Paths of Literary Greats in England and Wales

Back-Roads Touring Co.’s annual literary tour through England and Wales will depart Aug. 3.

The 14-day tour will visit places associated with Charles Dickens, Winston Churchill and Rudyard Kipling in Kent; Jane Austen’s home in Chawton; the thatched-cottage landscapes of Thomas Hardy near Dorchester; Shakespeare’s birthplace in Stratford-on-Avon; the homes of Lord Byron and D.H. Lawrence near Nottingham; and the university cities of Oxford and Cambridge, where Lewis Carroll and C.S. Lewis wrote.

Cost: $1,990 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, breakfast and dinner daily (except in London), mini-coach transportation with a driver-guide and entrance fees. Air fare to London is extra.

Contact: Wilson and Lake International; (800) 227-5550.

Europe: Classes

Santa Monica College will host a trip to London and Paris from June 25 to July 17. Participants will study European history and music at universities in both cities.

In London, travelers will take classes at the University of London and participate in escorted excursions to surrounding areas. The third week will be spent in Paris at the Sorbonne. Both city stays will be supplemented by side trips to museums and historic sites.

Cost: $3,375 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, hotels, some meals, entry fees and ground transportation.

Contact: Professor Dennis Frisch, Santa Monica College International Programs Office; (310) 434-4511.

Australia: Photography

Photographer Michele Burgess will lead a trip to Australia, where camera buffs will be able to take photos of Green Island and the Great Barrier Reef, Ayers Rock, the outback, Kangaroo Island, the historic towns of Tasmania and the city of Sydney. The tour runs Nov. 4 to 22.

Cost: $4,525 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, accommodations, many meals, ground transportation and guides.

Contact: In Focus With Michele Burgess; (714) 536-6104, www.infocustravel.com.

South America: Cruise

Tours that combine nature walks on the Galapagos Islands, a cruise aboard the yacht Lili Marleen and sightseeing in Quito, Ecuador, are available through November from Peter Deilmann Cruises. Deilmann’s nature cruises of the Galapagos, the remote volcanic archipelago off the coast of Ecuador, depart from the U.S. every Thursday.

The 10-day tour gives travelers seven days to discover the exotic species and plant life on the islands and three days in Quito.

Cost: from $3,348 per person, double occupancy, including seven nights on the Lili Marleen, all meals on board, Galapagos excursions and guides, three nights at the Marriott Hotel in Quito with breakfast, hotel service charges and taxes, airport transfers and park fees. International air fare is extra.

Contact: Peter Deilmann Cruises; (800) 348-8287.

China: History

Historian Bob Feldman, a tour leader to China since 1986, will escort a 17-day tour to China from Sept. 26 to Oct. 12. The tour visits Beijing, Xian, Chongqing, Guilin and Shanghai, and is highlighted by a luxury Yangtze River cruise. This will be the last year to travel the Yangtze before the Three Gorges Dam is completed and water begins to fill the gorges.

Feldman will lecture and lead discussions on Chinese history, culture and current affairs. Sights on the itinerary include the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Great Wall, the terra-cotta army of China’s first emperor, Qin Shihuang, and the Children’s Palace.

Cost: $4,190 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air transportation, hotel accommodations, all meals (including four Western dinners), entrance fees, cruise, shore excursions, three theater performances and portage.

Contact: East-West International Tours; (800) 359-6719,

www.eastwest-tours.com.

Utah: Moab

Desert rock art can be seen on a tour around Moab with Art and Anthropological Tours of Oakland, Calif.

The 10-day tour starts Sept. 10 in Salt Lake City. After a city tour, participants will venture into the desert to see rock art depicting shamans and heroic figures, drawn on boulders and cliffs between AD 400 and 1500. Navajo and Ute petroglyphs will be located too. Three outdoor chamber music concerts at the Moab Music Festival are also scheduled.

Cost: $3,730 per person, double occupancy, including land transportation, driver and guide, lodging, most meals, concert tickets, lectures and baggage handling. Group is limited to 16 participants. Transportation to Utah is extra.

Contact: Art and Anthropological Tours; (510) 465-5528, e-mail arttour2@earthlink.com.

Scandinavia and Russia

Wine fans can learn about California vintages with Biono Price, president of Sunstone Vineyards in the Santa Ynez Valley, on a cruise to Scandinavia and Russia from Aug. 10 to 17.

Participants will sail on the 700-passenger Mariner from Stockholm to Copenhagen by way of Helsinki, St. Petersburg (two nights) and Tallinn, Estonia, where parts of the town date back to the 13th century.

Cost: $3,345 per person, double occupancy, including cabin and all meals, wine seminars, shore excursions and gratuities. Air fare is extra.

Contact: Journeys of Distinction; (877) 251-0497, www.journeysofdistinction.net.

Chile: Patagonia

The UCLA Alumni Assn. is sponsoring a tour to Patagonia from Nov. 2 to 14. The journey will begin in Santiago, Chile, where participants will spend the day touring the city.

Then the group will fly to Puerto Montt, a fishing port and gateway to the lake country. After touring a fish market, travelers will transfer to the German-style town of Puerto Varas and take a catamaran out onto a lake.

The group will fly to Punta Arenas on the Strait of Magellan, Chile’s southernmost city, and spend two nights in Puerto Natales, gateway to southern Patagonia. The tour then will head to Balmaceda and Serrano glaciers in Bernardo O’Higgins National Park and will see more glaciers in Torres del Paine National Park for three nights.

Cost: $4,895 per person, double occupancy, including lodging, most meals, in-country flights and ground transportation. International air fare is extra.

Contact: UCLA Alumni Travel; (310) 206-0613 or (800) 825-2586, www.UCLAlumni.net. Royal Adventures will handle all booking and ticketing; (800) 453-4754.

Spain: Museums

Gaudi Year celebrations in Barcelona, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Dali Museum in a seaside village on the Costa Brava are among the highlights of an 11-day tour to Spain from Petrabax Vacations.

The tour, available year-round, to the Costa Brava, Navarre and Basque country begins with two nights in Barcelona, then travels by bus along the Costa Brava to Girona for two nights and a daytime visit to the Salvador Dali Museum in Figueres, where the surrealist artist spent his final years. The tour continues to Zaragoza and historic Pamplona.

Two nights are spent in Pamplona, with a daytime excursion to the nearby wine region of La Rioja for a wine tasting and luncheon. The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is a stop on the way to San Sebastian, the resort town on the Cantabrian Sea.

The tour returns to Madrid via Burgos, known for its impressive cathedral, which houses the tomb of El Cid.

Cost: $1,028 per person, double occupancy, including accommodations for nine nights, many meals, entrance fees, round-trip airport transfers, service charges and taxes. Departures are frequent through Oct. 18. Air fare is additional.

Contact: Petrabax; (800) 634-1188, www.petrabax.com.

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