Sometimes you feel like a beach vacation. Sometimes you don’t. Here’s a sampling of vacations blowing both hot and cold.
Watching the whales
Gray whales are enjoying the warm waters of Baja California before starting their 6,000-mile migration in April back to Arctic waters. Blue Waters Kayaking gives you the opportunity to see these gentle leviathans and their calves up close and personal with five eight-day tours to Bahia Magdalena on the west coast of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico.
You’ll spend your first night in a hotel and take some time to learn about kayaks before paddling to your island beach home. For the next several days you’ll paddle among the whales, explore the mangrove-lined estuaries and walk miles of expansive beaches. On day seven, you’ll head back to La Paz for a hot shower in your hotel and a night on the town before flying home.
The Whales of Bahia Magdalena tour costs $895 per person, double occupancy (single supplement $60) from La Paz and is limited to 14 people. The price includes transportation from the airport, group commissary equipment, camping meals and kayaking gear. The guided tour is offered Feb. 1-8, Feb. 15-22, Feb. 22-March 1, March 1-8 and March 8-15. Call 415-669-2600 or check out Blue Waters Kayaking’s site on the World Wide Web (www.bwkayak.com)
– Personalized Tours & Travel is offering a chance to see the gray whales a little later in the spring and much closer to home. The small fishing harbors of the Oregon coast offer access to the open seas and close interaction with the whales as well as cliffs from which to watch them in the distance as you follow up and down the coast. The March 28-April 4 tour costs $1,131 per person, double (single supplement $351) from Portland and is limited to 12 people. The tour includes three whale-watching excursions on the ocean and three guided outings. Meals are not included. Call 800-248-0414.
Rain forest retreat
Stephan Swanson, zoologist and director of the Glenview Park District’s Grove National Historic Landmark and Nature Center, is leading an eight-day tour April 4-11 on the Amazon River. The tour will cruise the river aboard the 15-passenger riverboat Explorer as it examines the flora, fauna and culture of the lower Peruvian Amazon, the largest rain forest in the world. You’ll explore the Amazon and Tigre Rivers upstream from Iquitos, Peru, with several stops a day to observe wildlife, take photographs and visit native villages. The tour costs $2,095 per person, double (no single rate) from Miami and includes all meals. Each riverboat stateroom is air-conditioned and has a private bath. Call 800-966-6539.
You can Skican
The latest Skican catalog offers a full range of skiing vacations in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. One of the most popular packages is the six-night Rocky Mountain Express, which costs $770 per person, double (single supplement $415) and includes round-trip air fare from Chicago to Alberta’s main cities, Edmonton and Calgary (you fly into one, return from the other), seven-day car rental, lodging, a five-day lift ticket at two resorts–Jasper Park Lodge and either Banff Springs or Chateau Lake Louise–and free shuttles to the skiing. The prices are for weekly departures Tuesdays through Thursdays; Friday and Sunday departures are an extra $20, and Saturday daytime departures cost an extra $35. For a Skican catalog or to make reservations, call 888-475-4226.
Island getaway
If you’re looking for an exotic, warm-weather getaway and want to skip to the Caribbean, consider Mauritius, a remote island in the Indian Ocean situated 500 miles east of Madagascar. Air Mauritius is offering 11-day packages through March 31 that give you a week’s stay at one of the island’s waterfront resorts and the chance for all of the rest and relaxation you can stand.
The Mauritius getaway package costs $1,684 per person, double (single supplement $140) and includes round-trip air fare from Chicago via London aboard Air India, seven nights’ accommodations (three nights are spent in transit), and daily breakfast and dinner. A full range of excursions are available, and one-day layovers in London can be arranged. Call 914-592-5190.
Dog days
You can follow the action of the Anchorage-to-Nome Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on a March 3-9 tour offered by Adventure Alaska. Not only will you watch segments of the 1,100-mile race, you’ll also have to mush your own team of dogs through various parts of the tour which are inaccessible by road.
You’ll see the start of the race in Anchorage and then fly by ski-equipped bush plane to a remote homestead on the Yentna River along the Iditarod trail. You’ll spend a day exploring the area by dog sled, snowshoes or skis while waiting for the first teams to arrive. You’ll also visit Skewntna, where Iditarod mushers will prepare for the hundreds of miles of unforgiving wilderness ahead, and fly to see the front-runners at the Finger Lakes checkpoint before heading back to Anchorage.
The Iditarod tour costs $2,825 per person, double (no single rate) from Anchorage and includes all ground and air transportation and all meals. Tour members are advised to arrive in Anchorage on March 2. Call 800-365-7057.
Michigan schuss
More than 1,000 participants are expected for the 22nd annual NorthMed Vasa cross-country ski race Feb. 13-15 in Traverse City, Mich. The event features 47- and 27-kilometer cross-country races as well as a 13-kilometer fun ski. The entry fee for the 47- and 27-kilometer races is $45 until the day of the race, when it rises to $50. Entry fee for the 13-kilometer fun ski is $15. Call 616-938-4400 or check NorthMed Vasa’s Web site (www.Vasa.org).
