Travel briefs

Hoist a jug of ale while your host hoists the sails on a five-day tall ship tour of British Columbia’s Gulf Islands.

The Canadian cruise, which departs March 29, is aboard the 92-foot schooner Maple Leaf. The group visits microbreweries, wildlife habitats and historical sites, such as Salt Spring and Galiano islands.

“We do a southern islands tour that showcases some of our local breweries,” said Louise Fitzpatrick of Maple Leaf Adventures.

The group has special tastings with the brewmasters, and the onboard chef pairs the food with the beers, she said.

Stops include a hike on Saturna Island, which is rich in wildlife, and a cruise to the port of Nanaimo, one of the first settlements on Vancouver Island.

During the cruise, social historian Greg Evans lectures on Nanaimo’s history, including its breweries. Saloons and beer halls were important early enterprises, said Maureen Gordon of Maple Leaf Adventures. “Everyone who settled needed a comforting glass of ale at the end of the day.”

Cost: $1,750 per person, double occupancy, including five nights’ ship accommodations, meals, beer, lectures, shore excursions and optional sailing instruction. Airfare to Sidney, B.C., is not included.

Contact: Maple Leaf Adventures, Vancouver, B.C.; 888-599-5323, www.mapleleafadventures.com.

Taste Australia in California

Get a taste of the Australian Outback without the jet lag at Alisal Guest Ranch and Resort in Santa Ynez, Calif.

The weekend package, which begins Jan. 18, includes a barbecue contest between Alisal’s chef and Australian chef and author Maggie Beer; a whip-cracking lesson; a wine seminar debating the virtues of shiraz versus syrah; and unlimited golf, horseback riding, tennis, fly-fishing and archery.

Cost: $848 per person, double occupancy ($247 single surcharge), including two nights’ studio lodging, all meals (including wine), activities and equipment.

Contact: Alisal Guest Ranch and Resort, Santa Ynez; 888-425-4725, www.alisal.com.

Cultural excursion takes in Morocco

Discover Morocco with scholars on a tour sponsored by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

The 11-night trip, which begins March 13, visits the Moroccan cities of Fes, Rabat, Taroudant Essaouira and Marrakech.

The tour includes private meetings with artists and collectors and dinners in private homes, said Theresa Payne, of the museum.

Kenneth Perkins, a Middle East historian, will lead the group. Former U.S. ambassador Frederick Vreeland will play host to host a dinner in his home in Marrakech.

Cost: $5,490 per person, double occupancy ($990 single surcharge), including hotels, most meals, internal flight and ground transportation. International airfare and a $300 museum contribution are not included.

Contact: Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, Calif.; 805-884-6476, www.sbmuseart.org.

New attraction opens in U.S. Virgin Islands

An aviary has opened at Coral World Ocean Park in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The new attraction is called Lorikeet Garden. It’s a 1,600-square-foot walkthrough aviary with 20 birds, including 17 brilliantly colored lorikeet parrots. Guests may buy a cup of nectar to feed the birds, which are known for being people-friendly.

Coral World also has trails, aquariums, diving and snorkeling, a “shark encounter” program that allows visitors to pet a baby shark and enter a shark tank, and a “Sea Trek” in which you walk underwater on a trail, wearing a helmet that supplies air.

For details, go to www.coralworldvi.com or call 888-695-2073.

New Disney tours begin this year

Disney is expanding its selection of guided tours for families, with 12 itineraries for 2007.

Among the Adventures by Disney tours are trips to Wyoming, including whitewater rafting on the Snake River; the American Southwest; the mid-Atlantic, including a tour of Colonial Williamsburg; Costa Rica, including a zip-line tour of a rainforest; England and France; Ireland; Austria and the Czech Republic; and various destinations in Spain and Italy.

In London, the Disney tour promises a visit to Buckingham Palace and backstage access to the production of “Mary Poppins”; in Vienna, there is a private marionette show; and in Spain, a flamenco performance.

The trips also offer some separate activities for adults and children. In Tuscany, kids go on a gelato tour while adults go wine-tasting. At the Louvre in Paris, while grown-ups learn about the history of the paintings, kids go on a scavenger hunt. There are opportunities for adults to dine alone while kids hang out together for dinner and a movie. And families can also break away from the group and go off on their own.

