Head Down the Road to Ruins in Greece and Crete

Explore ruins, medieval stone villages and towns with an archeologist on a tour to Greece, April 7 to 24. The tour begins in Athens with a visit to the Acropolis. Members will also see Apollo’s shrine at Delphi near Mt. Parnassus, visit the balmy island of Crete and the mountains of northwestern Greece. The tour is limited to 16 people.

Cost: $3,150 per person, double occupancy, including accommodations, ground transportation, entry fees, breakfasts and some dinners. Air fare is extra.

Contact: Byron Tours, 219 Poplar St., Aptos, CA 95003; telephone (831) 688-1325.

Antarctica: Biology

Dennis Kelly, marine biology professor at Orange Coast College, is leading a 14-day trip to explore the wildlife and wilderness of Antarctica from Jan. 3 to 14. Participants can earn four units of college credit while learning about the history of the discovery of the ozone hole and the environment of the continent. The group will cruise from Argentina on the Marco Polo and take a landing craft to see the penguins, swim in a volcanic caldera at Deception Island and explore Lemaire Channel’s Archipelago.

Cost: $4,700 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, overnight accommodations in Miami, sightseeing, most meals and transfers.

Contact: Penny Miller at Discovery Unlimited Tours; tel. (800) 448-4433 or (714) 373-1811, Internet https://www.occ.cccd.edu/depts/dolphin/CDSP.html.

Louisiana: Barge Cruise

Acadiana, the land of Louisiana’s Cajuns and Creoles, can be explored April 4 to 12 aboard the 198-passenger River Explorer barge.

This Smithsonian Study Tour begins and ends in New Orleans, cruises the lower Mississippi River and stops at, among other places, St. Martinville (where Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Evangeline was reunited with Gabriel), Avery Island (home of Tabasco sauce) and the plantations of Shadows-on-the-Teche, Laura and Oak Alley. A side tour takes in the Atchafalaya Swamp.

Cost: from $2,350 to $3,985 per person, double occupancy, including seven nights aboard the River Explorer, one night at the New Orleans Radisson and most meals. Air fare is extra.

Contact: Smithsonian Associates; tel. (877) 338-8687.

Philadelphia: Gardens

Corliss Tours of Huntington Beach is offering a tour that highlights the 2000 Philadelphia Flower show. The “Gardens of the New Millennium” tour, March 7 to 12, includes three nights at the Marriott Hotel, adjacent to the Convention Center where the flower show takes place. The package includes an early morning viewing of the exhibits and two days touring in Pennsylvania Amish country, the Brandywine Valley, the Winterthur Estate (in Delaware) and Longwood Gardens.

Cost: $1,330 per person, double occupancy, including hotel accommodations, sightseeing admissions, motor-coach transportation, breakfast daily, two lunches, three dinners, two theater performances, airport transfers, hotel porterage and taxes, and guide services. Air fare is extra.

Contact: Corliss Tours; tel. (800) 482-4597.

Europe: Wine

Three European cruise itineraries with wine experts hosting each cruise are available from Elite Travel Adventures. Robert Stemmler, a winemaker from Sonoma, will lead the first cruise, aboard the Deutschland, departing from Italy on May 17 for a Mediterranean trip to Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and Germany. The cruise is 16 days. Cost: from $4,040 per person, double occupancy, including port charges. Air fare is extra.

The second cruise will be led by Darrell Corti, a wine expert and contributing editor of Saveur magazine. The river cruise will be on the Prussian Princess through Germany’s Franconian wine region and Austria’s Wachau wine region. It departs June 30 from Frankfurt and runs 10 days. Cost: from $2,289. Port charges and air fare to Frankfurt are extra.

The third cruise will be Sept. 28 for 12 days on the MV Mozart, hosted by White House wine consultant David Berkley. Passengers will visit Salzburg, Vienna, Budapest and Austria’s Wachau wine region. Cost: from $3,048. Port charges and air fare to Munich are extra.

All three cruises will offer shipboard lectures, and guests will sample wines ashore in cellars.

Contact: Shepherd & Weatherhead--Elite Travel Adventures; tel. (800) 563-9252.

Africa: Nigeria

Join L.A.’s KPFK (90.7-FM) deejay Nnamdi, the radio host of “Afrodicia,” for a tour of his Nigerian homeland. The trip will take participants through Nigeria and Benin for 10 days beginning Feb. 10. In Benin, members will be welcomed by the chief of the Zangbeto in the town of Porto-Novo. Then they will visit Ganvie, a city on a lake with a floating market, and Quidah, a former slave trading post. In Nigeria, stops are made in Badagry, Ibadan and Oshogbo to visit museums and cultural shrines. As an optional highlight, soccer fans can attend the Africa Cup of Nations soccer finals in Lagos.

Cost: $1,999 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from New York, hotels, some meals and ground transportation.

Contact: Africa Festival Hotline; tel. (310) 726- 9230.

Portugal and Spain

A 15-day tour to visit medieval Portuguese and Spanish sites leaves April 25. The trip starts in Lisbon with a city tour and includes excursions to Sintra, Cape Roca, Cascais and Estoril.

Then the group will cross into Spain to visit Seville and see a flamenco show; tour Cordoba with its winding, flower-decorated medieval streets; see Gibraltar; and spend four nights in Torremolinos. The tour continues to Granada and the Alhambra, then to Madrid for three nights. There is an optional post-tour to Barcelona for $349.

Cost: $2,968 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from L.A., hotels, ground transportation, some meals and sightseeing fees.

Contact: Eva’s Tours, 27485 Paseo Mimosa, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675; tel. (949) 489-0488.

Italy: Skiing

A ski trip to the Alps in Courmayeur, Italy, is being offered Feb. 5 to 14. This historical village with cobblestone streets is on the Italian side of Mt. Blanc and has a French flavor. Participants can ski the slopes of Pila near Aosta and Chamonix, France. The last night will be spent in Milan.

Cost: $1,629 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, airport transfers, six-day ski pass, hotels, daily breakfast and dinner, and guide services.

Contact: Carlucci Tours, tel. (520) 854-3081 or (888) 676-2259 (accessible in California only).

Italy: Countryside

From July 6 to 21 you can see the countryside of northern Italy as well as the must-see sites of the more touristed cities of Milan, Venice, Florence and Bologna. Guests will travel by motor coach along some of Italy’s back roads to see Lake Como and Lake Garda and the medieval towns of Bergamo and Padua. There is time for optional side tours to the Italian Tirol region and Switzerland.

Cost: $2,644 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, hotels, daily breakfast, four dinners, a boat tour on Lake Garda, and baggage handling.

Contact: Historic Tours of America, 20325 Seabright Lane, Huntington Beach, CA 92646; tel. (714) 536-3434.

Mexico: Kick Boxing

Get in shape while cruising to Mexico Jan. 28 to 31. Participants will get six workouts with kick-boxing instructor Deon Edwards while they sail on Carnival’s Holiday to Ensenada.

Cost: $499.99 per person, double occupancy, including workout classes, all meals and on-board entertainment. Transportation to San Pedro is not included.

Contact: Rich Worldwide Travel, 15233 Ventura Blvd., Suite 350, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403; tel. (818) 528-2800.

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