Danielle,

Thank you and 206 Tours for by far the Best trip we have ever taken. The incredible organization, both before, during .. and even to the very end was far above par.

We had the privilege of having the best tour guide in existence!! Yuseff was the kindest, the most patient, the most organized and by far the most intelligent person we have ever had to guide us . He could answer any question with expertise and he went beyond the norm by quoting the Bible to show us the connection between the old testament and the new testament while visiting the particular historical spots. He also had the best smile in the world! From the bottom of our hearts , we thank him for helping to us to deepen our faith.

We were very fortunate to have a small group. We thoroughly enjoyed each orher and became good friends.

Father Brian, with his quiet presence and strong faith enhanced our visits to the incredible areas where Jesus walked . His daily Mass was something we will never forget. Thank you Father for sharing your faith with us. As you can see, we surely consider 206 Tours the very Best Company we have ever used.

Ed and Rita

To all the team members , coordinators of 206 Tours—I would like to express our sincere gratitude for the wonderful pilgrimage we had at Tour 8, Lourdes, France and Paris. This was our first pilgrimage and it was better than I expected. We felt safe and well taken cared of. Our drivers and tour guides especially Quico were very pleasant , professional and simply the best. We hope to plan more tours in the near future and even recommended your company to our friends. God bless!

Sincerely,

Arestel and Myra Dy

Thank you for such an inspiring and enriching tour. Our guide Youssef was amazing and a special asset for your company.Thank you for sharing him with us and have a blessed and wonderful Merry Christmas!!

Gratefully,

Ed and Rita Slattery

We are extremely grateful that we picked your tour over others, our first time to Holy Land! Firstly, the we only imagined the places we went to see and touched, it became so real, tears of joy, unbelievable experience, secondly our beloved tour guide , Josef; he is one of a kind; very passionate about his work, very professional, kind, highly educated, we noticed he is the only one reading from the Bible chapters directly related to the sites, it makes it more intense for me and my husband, Josef comes highly recommended, we are really blessed to have met him, enjoyed every moment with him, we pray that he will work with your company as long as he can, he is your biggest asset as far as me and my husband are concerned;  thirdly, we appreciate so much how you schedule the time to visit all the awesome,biblical places, even if we wake up at 2:30am once, was worth every second, we had the place to ourselves, none of the big group came, no lines to squeeze in , overall me and my husband, the tour exceeded our expectations, we are planning for another pilgrimage next year, so we hope it will equal if not exceed this experience we just had, we received the straps for the small bag that came with the backpack, 206 Tours is very reliable and also highly recommended to our relatives and friends, we appreciate all of you, God Bless you all, wish you a very blessed and safe Holidays, We will keep these memories forever, this was our ultimate vacation for lifetime 🙏❤️

Thank you all 206 Tours!

Federico and Estrella Dadag

There are no words to say about our trip, It was so beautiful and rewarding to be there, in all the places Jesus had been.

Father Eric and father Fernando’s were really helpful and they gave us the opportunity to practice our adoration under their care and guidance that we felt in many places the existence of our lord in our hearts and our souls. They were really great.

Our tour director Fadi Saba was also excellent, he really knew what to do, where to go, and all the places, he described the old events and the new events perfectly. He told us the true stories for each city we visited .  He made the trip for us, to get closer to god. He provided excellent  services to all pilgrims. We were so lucky to have him in our tour.
Bus driver was great also, do not know how he can drive that bus on so many narrow streets, but he did it and was good.

I am glad we went with your company. Can say enough about it.

Thank you again for all the nice goodies sent from your company for our trip love the hat, and the bag is the best for everything. Rosaries, and a nice olive wood cross made the trip so special.

Hotels were very nice, clean and comfortable. The food in every hotel was very good. All of the restaurants had such nice lunches for us. There was nothing I can say that would be a negative at all. Your tour company know it stuff. And we are thankful for such a nice one.

God be with you,

Yasra Adowar

It has been a few weeks since Karyn and I returned from our trip to France, Italy, and Medjugorje.  We could not have been more pleased with how things went.  Our tour guides were exceptional, hotels were wonderful, and the many places that we went will give us memories to cherish for many years to come.

Thanks for all your help in getting us scheduled for this trip through many challenging changes.  We really appreciate it.

Elaine Goth

Dear 206 Team,
I give thanks to God for your wonderful company. I experienced the Shrines of Italy tour for ten days and it is amazing to look back and see all that was covered.
Christina our tour guide was always available for any concern and was totally hospitable to everyone. Personally I felt very taken care of.
And daily Mass said at these sacred sites with Father Robert is why I travel with 206.
God bless all 206 employees who worked behind the scenes to make this tour possible for me. May God richly reward you.

Sincerely,
Patricia Lynch

Hi Danielle,

The pilgrimage was great!! Every part of our journey was fabulous. All travel arrangements were perfect. Hotels and food excellent. Food exceptional at all locations. And what can we say about Dr. Sammy? The best! So intelligent and a biblical scholar but he made all understandable. And that which was too deep, will catch it next time. The tour was packed, but at a steady pace. We just can’t stop raving about the pilgrimage. Our bus driver was so patient with us and tolerated our loudness and goofiness. Deacon Matt, Lisa, Father Dave all wonderful too. Beyond wonderful. Thankful for Clark and his daily Bible studies, just enough, but not too intense. Thank you too, Danielle for your patience in answering all our questions, concerns, fears. Lord-willing, there just may be another 206 Tour in our future. Not only a spiritual mountaintop experience but the fun and new found friendships, priceless.

