The first snowmobile treks to the land of the Naskapi Indians of northern Quebec take off in February, courtesy of the Naskapi Adventure Club. The Naskapis have been living in the subarctic forest for 4,000 years. Naskapi guides will greet visitors arriving by Twin Otter floatplane in Schefferville, Quebec, and help prepare them for the trail-less journey into Ntesinan, their name for their 60,000-square-mile homeland. Trekkers will meet Naskapi families and learn techniques of bush survival, camping, ice fishing and more. Two nights will be spent camping, the others in log cabins with wood stoves.
The club says the eight-day trip is a moderate to strong challenge designed for groups of up to four people, plus two guides. It costs approximately $1,760 (depending on exchange rate), including all food and lodging, snowmobile and sled, gas, spare parts and tools, helmet, tents, kitchen supplies, snowshoes, sleeping bag and first aid kit. The snowmobile safari season runs from mid-February through mid-April. Call 418-585-2612 or 514-842-8056.
A new brochure brings together information on American Indian museums, sites and events in Virginia, from the American Indian Collection of art and artifacts at Hampton Institute to a reconstructed Indian village, circa 1500. The brochure describes the state’s eight tribes and their chiefs and lists upcoming pow-wows, exhibits and programs. For a free copy, call 800-932-5827.
FOR OLDER SINGLES
Uniworld Tours has a brochure on its new Singletours itineraries for single travelers 50 and older. These are fully escorted, first class tours with all singles to six destinations in 1994: in England, Yorkshire and the Lake District, and Cornwall, Devon and Cotswolds; Normandy, Brittany and the chateaux country of France; Spain; Italy; and Scandinavia. Prices include lodging, full breakfasts, most dinners, touring by bus, tour manager and baggage handling. For comparison, the 12-day Yorkshire trip costs $1,398. Singletour travelers will share rooms; single supplement is $268. Call 800-733-7820.
Partners for Travel, a companion-finding and travel information service for singles over 40, has introduced tour packages. The service’s first major tour is a weeklong archeological cruise to Mayan sites in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. The cruise departs Jamaica’s Montego Bay March 26, with stops for exploring sites at Tikal and Copan, among others, and includes the services of lecturer-guides from the Institute of Mayan Studies in Miami. Cost is $732 a person, double occupancy, including all meals and entertainment. Airfare is extra. For a free 1993-94 calendar of events and tours, call Partners for Travel, 800-866-5565.
SOUNDS OF ITALY
A pre-Christmas concert by the Chorus of La Scala of Milan with the Rome Symphony Orchestra, in the St. Francis Basilica in Assisi, Italy, is one of the high points of a six-day, fully escorted tour offered by Alitalia Airlines and Italiatour. The Dec. 13-19 tour stops in Rome, Spello, Spoleto, Perugia and Florence. For groups of 20 or more traveling together, the cost is $1,104 a person (double occupancy) and includes round trip air fare from Chicago, five nights in first class hotels, continental breakfasts, five dinners, sightseeing excursions and some transfers; $125 single supplement. An independent fly-drive program is also available, starting at $308 for five nights accommodations in 3-star hotels, continental breakfast daily, five days rental car use; the program is only in conjunction with air travel on Alitalia. Call 800-237-0517 or 800-845-3365.
Ocean Voyages is offering a White Christmas Cruise to the Antarctic Peninsula Dec. 21 to Jan. 2 aboard the Kapitan Khlebnikov, with daily landings and excursions via helicopter and Zodiac boats. Cruise patrons will depart Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands, explore Antarctic wildlife and take in scenic areas, icebergs and ice packs in and around Hope Bay, King George Island, Lemaire Channel and Deception Island, and return to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of Argentina. Cost ranges from $3,950 (triple occupancy) to $4,950 (double) up to $8,500 for suites, and includes one night’s accommodation with continental breakfast in Santiago, Chile, all meals, lectures and Zodiac services onboard ship, plus one hour’s helicopter time. Single occupancy is 1.8 times cabin price. Air fare to and from Santiago, Port Stanley and Ushuaia not included. Call 415-332-4681.
FREE CAR RENTAL DAY
As part of Budget Rent a Car’s 35th birthday, the rental company is offering a free rental day on Tuesday that applies to Budget’s entire fleet of cars, specialty vehicles and mini-vans picked up that day at participating locations around the country. Time and mileage charges for Tuesday are gratis, regardless of the length of rental. Budget will honor existing reservations for that free day. Call 800-527-0700.
AIRLINE DATA ONLINE
The Official Airlines Guide and the Microlytics company have released the OAG FlightDisk Starter Kit for Windows, software providing comprehensive information on all commercial airline flights in North America. Using the same database as travel agents installed on a computer’s hard drive, users can check up-to-date arrival and departure times; the Starter Kit includes the current month’s FlightDisk plus a coupon for $50 off the annual subscription, which is normally $250 with new disks mailed monthly. In addition, it features two free weeks of unlimited use of OAG Electronic Edition, a real-time online service providing users the latest flight availability and fare data worldwide via modem (plus current information on political developments, economics and weather conditions); subscribers can book tickets online. The regular rate at peak business hours is approximately $28 an hour. Last-minute travelers can use OAG FlightFax, an updated one-page flight report faxed anywhere in North America. Customers dial up the system, indicate the date, cities and time of departure desired and FlightFax returns a list of those flights showing available seats and fares. The FlightDisk Starter Kit retails for $39.95 and is available at electronics and software stores.
