Newsletter Offers a Few Pointers and Bargains

If you are a tour planner for a senior group or if you’re among those starting a mature travel club, take a tip and get “Travel Tips.”

The bimonthly newsletter, started less than a year ago by two Northern California women--publisher Elana Anderson and editor Ann Schrader--contains information for groups planning tours of a day or longer in California. It is available free to qualified senior tour planners.

In addition to providing information for group travel, each issue contains discounts and special deals available to individuals, thus making “Travel Tips” a bargain for the individual mature traveler, too. A one-year subscription costs $24.

The March-April issue, for example, tells of special midweek group rates available on the Napa Valley Wine Train and at the Clarion Inn in the Napa Valley. It also details Princess Tours’ California Sun Express rail trips starting this month between the San Francisco Bay Area, San Luis Obispo and Los Angeles.

There are also tips on senior discounts at Anaheim’s Pan Pacific Hotel and its Platinum Club special for those 55 years and over--$78 per person, double, including two adult passes to Disneyland.

In addition, listed are discounts of 10% to 20% at a quartet of resort motels in Ventura; a two-nights-for-one bargain at the 26-room Centrella B&B; Inn at Pacific Grove on the Monterey Peninsula and the 50% discount for mature travelers 60 years and over at the Dana Point Resort.

For more information, contact “Travel Tips,” 5281 Scotts Valley Drive, Scotts Valley, Calif. 95066. Qualified tour planners should include some form of identification indicating their affiliation to a senior group to get on the free subscription list. Individuals should enclose $2 for a sample issue.

Grand Circle Travel, which sells only to mature travelers, is offering a two-week “Yugoslavia Explorer” tour that features a three-day stay in Medjugorje.

The small village has been of interest to many travelers since 1981, when the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared before a group of schoolchildren.

From $1,779 per person, double occupancy, from the West Coast, with departures now through October, the escorted tours also include Belgrade, Sarajevo, Mostar, Dubrovnik, Split, Opatija and Zagreb. All breakfasts and dinners are included.

For more information on this or other Grand Circle Yugoslav tours or extended vacations, contact the Boston-based company’s California office toll-free at (800) 327-3904.

Arthritis is not limited to mature travelers, but statistics show that mature bones do act up more often and can be especially troublesome on long flights or coach trips.

A free 32-page booklet, “Travel Tips for People With Arthritis,” provides some relief by listing simple exercises, stretching tips and other suggestions. It is available by writing to Arthritis Foundation, P.O. Box 19000, Atlanta, Ga. 30326.

Vagabond Inns has revamped its Club 55 program, dropping its $10 membership and renewal fee and maintaining the 10% discount off normal rates.

The company has added a four-for-one rate for Club 55 members, which allows four people to stay for a single rate.

New Club 55 members get $10 in coupons, usable against the first night’s stay, and a quarterly newsletter that offers additional senior deals and travel tips. More information is available at any Vagabond Inn or by calling toll-free (800) 522-1555.

The Friendship Force is a national nonprofit organization that fosters world peace and understanding through travel. Although it sponsors modestly priced trips and mature travelers take its tours, its trips are not limited to mature travelers.

Friendship Force plans a July 19-27 trip to Hungary. Called the “Budapest Festival,” it will be the first festival of friendship in Eastern Europe.

The fee is $495 per person, double occupancy, including five nights at the Ramada Grand in Budapest, nine meals, excursions and special Friendship Force programs. Air fare, about $1,249 from the West Coast, is not included.

After the Budapest visit, tour members will disperse to three- and four-day stays across Hungary or Czechoslovakia, where they will be hosted by local families.

For more information on the “Budapest Festival” tour, the Friendship Force and other similar tours coming up, call (619) 287-2308.