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India! Many love it, and some say they hate it, but no one is indifferent to this vast subcontinent teeming with almost one billion people. I was privileged to view it on a March-April tour with The Eagle Connection (Te Wairua, Apuau Channel, Private Bag, Havelock, Marlborough, North Island, New Zealand; phone +64 3 576 5048, fax 5148, www.eagle-tours.co.nz).
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8-day/7-night singles tour, Dec. 26, 2008-Jan. 2, 2009.
10-day/8-night wildlife safari, Dec. 21-30, 2008 (five departures in 2009).
Highlights: From Arusha, transfer to lodge with views of Mt. Meru and Kilimanjaro/in Great Rift Valley and Lake Manyara National Park, game drives to see flamingoes, hippos, tree-climbing lions, cheetahs, hyenas, zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, black rhinos/visit traditional Maasai boma (family enclosure)/hike into Olduvai Gorge, “cradle of humanity”/game drives in Serengeti/fly to Arusha.
Land and internal flight, from $4,895. Single supplement, $750 ($1,000 in December). Park fee, $600.
14 days/12 nights in CHINA with 4-day cruise, March 5-18, 2009.
Highlights: In Beijing, Forbidden City, Summer Palace, day tour to Great Wall and Ming Tombs/terra-cotta warriors in Xi’an/pandas at zoo in Chongqing/board a 5-star Yangtze cruiser and pass through Three Gorges/shore excursion to Wanxian or Fengdu; kindergarten visit/Three Gorges Dam site/disembark in Wuhan; visit Historical Museum and Yellow Crane Pavilion/in Shanghai, shop in Pudong Economic Zone and on Nanjing Road; visit the Bund, Yu Garden and a silk factory.
11 days/9 nights in SWITZERLAND, ITALY and AUSTRIA.
10 days/8 nights, departing Nov. 29, Dec. 6 & Dec. 13, 2008.
Highlights: In Berlin, State Opera House, Kurfürstendamm district, Reichstag/Leipzig’s Thomaskirche, where Bach was cantor, and Leipzig Christmas market/Dresden’s Striezelmarkt, Germany’s oldest Christmas market, dating from 1434/enjoy Rostbratwürste and Glühwein at the Christkindlmarkt in Nuremberg/medieval Rothenburg, with its year-round Christmas Shop/Olympic Stadium, Frauenkirche and Rathaus in Munich/Mad King Ludwig’s Linderhof Castle/Oberammergau, home of the Passion Play/end tour in Munich.
In Suffolk, the shop The Chocolate Lady (Bower Hall Farm, Steeple Bumpstead, Haverhill, Suffolk CB9 7EG, U.K.; phone +44 0 1440 730346, www.thechocolatelady.co.uk) offers 5-hour chocolate-making courses, covering materials, tempering, molding, truffles, dipping, coating and packaging.
Each course, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., costs £150 (near $298) per person and includes refreshments and a gourmet lunch. Reservations a must.
In France, the Château of Vaux le Vicomte (77950 Maincy, France; phone +33 1 64 14 41 90, fax 33 1 60 69 90 85, www.vaux-le-vicomte.com), upon which the design for the castle of Versailles was based, is open to visitors in 2008 from March 15 to Nov. 9, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and 2-5:30.
Entry at €12.50 (near $19) includes access to the castle, gardens and carriage museum. Night visits cost €15.50 ($24). An audioguide costs €2.50.
The castle’s gardens, open 8 p.m. to midnight, with last admission at 11 p.m., are lit with 2,000 candles on Saturdays, May 3-Oct. 11.
On the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia, you can spend AU$89 (near US$82) on a “Seafood & Beyond…” rewards card and get AU$100 (US$92) worth of discounts at participating hotels, attractions and tours along the “Seafood & Aquaculture Trail.”
When you present the card, not only do you receive a 10% discount, you also earn AU$1 reward point back for every AU$10 spent. The reward points can be spent at seafood restaurants along the trail.