TRAVELING IN STYLE : OF RIO ‘N’ REELING ‘N’ RACKETS : A former band singer and talkative television host describes the allures of his favorite travel destinations.

Travel has been a passion with me since my early days of riding the bus with the musicians when I was singing with a band. Only these days, my traveling is a little more stylish, and a tennis racket goes along with me everywhere. Tennis is such a great game for travelers, as opposed to golf and the heavy bag of clubs you often have to lug around. Sort of like the difference between being the clarinet player and the bass player with an orchestra.

When it comes to holidays, my favorite country to visit-- outside of the United States--is Brazil. In Rio de Janeiro, the people live to a beat of their own. It’s an almost-mesmerizing rhythm of living that goes on all over the country; but nowhere is it as pronounced as in Rio. I really love Brazil with a passion. By the time you read this, Rio is probably where I’ll be. Naturally my tennis racket goes along, even though while there I’ll only use it sporadically.

Rio lives to an irresistible samba beat both day and night. Often I find myself dancing at the popular Hippopotamus or visiting the many samba schools to watch them rehearsing for that party to which the world is invited: Carnival.

Looking out from the Rio Palace Hotel, to your left is Copacabana beach; to your right is Ipanema. The girls in their string bikinis are still there. Apart from Carnival, there’s no topless bathing in Brazil, as there is on the French Riviera, but that doesn’t detract a bit from enjoying some of the best girl-watching in the world. The Rio bikini covers the vital areas but doesn’t obstruct the remainder of the view. And it seems that everyone on those two beaches is working out, at volley ball or at running.

People of Rio enjoy life to the limit. Their philosophy is “you only live once”. And, wow, the way they go about it, once is enough. What a magnificent setting they have in which to spin out their days. God really outdid Himself when He created Rio. To me there is no spot on earth more beautiful or more breathtaking.

I always head down before Carnival. For anyone planning to visit Rio but once, Carnival is the time to go. This is where they invented celebrating with reckless abandon. Me? I can’t go four days without sleep (any more) like most of the revelers do.

It’s such a thrill for me to visit Antonio Carlos Jobim at his home in Rio. Nestled into the hills, his music studio has a stupendous view of Ipanema, Sugar Loaf and Corcovado, all of which he has immortalized in his songs. I’ve sat with Tom (as his friends call him) at La Garota de Ipanema, the sidewalk cafe from which he watched the girl who was “tall and tan and young and lovely” walk by, and then wrote the song, “The Girl From Ipanema.” She still lives there, incidentally, and her daughter is currently “Miss Ipanema.”

It’s fun, too, when the Sergio Mendezes are in residence at their Rio apartment and host midnight musical gatherings where all of us get up and perform. Wonderful fun.

Outside of Rio, about an hour and a half by car, is Buzios, a resort town that Brigitte Bardot helped popularize, as she did St. Tropez. During the season, the little village is packed with the famous and the not-so-famous. It’s an- other great place to spend at least part of a holiday.

Rio, however, is only one of my favorite travel destinations. And despite what some of my friends might tell you, tennis isn’t my whole life.

My son Tony and I enjoy fishing for salmon on the Campbell River on Vancouver Island. We head for the Dolphins resort, where we think the guides are the best. The Campbell offers some of the world’s greatest salmon fishing and, if you wish, your catch is canned or smoked just the way you like it to take home or to send to friends. Bob Hope sometimes fishes there, because, as Bob says, fish don’t applaud). But a holiday, even a short one, spent fishing the Campbell River provides a wonderful, rejuvenating communion with nature that all of us need to make the rest of the year worthwhile.

Along that line, fulfilling a need so many of us have to pay homage to our roots, I often travel to the land of my ancestors--the Thorntons of Tipperary and the Gribbins of County Clare in Ireland.

Anyone who has ever been to that beautiful green land is sure to agree that it’s probably where the original Garden of Eden was.

The Irish pub, if you haven’t already discovered, is a wonderful institution --a country club, a political forum and a stage, peopled with the most fascinating and memorable characters you’ll ever find. There’s something warm, generous, even magical about an Irish pub. No matter what your ancestry, after that first round of Guinness or a pint of bitters, you become a welcome member of the pub’s fraternity.

The greatest charm of the Irish is the rare, almost mystical knack they have of making the most reluctant visitor feel welcome. They are indeed a priceless people--and they make me glad of the Irish in me.

Mexicans have that warm, hospitable quality too, especially when you get away from the big cities and the border towns. I belong to a club at Rancho Las Cruces in Baja California. Both of my former neighbors are now gone: Bing Crosby and Desi Arnaz. Few people associated Bing Crosby with tennis, but he and I were often zany enough to play in the hot Mexican sun. Baja, as you probably know, also offers some of the world’s greatest deep-sea fishing.

Well, I’ve listed my favorite foreign spots. Now let me tell you about my favorite American vacation spots: John Gardiner’s tennis ranches.

The original one is in the Carmel Valley, where the mayor of Carmel--I don’t have to tell you who that is, do I?--and I are both members. I also enjoy playing at Gardiner’s Arizona ranches, at Scottsdale and at his Enchantment Ranch in Sedona. If you’re a tennis buff, you haven’t lived until you’ve hung a lob high in Enchantment’s red rock formations. It gives you red-rock fever.

John Gardiner was once the tennis pro at the Del Monte Lodge in Pebble Beach. He bought his first ranch in 1957 and will build a new one this year in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. Completion date is set for sometime this fall.

One of the reasons I consider Gardiner’s ranches a second home is because of the informality. Guests dress in tennis outfits all day, and only at night are men required to wear a jacket and tie.

All the people involved with the resort obviously love tennis as much as you do. It doesn’t take long before everybody is calling you by name. Every morning, guests find newspapers outside their doors--accompanied by fresh, chilled orange juice. The buffets at the tennis ranches are world famous, and you never see any money ex- changing hands because tipping, like everything else, is added onto the bill when you leave. For me, that’s a great holiday.

However, if in the next 10 minutes I feel the urge for a vacation, I’ll head for the Beverly Hilton, where I can enjoy a bit of Polynesia in Trader Vic’s or a taste of France in the L’Escoffier Room, until there’s time to actually go to those places. Who could ask for anything more?

FOR MORE INFORMATION

South American Travel Assn. (SATA) in Miami, phone (800) 345-0289 or Brazilian consulate: 3810 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles 90010, telephone (213) 382-3133.

Ireland: Irish Tourist Board, 19th Floor, 757 3rd Ave., New York 10017, telephone (212) 418-0800.

Fishing at Campbell River, Vancouver Island: Tourism British Columbia, 3400 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 34, Los Angeles 90010, telephone (213) 380-9171. The Dolphins Resort, 4125 Discovery Drive, Campbell River, B.C., Canada V9W 4X6, telephone (604) 287 3066.

John Gardiner’s Tennis Ranches: In Carmel (open mid-March to mid-Novem- ber), telephone (408) 659-2207; ranch on Camelback in Scottsdale, Ariz., (open Oct. to mid-May), telephone (800) 245-2051; Enchantment Ranch in Sedona, telephone (800) 826-4180.