Wheel Through Yucatan, From Jungle to the Sea

The Riviera Maya is a 75-mile stretch of coast on the Yucatan Peninsula in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. From Dec. 7 to 14, biking enthusiasts can see it on the multi-sport “Riviera Maya Bike Adventure,” a seven-day itinerary that explores the Riviera Maya from the jungle to the Caribbean. Biking 30 to 45 miles per day and led by specially trained bilingual guides with backgrounds in biology and archeology, participants will discover the ancient Mayan cities of Tulum, Coba and Muyil and the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve. Also scheduled are visits to Mayan villages, and snorkeling and kayaking in the Great Maya Reef.

Cost: $1,050 per person, double occupancy, including airport transfers, seven nights’ accommodations, most meals, tours, luggage transport in support vehicles that accompany the riders, activities from snorkeling to kayaking (equipment included) and entrance fees. Mountain bikes are available to rent for the week for $100. Air fare to Cancun is extra.

Contact: Riviera Maya; telephone (800) 446-3942, https://www.rivieramaya.com.

Italy: Tuscany

Classic Journeys has added Cortona, Italy, to its tour of Tuscan and Umbrian hill towns. Cortona was featured in Frances Mayes’ bestseller “Under the Tuscan Sun,” a memoir of renovating a villa in Tuscany. The town also was used during the filming of Roberto Benigni’s Academy Award-winning “Life Is Beautiful.”

The stay in Cortona is part of a weeklong cultural walking tour that explores the countryside, villages, culture and cuisine in the provinces of Tuscany and Umbria. The tour begins in Cortona and ends in Rome, visiting the medieval hill towns of Spello and Siena, tasting Orvieto wine on the shores of Lake Bolsena, and learning about Umbrian history and culture from local guides.

Cost: $2,495 per person, double occupancy, including accommodations, entrance fees and most meals. Air fare to Italy is additional. Tour size is limited to 18 per departure. The tour dates are Sept. 9 to 16 and Oct. 14 to 21.

Contact: Classic Journeys of La Jolla; tel. (800) 200-3887, https://www.classicjourneys.com.

Uzbekistan: Cities

The central link of the Silk Road, the ancient trade route that connected China with the lands to its west, is Uzbekistan, a Turkic-speaking country that was a Soviet republic for most of the 20th century. Oasis Inc. and K. Benn Travel of Toronto have arranged a tour of its primary cities, which are troves of Islamic architecture and art, Sept. 13 to 26. The trip covers the capital, Tashkent; Bukhara, noted for its schools of Islamic learning and once host to a thriving Jewish community; Samarkand, home of the observatory of Ulugh Beg, a 15th century astronomer who accurately mapped constellations before the advent of telescopes; and Khiva, the best preserved of the trading towns and almost free of modern intrusions. The tour also stops in Istanbul.

Cost: $5,525 per person, double occupancy, including in-country flights, lodging, most meals and a guest lecturer. International air fare is extra.

Contact: Oasis Inc.; tel. (800) 563-4181.

Africa: Namibia

One of southern Africa’s most desolate and arid--yet overwhelmingly scenic--regions can be experienced on Mountain Travel-Sobek’s 17-day Namibia journey. The tour, limited to eight travelers per expedition, is available most of the year. From Windhoek, the capital, it sets off to explore the wilderness, from sand dunes that are 1,000 feet high at Sossusvlei to fur seals and trees that survive aridity on the Skeleton Coast and the teeming wildlife at the Ongava private reserve on the edge of Etosha National Park. Other stops include a farm in the Omboroko Mountains and a visit with Himba nomads.

Cost: $4,550 per person, double occupancy, including internal flights; most meals; accommodations in hotels, lodges, permanent tent camps and the farm; transportation in Land Rovers; and the services of African-born guides. International air fare is extra.

Contact: Mountain Travel-Sobek, tel. (888) 687-6235, https://www.mtsobek.com.

