Taking on Norway by Land, Sea and Fiord

The Minnesota-based tour company Borton Overseas is offering a Norway by Land and Coastal Steamer tour July 22 to Aug. 4, escorted by Anne Johansen, a native Norwegian.

The tour begins in Oslo with a two-night stay and includes a city tour, free time for visits to museums, galleries and shopping. Participants will fly to Kirkenes for one night before boarding Nordlys, one of Bergen line’s newest vessels, for the southbound voyage. The ship will make stops in several harbors including Vardo, Hammerfest, Tromso, Stamsund, Bodo, Trondheim and Kristiansand. Shore excursions include a trip to North Cape, an overland bus tour in the Vesteralen region and the Lofoten Islands, and a city tour of Trondheim, which is celebrating its 1,000th anniversary.

When the ship docks in Bergen, the tour continues with a city tour and free time to explore. After one night in Bergen, participants will take a cruise along the Sognefjord, the deepest and longest fiord in the world. During three days in the fiord country at Skei, there will be excursions to the Glacier Museum, a cruise to the Geiranger Fiord, and a trip on the Flam railway. Each evening at Skei there will special events such as folk dancing.

Cost: from $2,919 per person, double occupancy, including eight nights hotel accommodations, five nights on the coastal steamer, most meals, land transportation and services of a guide.

Contact: Borton Overseas, 1621 E. 79th St., Bloomington, MN 55425; telephone (612) 883-0704 or (800) 843-0602.

Oaxaca’s History

Baja California tours is offering a tour to Oaxaca, departing April 22 for six nights. Oaxaca, in southern Mexico, is known for its folk art created by the largely Indian population. The city also has Baroque churches built by the Dominican order in the 17th century and pre-Columbian ruins from the Zapotec and Mixtec empires.

Cost: $989 per person, double occupancy, when departing with the group from San Diego. The price includes air transportation, hotels, some meals and guides. Contact: Baja California Tours, 7734 Herschel Ave., Suite O, La Jolla, CA 92037; tel. (619) 454-7166.

Silk Road

Photographer and China traveler Frank Logan will lead a 19-day tour to China departing Los Angeles Sept. 22. Participants will first visit Beijing, then go to China’s westernmost area to visit Urumqi to see the Lake of Heaven, Kashgar to see the Sunday Bazaar, Turfan to see the Grape Valley and enjoy a traditional roast sheep banquet, Dunhuang to see the Mogao Grottoes and Xian, the destination of the ancient silk merchants. In Guilin the group will visit the Reed Flute Cave and enjoy a daylong cruise down the Li River.

Also on the itinerary: The Uygur Folklore Show, Khazak horse racing, a camel ride in the Gobi Desert and a visit to the Children’s Palace and Museum in Shanghai.

Cost: $3,745 per person, double occupancy, includes round-trip air from Los Angeles, hotels, all meals, sightseeing and guides. Contact: Frank Logan, 12723 Stanhill Drive, La Mirada, CA 90638; tel. (310) 941-6340.

Lascaux to Van Gogh

Art historian Pat Craig will lead a two-week tour of art shrines in Holland, Belgium and France, following in the footsteps of Van Gogh, Monet, Cezanne and Renoir.

Departing LAX on May 29, the group’s first stop will be Amsterdam, where the Rembrandthuis and the Van Gogh Museum in the Rijksmuseum will be visited. Other stops in the Netherlands include the Anne Frank home, the National Museum and the Aalsmer Flower Auction.

After a stop in Brussels and a visit to Van Gogh’s birthplace in nearby Zundert, the tour schedules three days in Paris, where members will see Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Musee D’Orsay and the Montmartre artists’ district.

The group continues to Monet’s home at Giverny, and Auvers-sur-Oise, where Van Gogh is buried, to the chateaux country, to Limoges and to Lascaux, where pre-historic cave drawings can be seen.

