Tours That Emphasize Sightseeing : A ‘Stay-Put’ vacation features day trips from a hotel in Washington, New York or another city.

“Stay-Put” tours, offered by Monrovia-based Corliss Tours, are closely related to the extended-stay vacation packages profiled recently in this column. The main advantage of both is the concept of staying in one hotel, thus avoiding the hassles of constantly unpacking and repacking luggage.

The trips are eight-day “hub-and-spoke” tours to one major U.S. or Canadian city. These are not do-it-yourself trips like most extended stays. They are fully escorted, with in-depth programs of city sightseeing and motor-coach day trips to explore the surrounding countryside.

Corliss, which caters chiefly to the mature market, both in senior groups and individuals, has a dozen destinations for 1993, its seventh year of offering the tours.

Cities visited include Atlanta, Orlando, Philadelphia, New Orleans, New York, San Antonio, Seattle, Washington, Calgary, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Most have at least two departure dates.

The Washington tour, for example, includes capital sightseeing and three excursions, on different days, to Gettysburg, Pa.; Baltimore and Annapolis, Md., and Fredericksburg, Va. The Orlando Stay-Put Tour includes visits to Walt Disney World and Epcot Center, and day excursions to the Kennedy Space Center, Cypress Gardens and St. Augustine.

Prices for the Saturday-to-Saturday trips range from $875 for Orlando to $1,025 for New York. Average price for the other trips is $965. All per person, double occupancy.

Included in the tours are first-class hotels, transfers, complete sightseeing programs and from three to five meals. Air fare is not included, but is arranged according to the traveler’s preference of seating class.

For more information, call Corliss Tours at (800) 456-5717 or (818) 359-5358.

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Historic Tours of America a specialist in senior travel, has put together a five-day package for its Baseball Legends Cruise on the riverboat Mississippi Queen.

Set for Aug. 26-31, the cruise features Baseball Hall of Famers Stan Musial, Enos Slaughter and Bob Feller, who will be aboard the riverboat from St. Louis to Cincinnati. All three will participate in free autograph sessions, plus question-and-answer seminars. There will also be a memorabilia show, trivia contests and baseball movies.

The Huntington Beach-based tour company’s baseball excursion includes round-trip air (Los Angeles to St. Louis, Cincinnati to Los Angeles), transfers, all meals and other entertainment on the Mississippi Queen. Rates begin at $938 per person, double, for an inside stateroom, and $1,328 for an outside stateroom.

For more information, contact Historic Tours of America, 16142 Woodstock Lane, Huntington Beach 92647, (714) 846-6446.

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The China Connection tour company, which is based in Hawaii and for seven years has operated tours to the People’s Republic of China, is offering a different kind of senior discount in cooperation with the China International Travel Service of Tianjin.

Mature travelers age 50 and over receive a basic discount of $50 plus one dollar for each year over 50. For those age 70 and older, there is a basic discount of $90 plus $2 for every year past age 70. All of the discounts are applied to China Connection tours.

The tours, while not specifically designed for mature travelers, are operated at an “unhurried pace, fully escorted by both American and Chinese guides and limited to just 25 people,” says Hans G. Kolb, general manager of China Connection.

A 22-day spring tour, April 12-May 3, costs $3,395 per person, double, including round-trip air from Los Angeles. A four-day Yangtze River tour is an optional $600 per person, double. There are four other spring or fall departures.

For more information, see your travel agent or contact China Connection, Enchanted Lake Plaza, 1051 Keolu Drive, No. 242, Kailua, Hawaii 96734, (800) 942-4462.