Barcelona • Zaragoza • Shrine of Montserrat • Navarre • Madrid • Avila • Toledo • Santiago de Compostela • El Camino
12 days - Our price includes flight from your hometown and exclusively 4 or 5 star hotels everywhere
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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. If your city has a direct flight to your destination, we will guarantee a direct flight as long as it is available.
- Airport Taxes, Security Fees, and Fuel Surcharges!
- Exclusively 4 or 5 star hotels in downtown areas.
- 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.
- We limit our group to a maximum of 24 passengers, unless the priest on the trip requests a larger group. Small groups with a 5 star service in 4/5 star hotels.
- If you are traveling alone and you allow us to find you a roommate, you don't pay the $900 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.
- Taxi and wheelchair can be provided gratis for those passengers who cannot walk, with prior notice at registration. A traveling companion has to push the wheelchair throughout the trip.
- At the time of registration, as a part of the total balance, a non-refundable $500 (hotel and airfare 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 and is due 4 months before departure date. 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.
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: Depart the USA for Barcelona, Spain
Day 2: Upon arrival, you will be greeted by our tour guide. Travel to the hotel, check in, rest, with some free time to refresh before Mass. Dinner and overnight in Barcelona.
Day 3: After breakfast, we will enjoy a tour of Barcelona including: panoramic views of the Harbor area, Montjuic, Plaza de Espana, and Plaza de Catalunya. Afterwards, continue on a guided walk through the Gothic Quarter to visit the cathedral and to view Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, a beautiful, unfinished Roman Catholic Basilica of impressive proportions. Spend the afternoon at leisure exploring the colorful markets of Las Ramblas. Dinner and overnight in Barcelona.
Day 4: After breakfast, we make our way to Montserrat, home to the dramatically set Benedictine monastery. On a rugged mountainside, we will visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat. Since the 12th-century, pilgrims have been drawn to the mountain to venerate the miraculous statue of the Black Madonna. According to Catholic tradition, the statue of the Black Virgin of Montserrat was carved by St. Luke around 50 AD and brought to Spain. It was later hidden from the Moors in a cave, where it was rediscovered by shepherds in 880 AD. They saw a bright light and heard heavenly music that eventually led them to the grotto and the statue. The Bishop of Manresa, present at the discovery, suggested that it be moved to Manresa, but the small statue was discovered to be so heavy it could not be lifted. Thus the Virgin had indicated her will to stay on Montserrat to be venerated there. In the 11th century, the abbot-bishop Oliba founded a monastery on the mountain of Montserrat next to one of the chapels, where the Benedictine Abbey is still preserved. Return to Barcelona for dinner and overnight.
Day 5: After breakfast, we will depart towards Zaragoza where we will visit the magnificent Basilica del Pilar, built in the place where our Lady appeared to Saint James. Tradition says that in the early day of the Church, Saint James the Great was spreading the Gospel in Spain, but making very little progress. He was dejected and questioning his mission. About 44 AD, the Virgin Mary, who was still living in Jerusalem at the time, bi-located and appeared to him in a vision to boost his morale. In it, she was atop a column or pillar, which was being carried by angels. That pillar is believed to be the same one venerated inside the Basilica. We will also visit the Cathedral of Zaragoza and we will do a walking tour of the city. Dinner and overnight in Zaragoza.
Day 6: After breakfast we will depart for Navarre where we will have a tour of the city and see the sites associated with the life of St. Francis Xavier. In the afternoon depart for dinner and overnight in Madrid.
Day 7: After breakfast, we will enjoy a tour of Madrid including the Royal Palace and Plaza Mayor. We then depart for Toledo which sits on a rocky mound isolated on three sides by a looping gorge of the Rio Tajo. Every available inch of this outcrop has churches, synagogues, mosques and houses heaped upon one another in a haphazard spiral, which the cobbled lanes infiltrate as best they can. Toledo is known as the City of the Three Religions or Cultures because for many centuries the Christians, the Moors, and the Jews lived together in relative equality and peace. The city surrounded by walls hides great treasured: its awesome Cathedral, the church of Santo Tome, the Transito Synagogue, Santa Maria La Blanca Synagogue, the superb church of San Juan de los Reyes, Puerta de Bisagras, Puerta del Cambron, Puerta del Sol, visit the location where St. John of the Cross was imprisoned, and more. Dinner and overnight in Madrid.
Day 8: After breakfast at the hotel we will depart for Avila to have a tour of the city. See sites associated with the life of St. Teresa: The Four Posts, Church of San Pedro at the Plaza de Santa Teresa, and the Convento de Santa Teresa. Return for dinner and overnight in Madrid.
Day 9: Enjoy a free morning in Madrid before we fly to Santiago de Compostela. Dinner and overnight in Santiago de Compostela.
Day 10: Full day tour in Santiago de Compostela. Dinner and overnight in Santiago de Compostela.
Day 11: After breakfast, join the walking pilgrims at the Monte del Gozo from which the spires of the Cathedral are first visible. We will walk little bit on El Camino arriving at the Cathedral, the destination we have been yearning to reach. We will attend the International Pilgrim Mass at the Cathedral of St. James, one of the finest examples of architecture in all of Europe. Tradition invites us to perform some rites. The most important and meaningful one is the hug to the Saint, go under the main altar and visit the crypt where the relics of St. James are preserved. In the afternoon we will visit to the city of Santiago to see: Obradoiro Square, Fonseca Palace, Gelmirez Palace, Franco Street, etc. Dinner and overnight in Santiago de Compostela.
Day 12: Return flight from Santiago de Compostela back to the USA.