a symposium on the Midway battle. The visit to Midway includes a dedication ceremony, tours and a barbecue on the beach.

Accommodations in Hawaii are at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. On Midway, they are at the bachelor officers’ quarters.

Cost: $2,895 per person, double occupancy, including accommodations and ground transportation in Hawaii and Midway, round-trip air fare from Hawaii to Midway, seven dinners and two lunches. Air fare to Hawaii is not included.

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

Italy: Hill Towns

A 15-day tour, “Cinque Terre and the Best Hill Towns of Tuscany and Umbria,” is being offered starting May 26. Highlights of the tour are the Cinque Terre, Portofino and medieval and Renaissance hill towns of Tuscany and Umbria. Participants will stay in Santa Margherita Ligure, Siena, Chinociano Terme, Venice and Stresa on Lago Maggiore. They will also visit Florence, Pisa, Siena, Lucca, Padua, Verona, the Palladian villa along the River Brenta, Lake Bolsena and Locarno in Switzerland. The tour will be escorted by history professor Alberto Benzi, who will lecture on the historical, cultural and artistic significance of places visited.

Cost: $3,095 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, first-class hotels, air-conditioned bus, motorboat rides, luggage handling and tips.

Contact: Alberto Benzi Cultural Tours; tel. (619) 454-1434.

Pismo Beach: Camping

Family Adventure Tours will conduct a camping trip for families to Pismo Beach State Park over the Presidents’ Day holiday weekend, Saturday through Monday, Feb. 13 to 15. Participants will take guided hikes and will be able to view thousands of migrating monarch butterflies.

Cost: $100 for adults and $65 for children, including all meals and campsites. Guests bring their own tent and camping gear.

Contact: Family Adventure Tours, 1164 Alvira St., Los Angeles, CA 90035; tel. (323) 939-2819.

London: Literature

Visit the settings of P. D. James’ latest thriller, “A Certain Justice,” on a trip to London May 6 for six nights. Guests will stay at a luxury hotel in Chelsea near Leticia Aldridge’s Pelham Place home.

Visits will be made to the Inns of Court, Middle Temple, Temple Church, Chancery Lane, the George, the Devereaux, the Wig and Pen, Sir John Soane’s house and Pimlico. Guests will also see a West End show and take Dalgliesh’s day trip south through Salisbury, Blandford Forum, Winterbourne Kingston and Bovington Camp for a pub lunch near Lulworth Cove, overlooking the Channel.

The tour concludes with an evening at Belstead Brook, a 16th century country house set in eight acres of gardens and woodlands near Ipswich.

Cost: $2,538 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare, accommodations, breakfasts, a pub lunch, a drink at the Devereaux, one dinner, theater tickets and cancellation insurance.

Contact: Mary Shambra at Lee Hansen Travel Service, 712 Foothill Blvd., La Canada Flintridge, CA 91011; tel. (818) 790-5589.

France and Spain

Fine art, flowers, food and fashion are on the itinerary of a two-week, four-city trip to France and Spain April 13 to 26. Beginning with five days in Paris, guests can enjoy the city in bloom plus a day trip to Giverny to see the gardens and home of Claude Monet. Paris art highlights include the new Egyptian wing of the Louvre, the Musee Jacquemart-Andre and the Palais Gallieri museum of fashion. Participants can attend fashion shows and shop the many chic boutiques.

Then it’s off to Spain for two nights in the old Atlantic seaside town of San Sebastian. Here, guests will enjoy promenades beside lovely beaches, visit tapas bars, take a day trip along the Biscay coast, with lunch in a Basque fishing village, and visit Guernica in Basque country.

Next is Bilbao for two days to see the new Guggenheim Museum. Finally, four days are planned in Barcelona for visits to the Picasso Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art and a tour of the buildings of Antonio Gaudi.

Cost: $3,850 per person, double occupancy, including all hotel accommodations, daily breakfasts, flights within Europe (with airport transfers), four dinners, five lunches, museum entrance fees, custom-designed sightseeing adventures and additional private guides. Air fare to Europe is extra. Single supplement: $675.

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

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