Q/A
Baltic Sea Cruises
Q. Would you have a list of lines that cruise the Baltic Sea this summer? I am interested in small ships, holding not more than 200 people. -- Averill Q. Mix, Los Gatos, Calif.
A. Choosing one of the small ships that ply the Baltic allows one to enter small harbors and dock by the city center. There is not a wide choice, but here are three options.
Radisson's elegant Song of Flower, with 172 passengers, offers a one-week Stockholm to Copenhagen cruise on July 3 (and a reverse trip July 10), stopping at Helsinki, St. Petersburg and Tallinn. Prices  range from $2,995 to $5,670. Information: (800) 285-1835, www.rssc.com.
The 200-passenger Kristina Regina, a family-owned and -operated ship now under renovation, offers an interesting itinerary from Helsinki to Copenhagen June 4 to 15. Stops include St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Riga, Klaipeda in Lithuania (a rare stop on Baltic cruises), Gdynia (which includes a tour of Gdansk), Warnemunde and Lubeck; optional tours to Berlin and Vilnius. Prices range from $2,099 to $3,099, with air fare from New York. Information: (800) 688-3876; www.eurocruises.com.
And if price is no object, the luxurious 208-passenger Seabourn Pride offers a 14-day cruise June 8, July 6 and Aug. 3 from London to Copenhagen, stopping at Oslo, Odense (Denmark), Stockholm, Tallinn, St. Petersburg and Helsinki, with prices from $12,500 to $15,716. Information: (800) 929-9391; www.seabourn.com.
Day Tours in Rome
Q. I will be visiting Rome in February. Could you give me the names of companies that offer day tours of the city? -- M. C., Rutland, Vt.
A. A number of companies offer basic tours of Rome's most famous landmarks. Appian Line, for example, offers a three-hour daily tour led by a multilingual guide that includes the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Piazza Navona and St. Peter's Basilica, for $25, at 2,200 lire to $1. A trip to the Vatican museums is $34. Groups are limited to 50 people; pickup from downtown hotels is included. Call (39) 06 48786604;  www.appianline.it lists a number of other Appian Line Rome tours.
For budget travelers, the Rome transit authority has set up the 110 line, a city tour bus that takes in many of the city's monuments. Tickets, which cost $6.80, can be bought at the Termini railway station or directly on the buses, which leave the station every half hour from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. You can get on and off as you wish. There is no tour guide, but pamphlets with information about the sites in English and Italian are distributed free, and the Web site, www.atac.roma.it, shows the itinerary. Call (39-06) 46952252.
And for a more personal touch, Scala Reale, a team of architects, historians and archaeologists (mostly American), specializes in small groups and tailors private itineraries on request. For a $20 registration fee,  an orientation walk of one to two hours looks at some of the city's lesser-known sites. An intensive four-hour walking tour ($45.50) covers classical Rome's public places and private homes, including the Roman Forum, the Palatine Hill and the Colosseum (for groups of no more than six); a more relaxed three-and-a-half-hour exploration of the Renaissance and Baroque sites in the historic center ($36) includes the Pantheon, Campo de' Fiori, the Jewish Ghetto and medieval and Renaissance churches. Contact  Scala Reale at (888) 467-1986; in Italy at (39-06) 474-5673; fax (617) 249-0186; www.scalareale.org.
English Garden Tours
Q. My husband and I are planning a trip to England next spring. How can we find a tour that takes us to exceptional gardens? -- Suzanne Coppel, New York, N.Y.
A. Garden tours in England are plentiful, and a number of the best are planned to coincide with the annual Chelsea Flower Show (May 22 to 25 this year), which draws garden lovers from all over the world, and the glorious sweeps of rhododendron and azaleas in bloom at this time.
Expo Garden tours, for example, is offering six tours that include the flower show this spring. A nine-day tour of gardens in Cornwall and Devon (April 27 to May 6) takes in the 17th-  and 18th-century Gardens of Heligan and the magnolias and camellias of Caerhays Castle, both near St. Austell; subtropical gardens at Tresco Abbey in the Scilly Isles; Castle Drogo, designed by Edwin Lutyens, at the edge of Dartmoor; and Knightshayes Court, a National Trust garden north of Exeter. The cost is $3,958, including round-trip air fare from New York, all breakfasts and five dinners. Five other garden tours are set for May, with visits to some of the great gardens of England such as Hidcote Manor near Chipping Campden, with its lovely garden 'rooms,' and Rosemary Verey's Barnsley House Garden, with a lavish laburnum arch, in the Cotswolds; Sissinghurst, Vita Sackville-West's 1930's romantic garden in Kent; Hever Castle in Sussex, with a four-acre Italian garden; Upton Grey in Surrey, designed by Gertrude Jekyll; and Hampton Court Palace in London. Most tours include some private gardens as well.
Expo Garden Tours, 33 Fox Crossing, Litchfield, Conn. 06759; (800) 448-2685; fax (860) 567-0381; Web site: www.expogardentours.com.
Lucas & Randall, with two spring garden tours May 16 to 25 and May 18 to 25, combines visits to extensive classical landscape gardens with smaller, more intimate ones, and adds sightseeing too. Highlights include Hever Castle, Sissinghurst, Sheffield Park in East Sussex, Stourhead in Wiltshire, Wisley in Surrey and Exbury, near Southampton, with sightseeing in Tunbridge Wells, Arundel and Winchester. The cost (land only) is $2,495 for the eight-day tour with breakfast and most dinners; a 10-day tour is $2,895.
Lucas & Randall European Tours, 225 30th Street, Suite 300, Sacramento, Calif. 95816; (800) 505-2505; www.lucasandrandall.com.
And one company that specializes in small groups (between 6 and 21 people), with stays at country inns and manor houses, is Coopersmith's, founded in 1984. Visitors are often taken to private gardens rarely seen, even to those of such well-known horticulturalists as Rosemary Verey and Christopher Lloyd. This spring,  garden tours are scheduled in East Anglia (May 19 to 27), the West Country (May 23 to June 4) and Devon/Cornwall (June 9 to 21). Prices (land only) from $2,895 to $3,995, including breakfast, some lunches and most dinners.
Coopersmith's, Post Office Box 900, Inverness, Calif. 94937, (415) 669-1914; www.coopersmiths.com.
FLORENCE STICKNEY