A Choice of Tours for the Holidays

Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday tours, ever popular with mature travelers, this year vary from motor-coach trips to cruises to escorted tours.

Here are some Thanksgiving trips suggested by the Senior Travel and Recreation Activities Council:

--Corliss Tours offers Thanksgiving in San Antonio during a six-day Stay-Put Tour that features accommodations at the Marriott River Center Hotel during the Texas city’s Holiday River parade and Christmas lighting ceremony.

Sightseeing includes dude ranch country, the LBJ Ranch, Austin and the scenic Texas hill country. Depart Nov. 22. Cost is $809 per person, double occupancy, including air fare from Los Angeles. For more information, call toll-free (800) 456-5717 or (818) 359-5358.

--For Thanksgiving in Las Vegas there’s a three-day motor-coach tour by Antelope Tours of Lancaster. The Nov. 22-24 trip features accommodations at the Riviera Hotel and a Thanksgiving dinner at the Golden Nugget, all for $129.95 per person, double occupancy, or $189.95 single. Call (800) 552-8287 or (805) 948-8421.

--Peggy Kronenberger of Calico Tours serves Thanksgiving dinner in Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park during a six-day motor-coach tour of Utah, with stops at Las Vegas, Zion National Park and Lake Powell, in addition to along-the-route sightseeing.

The Nov. 22-26 escorted tour is $369 per person, double occupancy, with a single supplement of $90 (slightly less if you’re a member of the Calico Travel Club). For more information, call (213) 478-5856.

--During a weekend tour to San Francisco Nov. 23-26 with Marlene Gordon of The Next Stage, the highlight is a Thanksgiving dinner in a private railroad car.

Accommodations are at the Ramada Inn at Fisherman’s Wharf. Sightseeing and an old-fashioned streetcar party in San Francisco are included in the tour price of $575 per person, double occupancy. For more information, call The Next Stage at (213) 939-2688.

--Gadabout Tours has two short motor-coach trips, plus a 12-day Caribbean cruise for Thanksgiving travelers.

A five-day Cactus Caper leaves Nov. 20 for Phoenix and Arizona’s Valley of the Sun. In addition to Thanksgiving dinner, five other meals are included, plus sightseeing in Scottsdale, Tempe, Apache Junction, Canyon Lake and the Gila Indian Center. Cost is $425 per person, double occupancy, with a $106 single supplement.

--Thanksgiving dinner in Death Valley’s famous Furnace Creek Inn is featured on a four-day motor-coach tour to Death Valley National Monument. Accommodations are at Furnace Creek Ranch. Plenty of sightseeing and a performance by Marta Becket in the Amargosa Opera House. Costs $399 per person on a shared basis. Single supplement is $159.

(Both the Arizona tour and Death Valley tour will be repeated as Christmas holiday trips.)

--Gadabout’s 12-day Caribbean cruise on the Rotterdam, sailing Nov. 20 from Ft. Lauderdale, will offer a Thanksgiving dinner, a big band salute, a film festival and a Dixieland jam session while cruising to St. Martin, Guadeloupe, Antigua, St. Thomas and Freeport. Cost from Los Angeles starts at $1,746 per person, depending on shipboard accommodations.

Gadabout is based in Palm Springs, with offices in San Marcos, Hemet, Redlands, Bakersfield and Sun City, Ariz. For more information, call toll-free (800) 537-1623.

--Thanksgiving dinner in Key West is one of the features of a 13-day air and motor-coach tour of Florida by Trieloff Tours of Laguna Hills.

The escorted tour also includes Tampa, St. Petersburg and Busch Gardens; three days in Orlando with visits to Disneyland, Epcot Center and the new Disney MGM Studio; Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center; plus Palm Beach, Naples and Sarasota, as well as the holiday in Key West, with accommodations at the Marriott Casa Marina.

Hawaiian Tours

The Nov. 14 tour is $1,499 per person, double occupancy, from Los Angeles, San Diego or Phoenix.

Trieloff, based in Laguna Hills, also has a five-island, 15-day Hawaii Thanksgiving tour departing Nov. 21 at $1,499, and an eight-day tour to Waikiki and Kauai for $949, also departing Nov. 21.

--A Thanksgiving-in-Mexico cruise on the Bermuda Star leaves Nov. 18 for $699 and up per person, depending on stateroom. For more information, call toll-free (800) 432-7125.