Thanks so much and God Bless

Paul and Sherri Hernandez

Dear Cara,

Our Association of the Miraculous Medal Pilgrimage to Jordan and the Holy Land was a deeply spiritual experience.

Fadi Haddad is an amazing guide who opened my eyes and mind to the Biblical and Christian sites in Jordan. I should have realized that many important events happened across the Jordan River in Old Testament times, in New Testament times, and in the early Christian era. Celebrating Mass in Fadi’s parish church, the Church of the Martyrs of Jordan, was moving as we recalled the passion of St. John the Baptist and the birth into heaven of several early Christians who died for their faith in what is now Jordan. It was a privilege to celebrate Mass at the altar of this church, the same altar at which Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass in 2009 when it moved to Amman International Stadium for the Holy Father’s Mass with the people of Jordan. We all loved the visit to Petra and learned that quite possibly St. Paul spent time in the city after his conversion on the road to Damascus. Mass at Mt. Nebo in the Basilica dedicated to St. Moses was also a rewarding experience, as was the visit to Jerash where we visited several of the excavated churches that were home to the many Christians who lived in this important city of the latter 1^st and early 2^nd centuries. Muhammed, our driver, was gracious and competent. Though not fluent in English, he made us feel very welcome. He provided us with a different local cookie each day. We came to realize that Jordan should also be considered part of the Holy Land.

Ater crossing into Israel, we met the rest of our fellow pilgrims in Tel Aviv. We also met Michel Farraj, another wonderful guide whose knowledge of the Holy Land and his ability to bring the Biblical places and events alive is extraordinary. Both Michel and Amer Kawasmi, our driver, made us feel that we were family members. Amer welcomed us on board with water and chocolate almost every time we boarded the coach. All of us experienced the wonder of the Biblical and early Christian sites, from Caesarea to Galilee to the Jordan Valley to Jerusalem and Judea, and the many places where Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the apostles and first disciples lived, traveled, and spread the Good News of the Kingdom. Each of us returned home with our own special memories and spiritual encounters. For me, the highlight of the pilgrimage was Mass at 6:00 AM in the tomb where Jesus’ body had been laid and from which he rose on the first Easter. Since there were only 18 of us, we could all fit in the antechamber of the tomb. There we celebrated the Liturgy of the Word before Fr. John Maher, Dn. John Davies, and I moved into the tomb to celebrate the Liturgy of the Eucharist on the altar immediately above the slab upon which Jesus’ body had been placed after he was taken down from the Cross. For communion, I brought the Eucharist into the antechamber. After each pilgrim received the consecrated host, they entered into the tomb itself to briefly venerate the place which could not contain our Risen Lord. My body tingles even as I type these reflections.

On a more mundane level, the hotels which 206 Tours arranged for our lodging were excellent—though it took a little getting used to the Kosher rules for meals at the hotels in Israel. From my hotel window where we spent 5 nights, I could watch the sun rise over the Old City and the Temple Mount—beautiful. The coaches in Jordan and Israel were comfortable. The restaurants where we enjoyed lunch were very good. The Magnificat Holy Land Companion is an excellent resource. The religious items provided by 206 Tours (cross, rosary, etc.) helped to remind us that first and foremost we were pilgrims. Both Fadi and Michel offered practical advice as to how best deal with the many people hawking religious articles and other tourist items.

My only previous visit to the Holy Land was a retreat for priests in 1992. That was a meaningful experience. This pilgrimage rekindled my experience of 30 years ago and helped me to deepen my understanding of the Scriptures and strengthen my faith in the salvation won for us by Jesus Christ.

I am grateful to all of the staff at 206 Tours and for the people in Jordan and Israel who brought the Holy Land alive for us.

Fr. Kevin McCracken, CM

Spiritual Director of the Association of the Miraculous Medal

Perryville, MO

Dear Cara,

Thanks for your note. I thoroughly enjoyed the 206 Tours Pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The schedule, tour guide, and hotel stats were superb. Despite a rocky start on my end with some flight difficulties I managed to get there in time to enjoy the various places we visited. Overall the pilgrimage was a deeply moving experience one that I will look back upon with fondness and renewed faith. Thank you for all that you and your staff did to make this happen. And I am very thankful to the Association of the Miraculous Medal in Perryville, MO for their generous support and welcome to me as a fellow pilgrim.

Once again kudos to you and your staff for a well-planned event Keep up the great work, Cara!

Sincerely in St. Vincent,

Fr. John Maher, C.M.

Enjoyed very much!!  Alessandro was knowledgeable and caring of all of us. The your  pace was good, and arranging our post tour trip to lake Como was wonderful!

Thanks,

Dave

Hi Danielle,

Everything was great for our pilgrimage and we don’t have any complaints. The hotel was nice and we loved the hotel room that we had.

The food was great and so were the restaurants chosen for the pilgrimage.
Pilgrimage guides were great and the two day trips were very nice and we appreciated the spiritual guidance of Fr. Emmanuel.

Our flights were on time with no delays.

Both Bonnie and I would highly recommend this pilgrimage!

Thanks and God bless.

Greg

It was a wonderful and spiritually enriching experience. The beauty of nature in Croatia and Slovenia is exceptional. I am glad to be a chaplain of this tour and met wonderful people. Ver organized tour by 206tours. Thanks and God bless!

