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Snowbound in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

You will need to bundle up for seven-day winter and early spring trips to Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia, with Eastern Tours of New York.

Four days are scheduled in St. Petersburg, where participants will attend a ballet performance at the Kirov theater, visit the Hermitage museum and tour the Peter and Paul Fortress, built in 1703 by Peter the Great, and the Alexandrovsky Palace. Guests will spend three days in Moscow, touring the Kremlin and visiting the Moscow Circus.

Cost: $599 per person, double occupancy, which includes air fare from New York to St. Petersburg with a stop in Helsinki, Finland; hotels; some meals; performance tickets and guided tours. Departures are any time until April 30.

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

Argentina and Brazil

Samba on down to South America from April 9 to 19 on a tour for travelers 50 and older and their relatives with Oasis Travel of Los Angeles. The journey will begin in Buenos Aires with visits to San Telmo, the Plaza de Mayo and the Metropolitan Cathedral. Another day will be spent meeting gauchos--Argentine cowboys--at a cattle ranch. Next on the itinerary will be a visit to Iguazu Falls, followed by Rio de Janeiro, where travelers will ascend Corcovado Mountain to see the 125-foot statue of Christ the Redeemer, a city landmark. Also included is a day trip to the colonial town of Petropolis and a Brazilian samba show, which will end the tour.

Cost: $2,699 per person, double occupancy, which includes round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, airport transfers, hotels, many meals and guides.

Contact: Oasis Tours; (310) 446-8053.

New York City: Broadway

You can help New York City this holiday season by joining a group tour to the metropolis with Broadway Melody Tours of Pacific Palisades.

The tour includes orchestra seats at three Broadway shows, “The Producers,” “Thou Shalt Not” and “45 Seconds From Broadway.” Also scheduled are visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, the Museum of Natural History and the Whitney, and a bus tour of upper Manhattan to Harlem and Central Park.

Tour dates are Dec. 17 to 23 and Dec. 26 to Jan. 1.

Cost: $1,795 per person, double occupancy, which includes air fare to New York, six nights at the Crowne Plaza Manhattan Hotel, theater tickets, city tour and guides. Meals at diverse ethnic restaurants are extra.

Contact: Victoria Francis at Broadway Melody Tours; (323) 227-8370.

East Coast: Cruise

From May 10 through August, Holland America’s Rotterdam will sail to Canada and New England on 17 cruises of seven to 10 days. Seven-day cruises will leave from New York and call at Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.; Portland, Maine; Halifax, Canada; Boston; and Newport, R.I. Fares begin at $1,199 per person, double occupancy.

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All nine-and 10-day cruises also will sail the St. Lawrence River, where passengers can watch for beluga whales, and will stop at Bar Harbor, Maine; and Quebec City, Montreal, Halifax, Sydney, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland in Canada.

Cost: Nine-day fares begin at $1,799 per person, 10-day fares at $2,099. Air fare to departure cities is extra.

Contact a travel agent for reservations. For information, contact Holland America; (877) 724-5425, https://www.hollandamerica.com.

Australia: Outback

Art galleries, national parks, historic opal mining sites and the Outback are packed into a seven-day tour of Australia by Inta-Aussie South Pacific Tours of Los Angeles. The tour is based in the mining town of Broken Hill in far western New South Wales.

Participants fly into Sydney and take an overnight train to Broken Hill. Scheduled excursions include Kinchega National Park, known for its bird life; Mutawintji National Park, which contains aboriginal rock art, deep gorges and rock pools; and several Outback towns. One night is spent in an underground motel.

Cost: $570 per person, double occupancy, which includes hotels, all meals, ground transportation, entrance fees and guides. Air fare to Sydney is extra. Departures are weekly, year-round.

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Contact: Inta-Aussie Tours; (800) 531-9222, https://www.inta-aussie.com.

Panama: Cruise

“A Passage to Panama” includes a ride on a classic 1940s Streamliner train as well as a cruise through the canal on the Queen Elizabeth 2. Uncommon Journeys is offering this trip Jan. 1 to 21. It begins in Los Angeles’ Union Station; passengers will board an Amtrak train for New Orleans, where they will stay for two nights. Then a train will take guests to New York, where they will stay one night before boarding the QE2 on Jan. 7 for a cruise to the Panama Canal. In Panama, passengers can take a boat ride on Gatun Lake. On the return sail to Los Angeles, passengers will stop in Acapulco and Ixtapa, Mexico.

Cost: from $4,495 per person, double occupancy, which includes train trips, hotels, cruise, most meals and guides.

Contact: Uncommon Journeys; (800) 323-5893, https://www.uncommonjourneys.com.

Asia: Major Cities

Pacific Delight Tours combines several cities and countries on its “Asian Focus” tours, which depart weekly through March. A 12-day tour combines Singapore with Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, including a visit to Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum and a cruise on Halong Bay. A 13-day tour combines Singapore with Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Thailand, and Hong Kong. Highlights include Singapore’s Little India and Chinatown sections, Bangkok’s Royal Grand Palace, elephant rides in Chiang Mai and an ascent of Victoria Peak in Hong Kong.

Cost: The 12-day tour is $2,050 per person, double occupancy, and the 13-day trip begins at $1,750, depending on departure date and hotel. Both tours include round-trip air transportation from San Francisco, hotels, daily breakfast, tours, entertainment and baggage handling.

Contact: Pacific Delight Tours; (800) 221-7179, https://www.pacificdelighttours.com.

China: Green Tea

Odysseys Unlimited of Massachusetts will take travelers to China’s Forbidden City in Beijing, the Great Wall, the terra-cotta warriors at the archeological site at Xian, and Shanghai, but it’s the off-the-tourist-track sites that make the trip interesting. On the 17-day “Treasures of China” tour, travelers will visit the homes and plantations of green-tea farmers near Hangzhou, the classical gardens of Suzhou and the museums of Nanjing. Tours can be scheduled any time from March 1 to Nov. 30.

Cost: from $2,395 per person, double occupancy, which includes air fare from Los Angeles, hotels, most meals, entrance fees and guides.

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Contact: Odysseys Unlimited; (888) 370-6765, https://www.odysseys-unlimited.com.

Hawaii: Nature

The Massachusetts Audubon Society will take a natural approach to Hawaii on a trip that focuses on birds, humpback whales and volcanoes.

The 11-day tour starts Jan. 31 on the island of Kauai at Kilauea Point, where albatrosses nest. Along the coast, naturalists will point out the red-footed booby, frigate birds and the red-tailed tropic bird. Participants will visit Waimea Canyon before moving on to Maui, where they will board a private vessel to look for humpback whales. Next is an exploration of Mt. Haleakala. On the Big Island, the group will visit Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

Cost: $4,495 per person, double occupancy, which includes hotels, some meals, ground and inter-island transportation and guides. Air fare is extra.

Contact: Massachusetts Audubon Society; (800) 289-9504, Ext. 7411, https://www.massaudubon.org/travel.

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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.

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