1997: 10 Top Museum Trips

Sleeping in a yurt in Mongolia, searching for fossils of prehistoric mollusk-like creatures in Morocco and visiting the “loneliest place on Earth” are a few of the activities promised by our top 10 museum-sponsored adventures of 1997.

As she has done yearly since 1993, Ann H. Waigand, publisher of the Educated Traveler newsletter, selected 10 personal favorites from the hundreds of tours being offered this year by American museums, professional societies and other nonprofit institutions.

The tours are in chronological order. Prices are per person, based on double occupancy and, as is always the case, are subject to change. Some prices include meals and excursions; others don’t. Tours are subject to availability and organizers reserve the right to change or cancel itineraries.

For more information on any of the trips, contact tour-sponsoring institutions through the telephone numbers and addresses that follow.

(A full directory of museum-sponsored trips goes out annually to those who subscribe to the Educated Traveler, P.O. Box 220822, Chantilly, VA 22022; telephone [800] 648-5168. Cost is $48 yearly for six issues and directories to tours that this year include Dubrovnik and the islands of the Adriatic, Mongolia, Siberia and Hong Kong.)

Hong Kong 1997: Year of the Ox

Feb. 13 to 20. Santa Barbara Museum of Art and Tucson Museum of Art; tel. (805) 963-4364, Ext. 336. Price: $2,975, including air fare from Los Angeles.

Itinerary includes meetings with cultural and political leaders in Hong Kong--particularly timely because the changeover to Chinese rule is scheduled for June 1997--and is scheduled to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Hong Kong Arts Festival. Participants will meet with a director of the Hong Kong Art Museum, attend Arts Festival exhibitions and take a half-day motor-coach tour of Hong Kong.

African Fossil Hunt: Morocco

Feb. 22 to March 8. Houston Museum of Natural Science; tel. (713) 639-4660. Price: $2,750, including air fare from Houston.

You don’t often see people going to Morocco for geology. The tour is led by Chris Cunningham, curator of paleontology at the Houston museum and John Moffitt, one of the nation’s leading trilobite (a prehistoric arthropod similar to a mollusk) collectors. Participants head through the rugged Atlas Mountains to Mt. Issoumour on the edge of the Sahara Desert to collect trilobites and learn about North Africa’s anthropology and culture.

Exclusively Egypt

March 7 to 22. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the Museum of Science, Boston; tel. (213) 744-3350. Price: $4,555, including air fare from New York and air fare within Egypt.

Waigand says she would always recommend an Egypt tour led by Kent Weeks. Since he made his great discovery (the tomb of the sons of Ramses II) in 1995, there’s been concern that he would stop leading tours. Every trip he leads is “one last chance to travel with a charismatic man who really knows his stuff.” The tour covers most major and some minor ancient sites, including the Luxor, Great Pyramids of Giza, Abu Simbel and Valley of the Kings.

Oxford/Smithsonian Seminar Cruise in the Greek Islands

April 16 to 25. Smithsonian Study Tours and Seminars; tel. (202) 357-4700, Ext. 238. Price: $3,895 to $5,995, depending on cabin selection. Air fare is included from New York.

This a new venture for the Smithsonian; its seminar at Oxford has been popular for more than 15 years, but this is the first time it has taken Oxford faculty and transferred the seminar format to a cruise ship, the Arcadia. There will be small group tutorials, as at Oxford, with the focus on classical civilization. Port stops include Rhodes, Santorini, Mykonos and Delos.

The Silk Roads of China: East and West

May 2 to 23. The Newark Museum, New Jersey; tel. (201) 596-6550. Price: $4,800, not including air fare.

This trip will be Led by the Newark Museum’s curator of Asian Collections and by a Hong Kong-based expert on Chinese art, history, literature and cuisine who has lived in China and Hong Kong for 20 years. The focus is silk and textiles, and there will be meetings with local scholars, artists and private dealers in their homes. The tour begins with an optional visit to Hong Kong. Participants visit Xian, Urumqu and Turfan.

Mongolia

June 15 to July 1. Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia; tel. (215) 299-1000. Price: $5,890 for Academy members; membership fee is $125. Includes air fare from Newark, N.J.

The tour is led by the academy’s director of the Institute of Mongolian Biodiversity and Ecological Research, Clyde Goulden, and the chairman of the Academy’s Department of Ornithology, Robert Ridgely. They are conducting a “biological inventory” of Mongolia, attempting to catalog much of the flora and fauna there. Three diverse ecosystems are visited: the steppes in Ulan Bator, the Gobi desert, and Lake Hovsgol near a mountain region. Guests stay in yurts and meet the people of the area.

Majestic Yenisey River: Siberia

June 26 to July 10. Harvard University, Museum of Cultural and Natural History and the American Museum of Natural History, Cambridge; tel. (617) 495-2463. Price: $4,990, excluding air fare.

This is one of the first American journeys on this Siberian waterway. Guides include the curator of ichthyology at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, an expert on Arctic breeding birds, and a history professor who has family roots in the area. Participants meet the peoples of the North Pacific Rim. Guests cruise on the river, stopping to see the Arctic tundra, small villages and wildlife.

The Next Sweden: Sustainable Partnerships With Nature

August. Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul; tel. (612) 221-4513. Price and exact date won’t be set until the end of January, but the price will be about $4,000, not including air fare for a 10-day trip.

The aim of this tour is to study how Sweden has created economic practices that are ecologically sound. There will be many “green”-related meetings with Swedish industry and government leaders at the sites where ecological practices are taking place. Participants visit the cities of Stockholm and Goteborg, small villages and the lake country in southern Sweden.

2,000 Years of Italian Masterpieces: Venice to Rome Aboard the Sea Goddess I

Sept. 23 to Oct. 4. Archives of American Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Smithsonian Institution; tel. (800) 221-1944 or (212) 514-8921. Price: $6,900, not including air fare.

This is another privately chartered cruise, this one led by Metropolitan Museum of Art lecturer Olivier Bernier. What you can’t tell from the itinerary is that the tour operator handed Bernier a yellow pad and a pen, and said, “Design your ideal arts-related itinerary in Italy.” He did, and, as a result, participants will see the paintings, sculptures and architecture of Ravenna, Bari, Messina, Sicily, Malta and Naples. An optional tour of Rome starts Oct. 4.

Atlantic Islands

Oct. 27 to Nov. 28. American Museum of Natural History, New York; tel. (212) 769-5700 or (800) 462-8687. Price: $3,995 to $8,795, not including air fare.

This is one of the few tours that visit Tristan da Cunha, considered the “loneliest place on Earth.” Usually you can get there only by freighter. The American Museum of Natural History is chartering a ship and has custom-designed the itinerary. Participants sail to this island group in the middle of the South Atlantic, visit the villages and see the wildlife. Passengers also visit the Falkland Islands and St. Helena where Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled.