TOURS & CRUISES : Exploring the Highlights of China’s Historic Cities

Explore China with Bob Feldman, a university professor emeritus who has been leading tours to China since 1986. The tour runs Oct. 23 to Nov. 8 and begins in Beijing to explore the Forbidden City, Imperial Palace, Ming Tombs and Tiananmen Square and walk the Great Wall. Also included is an Old City Hutang tour featuring a home visit with a Chinese family.

The next stop is Shanghai, where the group tours the Children’s Palace, the Old Quarter’s Yu Yuan Garden and the new Shanghai Museum and visits with a Chinese family in their home. After a drive to the Gezhou Dam, guests transfer to the luxury river cruiser East Queen for a five-day Yangtze River trip from Yichang to Chongqing. Then it’s on to Xian to see the terra-cotta army and visit the peasant market before a final two-day stop in Hong Kong.

Cost: $4,590 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare, deluxe hotels, all meals, cruise and excursions, three theater performances, taxes and porterage.

Contact: East-West International Tours, 925 Acapulco St., Laguna Beach, CA 92651; telephone (800) 359-6719, Internet https://eastwest-tours.com.

New Hampshire: Art

If you’re a budding artist, or aspiring to be one, the Tamworth Inn Watercolor Weekend could be for you. It combines learning and relaxing in New Hampshire. Watercolor artist Harding Bush will conduct art classes Oct. 22 to 24. Participants will be able to go outside the classroom to tour the area and paint covered bridges, historic barns and the nearby Mt. Washington Valley. The workshop is limited to 12 participants.

Cost: from $225 per person, double occupancy, including lodging for two nights, two dinners, two full breakfasts, afternoon tea, artist reception and all instruction. Air fare and transfers are extra.

Contact: Tamworth Inn; tel. (800) 642-7352, Internet https://www.tamworth.com.

Branson: Showtime

Corliss Tours of Huntington Beach is offering an eight-day “Stay-Put Tour” to Branson, Mo., departing Oct. 18.

The tour begins and ends in nearby Springfield, and accommodations in Branson are at the Cascades Inn. Nine morning, matinee and evening shows are featured, including Shoji Tabuchi, Yakov Smirnoff, Jim Stafford, Bobby Vinton and the Glen Miller Orchestra, Dino at the Grand Mansion, Andy Williams, the Baldknobbers Country Jamboree and Remember When Comedy Show. Sightseeing includes Silver Dollar City, a replica of an Ozark pioneer community; a cruise and luncheon on Table Rock aboard the Showboat Branson Belle, with entertainment; College of the Ozarks; an IMAX Theater show featuring a film of the Ozarks; and a day excursion to nearby Eureka Springs, Ark.

On the final day of the tour, en route to Springfield airport, stops will be made at Outdoor World and Fantastic Caverns.

Cost: $1,125 per person, double occupancy, including hotel accommodations, admissions, motor-coach transportation, airport transfers, baggage handling, guides and 19 meals. Round-trip air fare is additional.

Contact: Corliss Tours, P.O. Box 4042, Huntington Beach, CA 92605; tel. (800) 482-4597.

Spain: Golf

A golf tour that goes from Madrid to the Costa del Sol on the vintage train Al Andalus is planned by Ridgewater Partners of Santa Barbara from March 16 to 26.

The tour begins in Madrid, where golfers warm up with two nights at the Hotel Ritz, a tee-off cocktail party and a city tour. Participants are then taken by rapid train to Seville, where they board the Al Andalus train for seven days. Low-key golf tournaments have been planned at four of the region’s courses.

Non-golfing days will be filled with excursions, such as tours of Ronda and the Alhambra near Granada, and sherry tasting in a Jerez vintner’s cellars. The train stops every night in a station, and most dinners will be at regional restaurants. Non-golfing companions are welcome and will be offered additional sightseeing opportunities on days of play.

Cost: $3,895 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, daily meals, sightseeing with local guides, greens fees, transfer of golf clubs to and from the courses, electric carts and cocktail parties. Air fare is additional.

Contact: Ridgewater Partners; tel. (805) 969-5962.

Old South: Steamboating

Visit the South in the springtime, with all the flowers and trees at their finest, and without the heat and humidity. Historic Tours of America is offering a seven-night steamboat cruise starting and ending in New Orleans on the Mississippi Queen from April 8 to 15.

Stops will be made in Natchez and Vicksburg, Miss., and St. Francisville and Baton Rouge, La.

Cost: $1,710 per person, double occupancy, including the seven-night cruise, all meals on board, nightly entertainment and dancing, a welcome reception and a captain’s dinner. If a deposit is received before Oct. 8, air fare from Los Angeles and transfers will also be included. Pre- and post-trips to New Orleans are available.

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

Japan: Arts and Crafts

Learn about Japanese folk art on a trip to Japan from Oct. 23 to 30. Guests will learn how to dye silk with herbs and wild shrubs, and will have an opportunity to meet local folk artists. They will also stay in a traditional Japanese B&B;, visit an outdoor spa, participate in a tea ceremony, visit a 300-year-old sake brewery, tour a silk museum, see Matsumoto Castle and take a half-day tour of Tokyo.

Cost: $2,480 per person, double occupancy, including air fare from LAX, hotels, some meals and tours.

Contact: Makiko, South Coast International Travel; tel. (714) 432-8747, Internet https://www.dryflower.com.

Britain: Pub Crawl

Far Horizons is offering a 13-day cultural pub crawl through England and Scotland that also highlights archeological and historic sites. The tour runs Oct. 18 to 30. The group will visit prehistoric stone circles and chambered tombs, walk in the footsteps of Roman armies along Hadrian’s Wall, and savor the view from battlements of medieval castles in remote areas of Britain.

The itinerary also includes Edinburgh Castle, the abbeys of Melrose and Jedburgh, Jorvik Viking Centre in York, Creswell Crags, the hill fort of Old Sarum and the stone circles at Avebury and Stonehenge. Meals and overnights will be in traditional pubs and inns.

The trip will be led by Clive Warsop, an archeologist and lecturer in the Department of Archeology at the University of Edinburgh.

Cost: $4,195 per person, double occupancy, including all hotels, most meals, entry fees, air fare from New York, all ground transportation and guides. Air fare from Los Angeles is extra.

Contact: Far Horizons, P.O. Box 91900, Albuquerque, NM 87199; tel. (800) 552-4575.

Egypt: Opera

Experience the opera “Aida,” with its musical story of ancient Egypt, performed in the shadows of the pyramids during a nine-day tour that starts Oct. 14.

The tour also features a four-night Nile cruise between Aswan and Luxor with visits to the temples of Philae, Lom Ombo and Hours; the Valley of the Kings and Queens with their spectacular tombs; the temple of Queen Hatshepsut; and the Colossus of Memnon. Other highlights include a visit to the ruins at Abu Simbel, the “Mummy Room” and the King Tut exhibit at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and the pyramids of Giza and Saqqara. Sightseeing is guided by a certified Egyptologist.

Cost: $3,795 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from LAX, hotels, some meals, tickets to “Aida,” cruise and ground transportation.

Contact: Ivanhoe Travel, 1012 Grand Ave., San Diego, CA 92109; tel. (619) 272-8747 or (800) 470-4428.

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