Sometimes you just can’t book a trip too far ahead. Kelly Cruises, for instance, is taking reservations for a Great Lakes cruise that will navigate all five bodies of water in June and September 1999. Rates for the seven-night, Toronto-to-Chicago voyages start at $2,995 per person and include all meals, guest lectures, port charges, gratuities, local taxes, wine with lunch and dinner, and some shore excursions. The 90-passenger Le Levant, still under construction, will be served by a French crew of 50. (630-990-1111)
FAMILY FARE
There was a time when Club Med was synonymous with sex on the beach — and we’re not talking about mixed drinks. They still have singles destinations, but they’ve got family villages now as well. For $799 per person, Mom, Dad and the kids can go to a Club Med in Florida, The Bahamas, Guadalupe or the Dominican Republic and know that for seven nights their lodging, meals, transfers and lots of sports and entertainment are already paid for — and that includes mid-week round-trip air from Chicago, through Dec. 10. (800-CLUB-MED) . . . For $99 a night, a family of two adults and two children can stay in the same room and eat a buffet breakfast in Washington, D.C., at the Hotel Washington, July 15-Sept. 15.(800-424-9540)
FREE STUFF
You can’t help wanting to know more about a region that has a shop called The Gentleman Soldier and a working horse farm — Canterbury Arabians — where you can see Real Mac, the mascot for the Indianapolis Colts. These things, plus a bunch of golf courses, are in Central Indiana’s Hamilton County. Guides on family getaways and golf are free. (800-776-TOUR) . . . San Francisco for $35 a night? The French Quarter for $58? New York City for $53? That’s what it says here in the YMCA’s 1998 Accommodation & Reservation Guide, which also lists shoestring hostelries strung from Alice Springs, Australia, to Jerusalem to Rome. The guide’s free, but they’d like you to send 65 cents for postage. Y’s Way International, 224 E. 47th St., New York, N.Y. 10017. . . . A pretty blue brochure, called Small Treasures, shows prices, particulars and color pictures of small hotels on Nassau and Paradise Island in The Bahamas. (800-327-9019)
FAR AND AWAY
Wags like to say that there are three seasons in Thailand: hot, hotter and hottest; but they’re not talking about Chiang Mai, in the cooler north. This working vacation to Chiang Mai lasts 25 days in either July or August, when you teach English to Thai schoolchildren and live with a Thai family through Global Service Corps. Cost is $1,795 plus air fare and personal expenses. (915-755-0964) . . . Only 25 people will take this $7,795 fully escorted tour of South India and the Lakshadweep Islands. The 22-day TRAVCOA itinerary departs Bombay, safaris in the Nagarhole Wildlife Reserve, shops the Ooty market and lingers on the beaches of Bangaram Island, Rajiv Gandhi’s old retreat. (800-992-2003)
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Tour prices generally are per person, based on double occupancy.
