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You can create a variety of map types from data in an Excel file. How you do it depends on what type of data you have and the type of map you want to create.

XYZ data
If your data file has XYZ data and you would like to create a contour map, or other map type, go to Grid | Data, select the data file and click Open. In the Grid Data dialog, select the gridding options you want (or accept the defaults) and click OK. That will create a grid file from your data. You can use this grid file to create maps. For example, go to Map | New | Contour Map (or whichever map type you want to create), select the grid file and click Open. The map is created. Select the map layer in the Object Manager and edit the properties of the map in the Property Manager.

XY data
If the Excel file contains point data (each XY coordinate pair in the data file is an individual point), I suggest you use the Map | New | Post Map or Classed Post Map, select your data file and click Open. A post map is created. You can label the point with another column in the data file if you wish. Select the post map layer in the Object Manager and edit the properties of the map in the Property Manager.

XY data for polylines/polygons
If the Excel file contains the XY coordinates of polylines or polygons and you want to load the data as a base map, I suggest you convert the Excel file to BLN format. The BLN file format is a simple ASCII data file, consisting of a one line header followed by point data.

Open the XLS file in the Surfer worksheet, include a one-line header at the top with the number of vertices in the polyline/polygon. If the points define a polygon, be sure the first and last set of coordinates are exactly the same. You can have multiple polylines/polygons defined in one file, as long as each has its own header line. Example:

5      <-- start of polygon
0,0
1,0
1,1
0,1
0,0
2      <-- start of polyline
0,0
1,1

Go to File | Save As and save as a BLN file. You can then go to Map | New | Base Map and load the BLN file as a base map.