The weeklong trips are offered beginning March, April and May and are scheduled throughout the summer, with a few in the fall. Rates for the trips vary. For two adults with two children, 14 or younger, the cost for the family of four to share one room ranges from $8,000 to $12,000. Prices include accommodations, tours, activities, local transportation, and some meals, but do not include airfare.

For details, go to www.adventuresbydisney.com or call 866-242-8740 or 877-728-7282.

Spoleto Festival announces season

The Spoleto Festival USA, which lights up stages in Charleston, S.C., for more than two weeks each spring, will feature an array of performances never before seen by American audiences during its 2007 season.

Tickets for the performing arts festival, which is presenting its 31st season from May 25 through June 10, went on sale Jan. 2.

This year’s Spoleto will feature 125 performances, including the first American production of “Book of Longing,” a 12-part music cycle by composer Philip Glass based on Leonard Cohen’s poetry collection of the same name.

Spoleto will also feature the American premieres of two French operas, one by the Baroque composer Christoph Willibald Gluck, “Merlin’s Island (or The World Upside Down)”; and the other by contemporary composer Pascal Dusapin, “Faustus, the Last Night.”

Other offerings include the opera “The Rise and Fall of The City of Mahagonny,” by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, and the American debut of ballerina Nina Ananiashvili’s renowned State Ballet of Georgia performing “Swan Lake.”

Tickets for this year’s Spoleto range from $10 to $130. Call 843-579-3100 or go to www.spoletousa.org. Box office sales begin April 9 at Charleston’s Gaillard Municipal Auditorium, 77 Calhoun St.

All Asia Pass from Cathay Pacific

Cathay Pacific Airways is offering an “All Asia Pass” for $1,399 that covers airfare to 23 Asian destinations over three weeks, including round-trip tickets to Hong Kong from San Francisco or Los Angeles.

Departure dates run Feb. 26 through May 17, or Aug. 20 through Dec. 1. All travel must be completed by Dec. 8.

In addition to Hong Kong, where your flight from the U.S. lands, your itinerary can include flights to and from as many of the following destinations as you like, as long as your travel is completed within the 21-day period: Bali, Jakarta and Surabaya in Indonesia; Bangkok and Phuket in Thailand; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Fukuoka, Nagoya, Osaka, Sapporo and Tokyo in Japan; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Karachi, Pakistan; Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur and Penang in Malaysia; Cebu and Manila in the Philippines; Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Seoul, South Korea; Singapore; and Taipei, Taiwan.

Although the price of the pass is listed at $1,599, you get a $200 discount for registering online as a subscriber to Cathay Pacific eNews at www.cathaypacific.com/us.

Taxes are additional, and the pass can only be sold and booked through a travel agent.

You can also pay to extend the alternatives in the itinerary beyond the 23 cities already on the list to Dhaka, Bangladesh; Delhi and Mumbai, India; Hanoi, Vietnam; Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Melbourne, Perth or Sydney, Australia; or Auckland, New Zealand.

Summer travel and extension options up to 90 days are also available for an additional fee.

Oklahoma casino set for opening

The Osage Nation is planning to open an $8 million casino west of Bartlesville, Okla., in mid-February, according to the Tulsa World.

“Bartlesville has a strong tourism market, and we are hoping to capitalize on that,” said Pam Shaw, Osage Nation marketing manager.

The 42,000-square-foot Osage Million Dollar Elm Casino Bartlesville will sit on about 40 acres of land, and will be decorated with a mountain lodge theme to complement the nearby Woolaroc Museum.

The tribe operates casinos in Tulsa, Sand Springs, Pawhuska and Hominy in Oklahoma.

The casino will include a buffet, bar and patio, about 600 gaming machines, table games and parking for 700 vehicles. Long-range plans include the addition of a hotel to complete the lodge theme, Shaw said.

Because of the facility’s remote location, the tribe is working with Washington County officials on additional road improvements, including repaving and widening, said Phil Glass, chief gaming operations officer.

Travel classes, seminars

Rick Steves’ Europe Through the Back Door hosts free travel classes from 10 to 11:30 a.m. most Saturdays at the Edmonds Theater, 415 Main St., Edmonds.