Tour black colleges. Check out five historically black colleges and universities on the 21st Annual Fall Black College Tour, presented by Carl Ray’s Della Tours of San Jose. Students on the Oct. 22-26 trip will visit Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Spelman College, Alabama State University and Tuskegee University. Included are round-trip flight from San Jose, hotel accommodations in Georgia and Alabama, chartered bus transportation and tickets to a Tuskegee football game. Details: Della Tours, (408)”‰259-6516, www.carlraye.com/bctour.shtml.
Class in the tropics. Study Costa Rica’s tropical ecology for 14 days as part of a Biological Sciences class offered by Mission College of Santa Clara this semester. The Jan. 5-18, 2009, itinerary includes lodging and meals at biological field stations, nature studies and hikes, canopy tour, bird watching, tidepooling and snorkeling. Class held on Wednesday nights. Details: www.missioncollege.org., or contact instructor Elizabeth Bell, (408)”‰855-5208 or elizabeth_bell@wvm.edu.
Scones and sightseeing. Learn to bake Irish brown bread and scones as part of the West of Ireland Coastal Tour, Oct. 19-25, led by travel writer Patricia Preston, author of 14 books on Ireland. Included are accommodations at four-star hotels, many meals, escorted sightseeing and admissions to the Kylemore Abbey, Cliffs of Moher; Blasket Islands Heritage Centre and Skellig Heritage Centre. Details: (845)”‰758-1232, www.irelandexpert.com.
Compiled from Mercury News staff and wire reports. Contact Linda Zavoral at travel@mercurynews.com or (408)”‰920-5960.
