The San Diego Aerospace Museum is sponsoring a British Aviation Tour Sept. 30 to Oct. 13 featuring a full day at the Shuttleworth Air Show. Local British aviation historians will join the group to provide lectures and discussions. This tour is designed for aviation enthusiasts and their companions.
The tour visits Cambridge, Salisbury and London, and features aircraft and hardware from every era of aviation history. The tour visits numerous aviation museums, including the Museum of Army Flying, the Fleet Air Army Museum, the Royal Air Force Museum and the new American Air Museum.
Also included are tours of the Bletchley Park Trust, where British intelligence broke the "unbreakable" enemy codes, and the Cabinet War Rooms, where Churchill and his advisors mapped strategy during World War II. The trip is highlighted by visits to the Shuttleworth Air Show and the museum complex at Duxford Airfield.
Cost: $4,350 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, deluxe hotels, two meals daily, all tours and entrance fees, and all taxes and portage.
Contact: East-West International Tours, 925 Acapulco St., Laguna Beach, CA 92651; telephone (800) 359-6719, Internet http://www.east west-tours.com.
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Arizona: New Year's
Adventure into the wild, wild West on a five-day tour of Arizona that leaves Dec. 30 and returns Jan. 3. The tour includes the Fiesta Bowl Parade with grandstand seating, a city tour of Scottsdale, the OK Corral, Sabino Canyon Tram, Biosphere II, Tombstone, cowboy dinner and show, Mission Xavier del Bac and the Old Tucson Studios. For New Year's Eve, guests will enjoy a three-course dinner and entertainment to ring in the new millennium.
Cost: $1,299 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, four nights at the Doubletree Hotel in Tucson, baggage handling, tour guide, motor coach, daily sightseeing and seven meals.
Contact: Daphne Bendel at Fitzgerald Tours; tel. (626) 358-7981.
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National Parks: Bicycling
WomanTours (a bicycle touring company for women) of Coleman Falls, Va., is offering a 16-day inn-to-inn bicycle tour through six national parks and monuments of southwestern Utah and Arizona Sept. 18 to Oct. 3. This road bike tour, planned for women riders of all levels of experience, visits Zion, the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef national parks as well as Cedar Breaks and Grand Staircase/Escalante national monuments. A support van accompanies the tour to transport luggage and cyclists who want a break from pedaling.
Cost: $1,965 per person, double occupancy, including lodgings for 15 nights, some meals, guides, maps and the support van. The trip begins and ends in Cedar City, Utah.
Contact: WomanTours, P.O. Box 68, Coleman Falls, VA 24536; tel. (800) 247-1444.
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New Zealand: By Plane
Tour the arts and gardens of New Zealand by private plane on a visit from Oct. 21 to Nov. 5, co-sponsored by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden.
Guests will focus on the natural beauty of both islands during springtime in the Southern Hemisphere, when gardens are in bloom. The tour is limited to a small group of 25 people and will be escorted by guest lecturer Edward Schneider, director of the Botanic Garden, and New Zealander Tim Scott.
The tour covers formal gardens to virgin rain forests, from geysers and volcanoes to whale watching, from rushing rivers to the Bay of Islands area and the cities of Christchurch, Dunedin, Queenstown and Auckland. Adventures will include a Dart River Jet Safari into the wilderness of Mt. Aspiring Park, a sailboat journey across Lake Gastineau, a Jeep tour of a private sheep station, a ski plane to the Tasman Glacier and, optionally, a chance to bungee-jump.
Cost: $8,959 per person, including lodging, all meals, coach and internal air transportation.
Contact: Santa Barbara Museum of Art; tel. (805) 884-6436.
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California: Redwoods
Join AFC Tours & Cruises Sept. 12 to 17 for an excursion to Northern California wine country during the wine harvest season. Participants will fly to Oakland and return from San Jose for a tour that includes Sonoma, Mendocino, Napa Valley, Santa Cruz and San Jose. Members will tour four wineries in Napa Valley and travel on three railroads, including the Skunk Train through the redwoods from Fort Bragg to Willits, the Napa Valley Wine Train and the Roaring Camp Narrow Gauge Railroad.
Cost: $1,199 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip shuttle service from your home to LAX, round-trip air fare from LAX, admissions to all attractions, gratuities and some meals.
Contact: AFC Tours, 11555 Sorrento Valley Road, Suite B, San Diego, CA 92121; tel. (619) 481-8188 or (800) 369-3693.
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Europe: Shopping
