TOUR DESK: Pick of this week’s tours

On the trail of Joan Baez

The Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi has unveiled a new cultural itinerary in 2013.

The Metropole has debuted its two-night ‘So Cultural’ package, entitled ‘In the Footsteps of Joan Baez.’

The 112-year-old hotel, which has hosted the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Graham Greene, will guide guests on the route legendary folk singer Joan Baez favoured on her March 2013 return to Hanoi.

Guests will be given the keys to the 70-square-metre Somerset Maugham Suite, where Baez stayed and painted her ‘Unnamed’ portrait of a Vietnamese child.

‘In the Footsteps of Joan Baez’ is priced at USD 2,000 per night, based on two-night stays.

In search of the Impressionists

Art lovers can sail in the footsteps Monet, Van Gogh, Cezanne and Pissarro on the latest itinerary from Botanica.

Departing from Paris on the May 15 2014, the eight day Seine Cruise takes guests to Rouen and Honfleur before returning to the French capital.

Highlights include: a visit to Monet’s Garden; a walking tour of Auvers-sur-Oise, a town famous for the Impressionist painters such as Cezanne, Pissarro and Van Gogh and a visit to the house where Van Gogh died.

It will also include a tour of Rouen, where Monet painted the sunlight effect at the end of the day at the city’s cathedral in 1892.

Accompanying the cruise is guest lecturer and art tutor, Hugh Brian Martin.

All aboard the Shongololo

African safari specialist Bench International is offering a range of Earlybird incentives for travellers book a 2014 Shongololo rail safari in southern Africa before September 30.

The train has a range of departures around southern Africa, to Namibia and to East Africa during the year.

Fares include transport, accommodation, meals and guided sightseeing in mini buses carried on the train.

Incentives include a free hotel the night before departure, free wine, beer, spirits and mixers during the journey and either a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River at Victoria Falls, a Mola Mola boat ride in Namibia or a game drive through Kruger National Park.

Avalon on the Mekong

Avalon Waterways is offering free flights with a 14-day journey on the Mekong through Vietnam and Cambodia.

The offer is available on select departures of the Fascinating Vietnam, Cambodia & The Mekong River itinerary during September and October, 2013, and represents savings of up to A$2580 per couple.

The itinerary travels between Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok and includes two days among the temples and ruins of Angkor Wat.

It includes seven nights aboard the boutique explorer Avalon Angkor, a 16-cabin ship built especially for the waters of the Mekong River. At 40m, it is the only luxury vessel small enough to sail all the way to Siem Reap, avoiding many hours of transfer by road.

Also included are three nights in Ho Chi Minh City, two nights in Siem Reap, one night in Bangkok and air travel between Siem Reap and Bangkok.

Avalon’s offer provides free return flights from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth or Adelaide with Cathay Pacific, including taxes.

It is available with cruise departures on September 6, 20 and 26, and October 4, 10, 18 and 24, 2013.