Archaeological Tours

In his August ’05 “Far Horizons” column, Randy Keck asked readers to recommend long-haul, single-destination group tours. Most of our organized touring has focused on single destinations.

The Smithsonian features such visits but ordinarily would not meet Mr. Keck’s criterion of a minimum of 21 days.

Archaeological Tours (271 Madison Ave., Ste. 904, New York, NY 10016; phone 212/986-3054 or 866/740-5130, e-mail archtours@aol.com or visit www.archaeologicaltrs.com), on the other hand, emphatically does. For the 2006 season they offer at least 21 days to such places as Anatolia, Burma, southern India or northern India.

We highly recommend this agency. We traveled with them to Syria and Jordan in 1997, Sicily in 1999, northern India in 1999 and Portugal ($11,500, land), Aug. 27-Sept. 13, ’04. Except for three weeks in India, each tour lasted 2_ weeks. On every occasion we made our own international air arrangements, adding time somewhere abroad both before and after the scheduled itinerary.

The agency’s half dozen or so staff are competent and responsive and rotate assignments accompanying the tours. Mary Lou, who guided us through India, was the best tour leader we have ever had. The lecturers who travel with the group frequently are academics.

S. KUDLICK
Cambridge, MA