Schuss, Please ... on Italy’s Alpine Slopes

California-based Carlucci’s Italy has scheduled three 10-day ski trips to Cortina D’Ampesso, Italy, in January, and one seven-day ski trip to Courmayeur, Italy, in February.

Dates for the Cortina trips, which include a two-night excursion to Venice, are Jan. 8 to 18, Jan. 15 to 25 and Jan. 22 to Feb. 1.

Participants on the Cortina trip will have two nights to explore the historical city of Venice, stopping at such sites as the Rialto Bridge and the Doge’s Palace. In Cortina, tour members stay seven nights in this resort town with plenty of ski runs, restaurants and shops. A six-day Dolomiti Ski Pass covers 683 miles of ski runs and 464 lift facilities.

Cost: $1,279 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles on Alitalia Airlines, round-trip transfers from airport to resorts, all hotels, continental or buffet breakfast daily, a six-day ski pass, guide assistance in Venice and Cortina, and taxes at hotels.

Dates for Courmayeur are Feb. 1 to 9. Courmayeur has a French flavor because it is located on the Italian side of Mt. Blanc. It is a charming, historical village with cobblestone streets and lots of shops and restaurants. Participants will have the opportunity to ski Chamonix, France, as well as other nearby French and Italian resorts.

Cost: $1,329 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles on Alitalia Airlines, round-trip transfer from airport to resort, six-day ski pass, hotel, continental breakfast and dinner daily, guide assistance in Courmayeur, service charges and taxes at hotel.

Contact: Carlucci’s Italy, For the Adventurous Traveler, 27121 Arena Lane, Mission Viejo, CA 92691; telephone (714) 707-5824.

Guatemalan History

The Archaeological Conservancy is offering a tour to Guatemala Feb. 5 to 16 that focuses on its history. Participants will travel from Guatemala City to the Maya ruins in the Peten rain forest. The itinerary includes the ruins of Iximche, the capital city of the Cakchiquel Maya, the majestic temples of Uaxactun, the traditional market at Chichicastenango, the colonial island town of Flores in Lago Peten Itza, and the ruins of Tikal in the Peten rain forest. Accompanying the tour will be archeologist Peter Harrison, who has excavated at Tikal.

Cost: $2,195 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, tours and some meals. Air transportation costs to Guatemala City are not included. Contact: The Archaeological Conservancy, 5301 Central Ave. NE, Suite 1218, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517; tel. (505) 266- 1540.

More Guatemala

Travelers seeking a challenging trip to explore new territory can join an adventure tour to Guatemala offered by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Nov. 4 to 18. This 15-day expedition will be led by Richard D. Hansen, an archeologist and lecturer who is the project director of the Regional Archaeological Investigation of the North Peten, a rugged region with superb Maya archeological sites.

Participants will helicopter into El Mirador, situated deep in the Peten rain forest to see the largest pyramids of the Maya world. El Mirador has been a focus of Hansen’s excavation work over the past 17 years. Then a boat launch will carry travelers up jungle rivers to the seldom-visited sites of Seibal and Aguateca. Other destinations are Uaxactun, Tikal, Yaxha and Toposte. Guests also visit the new museum of Maya sculpture in Copan, Honduras, before the trip concludes in the colonial city of Antigua Guatemala.

Cost: $3,690 per person, double occupancy, including lodging, ground transportation, entrance fees, guide and most meals. Air fare is not included. Contact: Karen Hovanitz, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County; tel. (213) 744-3350.

Monte Carlo Nights

Explore the best of the western Mediterranean on a cruise to Monte Carlo, Portugal, Italy and Spain that departs April 26.

First stop is Lisbon, with a two-night stay at the five-star Estoril Sol Resort on the Portuguese Riviera. The cruise is on Holland America’s Maasdam, with ports including Tangier, Morocco; Barcelona, Spain; Livorno (for Florence) Italy; Tunis, Tunisia; Sardinia, Italy; and Malta, en route to Rome. Activities include an overnight on board while docked in Monte Carlo and scenic cruising past the Rock of Gibralter, the Straits of Messina, and Mt. Etna and Stromboli volcanoes. Following the cruise, passengers will spend two nights at a hotel in Rome before returning home on May 13.

