A Week to Catch Up With What’s New on Broadway

With a new Broadway season emerging, Jay Manley, chairman of the drama department at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, Calif., is offering his 21st annual spring theater tours. Tour dates are May 6 to 13 and June 3 to 10. Guests will see “The Full Monty,” based on the popular film, as well as the musical version of “The Producers,” which will star Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick.

Tour participants will spend seven nights at the Renaissance New York Hotel in the heart of the theater district.

The trip includes orchestra seating for five productions, plus theater seminars, museum visits and a day trip to see city sights.

Cost: $2,210 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, two meals, ground transportation, theater tickets and guides. Air fare to New York is extra.

Contact: Jay Manley Theater Tours; tel. (408) 264-2864.

China: In Depth

Historian and professor emeritus Bob Feldman will escort two 17-day tours to China April 3 and Oct. 6. These tours visit Beijing, Xian, Guilin and Shanghai and are highlighted by a luxury Yangtze River cruise. Feldman will give a series of lectures and lead discussions on Chinese history, culture and current affairs. The tour is limited to 25 people.

The program begins in Beijing with an exploration of the Forbidden City, the Imperial Palace, the Ming Tombs and Tiananmen Square, and a walk on the Great Wall. Guests will visit a Chinese family at home. In Xian there is a tour to see the archeological site of the terra-cotta army. Then follows a five-day luxury cruise from Wuhan to Chongqing on the Yangtze River. The cruise passes through the Three Gorges and features daily excursions, including a tour of the dam project at Gezhou. After a tour of Guilin, the final destination is Shanghai to tour the Children’s Palace, see the new Shanghai Museum and attend an acrobatic show.

Cost: $3,990 (April) and $4,090 (October), per person, double occupancy, including air fare, ground transportation, deluxe accommodations, tips for local guides, all meals (including four Western dinners), entrance fees, cruise and excursions, three theater performances and all taxes and portage.

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

Umbria: Cooking

L’Amore di Cucina Italiana offers weeklong cooking tours for cooks at any experience level. The programs of May 22 to 29 and Oct. 13 to 20 combine cooking, dining, shopping and touring in Umbria, Italy.

Guests will stay at a renovated farmhouse in the village of Gualdo Cattaneo, a half-hour from Spoleto. The cooking classes are held at the property, which has vineyards, olive oil production and a restaurant with indoor and outdoor dining.

Each program includes five days of cooking instruction (three hours each) emphasizing regional cuisine. The instructors are Silvia Maccari, a cookbook author and olive oil expert, and Bros Patrizi, a cooking teacher and chef at his family-owned restaurant in Spoleto. Instruction includes presentation and the historical aspects of cooking. After each class, guests share the prepared meal.

The itinerary includes visits to museums, vineyards, villas and nearby villages. There is also ample time for shopping.

Cost: $2,250 per person ($2,050 for non-cooking spouse or friend), including lodging, ground transportation, some meals and classes. Air fare is not included.

Contact: Ralph Slone at Inland Services, 360 Lexington Ave., New York, NY 10017; tel. (212) 687-9898.

Germany: Easter

An annual celebration of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach will take place in Leipzig, Germany, where Bach spent 27 years composing some of his greatest works, including the St. Matthew Passion. The tour runs April 12 to 20. On Good Friday guests will attend a performance in St. Thomas’ Church, where Bach was cantor. The choir of St. Thomas’ Church will perform its regular Easter Sunday concert of Bach cantatas and motets.

Also included are day excursions to Dresden to attend a performance of “Lohengrin” at the Semper Opera House; to Halle, the birthplace of Handel; to Kothen, where Bach was a choirmaster and wrote much of his secular music; to Weimar (by train) to see the Schiller House and Goethe House; and to Schonefeld to see the Robert Schumann wedding church.

Cost: about $1,575 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from London, hotels, motor coach transportation, concerts, daily breakfast and dinner, and services of a musicologist-host. Air fare from the U.S. to London is extra.

Contact: ACE Study Tours; tel. 011-44-1223-835-055. (Remember, it’s eight hours later in London.)

Russia: Music

As part of its 10th anniversary celebration, Eastern Tours/Morris Travel of New York has made a night at the Kirov Opera or Kirov Ballet a part of all its tours through St. Petersburg.

Three tour packages include the Kirov: “Land of the Tsars,” a seven-night tour of Moscow and St. Petersburg, priced at $699 per person, double occupancy, with upgrades to $1,099; “The Hermitage Express,” a journey to St. Petersburg for five nights, priced at $599 per person, with upgrades to $899; and “Three Capitals,” an 11-night tour of Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kiev for $1,099 per person. Departures for each tour are weekly through March 31.

All trips include hotel and daily breakfast, guided tours, performance tickets and ground transfers. Round-trip air fare is additional.

Contact: Eastern Tours/Morris Travel, tel. (800) 339-6967, https://www.traveltorussia.com.

Romania: Bucharest

A two-week tour to Romania gives guests a chance to soak up the charm and culture of Bucharest with four nights at the deluxe Athenee Palace Hilton Hotel. Tour stops include the Treasury of the National History Museum, the House of Parliament, art galleries, antique shops and the fascinating little specialty stores that occupy the Old City’s narrow alleys. Here is the place to look for beautiful hand-woven rugs, table runners and other crafts, as well as fine millinery.

Departures in 2001 are May 18, June 1, Aug. 31, and Sept. 14 and 28.

Cost: $3,995 per person, double occupancy, including air fare from New York, hotels, all meals, entrance fees and guides.

Contact: Travel Plans International, 1200 Harger Road, Oak Brook, IL 60523; tel. (800) 323-7600, https://www.travelplansintl.com.

Myanmar: Highlights

Asian Pacific Adventures is adding a drive through the Burmese countryside from Bagan to the hillside resort at Mt. Popa, a volcanic peak, to its Myanmar (formerly Burma) itinerary. The tour runs Feb. 4 to 16 and begins in Bagan to see its ruins, a legacy of the temple and pagoda building frenzy of the 11th through 13th centuries. About 2,000 pagodas and temples speckle the plain near the Ayeyarwady River. Guests will drive about an hour to Mt. Popa and stay at a mountain resort. A journey through the countryside ends in Mandalay, a center of culture and arts. Guests will see silk weaving, stone carving and gold-leaf making. Participants will observe the monks at Amarapura monastery and then tour Pindaya Caves with their multitude of Buddha images.

Cost: $1,865 per person, double occupancy, including accommodations, hotel taxes and service charges, many meals, transfers, ground transportation, guides, sightseeing, entrance fees and domestic flights within Myanmar. International air fare is extra.

Contact: Asian Pacific Adventures, 9010 Reseda Blvd., Suite 227, Northridge, CA 91324; tel. (800) 825-1680.

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