Q & A
Around Pátzcuaro
Q. I'm traveling to Pátzcuaro in Mexico for the Day of the Dead this fall. What nearby towns and events do you recommend I include? -- S. R., San Francisco
A. Pátzcuaro, in the state of Michoacán, is renowned for its Day of the Dead celebrations on the shores of Lake Pátzcuaro. On Nov. 1 the ceremonies take place on Janitzio island and in villages along the lake. Boats decorated with flowers and candles carry celebrators between Pátzcuaro and the island to the sound of chanting and the ringing of bells.
Pátzcuaro itself is filled with cobblestone streets, plazas, parks and churches. The Museum of Popular Arts is a crafts museum housed in a 16th-century building. Visitors can take tours to islands in the lake from docks just north of town. Along the 55-mile road that leads around the lake are a number of colonial towns known for their crafts, including Tintzuntzán, where you can see 12th-century Tarascan stone temple ruins, a 16th-century Franciscan convent and a crafts market.
For more information on events and sights around the lake, visit the Pátzcuaro Tourist Office, at 7 Buenavista, Centro; (52-434) 342-1214.
About 30 miles east of Pátzcuaro Michoacán's capital, Morelia, a Unesco World Heritage Site with 200 historic structures, makes a good base for forays to nearby towns. The city's main sights, including its vast 18th-century cathedral, aqueduct and the Palacio de Gobierno, can be explored on foot. A former convent houses the Casa de Artesanías, where you can see artisans at work and buy their wares.
Uruapan, an hour west of Pátzcuaro, is an artisanal center, with a lush tropical park at its center. Eighteen miles northwest of the city is the site of the Paricutín volcano, which erupted in 1943 covering two villages but leaving a church tower rising from the lava. You can take riding or hiking expeditions to the rim, where there are views of the lava landscape.
And if you can go a little farther afield, the wintering grounds of the monarch butterflies lie three hours' drive east of Morelia. An estimated 100 million monarchs begin to arrive in early or mid-November, the end of their 1,500-mile journey from the United States and Canada; they begin their journey back in March or April. You can take a bus from Morelia to Angangueo and walk to El Rosario sanctuary; entrance is $4. Among the tour companies offering trips to the sanctuary is Movisa, in Morelia; day tours are $70, including pickup and dropoff in Morelia (or even Pátzcuaro if requested); lunch and guide. Contact Movisa at (52-443) 312 8723 or movisa@colonialtours.com; www.colonialtours.com.
For further information on this area, contact the Michoacán Tourist Office in Morelia at (52-443) 317 6426, extension 230; fax (52-443) 312-9816.
Tours From Helsinki
Q. We will be visiting our daughter and her family in Helsinki in November to mid-December. We want to visit Lapland. Are there tours from Helsinki? And what are the touring opportunities from Helsinki for Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia? --I. G. and A. G., Boston
A. For trips out of Helsinki, Helena Niskanen, spokeswoman for the Finnish Tourist Board in New York, recommends contacting one of the tour operators here, most of which work closely with those in Finland. She suggests the following three options: Nordique Tours, (800) 995-7997, www.nordiquetours.com; Passage Tours of Scandinavia, (800) 548-5960, www.passagetours.com; and Scantours, (800) 223-7226; www .scantours.com.
December is your best bet for seeing Lapland, as there are few scheduled trips to this region in November. Trond Malmer of Passage Tours explains that November is somewhat between seasons in Lapland, with winter activities starting in early December, when it's cold enough for icebreaker cruises and the ice palace and hotel in Kemi, and there is plenty of snow for safaris around Rovaniemi, Lapland's capital.
Scantours, for example, offers four itineraries to Lapland in December. An eight-day trip, based in Rovaniemi, with a choice of safaris into the wilderness (by reindeer, husky or snowmobile) is $695 a person double occupancy, plus $105 to $175 for each safari trip, depending on the length of the trip (two to six hours). The cost does not include air fare to and from Helsinki or guides.
These companies also offer tours from Helsinki to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Though there are no set tours in winter, all three said they customize tours based on their summer trips. (Tallinn, capital of Estonia, can be seen on a day cruise from Helsinki by hydrofoil or catamaran, across the Gulf of Finland.)
Passage Tours offers a 10-day Baltic tour out of Helsinki ($1,498 a person double occupancy in summer). The itinerary includes a three-hour cruise to Tallinn, and tours of Tallinn, Vilnius and Kaunas in Lithuania, and Riga. Mr. Malmer of Passage Tours said a customized tour in winter would cost a third more.
For more information, contact the Finnish Tourist Board, (212) 885-9700; www.gofinland.org; in Finland, (358-9) 4 176 911.
Cooking Classes in Spain
Q. I have been able to locate many cooking classes and gourmet excursions for foreigners in Italy and France, but none in Spain. Can you please point me in the right direction? -- Linda Roth, New York, N.Y.
A. Spain does, indeed, have fewer cooking programs. According to Dorlene Kaplan, editor at ShawGuides, which publishes an annual guide to cooking schools and vacations, it currently has 26, versus 167 for Italy and 125 for France. The Recreational Cooking and Wine Schools section of cookforfun .shawguides.com has listings of culinary vacations and contact information.
One company with programs on Andalusian, Basque and Catalan cuisine this fall is Food and Wine Trails, based in Santa Rosa, Calif. An Intimate Taste of Andalusia includes four nights in Seville and two in Arcos de la Frontera. Cooking lessons, meals in local restaurants and a tasting at a sherry bodega (winery) in Cadiz are included. The cost is $2,155 a person, based on double occupancy. Contact Food and Wine Trails at (800) 367-5348; complete itineraries may be found at www.foodandwinetrails.com.
Similar programs are offered by Epiculinary, in Lake Bluff, Ill., which offers seven cooking vacations in Spain, including a three-day tour of the wine region of La Rioja ($995, based on double occupancy). A more intensive six-day program is led by the Basque chef and cookbook author Luis Irizar, who runs a cooking school in San Sebastián ($1,975, double occupancy). Customized tours may be arranged. Contact Epiculinary at (888) 380-9010; www .epiculinary.com.
FLORENCE STICKNEY
Q & A