Fr Freddie Decal

Dear Daniel and 206 Tours,

What a pleasure it was to be a part of this pilgrimage. I was traveling with my sister, Becky Wahls, and I’m sure I can speak for her as well. We know we had the absolute best tour guide in Dr. Sammy. He went above and beyond what was expected in every way. There is no way we could tip him enough to repay him for what he added to our trip. Our bus driver(Rayett?) was amazing also.

We will forever be changed by experiencing the “The Life Of Jesus” and walking where He walked. It was a trip of a lifetime for sure. Our spiritual directors made each Mass so meaningful and special. From now on when I hear or read the Bible my understanding will be so much greater after meeting the people, seeing the land and learning so much. It only makes me want to experience more and travel to Italy next to continue this pilgrimage. I wouldn’t want to travel with anyone other than 206 Tours.

Thank You for your expert service and attention to detail. I loved every minute.

Beth Weeks

Holy Land Pilgrim

Accommodations were very good. Our 206 tour guide, Vanessa, was excellent.  Father Gribble was such a good spiritual guide. The only recommendation I would make is to give the pilgrims more down time to truly enjoy the sites, shrines and art.  Felt as we saw so much and it felt rushed.

This was our 2nd 206 tour and we were not disappointed for sure

Thank you,

Jackie & Jim Tomes

Danielle,

I loved every second of this pilgrimage. Upon arrival in Madrid, the driver picked me and another woman up and took us to our hotel. By the time we arrived, we were already friends. Then, we met our most amazing guide, Jorge. Jorge went above and beyond the duties of any normal tour guide. He took such good care of our group the entire time. He is a very intelligent individual and our group had many great conversations with him. Our driver, Juan was one of a kind. This man would stop and make sure we took the right turns. He would cheer us on as we approached the bus, and would hand us water – we never had to ask for it or go get it from the bus. We loved getting to know both Jorge and Juan.

The meals and accommodations exceeded my expectations, particularly Pazo de Brandeso. It was such a lovely place to rest and continue the bonding that had already happened within our group. I shared with Milanka that we were able to put together a surprise anniversary celebration for 2 of our fellow pilgrims at the lovely chapel on their grounds. Again, Jorge was instrumental in helping to plan that celebration.

I loved that 206 took care of every last detail, where we honestly only had to worry about walking each day and nothing else. 206 is truly the very best.

Our camino family continues the journey as we have been in daily contact with one another and are already planning a reunion in 2023. I am incredibly thankful for this most beautiful camino experience.

Thank you!

Nerissa Muniz

Hi 206 Team,

I would like to express my gratitude for giving me an opportunity as the spiritual director of all Italian shrines pilgrimage on October 31st to November 13th 2022. It was a great experience for me. The pilgrimage was well arranged. Thank you and God bless all your family members.

Fr. Robert

The trip was astounding in terms of content, guides and the group itself, who attended the pilgrimage. The subject matter experts at the specific locations which were part of the pilgrimage were well versed at their craft and had their own unique areas of focus. As an example at the Vatican Museum in Rome our guide was more focused on sculptures versus paintings. For me this was acceptable due to the fact, you cannot cover it all in the allotted time to visit a specific area.

The meals were different than what I expected however, this was not a disappointment. For the most part, we had buffets for breakfast and the meals for dinner were chosen in advance. To have a broader choice of options for the meals would be an improvement.

The transportation by bus and various shuttles from/to the airports were well chosen. Also, the guide did a very good job in advising on where to walk on our own. An area of improvement would be a little more organization on the matter of where to exactly go on exchanging US dollars to Euros.

Just a few thoughts. Thanks,

Kevin Smith

Everything was more than I expected. It was a wonderful experience with a lifetime of memories made in part by having such a dedicated, knowledgeable and kind tour escort. I was already planning my next 206 tour for the next year on my return flight home.

Blessings,

Jaydalia

We had a wonderful time with Fr Leonard, guide Deborah & our fellow pilgrims!!!

Susie Howard

Dear Milanka:

The pilgrimage has been outstanding, and I cannot overstate how exceptional Giovanni has been.  He has been the best tour guide I have ever had (and as you know, I have had many over the years!).

Please accept my heartfelt gratitude and appreciation for you and your entire staff for the tireless effort you put into these journeys.  Your team makes it seem effortless, but I know how many details go into a pilgrimage like this.

Prayers remain with you.

Father Lee  

Danielle,

Thank you for all your help in making our dream come true. Hussam was amazing.  I threw a coin in the fountain 25 years ago. I guess the saying works because I made it back.

Mike and Eydie

Hello Rinda,

For a few days already I am back from the Jordan Holy Land pilgrimage 158.

Everything went really very well.

Superb organization.

Fadi and Joseph were really excellent guides.

The choice of hotels was very good.

According to what the participants shared on the last  evening, they were very satisfied.

It’s not difficult to imagine that there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes.

Thanks to all who participate in the organization of such a pilgrimage.

My prayer accompanies you.

Father Pierre

Milanka,

Back home and rested ready to take off again!  Lol
Here are a few pics from the last few days in Jerusalem. Can’t say enough about our guides both in Jordan and Israel, drivers and Fr. Pierre.  As always we exchange addresses from several other pilgrims to keep in touch.

Thank you for this incredible journey!

Al and Anita Karle

206 Tours organized our travel arrangements, transfers and hotels with great care and in a very timely manner.

The communication was exceptional! No waiting for answers for extended periods of time.