Cost: from $3,695 per person, double occupancy for an inside double, and $3,995 per person for an outside double. The price includes air fare from Los Angeles, San Francisco or New York, and the stay in Lisbon and Rome, porterage and transfers.

Contact: Don Ton Travel Associates, Executive Guild E-1, 3151 Airway Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626-4620; tel. (714) 545-3737 or (800) 318-1818.

Painting in France

Art fans who want to see the works of famous painters can join a two-week tour to France from July 14 to 27. The trip starts in Paris with guide tours of the Louvre and d’Orsay museums, concentrating on the French Impressionist masterpieces. Participants then travel to Claude Monet’s region of Avignon, Arles and St. Remy, where Van Gogh found inspiration. Then the group travels to Aix-en-Provence to follow the footsteps of Cezanne. Stops are also made in Nice, the Co^te d’Azur and Grenoble.

Cost: $2,895 per person, including air fare, transfers, hotels, motor-coach transportation, entrance fees, guides, daily breakfast and a welcome dinner. Contact: Don Eslinger at Historic Tours of America, 16142 Woodstock Lane, Huntington Beach, CA 92647; tel. (714) 846-9595.

Costa Rica Naturally

The docents of the Los Angeles Zoo and the Living Desert are offering to nature-lovers a trip to Costa Rica arranged by Natural Habitat Adventures. The dates are Nov. 3 to 14. The group will visit Tortuguero National Park, Arenal Volcano, Monteverde Cloud Forest and Corcovado National Park, which is known to have the most species of wildlife in the country. Cost: $2,395 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, all meals, tours, transportation within Costa Rica and guides. Air fare to Costa Rica is not included. Contact: Carol Rochlin, Anderson Travel, 74-930 Highway 111, Indian Wells, CA 92210; tel. (800) 243-6011.

World War Buffs

Northstar Tours is offering a World War I and II history tour of France, Belgium and Luxembourg on June 1 to 13.

The tour covers the D-Day invasion beaches in Normandy to the battlefields in the Ardennes via Paris and the infamous World War I battlefields of northern France. The itinerary includes: the hedgerow country in Normandy with its cemeteries, Paris’ World War I and World War II monuments, the Army Museum in Brussels and a visit to Gl foxholes in Belgium.

Cost: $2,995 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from Detroit, all transportation within France, Belgium and Luxembourg, hotels, museum admission fees and most meals. Contact: Northstar Tours, Box 810, Lakeville, MN 55044-0810; tel. (612) 469-4398.

Thailand by Canoe

Explore the islands of southern Thailand’s Phangnga Bay by sea canoe on a 16-day tour that leaves Dec. 21. Several departure dates are set in 1997 as well. Adventure travelers spend three days paddling past towering limestone formations rising from the sea and discovering secret, hidden lagoons within the cliff walls. Using a 50-foot support boat as a floating base camp, the group paddle into hidden rooms called “hongs” that are accessible only through narrow tidal caves but are open up to the sky. The lagoons are surrounded by walls of tropical foliage and inhabited by wildlife from monkeys and birds, to fish and bats. At night, tour members camp under the stars on white-sand beaches. Also on the itinerary are trips into Bangkok and Chiang Mai, visiting a Northern Thailand hill tribe, exploration of Khao Sok National Park, and hiking, bamboo rafting and elephant riding.

Cost: the Explorer’s Thailand trip is $1,995 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, camping and canoeing equipment, most meals and excursions. Air fare is not included. Contact: Bolder Adventures, P.O. Box 1279, Boulder, CO 80306; tel. (800) 642-2742.

The Times is not responsible for changes in prices, dates or itineraries. These should be confirmed with travel agents or tour operators.