Bike Tour Built for One

Victoria's Fairmont Empress is a fully restored historic hotel within walking distance of many sites, including Craigdarroch Castle, a 39-room Victorian mansion; Thunderbird Park, with its collection of totem poles; and the adjacent Royal British Columbia Museum, which hosts the special exhibit "Eternal Egypt: Masterworks of Ancient Art From the British Museum" starting in July. Butchart Gardens, 55 acres of plantings, is about 14 miles from Victoria; Gray Line (250-388-5248, www.grayline.com), which offers a four-hour Butchart Gardens and Butterfly Gardens tour for $43.50 that leaves from the Empress Hotel daily. For more info: Tourism Victoria, 800-663-3883, www.tourismvictoria.com.

You can also walk to many sites from downtown Vancouver, or you can take the Vancouver Trolley tour, a 23-stop, $20 tour that hits all the key sightseeing spots. City highlights include Stanley Park, one of the largest urban parks in North America and home to the Vancouver Aquarium; Granville Island, a combo artists colony/farmers market; Gastown, the city's old town area; and the Vancouver Art Gallery, with 8,000-plus artworks. Info: Tourism Vancouver, 604-682-2222, www.tourismvancouver.com.

I want to visit the island of Iwo Jima next February/March for the 60th anniversary of the battle that took place there and the site of the famous flag-raising photo. Are there any tours?

Tom Stiltner

South Beach, Ore.

Military Historical Tours Inc., of Alexandria, is under contract by veterans groups to conduct a tour March 8-14 to mark this epic battle, which involved 70,000 U.S. Marines. More than 6,000 Marines were killed during the invasion, which many know best through the picture snapped on Feb. 23, 1945, by Joe Rosenthal.

Tour participants will primarily be veterans and their family members, but the tour is open to others. The group will travel to Saipan and Guam before going by charter plane to Iwo Jima on March 12 to attend a memorial ceremony, which will include dignitaries from both the United States and Japan. Tentative cost is $3,395 per person double, including air from Los Angeles; an optional three-day Peleliu Battlefield tour is about $995. Info: 800-722-9501, www.miltours.com.