Travcoa News Bulletin

Whether armchair travelers have been glued to Discovery Channel's "Alaska Week" or PBS's "The Gorilla King," Travcoa offers guests the chance to live out their TV dreams.

Travelers can explore the Last Frontier on an eight-day "Alaska and the Iditarod" Escorted Journey, departing March 4, 2009. Guests will experience many sides of Alaska as they mingle with mushers in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, cook with Winterlake Lodge owner and chef Kirsten Dixon, take a helicopter ride out to a glacier and snowshoe at Alyeska Resort. They will participate in a dog handler's boot camp, and then be given the chance to volunteer as a dog handler during the start of the Iditarod. Later in the journey, guests can get up close and personal with more animals during a behind-the-scenes tour of the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.

Travelers who dream of tracking gorillas can take a Custom Journey to Uganda or Rwanda specifically designed with their dates and desires in mind. By day, travelers hike along river trails and past beautiful waterfalls in search of the mountain gorilla, the rarest species of gorilla. By night in Uganda, guests stay in deluxe tents, complete with running water, at the Gorilla Forest Camp in the heart of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. And in Rwanda, they spend nights in cottages at the Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge, adjacent to Volcanoes National Park.

Travcoa's Custom Journey department can make other armchair travel experiences come alive as well, whether travelers want to spend a week living in an Irish castle or travel around the world for three months. For more information on Custom Journeys, travelers can call Travcoa at 800-992-2003.

Travelers who regularly plan summer barbeques by the lake or on the beach can try out their grilling techniques at the North Pole next July and August. Travcoa will introduce a journey to the North Pole in 2009 through its sister company Quark Expeditions. During the trip, guests will have the chance to trade their parkas for bathing suits and take a dip in the 28-degree Fahrenheit waters, then relax around a barbeque on the ice. Guests are also asked to stand in a circle around the pole; in less than 20 minutes, they will circumnavigate the Earth and all 24 time zones. Back aboard "50 Years of Victory," the most powerful icebreaker in the world, guests can swim in a heated pool, relax in the sauna or watch for polar bears through the full-sized windows in their cabins. "The Bold North Pole" journey departs on July 23 and Aug. 5, 2009.

The weak dollar may mean fewer Americans in Paris this summer - just one more reason to book Travcoa's "Fabulous France" Escorted Journey. Guests realize a 15 percent savings by paying Travcoa's journey fare (rates that were set in 2007 for Travcoa's 2008 journeys to Europe are guaranteed and no surcharges will be added). As an added benefit, guests won't have to worry about the soft dollar-to-euro ratio when they dine at their favorite restaurants while on a Travcoa journey because they turn their dinner bills over to Travcoa for a refund. Travcoa's inclusive journey cost covers three meals per day, whether it's a private meal delivered by room service, a group meal, such as a dinner at the acclaimed Loiseau des Vignes restaurant, or a more intimate Dine-Around dinner at the restaurant of a guest's choosing.

Other reasons to book this journey are in the details: guests are treated to a hot air balloon ride followed by a champagne picnic, a privately chauffeured drive through Paris in a vintage 2CV Citroen and overnights in private chateaux. The royal treatment even extends to turndown service at the Villa Florentine, which places rose petals from the villa's organic garden on guests' pillows at night.

"Fabulous France" departs June 14 and Sept. 6, and starts from $13,495.