Medjugorje welcomed our large group with beautiful weather, a nice hotel, good food and the peace which can only be found there.

Our large group had a great guide in Slavenka.

Always patient, kind and humorous and making sure we could visit all the important holy places, listen to several talks, enjoy The Holy Mass daily with the Priests in our group concelebrating with our SD, Fr. Blount.

This was a not to be missed pilgrimage and I thank God I could go and bring my dear Priest friend from India.

So many graces, joys and precious memories.

Our Lady calls and never disappoints!

Our flight to Ireland was smooth and we were welcomed by Karen, our lovely guide, along with lots of Irish rain. One cannot go to the land of rainbows and not get wet!!

The staff at St. Mary’s house could not have been more welcoming and helpful and visiting Knock Shrine, Fr. Peyton’s Rosary Center, Ballintubber Abbey and surrounding areas was a very blessed and joyful experience.

Truly our cups overflowed!

The staff at the hotel in Kildare were equally as helpful and welcoming as the staff in Knock.

And the food…., oh, that delicious food was plentiful and delicious!

This pilgrimage has been a source of great joy to me and I have a lifetime of beautiful memories to cherish.

Keep up the great work, Judith and all at 206 Tours!

You excel in communications, courtesy, organizing transport, hotels and wonderful guides.

A huge, “Thank you” to all of you!

Many blessings from God and Holy Mother Mary to each and every one of you.

Mary Evans

This pilgrimage was such a blessing, many graces received.  I had been to Medjugorje before but each pilgrimage is lived with many different experiences, I really needed “a recharge of my spiritual batteries” and being in the presence of our Lady helped me love her so much more as well as our Lord Jesus.   Also, I was so happy to meet Father Blount in person, he is such joy to be around, his peace and his love for the Lord and our Blessed Mother was really contagious, and being in the presence of so many priests was also a blessing.

I loved how well organized this pilgrimage was and loved the place we stayed.  Thank you for all you do to make pilgrimages an experience that will never be forgotten and it does change lives, those who are open to receive the graces outpoured by our Loving Mother and our Lord Jesus.

Blessings

Ginna Garcia

This wonderful pilgrimage was so well organized by 206 Tours.

It was a blissful experience and a joyful memory in my life. I personally extend thanks to you Judith for send me all needed documents.

I am very impressed with the hard working guides, drivers and all 206 staff who helped make sure we were able to take part in so many beautiful Masses, Apparitions and other visits to the various Holy places.

The Apostolate for  Priestly Consecration  is truly a blessed gift to all priests and pilgrims and I offer heartfelt thanks and prayers for Janet and the Apostolate and for 206 Tours who organised so much to make our time in Medjugorje do special.

The highlight of my pilgrimage was Celebrating Holy Mass in the parish which Our Blessed Mother chose to leave her Messages for times for so long,

Then being present during two separate Apparitions of Our Blessed Mother and meeting some of  my priestly brothers and also good friends from across the globe during my stay.

Then meeting my dear friend Mary who sent the information about the pilgrimage, along with Janet Moore who founded this wonderful Apostolate  and 206 Tours who helped make my pilgrimage one of the most treasured memories of my life.

I am truly thankful and blessed beyond measure by 206 Tours and all whom I have mentioned.

I pray I will be able to travel with you again  and send you my heartfelt gratitude, thanks and blessings.

May God continue to bless all your pilgrimages and pilgrims.

My prayerful wishes and blessings to you and to all staff of 206 Tours.

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph

Fr. Praveen. Nukathoti 

Hi Danielle!

Wow what an amazing trip I just got back from.  It was so amazing. I can’t thank you enough for all that you did to arrange everything perfectly! It was just perfect. I have not one complaint. I will always highly recommend 206 tours. I hope you followed me on Social Media b/c I posted a lot. Thanks again for everything you do and for making my trip truly amazing.

Aggy

Hi Patrick,

Thank you for your email.
This trip was amazing! it was such a spiritual experience on so many levels.
I am definitely interested in the next pilgrimage. I it’s ok, I’ll need a little time to decide if I’ll be extending
to go to other parts of Europe and if I’ll be rooming alone.

Stay well and God bless you,
Maria

Best guides I have ever had. I must not forget the bus driver. He performed all of the most difficult driving maneuvers so very well. He was also very helpful with some of the older people.

The hotel was excellent in every way. From the room accommodations – to the food for breakfast and dinner were excellent. At the sights we had very good lunches.

Having the Monsignors along gave us all a very special experience that will never be forgotten. All of us were moved by the Masses that the Monsignors presided over for us. They were private masses giving us a special closeness to our faith.

In conclusion, I will tell you to please express to the owners of 206 how much we all thank them for the high standards that make it such a special memory forever.

All the best to 206 and all of the staff that helped make this so great for all of us. And you Patrick for helping my wife.

Peter and Jane

Dear Rinda,

Thank you for entrusting me with a pilgrimage (Tour # 50) to Fatima, Spain, Lourdes and the Shrines of Italy (October 17 – November 2, 2022).

Tour guide in Italy Vanessa and Leo in Portugal, Spain and France have done a wonderful job. Each participant expressed appreciation for their leadership. The pilgrimage program was carried out very well. For my part, I have a lot of gratitude to them and also to the local guides. I express my appreciation to all participants, both older and younger, for their faithful following the ‘pilgrimage route’ that connects the spiritual life with admiring the sacred art and landscapes.

