Choice Of Long, Short Tours Of Fallingwater

Q. How can I get information about visiting Fallingwater, the house Frank Lloyd Wright designed in Pennsylvania?

A. Perhaps Wright’s most highly regarded private house, Fallingwater was designed in 1936 for Edgar J. Kaufmann, a Pittsburgh department store owner, and has been open to the public since 1964.

Rather than situating the house so that it offered a view of the falls on the property, Wright placed it directly over the falls. Further enhancing the dramatic setting are the house’s thrusting cantilevers and big stretches of glass. Fallingwater is about a 90-minute drive from downtown Pittsburgh.

Tours are given from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. from April 1 through November every day but Monday. The house is open on Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day, among other holidays. If the weather permits, it is also open for tours on weekends between Dec. 1 and March 31. Information: Post Office Box R, Mill Run, Pa. 15464; (412) 329-8501. For information by fax, dial (800) 235-2177 from a fax machine and request brochure 04.

There’s a long tour (an hour and a half to two hours) and a short one (45 minutes), both of which require reservations. The long tour is given at 8:30 a.m. daily at a cost of $30, $35 on weekends and holidays. It covers every room in the house and is the only one during which photography - with hand-held cameras, but no videocameras - is permitted. The short tour costs $8 on weekdays and $12 on weekends and holidays.

Children under 9 are asked to remain at a supervised child care center, where they can, according to the house’s brochure, enjoy “games and toys relating to nature and architecture.” The fee for care is $2 an hour.

Q. My husband and I would like to visit the Antarctic but not by ship. How can this be done?

A. Adventure Network International operates tours to Antarctica both for experienced climbers and those going just to see, not climb. The flights run from Oct. 31 through Jan. 15, during which time the sun never sets.

Leaving from Punta Arenas, Chile, passengers take a 2,000-mile flight to the company’s base camp on Antarctica at Patriot Hills, at the end of the Ellsworth Mountains.

Among the programs that originate at Patriot Hills, which can house 50 visitors, are a five-hour flight to the South Pole, where visitors spend several hours, and a photo safari of four to six days to the emperor penguin colony at the Dawson-Lambton Glacier - neither of which is physically taxing. The ascent of the 16,000-foot Vinson Massif is, of course, another story. Participants are transported aboard a plane that can land either on wheels and on skis.

For the less-active traveler, there’s the Heart of Antarctica option, which offers, but does not require, walks, overnight camping trips, cross-country skiing, snow-mobiling and lessons in navigation.

Because of the vicissitudes of the weather, visitors should expect delays and are advised not to make any important commitments close to their date of return. A delay of two or three days in leaving Chile for Antarctica, for example, is not unusual.

Among the the popular trips are those to the Vinson Massif ($25,750), the South Pole ($21,000), Heart of Antarctica ($10,750) and Emperor Penguin ($21,000). These rates do not include air fare to Punta Arenas, to which most passengers fly from Santiago; nor do they include food, lodging and excursions in Punta Arenas.

All participants are required to have a medical form completed by their doctor.

For more information, write to A.N.I., Canon House, 27 London End, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, HP9 2HN, England; telephone (44) 1494 671808, fax (44) 1494 671725.