Then on to Avignon’s Musee de Petit Palais and Arles, where Van Gogh spent his last days, and Aix-en-Provence, where Cezanne lived and worked. The finale is a two-day stay on the French Riviera, including visits to the studios of Cezanne and Picasso, and sightseeing in Nice, Cannes, Antibes and Monte Carlo.

Cost: $3,599 per person, double occupancy, including air fare, first-class or superior hotel accommodations, 17 meals, all sightseeing and museum fees, services of local guides and a multilingual tour manager, baggage handling and tips and taxes for hotels and restaurants.

Contact: WindSong Tours and Travel, 1500 Greenview Drive, La Habra, CA 90631; tel. (714) 871-1172.

Wildlife Safari

See the wildlife of Kenya on a trip to Africa that runs June 7 to 21. Beginning in the capital city of Nairobi, guests travel from the forested Aberdare Mountains and the Ark game-lookout lodge, to the rugged semiarid Samburu Reserve. They will visit the Masai Mara Reserve, where wildlife roam freely and in large numbers. Amboseli National Park is visited to see its herds of elephants and Mt. Kilimanjaro. A six-day extension in Tanzania is available.

Special activities include visits to Samburu and Masai villages, chimpanzee viewing, a cruise of Lake Baringo, and a farewell dinner with African music and dance.

Cost: $1,910 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, lodges and luxury tented camps; meals during the tour; transfers, transportation in mini-bus with photographic hatch, park entrance fees and driver-guide. Air fare is not included.

Contact: Carolyn Edwards, Your Travel Center, 1005 Casitas Pass Road, Carpinteria, CA 93013; tel. (805) 684-6601.

Southern Springtime

A 15-day motor-coach tour through Georgia and the Carolinas, March 31 to April 14, features visits to both contemporary and historic private homes and gardens in Savannah, Ga.; Charleston, S.C.; and Camden, N.C. While in Asheville, N.C., guests will tour George W. Vanderbilt’s century-old, 250-room French Renaissance-style chateau on the 8,000-acre Biltmore Estate.

Tour members also visit the 14,000-acre Coolly Gardens in Pine Mountain, Ga.; Little White House State Historic Park in Warm Springs, Ga.; and docent tours of two antebellum plantation gardens outside of Charleston. Also on the itinerary: two gourmet luncheons set in mansions; tickets to the “62nd annual Savannah Tour of Homes and Gardens,” and the Historic Charleston Foundation’s “50th annual Festival of Homes and Gardens.”

Cost: $2,180 per person, double occupancy, including first-class accommodations in the heart of Asheville’s, Charleston’s and Savannah’s historic districts; 30 meals; daytime or candlelight tours of private homes and gardens in Charleston and Savannah; theater tickets; Beaufort carriage tour; narrated city sightseeing; and admissions and porterage. A 10-day shortened version is $1,670 per person, double occupancy. Not included: air fare to Atlanta or Savannah. Contact: S.T.E.P. Tours, 6719 Abbottswood Drive, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275; tel. (310) 377-1601.

Ireland and England

Visit Ireland and England on a 15-day tour that leaves June 19. Five days are spent touring Ireland, the cradle of the Celtics. At Cashel, Glendalough and Slane Hill the group will see and hear how St. Patrick introduced Christianity to the Irish. We will also see Ireland’s spectacular southwest coast, visit Blarney Castle (and Stone), and enjoy dinner and entertainment at a Dublin pub. Crossing the Irish Sea by ferry, participants travel through North Wales to the English Lake District, on to visit the impressive ruins of a monastery, then to walled Roman York, to Stratford-upon-Avon (for an evening at the playhouse), to Oxford with its colleges and museums, and to Windsor with the queen’s State Apartments and art gallery. The tour finishes in London, with visits to Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London and Shakespeare’s Globe Theater. The last day in London is for leisure.

Cost: $3,398 per person, double occupancy, including all transportation from Los Angeles, accommodation in first-class hotels, breakfasts and dinners daily, tour guide and entrance fees.

Contact: Colville and Sylvia Smythe; tel. (818) 791-3111.

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