Tour Company Specializes in Choice : Golden Tours organizes both domestic and foreign trips, and also books them for other groups.

Alhambra-based Golden Tours is not your typical senior travel organization.

Now in its 25th year, the nonprofit company serves travelers in a variety of ways. Besides offering a wide selection of escorted tours, it also serves as a clearinghouse for other travel tours and cruises--i.e., it serves as a booking agent for seniors who may not belong to a senior club or organization that offers its own trips. The organization also reaches a wider audience these days, having gradually lowered its minimum-age requirement for membership from 65 to 50.

Golden Tours does have one major limitation, however. Many of its motor-coach trips, especially the day excursions, have only two passenger pickup points: Alhambra and Pasadena. That can be a disadvantage for those living some distance away.

Membership now costs $5 a year for single travelers (or for any two people at one address, so long as at least one is 50 or over).

Golden Tours provides a monthly brochure listing its own tours, along with the basic details of longer trips and cruises offered by such senior tour suppliers as Trieloff Tours, Westward Travel, Corliss Tours and others.

Golden Tours’ many day trips include motor-coach tours to places such as the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, Tibbie’s Music Hall in Newport Beach, and dinner theaters and other entertainment sites. There are also loads of “turnaround” trips to Las Vegas and Laughlin, Nev., as well as overnight or longer gaming trips. (Again, these are best for those with easy access to the Alhambra and Pasadena pickup points.)

Among offerings by Golden Tours that you might not find elsewhere is its 15-day “Jewels of the Pacific Coast,” a motor-coach tour departing July 5 for $1,250 per person, double occupancy. This trip reaches Victoria, British Columbia, with dozens of stops along the way at various shopping and dining spots, including San Francisco.

Another popular tour is to the Canadian Rockies, highlighted by a stay at the Chateau Isabella near Cardston, Alberta. This 13-day excursion includes all meals and extensive sightseeing, with stops in Calgary, Banff and Jasper, in addition to the Chateau Isabella. Price is $1,660 per person, double, including air fare. The June 13 trip is sold out, but another is offered Aug. 17.

There’s also the “I Always Wanted to See Australia” tour, offered in cooperation with Uniglobe Tilral Travel and Qantas Airways. It’s a 15-day all-inclusive tour for $2,790 per person, double.

In addition to the many escorted tours offered by its suppliers and listed in the monthly brochure, Golden Tours also operates its own American Rockies tour.

This 13-day, all-motor-coach tour stops at Yellowstone National Park, the Black Hills including the Badlands and Mt. Rushmore, the Grand Tetons, Denver, Colorado Springs and the Air Force Academy, among other places. It runs $896 per person, double, and departs Aug. 31.

Golden Tours is aware that there are many mature travelers wanting to take trips but not wanting to pay the single-supplement fee. So it makes an effort to match roommates.

The company now has about 5,000 members subscribing to its monthly listings. Of course, you can get many of Golden Tours’ listings for free directly from its regular suppliers. But for $5 a year, subscribers get a fairly wide scope of what’s being offered to mature travelers every month.

For more information, contact Golden Tours, Box 1070, Alhambra 91802, (213) 283-7876 or (818) 289-6271.