Passport to Romance

If you've been everywhere and bought the T-shirts, too, get set for some surprises. Summer travel trends in 1996 probably won't include a carbon copy of your neighbor's week in Orlando. Cruise ships, for example, used to be synonymous with love boats that were the size of small towns---and just as predictable. No more. The newest ships of summer are small, luxurious and so romantic that you may choose not to set foot on shore. One Italian-registered line, Silversea, has two new ships, the Silver Cloud and the Silver Wind, sailing to some of the world's most exotic ports. But it's the intimate nature of a Silversea cruise that makes it unique. Each ship accommodates fewer than 300 passengers, making you feel as if you were a pampered guest aboard a private yacht. And the only kind of accommodations are suites, with 75 percent boasting private verandas. Silversea enforces a strict no-tipping policy, and all wines and spirits in your stateroom and in the ship's many bars, restaurants and salons are gratis. Prices range from about $3000 for a six-day Caribbean excursion to $95,000 (the two-bedroom Grand Suite rate) for an incredible 65-day journey that embarks in Singapore and ends in Copenhagen by way of Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Greece, Spain, France and Germany. (The same cruise is a paltry $36,250 if you opt for a Veranda Suite.) Prices are per person.

Other terrific summer sailing can be enjoyed aboard Temptress Voyages ships that offer small, ecologically inspired trips along the coast of Central America; on Sven-Olof Lindblad's two 70-passenger ships, which bring you up close and personal to humpback whales in the Sea of Cortés and to glaciers and sea lions in Alaska; and on Radisson's Song of Flower, a 172-passenger jewel with diverse European itineraries from April through October. You can view the aurora borealis from the deck of the MS Hanseatic, a luxurious passenger ship that sails near the Arctic Circle from April through September, cruising past the icebergs of Disko Bay in Greenland.

Crewed canal boat charters, long a favorite holiday choice of Europeans, are rapidly being discovered by Americans who want to explore the 5000 miles of waterways in France as well as the canals and lakes of Ireland, Holland and Britain. Most of the barges have the atmosphere of a quaint country inn and some cater to special interests, such as golf or horseback riding. And, yes, a chef is on board. Le Boat Inc. of Hackensack, New Jersey is considered the premiere barge booker in the States. It describes one of its flagships as follows:

Meanderer: Deluxe cabins, fine wine and excellent cuisine. Accommodates six passengers in spacious style with a captain who loves golf.

Le Boat can also plan special itineraries, designing a barge trip suited to your needs.

Adventurous Spirits

Adventure travel is the hot way to get away these days, with hundreds of companies organizing trips to test your endurance and grit.

Playing a round of golf may not seem like living on the edge, for example--- unless, of course, you do it at the North Pole. Accessible Isolation Holidays in West Sussex, England can hook you up with a group of duffers this summer for an eight-day tournament in each of the five sectors at the Roof of the World--- Canada, Greenland, Norway, Russia and the U.S. En route to the polar ice sheet, you'll visit Inuit communities at Grise Fjord and Resolute as well as other outcamps. This is your chance to get your name in The Guinness Book of World Records for the Most Northern Hole in One or the Most Northern Birdie. The price: about $6800.

The same company will also send you sea kayaking off Port McNeill, Canada, which sounds sedate until you learn that you'll be paddling alongside killer whales. Or how about swimming with sharks? Exmouth Dive Centre in Australia will take you to the Ningaloo Reef for a five-day frolic with whale sharks. "I've never experienced such fear, emotion and fascination all at the same time. The adrenaline was overwhelming," said one former participant. By the way, the huge whale shark dines on plankton and krill, so you won't be spending $ 1200 to be fish bait.

Of course, even great white sharks would be a wimpy challenge to cave divers. Considered by many to be the most dangerous sport in the world, cave diving has less to do with observing marine life than it does with navigating spectacular but potentially deadly surroundings. If you're up to the challenge (which means having at least 50 regular dives under your belt), we suggest heading to the Yucatan, where Mike Madden's Cedan Dive Center will take you on tours of underwater caves in the Puerto Adventuras-Tulum area. Be prepared for chilly water and amazing sights, including giant flowstones that rise up like Egyptian columns and stalactites that hang like daggers from cavern ceilings. One minute into this dive and you'll understand why Mayans believed these caves were home to the gods.

