Easter Island, Atacama Desert for Adventurers

Easter Island, one of the most mysterious and remote places in the world, is being coupled with Chile’s starkly beautiful Atacama Desert on a tour designed by LanChile Vacations.

The trip, which can be arranged for one or two weeks, begins with a visit to Easter Island, a 64-square-mile triangle of volcanic rock in the South Pacific.

The island is more than 2,000 miles from the nearest population center and is best known for the giant 1,000-year-old stone monoliths on its coastline. It has been called an open-air museum because of its many archeological sites and because of the baffling history of its first inhabitants.

Easter Island’s clear blue waters sharply contrast with the Atacama Desert, the second stop on the itinerary.

The Atacama is the driest area in the world, with regions where rainfall has never been recorded. Despite this, its landscape is striking: a vast region of intense colors, peaks and expanses of desert.

The LanChile tour books travelers into Explora, a luxury hotel that offers various excursions in the area.

Cost: A weeklong tour starts at $3,000, including air fare from LAX, airport transfers, bilingual guided tours, three nights in a hotel on Easter Island, breakfasts on Easter Island, sightseeing and national park entrance fees. In the Atacama, the tour includes three nights’ accommodations, all meals and a choice of excursions by trekking, horseback riding, mountain biking or van to visit salt lakes, geysers, the Valley of the Moon and ancient villages.

Contact: LanChile Vacations; (877) 219-0345, www.lanchilevacations.com.

Sierra: Photo Tour

Catch one of California’s premier fall color shows Oct. 20 on a four-day photo safari along the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada, where groves of aspens turn golden as winter approaches.

The mini tour, co-sponsored by the San Diego Natural History Museum and Image Quest Photography Tours, will visit Lundy Canyon and Monitor Pass in the Sierra. The group will stop at the ghost town of Bodie, an 1880s boomtown that is now a state historic park, and Mono Lake, known for its eerie pillars of limestone. Salty Mono Lake provides the nesting habitat for a large population of migratory gulls and grebes.

Photographer Mark Forbes will accompany the tour.

Cost: $320 per person, double occupancy, including guided photo and natural history walks, picnic lunches and a three-night stay at the Bridgeport Inn. Transportation is not included; participants meet at the Bridgeport Inn and caravan to the sites.

Contact: Image Quest Photography Tours of Los Angeles; (323) 377-7565, www.iqtours.com.

Spain: The Classics

Art, architecture and history will be the focus of a 16-day tour of Spain led by Los Angeles City College art history professor Raoul de la Sota. The Jan. 6 tour will visit Madrid, Toledo, Granada, Cordoba, Seville and Barcelona. Museums, galleries, castles, cathedrals and palaces will be on the itinerary.

The trip will begin in Madrid with a city tour and a discussion of 10 pivotal paintings on display at the Prado museum.

From there, the group will explore the synagogues and cathedral of Toledo and travel through Don Quixote’s La Mancha region on the way to southern Spain. The itinerary includes a visit to the Alhambra palace in Granada, considered a jewel of Islamic architecture, and a day trip to Merida and the sherry wineries of southern Spain.

The group then flies north to Barcelona, for visits to the Sephardic Museum in Girona and the Dali Museum in Figueres.

Cost: $3,100, including air fare from LAX, transportation, guides, accommodations, a flamenco show, entry fees to museums and historic sites, all breakfasts and 12 other meals.

Contact: Raoul de la Sota, (323) 255-9913, or e-mail Rdelasota2@ aol.com.

Canada: Explore Toronto

Get to know the neighbors to the north with a low-cost, four-day Toronto escape package.

Toronto, Canada’s largest metropolitan area, is known as a theater center rivaled only by New York and London. It offers a variety of restaurants, night life and shopping. The city has about 80 ethnic groups speaking more than 100 languages. It is about a 90-minute drive from Niagara Falls.

Cost: $565 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip transportation from LAX on Air Canada, a choice of accommodations at three Toronto inns or bed-and-breakfasts, a trolley car tour of Toronto and taxes. The price is valid through Dec. 31.

Contact: Destinations Canada; (888) 475-4226, www.destinationscanada.com. Other packages include Toronto and Niagara, Toronto and Ottawa and the Great Lakes and southern Ontario.

Bali: Yoga and Beaches

Go island-hopping on Bali on a 13-day tour combining yoga, walking tours and sightseeing.

Yoga will be offered each morning on the Nov. 5 tour, which will begin with four days at a beach resort and spa. The tour will include a trek around Tamblingan Lake, a midnight climb up Mt. Batur to watch the sunrise and a full-day tour of Lombok.

Cost: $1,359 per person, double occupancy, including four nights’ accommodation at the Nusa Dua Beach Hotel, two nights at Puri Lumbung Munduk, two nights at Cendana Resort Ubud and four nights at Intan Lombok Village, some meals, excursions and tours. Round-trip air fare from LAX is not included.

Contact: Rogue Travel; (800) 443-9216, www.adventurehealthtravel.com.

New York: Showtime

Get a taste of New York City during the holidays with a seven-day tour that includes three Broadway shows, three museums and visits to historical sites.

The Dec. 16 package includes tickets for orchestra seating for the musical “Hairspray” and two other shows and artist-led tours of the Metropolitan, the Guggenheim and the new Museum of Modern Art in Queens.

Cost: $1,795 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip transportation from LAX to Newark, N.J., six nights’ accommodation at the Crowne Plaza Manhattan, a city bus tour, breakfasts and transfers.

Contact: Broadway Melody Tours; (323) 227-8370.

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