Thank you to everyone working for 206 Tours who made this pilgrimage possible.

With my gratitude

Fr. Piotr

The most amazing trip I have ever been on.
I am still totally overwhelmed by all we visited, and did.
I found great peace in the Holy Land sites we visited and I am so thankful I had this opportunity.
Your team does a wonderful job. The accommodations were superb and our tour guide Rami and driver, Nadim were welcoming, accommodating, and knowledgeable.

Thank you for all.
Jane

Our pilgrimage was the experience of a lifetime. We’re so thrilled we were able to have had the opportunity to participate.
Our spiritual directors were exceptional, leading us on a spiritual awakening and always available for us in every way.
What can we say about Rami, we were in awe of his knowledge of the history of the Holy Land.
He understands the politics and religious conflicts of the country.
He was also very protective of our group and went out of his way to ensure our safety.
Our Driver was also amazing going the extra mile for our group. Always polite and helpful to our pilgrims needing extra attention.

All in all, we feel very blessed to have the team we did.

Joanne

The trip to the Holy Land was amazing!

Msgr. DAVID and Msg Jamie were excellent spiritual directors. Their Masses and sermons were exceptional. They were attentive to our thoughts and questions.

Our Guide, Ramni, was very knowledgeable about the various areas in Israel. I enjoyed his talks. He was also very knowledgeable
about the Bible and our Catholic Faith.

The David Hotel was very nice, and the dinners were good.

To spend time in the places where Jesus lived and preached was deeply moving for me.

I would highly recommend this trip.

Margaret

In summary, the trip was a beautiful experience, and was something that I will not forget. The tour guide, Rami was incredible, so knowledgeable and personable – he was a gift to have as our tour guide. Having both Monsignors as our Spiritual Leaders was also a gift.

The hotel facility was perfect and situated in a great location- in relation to the Old City.

Our overall experience was one of complete satisfaction . We visited so many sites– which was amazing and having access to these sacred locations so easily was also a great part of our trip. The bus was comfortable, and the Driver was very skilled at navigating the various roads , etc.

We had a great trip!

Thank you for all the assistance up front getting us set up, as well- everything went smoothly from my perspective.

Kind regards,

Tom

Alexandra,

Thank you for the wonderful experience and being able to replenish and strengthen up my faith. It was the best experience I had even though I was tired of running but it’s worth every moment. Thanks to Andy for making sure the schedule is planned good and for keeping us safe. Out guide tours and drivers were great from Solomon and Asan and Giovanni and Omar such caring people. They are great assets to your company. They thoroughly explained each trip.

Again, thanks for the wonderful blessed experience.

Let me know if you have a Greece and Lima Peru tour planned.

God Bless,

Eloisa Sarol

Danielle,

We had a wonderful pilgrimage with our church group, our priest, Father Fernando, and our Tour Guide, Val. Val is a great Tour Guide and we are thankful that she was with us during our journey. She kept us moving so that the goals of the trip could be accomplished. We are blessed having been able to experience the many spiritual and supernatural occurrences where the saints encountered God sometimes through the Blessed Virgin at the many locations in Portugal, Spain and France.

I also want to thank you for making our flight return arrangements from Barcelona (BCN) which were different than the others. The flights were great, on time and Iberia Airlines treated as very well. We arrived at BCN early enough to take advantage of their business class lounge and our gate to Madrid (MAD) was just outside the lounge.

The only challenge was traversing the Madrid airport from our arrival gate in Terminal 4 to our departure gate in Terminal 4S. We had 60 minutes to walk through Terminal 4, locate and go down an elevator, board a subway train, go up an elevator, wind our way through the shops and duty free stores in Terminal 4S and finally get to our Gate S49 which was as far as you can go. We made it to our gate with a few minutes to spare.

I also found out that an earlier bus transfer from the cruise ship could have got us to BCN for a flight as early as 10:30 am. Good to know for our next trip.

Thank you for all that you did to make our pilgrimage a success and look forward to working with you again.

Jeffrey J. LaMarca

I thoroughly enjoyed my pilgrimage with 206 tours.  #39   September 2,  18 days was almost too long but I managed. All went well.  I am thankful for how well the experience was.
For traveling alone, I felt well taken care of.  Leo the tour guide was knowledgeable and concerned, thank-you. Four days in  Medjugorje was very nice, but could have been easily consolidated down to a two day visit rather than four days in Medjugorje.   I was not able to climb the mountains which seemed to be the highlight of the visit.  My tour guide Andrej was excellent for Medjugorje.  The Grace hotel was comfortable and safe, convenient to all locations, good food, and friendly staff.  Nice selection.

Thank-you for making it happen.

I  am grateful.

Mary Ursin

Dear Rinda

Greetings to you and the entire 206tours equipe. Our pilgrimage has ended in praise and thanksgiving.

I want to express my gratitude for the opportunity given to me to be part of the pilgrimage. Like always, this pilgrimage has offered me a great time of prayer, meditation and deepening of my faith.

Also, the pilgrimage offered me the grace of encounter. The sharing of life experiences with one another gave an additional taste to the pilgrimage.

I am back to Nazareth with renewed energies, blessings and graces. All I can say is “thank you” and may God bless you all for all you do.

Fr. Stephen

Nazareth.

Hi Danielle,

We had a wonderful time in Mexico. 206 Tours is really a good company to go with. I want to let you know our guide, Roberto, was simply the best.
He was calm, pleasant, and very knowledgeable about the sites. He saw us off at the airport and stayed with us until the last person was checked in.
I have been with other tour companies in the past and this is the first time I saw a tour guide with this courtesy.