Fortunately, you don't have to be a certified diver to get a feel for the Yucatan's caves. Just sign up for the Indiana Jones Jungle Adventure, a day trip that begins with a one-and-a-half-mile jungle trek to a local family's ranch. After a quick tour of the grounds, you'll enjoy guided snorkeling at the nearby Nohoch Nah Chich Cave System---27 miles of underwater caverns that lead to the Caribbean Sea.

There are plenty of other places to appreciate the rugged wild with minimal risk.

Ecuador is considered one of the world's great travel secrets. It is inexpensive and packs into an area the size of Colorado everything from the Amazon jungle to the snowy Andes, where wild horses run in mountain meadows and condors cruise overhead. For local flavor, check out Quito, a splendid Spanish colonial city situated on the equator in a valley ringed by snow-covered volcanoes. And for jungle lovers, Ecuador has several standout lodges, including La Selva, an American-owned deluxe resort so environmentally rich that it's visited frequently by scientists and serious bird-watchers.

Another summer favorite of ours is Iceland. Traveling there is like taking Geology 101 all over again. Iceland's volcanoes are so active that all of Reykjavik is heated geothermally. The landscape is beyond dramatic, with geysers, waterfalls that make Niagara look puny, glaciers, fjords and lava fields so rugged that astronauts trained there before going to the moon. Green summer meadows such as those in Ireland are dotted with wildflowers and sheep, both of which outnumber people.

The best time to visit Iceland is in July and August, and the best way is on a camping tour. One rocky campsite in the central mountains near a glacier has been nicknamed the Lunar Hilton. But the blanket of color that results as the sun sets over this remarkable landscape (at two in the morning) makes the hard, lumpy night's sleep worth it. Likewise, the beauty of the island women makes you wish they all could be Iceland girls.

Sporting Life

People who like to combine vacations with challenging athletic activities also have great travel choices.

Argentina offers some of the best advanced skiing in the western hemisphere. Because its winter season is the mirror-opposite of ours, consider packing your snowboard and skis and heading there for the first summer snowfall.

Bariloche in Patagonia, near the tip of South America, is a good starting point. The land of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is South America's largest ski town, with an Austrian-style culture courtesy of early Austrian, Swiss and German settlers. Stay at the Hotel Pire-Hue at the base of Gran Catedral Ski Resort or check out the Llao Llao (pronounced zow zow), an extravagant resort hotel 16 miles from Bariloche with a spectacular view of the Andes and Lake Nahuel Huapf. Then move on to the small ski area of Cerro Bayo in the resort town of Villa La Angostura. Lift tickets cost a mere $16 and the views from the Bahia Man-zano, a rustic yet exquisitely appointed hotel, are breathtaking. To wind down your South American ski trip, stop at Chapelco, a mountain with plenty of novice and intermediate trails and well-spaced trees.

If you prefer to bask in the warmth of summer, a bicycle tour is an exhilarating option. Backroads Bicycle Touring of Berkeley, California, one of the nation's top tour operators, organizes four- to 15-day trips to destinations (concluded on page 166)Passport(continued from page 120) around the world. These trips can be thematic (pedal to microbreweries in northern California or to the culinary landmarks of Tuscany), cultural (cruise through Prague and the quiet roads of the Bohemian countryside) or spiritual (explore the Hindu temples of Bali or the trails along the Mae Kok River in Thailand). Backroads' tours travel to dozens of spots in the U.S., as well as to Central and South America (Mexico and Costa Rica, Chile and Argentina), Europe (Turkey and Greece, Spain and Portugal, France, Switzerland, Ireland) and Asia and the Pacific (China, New Zealand and Hawaii). The company also offers walking trips in similar locations. Prices start at $700, including gear, food and lodging at either inns or campsites.

Holistic Holidays

New Age travel is another hot development for men and women with disposable income and a lot on their minds. It's now possible to vacation while improving your karma, reading your biorhythms, learning yoga, taking a religious retreat, becoming a vegetarian--- you name it.

We recently received a publicity letter regarding a gorgeous "environmentally correct" resort called Oberoi on Bali. It read: "Participate in one of our insight vacations that include lifestyle enrichment workshops with an environmental theme such as Diet for a Healthy Planet or the Healthful Workplace." Just what we'd want to do after flying 20 hours to Bali.

We'll take the Iceland girls instead.