Volga River, Red Square and Hermitage in Russia

Historian Robert Feldman, retired director of Russian studies at Cal State Fullerton, will lead a 15-day tour to Russia from Aug. 4 to 18. Feldman, who has escorted groups to Russia for 22 years, will offer lectures and discussions during the tour.

Guests will visit Moscow for four days to see Red Square, the Kremlin, the Kremlin Armory Museum and Tretyakov Art Gallery. They will spend seven days cruising the Volga River through the old Russian heartland, stopping daily at towns dating to the 11th century. Arriving in St. Petersburg, the group will disembark for five days of tours of the Hermitage Museum, Peter the Great’s summer palace at Petrodvorets, Catherine the Great’s Palace at Pushkin and Yusupov Palace. Also included are performances of ballet and folk dancing and the Moscow Circus.

Cost: $3,990 per person, including air fare from Los Angeles, ground transportation, accommodations, meals, excursion fees, theater and music performances, porterage and taxes.

Contact: East-West International Tours, 925 Acapulco St., Laguna Beach, CA 92661; telephone (800) 359-6719, Internet https://www.eastwest-tours.com.

Idaho: Boating

The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History is sponsoring a boat trip Aug. 13 to 20 on the Middle Fork of Idaho’s Salmon River. Incorporating scenic beauty with a variety of bird species, land mammals and ancient petroglyphs, this 100-mile journey takes place within the River of No Return Wilderness Area. Participants will make the journey in old-fashioned wooden McKenzie boats. The drift to a fully set-up camp each day is 15 to 20 miles.

Guests will have three luxury meals a day, including fine wines with each dinner. Fresh supplies, ice and beverages will be flown in midway through the trip. Starting in Boise, the group travels by air taxi to Stanley for one night. After five nights on the river, guests will arrive in Salmon, where they will spend one night before flying back to Boise to catch flights home. Limited to 16 participants, the trip will be escorted by Paul Collins, senior associate curator of vertebrate zoology at the museum.

Cost: $3,025 per person, double occupancy, including air taxi service from Boise to Stanley, all ground transportation, hotel in Stanley, five nights on the river, hotel in Salmon, all meals on the river, services of professional river guides and a tax-deductible donation to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Air fare to Idaho is extra.

Contact: Spectrum Tours, P.O. Box 50608, Santa Barbara, CA 93150; tel. (800) 974-7132.

Switzerland: Hiking

All About Switzerland, a California company specializing in guided walking tours of the Swiss Alps, is offering two tours. The summer tour, June 11 to 24, offers wildflowers and grand mountain vistas. The fall tour, Sept. 2 to 15, features good walking weather and flower boxes at their peak.

Each tour visits three picturesque villages off the beaten path for two days, each of easy to moderate walking, with one free day. The walks are customized according to each participant’s ability. Also included are train rides on the Glacier Express in June and the Panoramic Express in September.

Cost: $2,120 per person, double occupancy, including 13 nights’ accommodations, all breakfasts and dinners, a 15-day Swiss rail pass and guides. Air fare is extra.

Contact: All About Switzerland; tel. (831) 476-4482.

Europe: History

In its 17th year, Eurostar will offer its “Beaches to the Bulge” tour of France, Belgium and Luxembourg from June 3 to 14. The tour travels from the World War II D-Day invasion beaches in Normandy to the battlefields in the Ardennes and the infamous World War I battlefields of northern France. The tour enters and leaves Europe via Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. Highlights include the ceremony to commemorate the 56th anniversary of D-Day on Omaha Beach on June 6, the hedgerow country in Normandy with its invasion beaches and cemeteries, Paris, World War I and World War II battlefield monuments, the Belgian Army Museum in Brussels and a visit to original GI foxholes in Belgium.

Cost: $3,195 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare, motor-coach transportation, hotels, museum admission fees and most meals.

Contact: Eurostar Tours, 1730 K St. N.W., No. 304, Washington, DC 20006; tel. (800) 622-4004.

Mexico: Mystery Cruise

Whodunit Productions, a murder mystery theater company, is hosting “Murder on the High Seas” cruises aboard Royal Caribbean’s Viking Serenade to Baja and aboard Holland America’s Ryndam to Alaska. The next three weekends aboard the Viking Serenade are scheduled for May 5 to 8, Oct. 27 to 30 and Dec. 8 to 11. The ship leaves San Pedro sailing to Ensenada, with a mysterious day at sea. Guests follow clues to the mystery by receiving phone calls and secret messages in their cabin. Cruise cost per person, double occupancy, begins at $469.

The seven-night Alaska cruise aboard the Ryndam begins Aug. 20 and includes a private cocktail reception and “unexpected” mystery events. Cruise cost is $1,499 per person, double occupancy.

Contact: Whodunit Productions; tel. (661) 297-3208, Internet https://www.whodunitcruises.com.

Scotland: Golf

A golf tour of Scotland featuring PGA teaching professional Bruce Hamilton will run Aug. 25 to Sept. 4. The tour includes Scotland’s best courses and luxury hotels. Hamilton will coach participants on their game. Time is also planned for sightseeing.

Cost: $5,650 per person, double occupancy ($3,825 for non-golfers), including nine nights’ accommodations, full Scottish breakfast each morning, daily dinners, greens fees, motor-coach transportation and taxes. Air fare is extra.

Contact: Camarillo Travel/ American Express, 2310 Ponderosa Drive, Suite 6, Camarillo, CA 93010; tel. (805) 484-2863.

France: Provence

Spend a week in a restored 18th century farmhouse in the Provence region. The secluded house is in the vicinity of Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, and each bedroom has a private modern bathroom.

Daily tours will include antique shopping at Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, the Roman ruins in St. Remy-de-Provence and Arles, picnicking at the Pont du Gard, touring the Palace of the Popes in Avignon and wine tasting in Cha^teauneuf-du-Pape.

Also included will be shopping in some of the ancient market towns such as Gordes, visiting the designer shops and tree-lined streets of Aix-en-Provence and admiring the Fontaine de Vaucluse. Art and architecture will also be enjoyed in Roussillon-de-Vaucluse and Les Baux-de-Provence. Tours begin Sept. 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30.

Cost: $2,075 per person, double occupancy, including seven nights’ lodging, all breakfasts, nine lunches and/or dinners, ground transportation, tips and entrance fees. Air fare to France is extra.

Contact: Week in Provence, 35216 Camino Capistrano, Capistrano Beach, CA 92624; tel. (949) 443-0130.

Peru: Festival

Southwind Adventures of Colorado is offering an eight-night “World of the Incas” tour, which highlights the annual June 24 solstice celebration of Inti Raymi in Cuzco, Peru. The festival, one of the largest and most colorful in South America, is a reenactment of a sacred Incan rite welcoming the seasonal return of Father Sun, revered as the source of life in the Andes. The tour departs June 18. Two nights at the Machu Picchu ruins are included.

Cost: $2,295 per person, double occupancy, including lodging, most meals, ground transportation, entrance fees and privately guided tours. Air fare is extra.

Contact: Southwind, P.O. Box 621057, Littleton, CO 80162; tel. (800) 377-9463, Internet https://www.southwindadventures.com.

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