It’s All Downhill From Courmayeur, Italy

Ski the slopes of Italy’s Alps on a seven-night ski vacation to Courmayeur, Italy, from Jan. 24 to Feb. 1. Participants will stay in this French-flavored town, which is on the Italian side of Mont Blanc. The town has cobblestone streets, quaint shops and restaurants. The Val Veny slopes provide a large network of lifts and a variety of runs. Guests can also ski Pila near Aosta, Italy, and Chamonix, France.

Cost: $1,329 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, a six-day ski pass, lodging, bilingual hosts, breakfast and dinner daily, and airport transfers.

Contact: Carlucci’s Italy, 27121 Arena Lane, Mission Viejo, CA 92691; telephone (714) 707-5824.

Cool Scandinavia

“The Best of Scandinavia,” offered by Eva’s Tours, is June 10 to 23. It focuses on Norway’s scenery, the fiords, former Winter Olympic sites and cultural centers. The tour starts in Stockholm for three days, visiting the Royal Palace, the city hall building where Nobel Prize winners are awarded, the Old Town and an outdoor museum.

Then it’s off by train to Oslo visiting the Holmenkollen ski jump and then to see fiords. Guests stop at Bergen and Lillehammer before taking an overnight ship to Copenhagen for a two-day visit. The Christiansborg Palace, city hall, the Amalienborg Palace and Tivoli Gardens are visited.

Cost: $3,099 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare, first-class hotels, all tours and transportation, daily breakfasts, some dinners and shows.

Contact: Eva’s Tours, 27485 Paseo Mimosa, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675; tel. (714) 489-0488.

French Open

Advantage Tennis Tours is offering a tennis finals package to the 1998 French Open in Paris. The tour runs June 2 to 8. Tennis enthusiasts will have six nights of hotel accommodations at the Cayre Hotel or Lotti Hotel and four days of reserved center-court seats for the semifinals and finals. Other activities include seeing major sights in Paris and a Seine River cruise on the bateaux mouches. Members will have the opportunity to play tennis at a private club. A group dinner will be hosted at the Left Bank restaurant Le Bastide Odeon.

Cost: from $2,395 per person, double occupancy, including hotel accommodations, reserved seats, daily breakfast, Paris city tour, Seine River cruise and Metro pass. Air fare is not included. The group is limited to 20.

Contact: Advantage Tennis Tours, 33 White Sail, Laguna Niguel, CA 92677; tel. (800) 341-8687.

Architectural Mexico

Luis Barragan’s Tucubaya house and studio, where Mexico’s renowned modern architect spent his last years, will be one of the stops on a three-day tour of many of Barragan’s surviving residencies and public works, Feb. 26 to March 1. In addition, tour participants will have the opportunity to visit many private homes and public buildings designed by architects working in Mexico City today.

Several of these architects will be available to meet the group on site. Guests will visit the new National Center for the Arts, south of Mexico City.

Cost: $845 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, all ground transportation, entrance fees, one lunch and one dinner. Air fare is extra.

Contact: Painted Desert Tours, P.O. Box 2023, Scottsdale, AZ 85252; tel. (602) 991-1442.

Switzerland Adventure

Horizons Adventures of a Lifetime is offering a combination hiking, biking and white-water rafting tour of the Engadine region of Switzerland.

Two seven-day tours, Aug. 9 and Aug. 16, of the Engadine include overnight stays in Pontresina and Tarasp. Highlights of the tours include: hikes in the mountains and glaciers surrounding Pontresina; a bike ride into the Lower Engadine region past the historical and architecturally beautiful hamlets of Guarda and Ardez; a hike into Switzerland’s national park; and a day of white-water rafting on the Inn River.

Also included in the tours is a visit to a local cheese-making hut, the Roman baths in Scuol, the historical castle in Tarasp, as well as a wine-tasting of many of the local Engadine wines. All levels of ability are welcome.