Thank you and have a pleasant week.

Pacita Carabeo

Hello Piernha,

I want you to know what a wonderful trip to Italy our group had. Everything went off without a hitch. Alessandro was absolutely the perfect guide. He is extremely knowledgeable, attentive to every detail, a great companion and patient with every person’s particular needs. Every single person in our group was complimentary about his care for us.

The hotels also were good. Any “complaint” is so minor as to not deserve mentioning (e.g. small shower). Even our more seasoned travelers were more than satisfied.

The people in our group appreciated the sites we visited and the local guides. The personnel at the churches / shrines we visited were ready for us. We really enjoyed having Mass every day and time for prayer when we could. The Magnificats are especially helpful for morning prayer, readings and songs for Mass.

We had perfect weather virtually the whole time; only one day with a few sprinkles.

I don’t know how our pilgrimage could have gone any better. You and 206 Tours are to be commended for a fantastic job. Our trip left a more than favorable impression on 206 Tours. I know that some in our group made use of 206 in extending their trip. Another person was very complimentary of your help when he had to arrive late.

Thank you so very much for every way you worked to make our time in Italy truly a pilgrimage of faith, a wonderful time together and pleasurable in every detail.

Monsignor Gerald

Good morning,

I wanted to thank everyone who help my pilgrimage possible. I traveled on October 1; not knowing what to expect, I was absolutely amazed on how wonderful my experience was. I was picked up, at the airport I was explained what we were about to do. My luggage was taken care of right away, the coach was clean and comfortable, after a long flight this was a plus. The hotel rooms and meals were amazing, loved it. I realized that very much planning had to been done to get everything to its perfection, honestly I heard someone complain and I did not understand why. I guess some people just like to see to the bad instead of the good.

With that said I wanted to thank you for everything, but I do need to make you aware that I could not believe the time and dedication that was put in by our Tour guide Tony G. I mean he was on everything, incredible! I notice a lot a question going his way, I saw some impatient people, he usually had to repeat himself when he was always very clear. His patience was impeccable. My respects to him, having to deal with a lot of different people must be hard. He was always on the go making everything possible for everyone. And that is the reason for this email. I want to make sure you are aware that he made 206 tours look great along with everything else previously mentioned. He is a hard worker. Thank you so much, and I will be traveling again with 206 tours.

God Bless.

Socorro Hidalgo

Cara,

So sorry for the delay in response.  Got so busy at work, family coming over, and more trips.  Finally a little breather.

Our Pilgrimage to Our Lady of Guadalupe and Mexico

Is a success.  Everyone were happy and feeling blessed.  Everyone were sad leaving Mexico and missing the camaraderie that developed the group.

Everyone just loved our Tour Guide, Robert. He spoiled us. He is informative and patient with us, just total good and caring person and knowledgeable guide. The BEST!

Thank you Cara, everyone only have kind words about you. Thank you for all the assistance you had extended to each of us. Till the next Pilgrimage….💕🙏👏.

Hope you enjoy these Pictures

God bless,

Kathy

Dear Cara,

Thank you for your email.

Thank you also for inviting me to this pilgrimage and I must admit it was a beautiful and blessed time.

I would like to say that I loved this pilgrimage. The guide had a lot of knowledge and taught me a lot. I liked his commitment to the Mass as he never said Mass has to be quick because we need to go to other places. The driver was also very good and drove well and safely. The pilgrims were wonderful! They had a beautiful faith, joy, they interacted between themselves very well, everybody was positive, happy. Nobody was late or complaining . The dinner time was always good because everybody talked to each other and had time for one another. But most of all I loved their deep faith, love for God, piety, and peace in their hearts. It built me up a lot and as I am still a young priest their faith inspired me personally. I enjoyed their company, I loved their positive attitude and openness for me and for one another. It was a wonderful, blessed time and I would go with this group everywhere.

Thank you.

God bless you,

Fr. Chris

Good Evening to you Alexandra.

I want to thank you, and all others involved for all that was necessary to coordinate our trip to Maryland and Washington DC, October 1-6. The hotels, restaurants, sites etc were all perfect.

It was a perfect trip of faith and friendship, and blessed to have Fathers Albert and Basil along. The itinerary was packed with so many beautiful churches, cathedrals and basilicas and other amazing historical places, that we were excited each day to see what new was in store for us to see and do.

We were also blessed to have Nathalie Phan as our tour guide and on site coordinator, and Amado as our tour driver. A perfect team to complete our epic and blessed trip!

Please pass this message of gratitude to any others involved as we appreciated the efforts to make it an enjoyable and memorable Pilgrimage.

Thank you!

In JOY and Gratitude,

Lyn Fry

“The more you surrender to the light,
to love, to your higher self
the faster your world will change.”
Joey Klein

Hi Natasha,

Thank you for all your prayers, support and patience.  We’re back safe and sound from a wonderful pilgrimage to MD/WA DC.  Nathalie was super.  She has all the traits of a wonderful guide, couldn’t ask for more.  Both her and Ahmadu, our coach operator, made a great team, though it was their first time to work together. Praise God!

Take care.  God bless!

