Roller-Blading Through the Tulips in Holland

There will be no tiptoeing through the tulips during several in-line skating tours of the Netherlands in August and September. Participants will skate several hours daily on paved paths from town to town through the flat Dutch countryside. The six-night tour skates around the IJsselmeer Sea and through the northern province of Friesland.

Cost: $1,665 per person, double occupancy, including accommodations, most meals, guides and van support. Air fare is not included.

Contact: Zephyr Inline Skate Tours; telephone (888) 758-8687.

Inside D.C.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is sponsoring a study tour Oct. 22 to 26, offering an insider’s glimpse behind the tree-lined avenues and marble facades of Washington, D.C.

This tour will include private tours of the capital’s most famous landmarks, such as the White House and the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the State Department. Guests will also visit Marjorie Merriweather Post’s Hillwood estate and one of Washington’s embassies, have dinner in a private home and tour of the new Kreeger Museum.

Cost: $1,440 per person, double occupancy, including hotel, entrance fees, some meals and guides. Air fare is not included.

Contact: National Trust for Historic Preservation; 1785 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20036; tel. (202) 588-6000.

Lots of Italy

Soak up the art, architecture and scenery of Italy in Rome, Florence, Tuscan hill towns, Capri and the Amalfi coast. The tour is Oct. 9 to 19.

The group will be met by Roman hosts, who will take participants to the Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Vatican City, Sistine Chapel, Castel Sant’ Angelo, the Coliseum, the Forum, Capitoline Hill and the catacombs.

Next, travelers visit Pompeii, take lunch in Sorrento on cliffs high above the sea and spend the night in the village of Positano. The next day is set aside to see the island of Capri and the Blue Grotto.

After a day of leisure, guests head to Florence, then Tuscany and Umbria.

Cost: $2,650 per person, double occupancy, including accommodations, private van transportation, all taxes, entrance fees and meals. Air fare is not included.

Contact: Adventures With Alice Travel, 1082 S. Seaward Ave., Ventura, CA 93001; tel. (800) 549-9071.

Amazon Rain Forest

Wildlife biologist Cathleen Cox will escort an eight-day natural history tour to the Peruvian Amazon beginning Aug. 16. Cox is director of research at the Los Angeles Zoo. The small group of adventurers will travel on the Amazon River, walk 100 feet up through the treetops on the Canopy Walkway, visit native villages and experience daily rain-forest excursions.

Cost: $2,295 per person, double occupancy, including air fare from Los Angeles, lodging, meals and guides.

Contact: Explorations; tel. (800) 446-9660.

Ancient Kingdoms

La Jolla artist Sharon Hinckley, who has lived in Asia for many years, will lead a cruise/tour to China and Hong Kong. The 20-day trip leaves Sept. 22. Hinckley will be available to instruct in watercolors and sketching. Artists and nonartists are welcome.

The tour begins in Beijing, to see the Great Wall and Tiananmen Square. Guests take a three-night cruise on the Yangtze River, visit Wuxi, cruise on the Grand Canal and explore Shanghai. The tour visits the 8,000-year-old archeological treasures of Xian before visiting Guilin, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

Cost: $4,850 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air from LAX, inter-China air/rail, canal and river cruises, hotel accommodations, all meals, guided sightseeing, taxes, gratuities and $100,000 flight insurance.

Contact: Betty at Shamrock Travel, 213-C Avenida Majorca, Laguna Hills, CA 92653; tel. (714) 470-0301.

New Year’s in Spain

History professor Joseph Jeppson of Canada College in San Francisco is leading a tour through Spain, Morocco and Portugal. The 17-day bus trip departs Dec. 26 and begins in Madrid, moving south to Toledo, and Cordoba. The Granada tour includes the Alhambra. Guests cross the straits to Morocco to visit Fez for New Year’s Eve and Marrakech, where they attend a horse show. Guests also see Casablanca and pass through Rabat, the capital, en route back to Tangier. Back in Spain, there will be flamenco dancing in Seville during a two-night stay. In Lisbon, participants can visit the shrine at Fatima, then stay at the university town of Salamanca, Spain, on the way back to Madrid.

Cost: $1,995 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air from Los Angeles or San Francisco, four-star hotels, 15 buffet breakfasts and eight dinners.

Contact: Canada College Travel Department, ask for Peggy; tel. (800) 527-3137.

Backstage in Britain

The 14th annual British Theatre Backstage leaves Los Angeles for London on Dec. 27. The 10-day tour offers seven London theater performances, plus backstage visits and meetings with leading British theater artists and critics.

This year’s tour includes a guided tour of the National Portrait Gallery’s photography collection, backstage tour of the newly renovated Lyceum Theatre, lunchtime concert and talk at St. Margaret’s Lothbury Church, and a meeting with a voice expert for the National Theatre. An out-of-town excursion includes a tour of Henley-on-Thames and lunch in rural Berkshire. Dinner at London’s Orso restaurant will follow a theater performance on New Year’s Eve.

Cost: $3,995 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare, room at the Washington Hotel in Mayfair, daily full English breakfasts and transfers.

Contact: Susan Holden, Gilner International Travels, 437 S. Robertson Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90211; tel. (310) 273-6161.

Civil War in Tennessee

A tour hosted by Military History Quarterly will take buffs and others back to crucial clashes of the Civil War in 1863 at Chickamauga, Ga., and Chattanooga, Tenn. The Nov. 12 to 16 tour, operated by Danch and Abrams Tours, takes guests to battlefields sites, including Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, where Ulysses S. Grant established himself as one of the Union’s best generals.

Cost: $1,175 per person, double occupancy, including lodging at a Holiday Inn in Chattanooga, all meals and local transportation, lectures and guided walks. Air fare to Chattanooga is extra.

Contact: Danch and Abrams Tours; tel. (703) 356-8339.

Swiss Cheese

A stop at a cheese maker in Gruyere is on the menu for the Country Roads of Switzerland excursion, a 15-day bus, rail and walking venture from Insight International. Participants travel through Villars, Zermatt, Locarno, Interlaken, Lucerne, Geneva and St. Moritz. The tour also includes stops at Lakes Como and Maggiore in Italy. Various departure dates are available through Sept. 27.

Cost: $2,880 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air from New York, hotels and some meals. An Oct. 4 trip is $2,765.

Contact: Insight International; tel. (800) 582-8380.

Renoir’s Portraits

Take a tour to the Canadian capitals of Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa, Aug. 30 to Sept. 6, which features “Renoir’s Portraits: Impressions of an Age,” a comprehensive collection of Renoir’s works in Ottawa.

Cost: $1,200 per person, double occupancy, including two nights each in first-class hotels in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa, special museum visits, city tours, 13 meals with choice of menu, a St. Lawrence River cruise, Niagara Falls and a visit to the Corning Glass Museum in Corning, N.Y. Air fare is not included. A portion of this tour benefits the Palos Verdes Art Center.

Contact: Uniglobe Exceptional Travel, Sharon Ryan; tel. (310) 543-4552.

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