Cost: $1,845 per person, double occupancy, including accommodations, some meals, bilingual guides, use of 21-speed hybrid bikes, support van to transport luggage and ground transportation. Air fare is not included.

Contact: Horizons Adventures of a Lifetime, P.O. Box 670565, Marietta, GA 30066; tel. (800) 246-3180.

Grand Alaska Tour

Warm up to the idea of Alaska on a 17-day tour from Fairbanks to Sitka, departing June 8, or from Sitka to Fairbanks, departing June 26. Guests will tour Fairbanks and cruise on the Chena River aboard the steam-wheeler Discovery. Then they will visit a native village and watch a dog-sledding demonstration. Next is Denali National Park for a two-night stay, followed by a cruise across Prince William Sound to view icebergs, wildlife and the Columbia Glacier.

Also scheduled are Valdez, Tok, Haines, Skagway and Carcross in the Yukon Territory. Guests will have a chance to fish for salmon or trout and enjoy special barbecues.

Cost: $3,139 per person, double occupancy, including wilderness lodging, most meals, ground transportation and sightseeing fees. Air fare is extra.

Contact: Adventure Outdoors, P.O. Box 4461, Rolling Bay, WA 98061; tel. (800) 755-3789.

Holland in Springtime

Multicolored tulip fields are among highlights of an escorted tour of Holland departing April 15 for 11 days. Two- to four-night stays in The Hague, Groningen and Amsterdam are the bases for exploring smaller towns and villages and visiting castles and manor houses in the Dutch countryside. Scheduled visits include Keukenhof Gardens, the Royal Delft pottery factory, the Royal Het Loo Palace, Amsterdam sightseeing and canal cruise and the world’s largest flower auction.

Cost: $2,795 per person, double occupancy, including first class hotels, daily breakfasts, most dinners, all sightseeing and entrance fees. Air fare is extra.

Contact: Lucas and Randall; tel. (800) 505-2505.

Biblical Jordan

Barry Powell, a professor of classics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will host two tours of Syria and Jordan May 21 to June 6 and June 18 to July 4. They begin in Damascus with a guided city tour to see the National Museum, the Tomb of Saladin and the Omayyed Mosque amid the ruins of the 3rd century Roman Temple of Jupiter.

The following day the group travels north through the Orontes Valley to see the Crusader castle Krak des Chevaliers before reaching Lattakia, a Syrian seaport. A tour of the city is followed by a visit to the port of Ugarit and the archeological site of Ebla.

In Aleppo, the group visits the National Museum, the Grand Mosque and the Citadel. Members travel through the desert to visit the ruins of Resafeh, and Doura Europos, Mari and Palmyra. En route to Amman, Jordan, guests visit Jerash, Pella, the hilltop temple of Hercules and the Roman theater. In Amman a visit to the National Museum introduces tour members to local archeological artifacts. The group then proceeds to Petra.

Cost: $3,795 per person, double occupancy, including transatlantic flights, first-class hotels, all meals, entrance fees, guided tours and ground transportation.

Contact: University Educational Travel; tel. (800) 525-0525.

Southern Europe

A 13-day cruise from Bucharest, Romania, to Vienna, Austria, is available on various dates during the year. Stops include Belgrade, Yugoslavia; Budapest, Hungary; and Bratislava, Slovakia. The cruise is aboard the Balkan Beauty, a three-star vessel renovated this year and accommodating 78 passengers. Rates for the cruise begin at $1,298, and with air start at $2,298 per person from New York.

All the cruises include accommodations in superior or first-class hotels with two meals daily on the land portions; accommodations in twin cabins with lower beds and three meals daily while sailing; sightseeing in each city; and shore excursions.

Airport taxes and port charges are not included.

Contact: Value World Tours, 17220 Newhope St., No. 203, Fountain Valley, CA 92708; tel. (800) 795-1633 or (714) 556-8258.

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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.