Newly-launched cultural tours for Christmas 2010

Ten small-group tours, taking place over Christmas, have just been launched by cultural tour operator Martin Randall Travel. Visiting some of Europe and the Middle East’s most fascinating and beautiful regions and cities at their least busy but most evocative, the Christmas tours traditionally comprise some of our most popular tours, not least amongst solo travellers. The ten tours over Christmas are:

NEW: Turin at Christmas (21—27 December 2010)
Turin is a grand city with great art and architecture and particularly rich in palaces, but it is unaccountably neglected by tourists, perhaps put off by its outdated reputation as an industrial centre. Having undergone recent extensive renovation, Turin is in fact an exciting and extraordinarily culturally-rich city with a remarkable and large Baroque centre of unparalleled splendour and architectural homogeneity. As well as visiting the numerous, refined piazzas and palaces and enjoying this gastronomic capital’s restaurants, the tour also visits Saluzzo, a wonderful, little-known mediaeval town, rich with artistic gems including the castle’s remarkable early 15th century Gothic fresco cycle. Price £1,990 per person includes: air travel on scheduled British Airways flights—private coach travel for transfers and excursions—accommodation in a completely renovated 4-star hotel in the centre of Turin—breakfasts, 4 dinners and 2 lunches with wine, water and coffee—all admissions—all tips for restaurant staff, drivers and guides—the services of the lecturer.

NEW: Versailles & Paris at Christmas (22—27 December 2010)
Broadcaster and musicologist Richard Wigmore is lecturer on this small-group tour which attends a concert by The Sixteen in the Chapelle Royale (performing Handel’s Messiah), Ariadne auf Naxos (R. Strauss) at the Opera Bastille, and Swan Lake (Tchaikovsky), Apollon and The Rite of Spring (Stravinsky) at the Opéra Garnier. The tour spends a night in Versailles and four nights in Paris and includes guided tours of the Château de Versailles, the Salle Favart and the music museum at La Villette. Price £2,650 per person includes top category tickets for four performances costing c. £400—return rail travel (superior class, standard premier) by Eurostar from London to Paris—private coach for transfers where necessary—accommodation in two excellently located 4-star hotels—breakfasts, two lunches and three dinners with water, wine and coffee—all gratuities for restaurant staff, porters and drivers—all state taxes—the services of the lecturer.

Vienna at Christmas (20—27 December 2010)
Offers a comprehensive look at Vienna, a glorious relic of a long and illustrious imperial history and one of the world’s foremost centres of art, architecture and music. The tour visits the Kunsthistorisches Museum – one of the best art collections in Europe – the Court Treasury, the church of St Charles, and also takes in numerous Baroque palaces, the grand 19th- century buildings of the Ringstrasse and the architectural and artistic legacy of the city’s Secession movement around the beginning of the twentieth century. The city is of course pre-eminent in the history of music and participants also attend three operas: Don Giovanni (Mozart), Hänsel and Gretel (Humperdinck) and Der Rosenkavalier (R. Strauss). The tour lecturer is Dr Jarl Kremeier, an art historian specialising in 18th- and 19th- century architecture. Price £2,620 per person, includes: air travel on scheduled Air Austria flights—accommodation in a 5-star hotel in a superb location on the Ringstrasse near the opera house—3 opera tickets—some travel by coach, tram, metro and taxi—breakfasts, 1 lunch, 1 snack lunch and 5 dinners, with wine, water and coffee—all admission charges—all tips for waiters, drivers—all taxes—services of the lecturer.

Florence at Christmas (20—27 December 2010)
This tour, visiting the world’s best location for an art history tour, has fewer participants than our normal tours to Florence: a maximum of 19. It experiences the city’s highly influential art and wonderful architecture, with the Renaissance occupying centre stage, though mediaeval and other periods are not ignored. Price £2,230 per person, includes: air travel on scheduled British Airways flights—private coach travel for transfers to and from airport—accommodation in a delightful, recently renovated 4-star hotel in a very central location—breakfasts, one lunch (Christmas Day) and five dinners with wine, water and coffee—all admissions to museums, galleries, etc. visited with the group—all state and airport taxes—all gratuities for restaurant staff, drivers, etc.—the services of the lecturer.

Christmas in the Desert (20—27 December 2010)
As exotic a Christmas as it can get: Christmas lunch surrounded by great sand dunes overlooking the Roman fortress of Labaka, in the oasis of Kharga in the Western desert of Egypt... The tour visits some of the greatest Pharaonic, Ptolomeic and Roman sites of the Nile valley and Western Desert, travelling in 4x4 land cruisers with a team of desert specialists, including Egyptologist Nicole Douek and a desert chef. Price £3,260 per person, includes: air travel on scheduled Egyptair flights London to Luxor return—hotel accommodation, five nights in a 5-star hotel and 2 nights in a 4-star hotel—all dinners and lunches (some meals are al fresco prepared by our own kitchen team), including wine, water and coffee—travel by coach and 4x4 vehicles—all admission to museums, sites, etc., visited with the group—all gratuities for restaurant staff, guides, kitchen team and drivers—the cost of the Egyptian visa (if flying with the group)—all state and airport taxes—the services of the lecturer.

