TOURS & CRUISES

UNITED STATES

Maintaining wild places on a low-cost vacation for volunteers

Resolve to spend more time in the wild, wide open spaces next year by taking a trip with Wilderness Volunteers, an organization that offers low-cost working vacations at some of America’s most beautiful national parks and recreation areas.

You can collect seeds and cut down invasive plants at Arches National Park in Utah, remove barbed wire fences at Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge in Oregon or study the various species roaming through Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina.

Last year, volunteers donated 15,000 hours during weeklong vacations across the United States.

“We have a range of participants: lawyers, Kmart workers, doctors, high-tech people who spend too much time in front of a computer,” said group spokeswoman Susan Laarman. “There’s a wide age range too, from young people to retirees.”

The 40 trips planned next year include such sites as Glacier National Park in Montana, San Juan Islands National Historic Park in Washington, Big Bend National Park in Texas, Mt. Hood National Forest in Oregon and Picture Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan. Groups are limited to 12; some sites in Alaska and Hawaii are already full, Laarman said.

Cost: $198 per person, including meals and lodging. Volunteers sometimes stay in lodges but often camp. Participants must be physically fit.

Contact: Wilderness Volunteers; (928) 556-0038, www.wildernessvolunteers.org.

CALIFORNIA

Chinese New Year crackles in the city by the bay

Watch 600,000 firecrackers light up the sky on a four-day tour that will take you to San Francisco’s Chinese New Year celebration, the largest event of its kind outside Asia.

The Feb. 13 tour includes a San Francisco city tour, a walking tour of Chinatown and visits to Sausalito and Sonoma, where wine tasting is on the itinerary. The main event is the Chinese New Year celebration. Tour-goers will have grandstand seats for the evening parade, which features more than 100 floats, costumed lions, giant walking puppets and acrobats.

Cost: $699 per person, double occupancy, including round-trip air fare from San Diego, Los Angeles or Ontario, accommodations at Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf Hotel, tours, sightseeing and airport shuttle service.

Contact: San Diego-based AFC Tours & Cruises; (800) 369-3693, www.afctours.com.

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