10 Top Tours for 2001

In April, listen to a paleontologist explain the evolution of marine mammals while you cruise on the Gulf of California. In July, fly to the Italian seaside and observe master classes in piano, voice and strings. Or in September, spend 10 days retracing the route of American Expeditionary Forces during World War I.

These trips are among the dizzying number of educational tours on the calendar for 2001. As in years past, the Travel section has asked me to select 10 that seem especially promising. After sifting through the offerings from museums, universities and other organizations, I’ve come up with a diverse list that spans the globe and caters to a spectrum of interests.

The trips are listed in no particular order. Prices are per person, double occupancy, including lodging and guides. As of Wednesday, space was available for all. But be sure to check with tour operators about changes in availability, itinerary and cost.

Writing in Mid-Ocean

Although most Oceanic Society Expeditions are natural history trips or research projects, one tour this spring is a nature writing workshop on Midway Islands, a national wildlife refuge along the Hawaiian archipelago. Participants receive a pre-trip packet of readings and come prepared to document in a journal the islands’ bountiful wildlife--seabirds, fish, endangered monk seals and spinner dolphins. Journalist Pam Frierson will help participants develop their style.

May 19 to 26. Price is $1,990, including air fare from Honolulu and all meals (bathrooms are shared). Contact Marcy Englund, Oceanic Society Expeditions, Ft. Mason Center, Building E, San Francisco, CA 94123; tel. (800) 326-7491 or (415) 441-1106, https://www.oceanic-society.org.

Whale Sail for Families

Many family travel programs visit the Gulf of California to examine the animals of Baja California, but this tour is different: It’s led by Lawrence Barnes, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. A leading authority on marine mammal evolution, Barnes will focus on whales, pointing out migrating ones in the gulf and showing fossils that date back 25 million years. Although the emphasis will be on natural history, the tour allows time for shore excursions, kayaking, snorkeling and other activities. Participants sleep aboard the ship.

April 8 to 15. Price is $1,690 per adult, $1,550 per child 15 and younger, including most meals; air fare is extra. Contact Christine Robison, Travel Program, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90007; telephone (213) 763-3350, Internet https://www.nhm.org/travel.

Zoos in Europe

A biologist from the Brookfield Zoo outside Chicago will take participants to zoos in the Netherlands and Belgium. Highlights will include rain forests and deserts, gorilla habitats and large-cat breeding areas, Europe’s largest free-flight bird exhibit and the first facility in the world to show okapi and Congo peafowl. Stops in the Netherlands include Artis Zoo in Amsterdam, Apenheul in Apeldoorn (where 350 apes roam a woodland habitat), Noorder Dierenpark in Emmen, Burgers’ Zoo in Arnhem, Rotterdam Zoo and the National Park De Hoge Veluwe; in Belgium, the tour stops at the Antwerp Zoo.

April 10 to 18. Price is $3,495, including round-trip air from Chicago and most meals. Contact Gay Kuester, Brookfield Zoo, 3300 Golf Road, Brookfield, IL 60513; tel. (708) 485-0263, Ext. 307, https://www.brookfieldzoo.org (see Zoo Community).

Music on the Amalfi Coast

The Center for Musical Studies in Washington, D.C., is taking tour members to the Italian coast south of Naples, where they will attend concerts in an old Roman arena, a town cathedral and other scenic venues. While private lessons in piano, voice and strings are available to experienced participants, guests without musical training can attend rehearsals or sit in on master classes. Based in Vietri sul Mare by the Bay of Salerno, the program also includes tours of Pompeii, Naples and Capri, with optional courses in Italian cooking and ceramics.

June 24 to July 6. Price is $2,775, including most meals but not air fare. Contact Enid Hyde, Center for Musical Studies, 5402 Duvall Drive, Bethesda, MD 20816; tel. (301) 320-9046, https://www.musicalstudies.com.

Canadian Theater Fest

The National Trust for Historic Preservation will whisk theater lovers to Ontario, Canada, for a double dose of the stage in Stratford and Niagara-on-the-Lake. The Stratford Festival of Canada is presenting more than a dozen productions, including Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” and Noel Coward’s “Private Lives.” The Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake celebrates the works of George Bernard Shaw and his contemporaries; this year’s playbill includes “The Millionairess” by Shaw, “Picnic” by William Inge and “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” by Rupert Holmes. Participants will attend shows, visit backstage and meet cast members.

