Galilee • Capernaum • Nazareth • Bethlehem • Jerusalem • Lourdes • Fatima • & more...
12 days - Our price includes flight from your hometown and exclusively 4 or 5 star hotels everywhere
Scroll down to view the itinerary; click on the trip date to book your trip online.
There are no trip dates scheduled at this time.
Trip Includes
- A Catholic priest will be with the group to celebrate daily Mass.
- Round-trip airfare from your hometown connecting in a major city to fly overseas is included.
- Airport Taxes, Security Fees, and Fuel Surcharges!
- Mostly 5-Star Hotels, sometimes 4-Star Hotels.
- All breakfasts and all dinners. Wine is included with all dinners.
- Transportation with luxury bus.
- All entrance fees to all the sites.
- All tips to everyone involved in the tour.
- The tour fees for our guides. Our tour guides are well educated, caring, and professional. Most of them have their PhD's in Church history, archeology, philosophy, languages, or Theology.
- Luggage handling. Please pack light, one piece of luggage and one carry-on.
- Dress casually throughout the whole trip. Shoulders and knees should be covered when visiting Basilicas or churches.
- If you are traveling alone and you allow us to find you a roommate, you don't pay the single supplement. If you wish to have your own room and you are not open to rooming with another passenger, then the single supplement fee is $900.
- Wheelchair can be provided for those passengers who cannot walk, with prior notice at registration for $150. A traveling companion has to push the wheelchair throughout the trip.
- NOTE: If you wish to deepen your knowledge of the Catholic Faith as a preparation for this pilgrimage, we recommend the following book as it is faithful to the teachings of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church (Imprimatur by ARCHBISHOP FELIPE AGUIRRE FRANCO): The Catholic Faith in Easy Terms. Introduction, Nihil Obstat, and Imprimatur by Archbishop Felipe Aguirre Franco.
- At the time of registration, as a part of the total balance, a non-refundable $500 deposit is due in the form of a credit card. For example, if your trip costs $3,700, when you sign up, you pay a $500 deposit, then your balance would be $3,200. Final balance is due 4 months before departure date.
- 1 month after registration, a $1,000 additional deposit is due only in the form of cash, personal check, cashiers check, or money order.
- If you sign up after the final payment due date or at the last minute, you pay the entire cost of the trip at registration only in the form of cash, personal check, cashiers check, or money order.
Trip Does Not Include
- Lunch
- Insurance ~ The total trip cost is non-refundable, we recommend trip insurance to protect your investment.
Trip Itinerary
Day 1 You will depart from your hometown airport in the United States.
Day 2: Our tour guides will meet us at the airport when we land in Tel Aviv, and our bus will take us to the hotel where we will get checked in. Once you get settled into your hotel room, we will have a brief orientation meeting. Then, unless we were on a late flight and had dinner on the plane, we will enjoy our first Israeli dinner before retiring for the night. We will stay overnight in Tiberias, Galilee.
Day 3: We will start the morning with breakfast at the hotel, followed by a cruise across the Sea of Galilee from Tiberias to Capernaum, the town where Jesus carried out the major part of His Ministry. It was here that Jesus told Peter and Andrew "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men (Matthew 4:12-22), and He made the promise of the Eucharist (John 6:22-71). We will visit the excavations and St. Peter's Church before we continue to visit the Church of the Primacy of St. Peter (John 21:1-14). Then we will move on to Tabgha, the site where Christ fed the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish (John 6:1-13). Finally, we will proceed to the Mount of Beatitudes which commemorates the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-12). After lunch we will drive to Cana of Galilee. Our first stop will be the Franciscan Church of the Wedding Feast. It was here that Jesus performed his first miracle, turning the water in to wine (John 2: 1-11). Here you will have the opportunity to renew your Marriage vows. (If you would like to do this please let us know before your trip departs, so our guides can be informed ahead of time.) Then we will end our tour for the day in Nazareth where Jesus grew up. It was also here that the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was to bear the Son of God (Luke 1:26-38), commemorated by a visit to the Basilica of the Annunciation. You can relax and enjoy the scenery as our bus returns us to our hotel for dinner in Tiberias, Galilee.
Day 4: After breakfast we will check out of the hotel and drive down through the Jordan Valley to the Jordan River. There we will go to the tourist Place of Baptism where you will have an opportunity to renew your Baptismal vows if desired. Our next stop will be to the oldest city in the world, Jericho, to view the Old City and the Mount of Temptation on which our Lord was tempted 40 days and 40 nights (Matt. 4:1-11). While in Jericho we will also see Zacchaeus' tree (Luke 19:1-10). Then we will leave Jericho and proceed to Qumran, the ruins of the ancient Essene settlement in whose nearby caves the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered.We continue our drive on up through the Judean Wilderness to Jerusalem, and take a first glimpse of the city from the heights of Mt. Scopus. We will check into our hotel, and enjoy another delicious dinner in Jerusalem.
