Backpacking Softly on Planet Colorado

Learn the art of minimum-impact wilderness backpacking and about nature and wildlife on a trip to the northern Colorado Rockies Sept. 5 to 14. Participants will arrive in Steamboat Springs, Colo., to meet trip leaders, who will take hikers along the Continental Divide. Guests will become proficient in basic backpacking skills, including the “leave no trace” wilderness principle. Guides will describe the wildlife and geology of the Rockies. Program highlights include an ascent of a peak higher than 12,000 feet, hiking at Colorado’s higher elevations and crossing a waterfall. The group will camp next to glacial lakes and near some of Colorado’s highest peaks.

Cost: $775 per person, including accommodations, all meals, guides, camping gear and transportation to trail heads. Air fare to Colorado not included.

Contact: Poulter Colorado Camps, P.O. Box 772947, Steamboat Springs, CO 80477; telephone (970) 879-4816.

Sonoma Valley Wines

Join a wine expert on a tour Oct. 9 to 12 of Sonoma Valley that focuses on wine types, not vineyards. There will be three private tastings. The group, limited to 10, will travel in two limousines for the four-day trip. Participants will stay in the European-style Vintners Inn, which is surrounded by a 45-acre vineyard.

Cost: $895 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, lodging, breakfasts and prepaid wine purchases including shipping. Contact: Gurnham Group; tel. (800) 475-0004.

Tennis in Australia

Advantage Tennis Tours is offering a special finals package to the first leg of the Grand Slam Tournaments. The escorted tour is from Jan. 23 to Feb. 2 and includes excellent reserved center court seats for the semifinals and finals of the Australian Open. Tennis enthusiasts and travelers can enjoy the sights of Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, with privately guided city tours. One part of the tour features a tennis exchange on grass at the exclusive Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club.

Cost: from $3,395 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air from Los Angeles to Melbourne via Qantas, first-class hotel accommodations in Sydney and Melbourne, center court seats, daily buffet breakfast, Sydney Harbor cruise, city tours in Melbourne and Sydney, Melbourne tram pass and airport transfers. Post tournament tours to New Zealand start at $1,095 for four nights. Reserve by Aug. 31 and save $100 per person.

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

Art of New Mexico

Art historian Louise Lewis, who was curator of the Art Museum at the University of New Mexico, will be hosting a tour to Santa Fe and Taos, N.M. The five-day trip departs Oct. 29 for a tour through galleries and museums. Guests will attend private cocktail receptions at artists’ homes and studios. The trip also includes a pottery-making demonstration by a Pueblo potter and a private bronze pouring at the Shidoni Gallery and Foundry.

Cost: $1,475 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles to Albuquerque, accommodations, many meals and a chartered motor coach.

Contact: June Davis, Wide World Tours, Topanga Plaza, 6600 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Canoga Park, CA 91303; tel. (818) 883-3220.

Beauty of Venice

Visit Venice and learn about Venetian culture on a personalized tour Oct. 19 to 26. The guide will introduce participants to experts in music, art, architecture, gastronomy and antiques. Highlights include a walk through gardens of Venice; a boat ride to explore islands of the lagoon; tours of winding alleys; the Rialto markets; a lecture on the history of Venetian cooking; a Vivaldi concert at Chiesa de Santa Maria della Pieta; dinner in a palazzo; and shopping for gold jewelry, cashmere blankets and Venetian painted furniture.

There’s an optional day for activities to suit special interests. Choices include the Biennale International Exhibition of Modern Art, Palazzo Grassi German Expressionist exhibit, the Ghetto, the Bridge Club of Venice or more shopping.

Guest will stay in a deluxe hotel just a few steps from St. Mark’s Basilica.

Cost: $3,950 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, most meals and tours. Air fare is not included.

Contact: Stanton Associates, 136 E. 56th St., New York, NY 10022; tel. (212) 838-4740.

Morocco for Holidays

For an out-of-the-ordinary Christmas and New Year’s, travel to Morocco on an escorted tour from Dec. 23 to Jan. 3. Christmas is spent in Marrakech, with visits to the Islamic Arts Museum, Dar Si Said Museum of Regional Arts and Crafts and the Palais de la Bahia. Guests then hop aboard Land Rovers for an excursion to the Erg Chebbi sand desert and a chance to ride a camel through the dunes.

In the imperial city of Fez, guests wander the medieval medina (city center), shop its colorful souks (markets) and celebrate New Year’s at a gala event. The tour stops at several Berber villages along the way to see village life and purchase handmade pottery, jewelry, carpets and weavings.

Guests pass through Meknes to admire its impressive 25-miles of triple ramparts, and Volubilis, where some of Morocco’s most important ruins are found. The tour also goes to Rabat to see the Tower of Hassan and the Royal Palace, before concluding in Casablanca, where sightseeing includes the new Great Mosque, a prayer hall that accommodates 25,000 people.

Cost: $3,495 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles, flight from Casablanca to Marrakech, four to five-star accommodations, several meals, local tour guides and U.S. tour escort.

Contact: Sandy Nelson, Valhalla Tours, 4140 Stryker, Las Cruces, NM 88005; tel. (800) 525-0113.

Southern Africa

Kruger Game Park, Victoria Falls, Cape of Good Hope, sites of human origins, rock art are seen on a 19-day tour that leaves Dec. 29 to South Africa and Zimbabwe. The tour focuses on native cultures, big-game viewing, archeology, human fossils, gardens and bird life.

The itinerary includes six days in and around Kruger National Park.

There is also an excursion to Victoria Falls. There are very few hotel changes. The tour includes conversations on history, archeology, art and politics. There also will be workshops on animal identification, behavior and photography.

Cost: $3,755 per person, double occupancy, includes hotels and safari lodges, all breakfasts and most other meals, small group travel with experienced archeologist and art historian guides, in-country guest scholars, air and ground transportation in Africa, safari guide fees, and museum and site entrance fees. Air fare is extra.

Contact: David Abrams at Past Times Archeological Tours, 800 Larch Lane, Sacramento, CA 95864-5042; tel. (916) 485-8140.

Theater in London

TheaTours is offering its London Season theater tour scheduled for Dec. 1 to 12. The tour includes nine nights and seven plays in London, visits with performers, producers and critics, ample time for Christmas shopping and special pre-holiday events.

Guests will attend events at the new Old Globe theater and Theatre Royal Drury Lane. They will also visit one of the city’s renowned theater schools or film studios, hear Christmas music at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, have tea at Brown’s Hotel, eat lunch at Clivedon House and have a Dickens-style Christmas dinner.

Cost: $2,495 per person, double occupancy, including accommodations at the Washington Hotel in Mayfair, full English breakfast daily, best seats at seven productions and transfers. Air fare is not included.

Contact: Michael Hoffer, Wanderlust Travel, 201 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004; tel. (213) 461-3838.

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