Kayak Around the Water World of Baja California

The goal is to spot a blue whale and get close to it in a sea kayak. But even if whales are absent, there may be other wildlife to see in the Gulf of California in Mexico.

Sea Kayak Adventures’ tourgoers will meet in Loreto, Mexico, and will camp on Carmen and Danzante islands off Baja California in the Gulf of California and snorkel in Bay of Loreto National Marine Park. Eight-day guided kayaking trips depart weekly from Dec. 22 to April 28.

A side trip to Magdalena Bay on the Pacific coast to see gray whales is $115 more.

Cost: $1,095 per person, double occupancy, including camping gear, two nights in a Loreto hotel, meals and guides. Transportation to Loreto is extra. No kayaking experience is necessary.

Contact: Sea Kayak Adventures; (800) 616-1943, www.seakayak adventures.com.

Japan: Battle Sites

A 32-day Pacific Island cruise, called “Sentimental Journey 1941 to 1945,” will sail from Yokohama, Japan, to San Francisco beginning April 27 on the Regal Princess.

Passengers will visit the World War II sites of Hiroshima, Okinawa, Saipan, Guam, Midway and Iwo Jima, among others. Stops at Oahu, Maui, the Big Island of Hawaii and Kauai are included.

Cost: from $3,109 per person, double occupancy, including air fare from Los Angeles, $100 shipboard credit and all meals and taxes.

Contact: Joanna Matos at Stevenson Asher Travel; (562) 598-2424.

Cambodia: Angkor Wat

The World Monuments Fund, a nonprofit involved with architectural conservation around the world, and Geographic Expeditions are offering an eight-day tour to Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temple complex. The tour will be led by John Sanday, director of the World Monument Fund’s conservation project in Siem Reap (site of the complex), and Georgetown University Asian studies professor David Chandler. The group will tour several temples that are usually off-limits to visitors. A night will be spent in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. Tour dates are Jan. 13 to 20 and Jan. 27 to Feb. 4.

Cost: $6,995 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, meals and sightseeing. Air fare is extra.

Contact: Geographic Expeditions; (800) 777-8183, www.geoex .com.

Australia: Wines

Harvest time in Australia is in April, and travelers will be able to sip the fruits of the wine harvest there on a trip from April 14 to 25. Wine columnist and radio host Robert Whitley will lead a tour for private tastings at vineyards near Sydney, Adelaide Hills, the Eden and Barossa valleys and McLare Vale. An extension to Melbourne and Yarra Valley is available from April 25 to 28.

Cost: $ 3,849 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, most meals, internal flights and entrance fees. International air fare is extra.

Contact: South Pacific Adventures; (858) 569-5060.

More Australia

Eighteen- to 35-year-olds can team up for a 14-day trip to the Australian east coast on Contiki’s “Beaches and Reefs Tour.” Tourgoers will travel from Sydney to Surfer’s Paradise, Fraser Island, the Whitsunday Islands and Cairns. Optional activities include tandem skydiving at Surfer’s Paradise, a four-wheel-drive tour through rain forests or a guided bush walk.

The tour departs Dec. 15, 21, 26 and 28 and Jan. 5, 8, 12, 18, 23 and 25.

Cost: from $745 per person (with four people sharing a room), including hotels, most breakfasts and dinners, land transportation, guided sightseeing and driver. Air fare to Australia is extra.

Contact: Contiki, (800) CONTIKI (266-8454), www.contiki.com, or book through a travel agent.

Myanmar: Festival

A 16-day tour of Myanmar (Burma) will highlight the festival of Ananda in Bagan, which pays homage to the Buddha on the full moon day of Jan. 28. Devotees offer bowls of alms filled with fruit and different foods to monks.

The colorful festival includes decorated country bullock carts, chanting monks and food booths. Children and adults dress up, and pagodas and temples are lighted by oil lamps.

The tour includes sightseeing in Yangon, Heho and Inle Lake, Bagan (Burma’s equivalent of Angkor) and Mandalay. There is an overnight stop in Singapore. The tour runs Jan. 19 to Feb. 3.

Cost: $2,795 per person, double occupancy, including air fare from Los Angeles, hotels, most meals and entrance fees.

Contact: Ceylon Express International; (800) 423-9566 or (714) 964-6896, www.ceylonexpress.com.

Mexico: Pilgrimage

Santiago Pilgrimages will escort a small group in and around the religious sites of Mexico City from April 1 to 6. Tourgoers will visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Templo Mayor, Chapultepec Park, the Teotihuacan pyramids of the sun and moon, and Coatzacoalcos. Near Puebla the group will visit the archeological site of Cacaxtla, San Sebastian de Aparicio Church and the Miraculous Well of St. Michael and its basilica.

Cost: $1,478 per person sharing a room, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, hotels, all breakfasts, three lunches and one dinner.

Contact: Larry Bishop at Santiago Pilgrimages; (949) 581-9936.

Old West: History

Rocky Mountain Discovery Tours is offering bus trips on the Lewis and Clark Historic Trail in Montana and Idaho. Eight-day tours in June will start and end in Great Falls, Mont., and travel more than 1,200 miles to historic sites and attractions in the Rocky Mountains.

The itinerary includes a visit to the Lewis and Clark National Historic Interpretive Center in Great Falls and a two-hour cruise on the Missouri River at the “Gates of the Rocky Mountains” near Helena, Mont.

July tours are more flexible and are six, 10, 13, 15 or 18 days. They start in St. Louis and will finish in Portland, Ore., and travel through 11 states, ending at Fort Clatsop, Ore. Travelers can join these tours at various locations along the trail, including Omaha, Neb.; Bismarck, N.D.; or Great Falls or Missoula, Mont. All tours feature daily visits to historic sites, attractions and interpretive centers. A historian who specializes in the Lewis and Clark expedition will be with the group each day, as will speakers, performers and reenactors.

Cost: from $1,200 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, some meals and guides. Air fare is extra.

Contact: Rocky Mountain Discovery Tours; (888) 400-0048, www .rmdt.com.

Holland: Flowers

You may think only of tulips when you think of Holland flowers, but the Floriade garden exhibition, which Amsterdam hosts just once every 10 years, has trees, vegetables, fruits and other blooms. Unique Vacations is offering a tour that departs April 24 for seven nights on a small ship that will cruise Dutch waterways.

Besides tickets to the Floriade, the tour includes sightseeing in Amsterdam, Edam, Hoorn, the Friesland lake district, the Kinderdijk windmills, Keukenhof Gardens and Kampen.

Cost: $2,887 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, cabin, all meals, sightseeing fees and guides.

Contact: Caren Erickson at Unique Vacations; (800) 713-2207, Ext. 14

Asia: Three Countries

Asian art dealer and tour leader Harry Lawrence of Far East Art Adventure Travel in Laguna Beach is combining Tibet, Nepal and India on a tour that runs from Feb. 9 to March 2. The tour begins in Hong Kong and then goes to Lhasa, Tibet, to see Potala Palace, once home to the Dalai Lama. Next stops are Katmandu and the medieval cities of Patan and Bhaktapur in Nepal. By air, the group will continue to the holy Hindu city of Varanasi, India, and then to the Taj Mahal in Agra and the Red Fort of Shah Jahan in Delhi. After visiting the desert city of Udaipur, the tour ends in Delhi.

Cost: $5,500 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, hotels, most meals, guides and lectures.

Contact: Far East Art Adventure Travel; (949) 494-9778.

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