July 8 to 15. Price is $2,995, including most meals, one reception and six shows; air fare not included. Contact Meg Annacone, National Trust for Historic Preservation, 1785 Massachusetts Ave. N.W., Washington, DC 20036; tel. (202) 588-6300, https://www.nthp.org/studytours/advert.htm.

Wild Africa

Research on endangered carnivores will be the focus of a trip to southern Africa under the auspices of the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Participants will meet experts in the field, including Kelly Leigh, who studies wild dogs in the lower Zambezi area; Dr. Pieter Kat, who researches lions in northern Botswana; and Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, working in Namibia.

Aug. 7 to 25. Price is $7,790, including most meals but not air fare. Contact Traci Santos, Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA 02138; tel. (617) 495-2463, https://www.hmnh.harvard.edu.

Painting on a Paris Barge

The pace and the place are this tour’s appeal. Glide on a 20-passenger hotel-barge along the Canal St.-Martin from Paris and visit Lagny, Vaux-le-Vicomte and Cha^teau Thierry, with a side excursion on the Marne. Joseph Fitzpatrick, a University of Kentucky professor emeritus of art, will lead morning and afternoon sessions in landscape painting, followed by evening critiques and discussions of the day’s work. The tour, organized by Fitzpatrick with the Louisville Visual Arts Center, is geared for serious amateur painters with some previous training.

Sept. 15 to 21. Price is $2,625, including all meals but not air fare. Contact Ruth Fitzpatrick, 709 S. 3rd St., Apt. 504, Louisville, KY 40202; tel. (502) 561-1236, https://www.artscape.net.

‘Over There!’ in WWI France

The 150 days American troops fought in Europe during World War I will be recounted in a 10-day Smithsonian Study Tours exploration of France. John Votaw, head of the Cantigny First Division Museum near Chicago, will retrace the route of the American Expeditionary Forces, including battle sites at Bony, where U.S. and British troops launched an offensive in 1918; Belleau Wood, where the 4th U.S. Marine Brigade turned back Germans advancing toward Paris; the Meuse-Argonne Forest, site of another Allied offensive; Varennes-en-Argonne, now home to a museum; and the countryside near Compiegne, where the armistice was signed.

Sept. 18 to 27. Price is $3,875, including round-trip air fare from New York, some meals and two receptions. Contact Mary Beth Mullen, Smithsonian Study Tours, 1100 Jefferson Drive, S.W., Washington, DC 20560; tel. (877) 338-8687, https://www.smithsonianstudytours.org.

Rajasthan Camel Safari

The Pushkar Camel Fair, an annual Hindu festival during which thousands come to buy and sell camels or compete in camel races, is one stop in a fall journey to the northwest Indian state of Rajasthan. The trip, offered by tour operator Mountain Travel-Sobek, also includes a two-day camel trek with the Bishnoi desert tribe, plus stops in Jaipur, Jodhpur and Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. Travelers will stay in former maharajahs’ palaces converted into hotels or in deluxe carpeted tents.

Two trips, Nov. 14 to 30 and Nov. 24 to Dec. 10. Price is $3,990 or $4,190 (depending on group size), including all but one meal; air fare is extra. Mountain Travel-Sobek, 6420 Fairmount Ave., El Cerrito, CA 94530; tel. (888) 687-6235 or (510) 527-8100, https://www.mtsobek.com.

Cuisine for the Jet Set

Here’s something for the jet set: a Boeing 737, configured to carry only 48 passengers, whisking them to experience culinary traditions in Europe, Asia and Africa. The tour, sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History in New York, begins with a lesson in wine at London’s Vintners’ Hall. Then participants taste the wines of the Champagne, Beaujolais and Burgundy regions of France; tagine (slow-cooked dishes of meat, fruit and vegetables), couscous and spices of Marrakech, Morocco; Port wine of Oporto, Portugal; and the cheese, pasta and bread of Umbria, Italy. Other excursions focus on distinctive spices in Istanbul, Turkey, plus vodka and caviar in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Oct. 22 to Nov. 4. Price is $25,950, including all meals and air fare from, and returning to, London. Contact American Museum of Natural History Discovery Tours, Central Park West at 79th St., New York, NY 10024; tel. (800) 462-8687 or (212) 769-5700, https://www.discoverytours.org.