France: Loire Valley

French Country Waterways has added Chateau Guedelon, a medieval building site, to its itinerary in the Upper Loire Valley, gateway to chateau country. The Nenuphar, a 12-passenger, all-suites barge, sails on six-night canal cruises between Chatillon-sur-Loire and Nemours through Nov. 3.

Guedelon, a fortified chateau in the heart of a forest, is being reconstructed by costumed artisans using only tools, materials and building techniques of the 13th century.

Other excursions feature La Lussiere, a chateau at a lake; a walking tour of the old town in Montargis; a horse-drawn carriage ride in the medieval walled town of Chateau-Landon; Vaux-le-Vicomte, the chateau that was the model for Versailles; and a private cellar tour and wine tasting in Sancerre.Cost: from $3,895 per person, double occupancy, including accommodations, all meals, tours and excursions, bicycles and escorted transfers between Paris and the barge. Air fare is extra.

Contact: French Country Waterways, P.O. Box 2195, Duxbury, MA 02331; tel. (800) 222-1236, https://www.fcwl.com.

Europe: By Train

Get the grand tour of Europe (well, parts of it) by rail on Grand European Tours’ 15-day trips, which run until Oct. 2. The itinerary begins in London with a champagne luncheon and ride through the English countryside and continues to Paris through the Channel Tunnel. Then there’s a journey from Paris to Nice through the vineyards of Burgundy and Provence. Finally, there is a ride past waterfalls, peaks and glaciers aboard Switzerland’s Glacier Express, and an ascent to Zermatt on a cogwheel train.

Cost: from $2,649 per person, double occupancy, including hotel accommodations, many meals, all train and motor coach transportation and the services of a tour director. Air fare is extra.

Contact: Grand European Tours, 4000 Kruse Way Place 2, Suite 355, Lake Oswego, OR 97035; tel. (800) 552-5545, https://www.getours.com.

Saudi Arabia: Open Doors

Tracking ibex and gazelle in the Rub’ al-Khali desert with Bedouin guides and following the desert tracks of the old Hijaz Railway Line of Lawrence of Arabia fame are two of the experiences of the “Saudi Arabia: Island of the Arabs” tour Nov. 8 to 27. Among the other highlights: Madain Saleh, ancient capital of the Nabateans, with its rock tombs, and Al Jawf, a northern frontier town in the Great Nafud Desert with a Stonehenge-like archeological site.

Cost: from $3,995 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, meals and guides.

Contact: Worlds Apart; tel. (510) 836-2952, https://www.worldsapart.org.

Peru: Adventure Sports

BikeHike Adventures has a lineup of multi-sport adventures in Peru through November. The trips, ranging from nine to 12 days, combine biking, hiking, rafting and horseback riding from the Andean highlands to the tropical Amazon Basin.

Highlights include a four-day trek along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu; a boat trip on the Amazon; a horseback ride to Sacsayhuaman, a spectacular mountaintop fortress overlooking Cuzco; and a raft trip down the Vilcanota River, which runs through the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Participants should be in good physical condition, but no experience is necessary. Wilderness guides will help fine-tune adventurers’ skills.

Cost: from $1,350 per person, double, including lodging, meals and guides. Air fare is extra.

Contact: BikeHike Adventures, tel. (888) 805-0061, https://www.bikehike.com.

Arizona and Utah: Riding

See Monument Valley the way your great-grandparents would have: on horseback. The Crow Canyon Archaeological Center of Colorado will host riders through the landscape of the Navajo culture while describing the geology and archeology of the area.

The Oct. 4-to-9 program begins and ends in Cortez, Colo. Tour guides are Harry Walters, a Navajo tribal member and director of the Center for Dine Studies in Tsaile, Ariz., and Bill Lipe, a veteran archeologist and professor at Washington State University.

Cost: $1,645 per person, double occupancy, including most meals, comfortable shared accommodations, horses and camping gear for two nights under the stars. Transportation to the site is extra.

Contact: Crow Canyon Archaeological Center; tel. (800) 422-8975 or (970) 565-8975, Ext. 146, https://www.crowcanyon.org.

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