Netherlands Will Host ‘World’s Fair of Flowers’

At least two senior-oriented tour companies are offering packages this spring to Floriade, the unofficial “world’s fair of flowers and gardens” held in the Netherlands every 10 years.

Floriade will take place April 11 to Oct. 10 in the small town of Zoetermeer, which is about a 15-minute drive east of The Hague, about 30 miles southwest of Amsterdam. There will be ample public transportation available to take visitors to Floriade.

Considered the world’s top flower show, Floriade brings together horticultural specialists and flower displays from around the world. There are international themed pavilions, reconstructed famous gardens and international floral displays.

Gadabout Tours of Palm Springs, a senior specialist, is offering two 15-day tours to Floriade, departing April 15 and May 5. Besides Floriade, the tours coincide with tulip time in the Netherlands, which lasts from late March to late May.

Gadabout’s tours feature trips to Floriade during a six-night stay in Amsterdam. There is additional sightseeing for seven days in the southern Netherlands. Among the other attractions are a visit to a flower auction and Keukenhof Gardens, city tours of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, as well as side excursions into neighboring Luxembourg, Belgium and Germany.

There are only two hotel stops on the tours, which include round-trip air fare from Los Angeles on KLM, plus all breakfasts and dinners. Price is $2,374 per person, double occupancy; add $281 for singles.

While Gadabout’s tour is specifically centered on Floriade and spends more time at the event, other tour companies also include the floral show on 1992 Europe tours.

AARP Travel Experience Tours, operated by American Express, features a day at Floriade on its series of 12-day escorted tours to Paris and the Benelux region. These trips also include more sightseeing in the Netherlands and The Hague, plus Brussels, Ghent, Bastogne and Brugge in Belgium, and a side tour to Luxembourg before ending with two nights in Paris. There are eight departures, starting April 21; last departure leaves Sept. 8. Prices begin at $1,890 per person, double occupancy, for the April and May departures, $2,032 for all others.

Price includes round-trip air from Los Angeles via KLM, 10 nights in first-class hotels, 13 meals and motor-coach travel and city sightseeing in Europe.

AARP also has a 10-day Amsterdam/London package trip that includes time in Amsterdam but no organized tour or transportation to the Floriade site in Zoetermeer. However, as mentioned before, there will be plenty of public transportation available. Monthly departures from New York, May to September, at $1,407 per person, double.

The AARP tour, as with any AARP tour for 1992, can be purchased now from any travel agency. For more information, call (800) 927-0111.

For a flower display closer to home, Gadabout also offers mature travelers a chance to see the cherry blossoms in bloom in Washington, D.C. This 10-day tour departs April 22. As most seniors seem to prefer, this is a one-hotel tour, with accommodations in Washington and side trips to Annapolis and the Naval Academy, Mt. Vernon, Baltimore and Fredericksburg.

In keeping with the flower theme, there’s also a side trip to Woodlawn Plantation in Mt. Vernon during Historic Garden Week in Virginia, April 18-26. The Gadabout tour is priced at $1,792 per person, double, with a $435 single supplement, and includes round-trip air fare from Los Angeles.

For more information on either Gadabout trip, contact your travel agent or Gadabout Tours, 700 E. Tahquitz Canyon, Palm Springs 92262, (800) 952-5068 or (619) 325-5556.

Western Inns, which operates several small inns within California, has a “ 1/2 Off” bargain for mature travelers through the month of January.

The offer is good Sunday through Friday at the following hotels: The SeaVenture, Seawall and Knights Rest in Pismo Beach, Mariposa Inn and San Carlos Inn in Monterey and the Comfort Inn in Santa Cruz.

For more information call Western Inns at (805) 489-2053.

Choice Hotels International has announced that it will extend a 30% discount to World War II veterans when they stay at one of the chain’s Comfort, Quality, Clarion, Sleep, Econo Lodge, Rodeway or Friendship hotels.

“It’s Choice’s way of letting these men and women, who helped shape our history, know they are still appreciated,” wrote marketing director Bill Todd.

What Todd did not note was that 30% is Choice’s regular discount to members of AARP or mature travelers 60 and older.