Tour Company Gives Seniors a Lift : Orange County group is offering trips to the redwoods and East Coast this year.

Southern California’s mature travelers are courted and coddled by scores of tour operators and travel companies competing for their group trips and individual travel plans. The strong competition makes for well-priced tours and good service.

Twenty-four such tour companies are members of the Senior Travel and Recreation Activities Council, a 10-year-old organization that caters strictly to mature travelers.

Among STRAC’s newest tour companies is Brea-based Fitzgerald Tours. Owner Kevin Fitzgerald is no stranger to Southern California seniors, having worked with many senior clubs and organizations in the area while selling tours for a major national tour company.

Fitzgerald has already booked more than 140 tour groups this year for his senior tours and cruises, and has opened his program to individual mature travelers who enjoy group tours.

Some of Fitzgerald’s 1992 tours include:

--”Rivers, Railroads & Redwoods,” a seven-day escorted motor-coach tour that starts from Los Angeles and takes in Sacramento, San Francisco, Ft. Bragg and the Skunk Train and Reno, staying at Bally’s Casino Resort.

The price of $699 per person, double occupancy, includes first-class or deluxe hotels, eight meals, sightseeing, Sacramento River cruise and Bally’s Revue Show, plus tips, transfers and taxes. There are two departures per month, starting May 2 and 16 and running through Oct. 3 and 10.

--”American Heritage Tour,” an 11-day air and motor-coach tour from Los Angeles that takes in Boston, Cape Cod and the Plimoth Plantation; New York City; Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Dutch country, Gettysburg and Hershey, Pa.; Williamsburg, Va., and Washington, D.C.

The tour costs $1,499 per person, double occupancy, and includes first-class hotels, 12 meals, extensive sightseeing, taxes, transfers and tips. Departure dates: Sept. 25, Oct. 2, 9, 16 and 23.

Other trips include a nine-day air and motor-coach tour of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, priced at $1,399 for two fall departures, and a “Southern Sensation” tour of Georgia and Florida that includes Disney World and Epcot, plus a stop at Georgia’s Jekyll Island and overnight at the Radisson Jekyll Island Club Hotel--once the vacation home of some of America’s richest families. The Southern tour is priced at $1,599 per person, double, for an April 4 departure.

For more information, contact Fitzgerald Tours, 590 W. Central Ave., Suite B, Brea 92621, (800) 266-9992 or (714) 529-4510.

For a list of the STRAC tour and travel companies specializing in mature tours and travel, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to STRAC, P.O. Box 1417, Redondo Beach 90278.

CIE Tours, of Morristown, N.J., is offering “55 ‘n Smiling” discounts on 20 vacation choices, including $75 off per person on any of nine departures for the company’s 13-day escorted tours of coastal Ireland.

The “Irish Tradition” tour, priced at $1,749 from the East Coast, has regular departures starting April 11 and continuing through Oct. 10.

Conducted at a leisurely pace with four two- or three-night stops, the itinerary offers many “meet-the-people” experiences, plus full Irish breakfast daily, nine dinners and first-class hotels.

For more information, see your travel agent or call CIE Tours at (800) 243-8687.

The Rosarito Beach Hotel, half an hour south of Tijuana on Mexico’s Baja Coast, is offering a “Time of Your Life Years” program for mature travelers that includes a 20% room discount through June 18. The hotel defines mature as anyone 40 or older.

Discounted rates begin at about $22 a night per person, double, Monday through Thursday, and about $10 higher on weekends. You must specify the “Time of Your Life Years” program when making reservations.

For more information, call the booking office of the Rosarito Beach Hotel at (800) 343-8582.