8-day/7-night, “moderate” walking tour (five to seven hours’ walking per day, with demanding ascent or descent for up to 800 meters per day) in PORTUGAL. Highlights: Funchal/clifftop walk at São Lourenço/follow the levada (irrigation channel) path to Florenças/Balcony Walk between the peaks Arieiro and Ruivo. Land, from $810. Single supp., $190. Explore! North America (Oakland, CA; 800/715-1746).
Nine days/seven nights in ITALY. Highlights: In Rome, Forum, Circus Maximus, Colosseum/in Vatican City, Sistine Chapel, “Pieta” at St. Peter’s Basilica/Pompeii/Amalfi Coast/sail Bay of Naples to Positano and Sorrento/tour a mozzarella factory/Blue Grotto on Isle of Capri. Land, from $3,490. Single supp., $1,000. Perillo Tours (Woodcliff Lake, NJ; 800/431-1515).
Six days/five nights in AUSTRIA, Dec. 23-28, 2012. Highlights: Christmas Eve dinner, midnight Mass/Christmas Day concert at the Mozarteum/Salzburg walking tour/“Salzburg during Mozart’s Lifetime” at Dommuseum/Silent Night Chapel in Oberndorf. Land, $3,850. Single supp., $1,700. The Annemarie Victory Organization (New York, NY; 212/486-0353).
7-day/6-night canal cruise and walking tour, Sept. 30-Oct. 6 and Oct. 21-27, 2012. Highlights: Champagne-and-canapé welcome/Renaissance castle Château de Tanlay/lunch, wine tasting in Chablis/gardens and Cistercian architecture at Abbaye de Fontanay. Cruise, $4,650. Single supp., from $1,750. The Wayfarers (Newport, RI; 800/249-4620).
8-day/7-night cruise of northern SCOTLAND and islands aboard the 50-passenger Hebridean Princess, April 30-May 7, 2013. Highlights: Embark Oban/Isle of Muck/in Inverie, Scotland’s most remote pub/Tanera Mòr island/bird-watch at Balranald Nature Reserve, Uist. Cabins, $4,900-$8,040. Single cabins, $5,250-$7,350. Hebridean Island Cruises (Ft. Lauderdale, FL; 877/600-2648).
by Cynthia Thompson; Lebanon, NH
If you enjoy cruising on a relatively small ship, with the chance to go ashore almost every day to tour interesting sites that, frequently though not always, are archaeological in nature, then a trip on the Aegean Odyssey is the vacation for you.
The 19th-century clipper ship Cutty Sark (King William Walk, Greenwich, London SE10 9HT, U.K.) reopened to visitors on April 25, 2012.
For Android and Apple devices, the free app “Lough Derg Trails” describes 21 walking itineraries in Ireland, with photos. Itineraries may be downloaded to the phone for use without a data connection.
My wife, Kathy, and I took a cruise in June ’11 that stopped at Le Havre, France, from which we took a taxi to Giverny and Rouen to see where Monet painted.
I knew I would fly into London a day ahead of my Holland America Line “Arctic Explorer” cruise, departing July 25, 2011, from Tilbury, England, but I was puzzled as to whether to stay in London or near the port, itself. Luckily, a British client of mine felt I would prefer to stay in London, so he did some checking for me.
He told me to stay in a hotel near the Tower of London from which I could easily reach Tilbury Town Station by a British Rail train that left Fenchurch Street Station (on the Shoeburyness line).