Tour Group May Have Grand Idea

Grandtravel, the Maryland tour company that caters specifically to grandparents taking their grandchildren on trips, wants the two groups to go Dutch this summer . . . or hit the high and low spots of the Colorado Rockies.

Grandparents still pick up the tab, but both age groups should enjoy a 12-day luxury hotel barge tour of “Holland’s Waterways and Canals,” which includes learning about the life of Van Gogh.

The cruise, on the 18-passenger Juliana, lasts for six nights.

In addition to cruising past a parade of windmills along the rivers and canals, stops include the miniature city of Madurodam, colorful Marken, Gouda and its cheeses, the open-air museum village of Zaanse Schans and, of course, Amsterdam.

As with other Grandtravel-planned tours, there are many special activities, some just for children and tour counselors while grandparents shop or relax.

Tour cost is $3,390 per adult and $2,870 per child sharing the same double room. That includes all transportation and the six-day cruise, plus four days in Amsterdam, most meals and a sightseeing and entertainment program carefully prepared by Koenig and a team of teachers, psychologists and educators.

There are departures next summer, July 18 and 25.

Grandtravel also has a 10-day tour of Colorado, set for Aug. 1, that covers the state from 1,000 feet down in the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine to Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, highest road in North America.

Along the way, grandparents and grandchildren take a ride on the 1864 Cumbres & Toltec narrow-gauge railroad in the San Juan Mountains, explore the mountains in four-wheel-drive vehicles, visit ghost towns and take a float trip on the Gunnison River.

Other stops on the trip are Denver, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Colorado Springs, which includes lunch at the Cadet Cafeteria at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

The cost, including transportation, hotels, all meals, sightseeing, transfers and taxes, is $1,715 per person, double occupancy. It’s slightly lower for a grandparent sharing a room with two or three grandchildren.

For more information on the Holland or Colorado tours, or a catalogue of all 1990 Grandtravel trips, contact Grandtravel, 6900 Wisconsin Ave., Suite 706, Chevy Chase, Md. 20818, toll-free (800) 247-7651.

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Yugotours is offering 1985 prices on the first two departures in 1990 of its Prime of Your Life Vacations, the company’s Yugoslav resort packages for mature travelers.

Including air fare from New York, the 15-day vacations start at $728 for the Jan. 22 departure to the resort of Lovran on Yugoslavia’s Istrian Peninsula.

The price, about $48.50 U.S. per day, covers first-class hotels, continental breakfast and dinner daily, plus sightseeing and other social activities.

There’s also a Jan. 22 departure from New York for Opatija, for $828 per person, or a combination of Opatija and Dubrovnik for $920. Low-priced side excursions from those resorts to Mostar, Venice or Montenegro’s Bay of Kotor, the only fiord in southern Europe, are offered at low prices.

Yugotours has many more tours directed at senior travelers, ranging from relaxing resort vacations to tours of Greece, Turkey and Italy, and a six-night tour to Moscow and Leningrad. Many can be combined.

For more information: Yugotours, 3440 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1105, Los Angeles 90010, (800) 872-8598 or (213) 383-2438.

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The Hotel Condado Beach in San Juan, Puerto Rico, has introduced a year-round discount for mature travelers age 60 and over on its published individual rates.

The 245-room ocean-front hotel, which is celebrating its 70th anniversary, is three miles from Old San Juan in the Condado Gold Coast resort area. It’s convenient to shopping, restaurants and night life.

Opened by the Vanderbilt family in 1919 and restored in 1982, the Spanish colonial-style, fully air-conditioned resort has two restaurants, two cocktail lounges and swimming pool, amid a setting of palm trees and waterfalls.

Now through April 20, a senior-rate double room starts at $130. In the summer it’s $90 and up per senior couple.

For more information, call Occidental Hotels at (800) 468-2775.