Budapest at Christmas (21–27 December 2010)
Dr József Sisa, a native art historian, leads this tour to the Hungarian capital. The tour attends two operas (Handel’s Xerxes and Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro) and there is the opportunity to see two more. As well as exploring the city’s treasures, major and minor, participants visit the famed Danube bend and Esztergom, a delightful country town. Price £2,180 per person includes: air travel on British Airways flights —coach travel for transfers and excursions and by Metro—accommodation in a modern international 5-star hotel situated beside the Danube—breakfasts, 2 lunches and 4 dinners with wine, water and coffee—tickets to 2 performances costing c. £110—all admissions—all tips for restaurant staff and drivers—all state and airport taxes—the services of the lecturer and local guide.

Music in New York at Christmas (21—30 December 2010)
New York’s capacity to attract the stars in all the performing arts is possibly unrivalled; this small-group tour attends concerts by a spectacular array of talent, including Sir Simon Rattle, Magdalena Kožená, Gerald Finley, Willard White, and Felicity Palmer. At the Metropolitan Opera, tour participants attend La Fanciulla del West (Puccini), Jonathan Miller’s Pelléas et Mélisande (Debussy) and The Magic Flute (Mozart), as well as the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and the New York Philharmonic at the Lincoln Center. Renowned social and cultural historian Daniel Snowman gives lectures on the music and there is a programme of walks and excursions, some led by local experts. Price £4,240 per person includes: good tickets for five performances costing c. £430—air travel on scheduled British Airways flights—private coach for transfers and some excursions—accommodation in a recently refurbished hotel opposite the Lincoln Center—breakfasts and six dinners (plus aircraft meals) with wine, water and coffee—admission to all museums visited with the group—all tips for restaurant staff, drivers, guides—all state and airport taxes—the services of the lecturer and local guides.

Venice at Christmas (21—28 December 2010)
Avoiding the crowds of busier months and with a lower maximum number of participants (19) than most of our tours, this is a wide-ranging and rewarding survey of the art and architecture of La Serenissima, with an emphasis on the Renaissance. The tour also features a private after-hours visit to the Basilica of San Marco and a day trip to nearby Padua, which includes the Arena Chapel, a major landmark in the history of art. Price £2,420 per person includes: air travel on scheduled BA flights—travel between Venice Airport and central Venice by motoscafo, some journeys within Venice by vaporetto and by rail to Padua—accommodation in a 5-star hotel in a very central location—breakfasts, 1 lunch and 4 dinners with wine, water, coffee—all admissions—all tips—all airport and state taxes—the services of the lecturer.

Damascus & Aleppo at Christmas (22—30 December 2010)
Quite unjustifiably neglected but abundantly endowed with the finest antiquities and cities of any country in the Levant, this small-group tour visits two remarkable and exciting ancient cities in the company of archaeologist Sue Rollin. Participants see Islamic art and architecture, major Roman ruins (at Apamea and Bosra) and the breathtakingly serene pilgrimage site of St Simeon. Price £2,490 per person includes: air travel with scheduled bmi flights—accommodation in boutique hotels in Damascus and Aleppo, both within walking distance of most monuments—travel by private coach throughout—breakfasts, 6 lunches (including 1 picnic) and 5 dinners with wine, water and coffee—all admission to museums and sites, etc.—all tips for guides, drivers and waiters—all taxes—the services of the lecturer, tour manager and a local guide.

Music in Berlin at Christmas (23—30 December 2010)
Berlin possesses some of the finest art galleries and museums in the world and this tour visits the Neues Museum, the Alte Nationalgalerie, the Gemäldegalerie, the Bode Museum and the Neue Nationalgalerie. The city is also the site of Europe’s greatest concentration of first-rate contemporary architecture and architectural historian (and Berlin resident) Tom Abbott leads participants through many of the finest new buildings and sites. The tour spends a day in Potsdam where it visits Frederick the Great’s Sanssouci and attends two operas (The Magic Flute and The Marriage of Figaro) and a concert by the Berlin Philharmonic at the Philharmonie. Price £2,850 per person includes: tickets to 2 operas and 1 concert costing c. £295—air travel on British Airways flights—travel by private coach with some use of the metro—accommodation in a stylish but traditional hotel close to the Unter den Linden—breakfasts, 2 lunches and 5 dinners, with wine, water and coffee—all admissions to museums—all tips for drivers, guides, waiters—all taxes—the services of the lecturer.