Day 5: This morning, after breakfast at the hotel, our pilgrimage will take us to the Mount of Olives, and the Church of the Ascension (Luke 24:50-53) before we descend, by foot, to the Pater Noster Church. It commemorates Jesus' teaching His disciples the Lord's Prayer (Matt. 6:9-11). This is followed by a walk down the ‘Palm Sunday road’ to the church where Jesus wept over the City of Jerusalem and foretold its destruction (Luke 19:41-44), Dominus Flevit. Our next stop will be a visit the Garden of the Gethsemane, the scene of Jesus' agony, betrayal and arrest (Luke 22:22-54). Here we will see the church of Mary Magdalene. Nearby is the Church of All Nations; it contains the rock where Jesus is believed to have prayed before His betrayal and arrest. Next we will drive to Mount Zion where we will visit the Upper Room, the site of the last supper (Luke 22:7-22). Then we will continue on to visit the Dormition Abbey, its name meaning eternal sleep, which is built over the site where the Virgin Mary was laid to rest. Before lunch we visit the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu, built over the site of the house of the High Priest Caiaphas and the dungeon where Our Lord was imprisoned before his trial. It is also here that Peter denied knowing Jesus three times (Luke 22: 54-62). After lunch we will have a short drive to Bethlehem and see the Basilica of the Nativity and the Grotto, venerated as the birthplace of Jesus (Luke 2:1-7). While in Bethlehem, we will also visit the Church of St. Catherine, the Crusaders' Cloister, the Chapel of St. Jerome, who translated the Bible from Greek to Latin as he lived next to the manager of Jesus; and the Grotto of the Holy Innocents, which commemorates the death of the children by Herod in his attempt to kill the Christ child (Matt. 2:16-18). We will round out our day with a visit the Shepherd's Fields (Luke 2:8-20), before returning to our hotel, for dinner and a restful night in Jerusalem.
Day 6: This will be our last day in Jerusalem. After a hearty breakfast at the hotel, we will drive to St. Steven's gate where we will enter the Old City. Our tour this morning will start at the Crusaders' Church of St. Anne and the nearby Pool of Bethesda where Jesus healed the paralytic (John 5:2-9). From there we will continue to the Tower of Antonia, where Jesus was tried, and the Church of the Flagellation. This marks the beginning of the Via Dolorosa, the Stations of the Cross, which ends inside the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher. After lunch in the area, we will visit the last standing remnant of the ancient Temple at the Western Wailing Wall, followed by a drive to Ein Karem, home of St. Elizabeth, and mother of John the Baptist. While in Ein Karem we will visit the Church of the Visitation (Matt 1:39-45) and the Church of St. John the Baptist. We will then return for a farewell dinner and one last night in the hotel in Jerusalem.
Day 7: Today will be a travel day. Our private bus will take us to the airport in Tel Aviv for our departing flight. Upon arrival, our local tour guide will meet us at the airport and we will take a luxury motor coach to the hotel. After checking in, we will enjoy dinner at the hotel and may have the opportunity to participate in the Rosary Candlelight Procession at the Shrine. The procession is a seasonal event and may not take place during some tours. After the procession, or dinner if there is no procession, we will retire for the night.
Day 8: This morning, after breakfast at the hotel, we will start the day by celebrating Mass at the Grotto of Apparitions. This will be followed by a guided walking tour of Lourdes visiting places associated with St. Bernadette's life. This tour is helpful in understanding the 1858 Apparition. Lunch will be on your own at one of the many cafes in the village or area of the hotel. In the afternoon you are free to visit the Grotto, the underground Basilica, the high or low Stations of the Cross, or the Miraculous Baths. We will gather for our evening dinner that includes red and white wine, then have the opportunity to attend the evening Candlelight Rosary Procession, if available. This will be our final night in Lourdes.
Day 9 Full day in Lourdes. Dinner and overnight in Lourdes.
Day 10: Fly to Lisbon, Portugal. Upon arrival in Lisbon, our local tour guide will meet us at the airport. If our flight arrives early enough, we will take a bus tour of Lisbon on our private tour bus, before traveling to Fatima. On the way to Fatima, visit Santarem, one of the oldest cities in the world. Our tour will include a walk through the narrow streets and a visit to the Church of St. Stephen, which contains the oldest recorded Eucharistic miracle. This miracle has been on display since 1247 AD. We will then enjoy another delicious dinner complete with red and white wine and spend the night in Fatima.
Day 11: Today will be a full day in Fatima. After breakfast, we will start off the day by going to Mass at the Little Chapel of the Apparitions. You will see the Basilica, the site of Francesco and Jacinta's graves, the Hamlet of Aljustrel, where the children lived, and Valinhos, the site of Our Lady's appearance after the children's return from prison. Experience Christ's love as you walk and follow the Stations of the Cross along the Via Sacra (The Sacred Way) culminating in the Chapel of Calvary, which overlooks all of Fatima. Join pilgrims from around the world in an evening candlelight procession to pray the rosary for the sick and drink water from the miraculous well. The day will include plenty of time for private devotions before our farewell dinner with red and white wine and our last night in Fatima.
Day 12: Today we will return home to the United States. We will need to get an early start so our private bus can take us to the airport in Lisbon in time for our departing flight.