Grace

Hi Liz,

We thought the pilgrimage went splendidly! We are so pleased with 206’s handling of all the details. Our accommodations and meals were excellent, only to be outdone by our wonderful tour guides. Leo was very personable and attended to every detail. Mirella was a gem, so knowledgeable about the history and message of Medjugorje.  You did an outstanding job for us. As you say, there were many obstacles to overcome, but the ultimate trip was five star!

Thank you so much for your efforts,

Jann Nicholls O’Neill 

Hi Liz, we thought the pilgrimage went splendidly! We are so pleased with 206’s handling of all the details. Our accommodations and meals were excellent, only to be outdone by our wonderful tour guides. Leo was very personable and attended to every detail. Mirella was a gem, so knowledgeable about the history and message of Medjugorje. You did an outstanding job for us. As you say, there were many obstacles to overcome, but the ultimate trip was five star!

Thank you so much for your efforts,

Jann Nicholls O’Neill

Danielle,

We were so impressed with how the whole trip was organized from the time of booking to the return home. Quico was exceptional as our tour leader, knowledgeable, a good communicator, and a great sense of humor. Our one day delay at the end was a blessing, and it was so nice to not worry about the flights and hotel as 206 handled everything to accommodate the change. Fatima and Lourdes were certainly the highlights of our trip, but we also really enjoyed the cities in Spain visiting the sites of several great Saints.

We tell everyone we know about what a great organization 206 is for catholic pilgrimages.

God Bless and Thank you,

Jerry DeShaw

Dear Alexandra and Natasha,

We had a fabulous time in Greece on our pilgrimage “In the Footsteps of St. Paul”! It was a life-changing experience and was well beyond my expectations.

Kalliopi was an exceptional guide who constantly went above and beyond! Every pilgrim was in awe of the knowledge she shared with us! We were so blessed to have Kalli as our guide! She truly could not have been a better guide! I rate her as a “10” on a scale of 1 to 10. I actually would rate her as 10 plus!

Our bus driver, Basilius, also went above and beyond! He, along with Kalli, kept thinking of ways to make our pilgrimage better. They made a great team! We were so blessed to have Kalli and Basilius!

Thank you for all your efforts in bringing this pilgrimage together for us!

Love,

Julie Zackrisson

Dear 206 Tours,

We would like to express our thanks and extreme gratitude for one of the most amazing experiences of our lives.  Just returning a couple weeks ago from our pilgrimage to Poland, Prague, and Austria… where we walked the holy ground of some of our greatest Saints.  The hotel accommodations, food, travel between sites EVERYTHING…was just amazing!  But was most impressed with the “pure gold” we had in our tour guide Sabina Balos.  She was exceptional in every detail of planning each day, her knowledge where ever we visited, her personal care for each one of group… in every detail, but most importantly was her beautiful example of her profound Catholic Faith.  We were brought to tears so many times witnessing her love of our Catholic Faith.   Still deciding if she might have really been an Angel in disguise!  Along with this amazing woman who lead us for 2 weeks was our equally amazing spiritual director Rev. Father John Devaney of the Dominican Order .  What a delight in every way!  Charming, quick witted, funny… but oh such insightful and beautiful spirituality.  He was able to offer Holy Mass for us each and every day of our pilgrimage in some of the most amazing Cathedrals in the world.  He was always available for personal time for Confession or just a chat.  He lead the Holy Rosary, Divine Mercy Chaplet, or a special Novena where ever we were.  There was never a missed opportunity to grow and learn in our beautiful Catholic Faith.  Such a great joy to have him travel with us…  Hopefully these two will be our forever friends!!  Our tour group really became a family… and I believe it was because of the love and care of these two beautiful people.  I don’t want to forget our dear bus driver, Vlad who also cared for us too!  He was cheerful, kind, helpful and such a great example for your tour company.  He drove hours with us in pouring rain, sunshine and some heavy traffic… all with a peaceful smile and arriving safely to our destinations.  Our experiences each and every day were profound and we are still trying to process it all!

Thank you so very much for offering this amazing trip.

With so much gratitude, God bless you at 206 Tours,

Marty and Nancy Thouvenell

Upland, California, USA

Our last evening of the Tour together…  Saying Goodbye was hard!

https://images.marianweb.net/archives/flip/mhe/Fall_2022/28/

Hello Natasha and Alexandra,

Thanks in advance for a wonderful experience for the first time from 206 Tours!

I can see the difference between the other group tour that I joined before.

Father C Rodrigues is excellent priest and his homilies are easy to absorbed and straight to the point.

Having Sr Loretta with us makes big difference – she is great and group is having lots of fun.

It’s been raining in Munich, Oberammergau and Poland, but that was not a hindrance to even attended october fest.

Marta tour guide for 8 days was excellent we bonded with her easily. Hotels in Poland are the best.

Villa Grace must be new since we saw another hotel Grace right by the door of the church.

All the buses are on time and we had free unlimited water in Germany and Poland.

Overall experience with 206 is great and we’ll do it again. I will send some pictures when we get home.

God Bless

Tessie

Dear Danielle,

I have just returned from my Greece Pilgrimage in the footsteps of St. Paul with the Greek Isles Cruise (tour 161 from September 10 to 19).  It was another amazing

experience for me with 206 tours.  Thank you and the team for good admin and accounts support from start to finish.  The tour guide Kalliope and the Spiritual leader Fr. Samuel provided us with some very interesting and wonderful insights into the historical, cultural and spiritual significance of the many sights that we visited.  The weather was quite sunny and hot on most days but tour driver Pereclese ensured a good supply of refreshing cool water and managed some breathtaking driving feats up hills and dales and through narrow streets and lanes.  The 3 night Celestyal Cruise was a dream come true and though the rooms on level two were a little cramped, the food and Cruise decks, Lounges, Entertainment and Management of excursions was almost perfect.  Overall excellent value and a memorable Pilgrimage and I returned having met some really nice friendly tour mates and friends all along the way.  The long flights from Sydney to Athens were well worth it.

