Exploring Alaskan Ports by Bike and Cruise Ship

A seven-day escorted trip offered by Bike & Cruise Tours gives travelers the chance to spend the day bicycling in different ports in Alaska and the nights cruising to the next port on Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Wind. The tour is Aug. 2 to 9. Ample time is allotted each day to exploring the ports by bike.

The riding terrain is moderate to rolling. Ports include Skagway, Haines, Juneau and Ketchikan. The days at sea are spent cruising the Inside Passage and Glacier Bay.

Local Alaskan guides and a support vehicle accompany the group. Cost: cruise-only portion from $1,231 per person, including seven nights on the ship and all meals. Additional fees include air fare to Vancouver; port taxes; and bicycle tour fee and rental ($425). Space is limited to 24 riders. Non-riders are welcome to join only the cruise.

Bike & Cruise Tours, 3320 N.E. 29th St., Gresham, OR 97030; telephone (503) 667-4053, Internet https://www.bikeandcruise.com.

Italy: Venice

The art department of California State Polytechnic University is offering a trip to Venice, Italy, from Dec. 18 to 27. The trip includes a seven-course traditional Christmas banquet in the penthouse dining room of the Renaissance Danieli Palace followed by midnight Mass at St. Mark’s Basilica. After a Christmas Day ascent to the heights of the snow-covered Alps, the group will indulge in a traditional country dinner at an Italian restaurant. Another feature will be a tour of the museums and synagogues of the historic Jewish ghetto with a Jewish scholar as a guide. Also included is a Vivaldi concert performed with 18th century instruments and costumes in the church where Vivaldi was choirmaster; drinks at Harry’s Bar, which was frequented by Hemingway and Fitzgerald; and city tours that include palaces, art museums and cathedrals.

Cost: $3,595 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from LAX, hotel, breakfast daily and some dinners, transfers, all admission fees and guides.

Contact: Cal Poly Pomona art department, tel. (909) 869-3512, or University Educational Travel at (800) 525-0525, Internet https://www.uet.com.

Malta: Island History

Travel With the Experts Ltd. is offering “Malta--Island of History” June 19 to 26, Sept. 25 to Oct. 2 and Nov. 20 to 27. Guests will explore tombs and temples dating back a thousand years as well as see structures that bear a striking resemblance to Stonehenge. Participants will uncover and examine Malta’s 7,000 years of history, a chronicle of colonizers and occupiers that included the Carthaginians, Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines and Knights of St. John. Guest lecturers will give talks.

Cost: $1,699 per person, double occupancy, including seven nights deluxe hotel accommodation; breakfast daily, special lunches and dinners plus private receptions; escorted sightseeing; airport transfers; all entrance fees and charges and local taxes. Air fare is not included. Optional extensions in Malta and stopovers in London and Sicily are available.

Contact: Travel With the Experts Ltd.; tel. (800) 595-9778, Internet https://www.visitmalta.com.

Wyoming: Riding

Bar H Ranch of Driggs, Idaho, is offering five-day trail riding trips for women in the Grand Tetons of Wyoming July 28 to Aug. 1, Aug. 3 to Aug. 7, and Aug. 9 to 13. The Grand Tetons are considered a rider’s paradise, with pristine meadows, high mountain passes, glacial lakes and towering peaks. This trip is suitable for riders of all experience levels.

Cost: $990 per person, including tent lodging, three meals per day, all equipment, guides and experienced horses. Air transportation to Wyoming is not included.

Contact: Bar H Ranch, P.O. Box 297, Driggs, ID 83422; tel. (888) 216-6025, Internet https://www.tetonvalley.net/barh.

Ireland: Photography

A photography tour designed to delivers the essence of Ireland by capturing local images, is scheduled for Sept. 11 to 21. The tour highlights the country’s culture and sights through unscheduled stops and detours to see ancient ruins and seaside villages.

Cost: $2,250 per person, double occupancy, including accommodations, daily breakfasts, two evening meals, land transportation, photographic instruction, entrance fees and local taxes. Air fare is extra.

Contact: Taylor & O’Neill travel agency; tel. (800) 653-8808.

Ireland: Culture

Experience the culture and scenery of Ireland on a 13-night tour that leaves Sept. 5. Participants will visit Kerry, Killarney, the Blarney Castle, the Rock of Cashel, Wicklow, Dublin and the Giants’ Causeway. They will also attend a performance at the National Folk Theater in Tralee and attend a 16th century-style banquet with singers and musicians in the medieval castle of Bunratty. Guests also have a chance to learn Irish dance steps and Gaelic songs.

Cost: $3,250 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from LAX, daily breakfast, some meals and sightseeing fees.

Contact: Betty Leonard at Shamrock Travel; tel. (949) 858-2278.

England: Art and Culture

A travel study program focusing on the culture, art, history and literary figures of England will be conducted by Faith Flam, director of the Ethnic Experience.

On this 17-day journey, July 12 to 28, participants will travel from London to the coast of Cornwall. Then it’s on to the Georgian city of Bath, the setting for many of Jane Austen’s novels. The group travels from Bath to visit the villages of the Cotswolds and spends the night in Stratford-on-Avon, birthplace of Shakespeare. The group continues on to the Lake District, where there are literary associations with Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats and Tennyson. It is also the birthplace of Peter Rabbit and was the home of Beatrix Potter, the author of the children’s classic.

Then the group travels to Yorkshire and visits the Bronte parsonage in Haworth, where the Bronte sisters wrote. Participants will also walk the moors and spend the night in Harrogate, once one of England’s most elegant spa towns. Then it’s off to Oxford for a tour of its colleges and the Ashmolean Museum. Included on the trip are a private visit to Stonehenge; a historic home and gallery in St. Ives, which is a small fishing village in Cornwall; Castle Howard in Yorkshire, the 18th century palace that was the principal location for Masterpiece Theatre’s miniseries “Brideshead Revisited”; Vita Sackville-West’s garden at Sissinghurst in Kent; the British Museum; the National Portrait Gallery; and the Tower of London.

Cost: $3,495 per person, including air fare, accommodations, daily breakfast, some meals, transportation by private, air-conditioned motor coach, porterage of one bag, private guide throughout and all entrance fees to all sites visited. College credit is available through California State University at Northridge.

Contact: Faith Flam, the Ethnic Experience; tel. (818) 789-7046.

Africa: Archeology

UCLA Extension is offering an archeological tour called “The Ancient Rock Art, Stone Age Peoples, and Ecosystems of Southern Africa,” Aug. 20 to Sept. 6.

The tour visits Namibia, Botswana and South Africa. Highlights include the “Bushman walk” at Okonjima Lodge, Waterberg Plateau, three days in Etosha National Park in Namibia, views of rock art at Twyfelontein and Tsodilo Hills in Botswana, game drives through the Okavango Delta and three days in the remote Kalahari desert at a classic African safari camp. There will also be a tour of Stone Age tool sites in Makgadikgadi Pan, accompanied by Mike Main, an African rock art specialist. David Whitley, an archeologist who specializes in rock art, leads the tour and lectures throughout.

Cost: $5,295 per person, including air transportation between New York and Johannesburg and air fare within Africa, accommodations and meals. Not included: air fare to New York and an enrollment fee of $260.

Contact: UCLA Extension Division of Humanities, P.O. Box 24901, Los Angeles, CA 90024-0901; tel. (310) 825-2272.

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