Blessings and Much Appreciation.

Maria Selma Coutinho

Hi Everyone,

Last week I returned back home after leading as a Spiritual Director for an Amazing pilgrimage to Jordan and Holy Land. I had an interesting group of men and women who were spiritually inspired and biblically enriched during this trip from Sept.15th to 27th.

I would like to thank all the staff of 206 Tour for their hard work in arranging this pilgrimage for us and running everything smoothly from the time we left the US and returned back to our country. The guides and drivers were marvelous in helping us every step of this trip. We had wonderful accommodation, delicious food and visited every place as per our itinerary on time. Everyone of the pilgrims admired the way you ran these trips.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to lead this group as a Spiritual Director and looking forward to doing more with you! I also would like to appreciate your gift of the mass kit sets and the stipend. I pray that you and your family be blessed with God’s abundant grace so that you may have good health and enjoy peace in your lives. May God bless you all!

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Gerry

Hi Natasha,

I’m taking a moment to say ‘thank you’ for all that you and 206Tours team did to make our Oberammergau pilgrimage a memorable experience! Your team’s responsiveness was unsurpassed, and we were kept well informed along the way. Our trip was enhanced by Danielle Guttilla, who joined our tour and served as a 206Tours ambassador each day. Cathy and I appreciated her valuable input every day—she represented 206Tours in an outstanding manner!

Thank you!

Rod Kusch

Just returned from our Jordan / Holy Land trip .

I just want to reach out for the excellence of our guides / drive: In Jordan, Soleiman and Ibrahim and in Holy Land Habib and Ashore.

They were all so good and covered all the sites .

The whole trip was beyond my expectations.

Thank you for the experience !!!!

Lorrinne Pinlac

Greetings of peace and love from the Eternal City of Rome. I write to express my sentiments of profound gratitude for the opportunity granted to me to accompany the Tour 96 pilgrim group here in Rome, Italy. It was a remarkable, faith enriching and spirit filled experience, for this I remain eternally grateful. Special thanks to our Tour guide Federica and indeed all the members of the tour who made the whole exercise seamless and worthwhile. God Bless in abundance the entire 206 pilgrims tours team for the good work you are doing. This is in keeping with the mandate of our Lord Jesus to ‘Go and make disciples of all nations and bring the Good News to the ends of the earth.’ May God continue to bless your effort in planting and enriching the faith in the hearts of many. Looking forward to having another of such faith lifting experience with you in the near future. Thanks and God bless you all.

Fr. Emmanuel
(Spiritual Director, Tour 96).

I would like to take the time to say how impressed I was with 206 tours!!!  The accommodations at the Norte Dame Center were beautiful. The staff at the center were amazing and always so helpful. All of our meals including off property were terrific. Great healthy food and great service.  The last night dinner at the Wine and Cheese was incrediable!!!!  Such great quality.

Our guided tour was so amazing. Thank you so much to our wonderful tour guide Joseph Asmar and our indrediable bus driver Shadi.   Joseph was incredibly knowledgeable and explained everything at such a wonderful pace.

The weekly schedule was perfect and allowed to see so many different sacred places in the Holy Land.

I can’t praise Joseph and Shadi enough!!!! Both assisted the whole week with pushing a wheel chair bound women and getting her off and on the bus. What gentleman!!!!! They were both extremely accommodating.  We were truly blessed to have both of them accommodate us during the whole week. Joseph really made for such an enjoyable week with his friendly personality and professionalism. What an asset  both of them are to 206 tours.  Please thank them again!!

I would also like to acknowledge Chris. He has always returned phone calls; very precise, accommodating and helpful.

I used to work in the travel industry and I have to say I was solely impressed with my trip.

I will definitely do further tours with 206.

God Bless,

Suzanne Castro 

Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers, as well as, the Harry & David basket and the Marian Helpers enrollment! She had surgery last Weds to repair fractured upper arm and recovery has been slow and very painful…hopefully she will get over the hump soon. Truly appreciate all that 206 Tours has done throughout this ordeal and I will be in contact to help me navigate the insurance claim process and expenses once I get things settled with her recovery.

Chris Wright was exceptional and very prompt in providing us a pathway home…as was a United Terminal Gen Mgr in Madrid (Pedro Gonzalez-Perez) who personally got us on other flights that day when our flight to DC was cancelled just prior to departure.
We are so disappointed that trip came to this conclusion but we plan on trying again in the future. We were having such a great time with a fun group of people who were so caring and helpful when the accident happened, especially Jorge (Tour Guide) and Juan (Bus Driver) who were so hands-on that day and continued to support us afterwards and check in on Lori’s condition. We are thankful to all that helped us during this very difficult time. Nothing but praise and thanks to 206 Tours! God Bless All!!!

Nick Joseph

Danielle-

I just returned from the Holy Land Pilgrimage, led by Mark Forrest and Fr. Jack Peterson.

Quite often, all one hears is “what went wrong” with anything.  I feel the need to tell you just how beautiful it was. It was beyond anything I could imagine. The only complaint I have (and you could not control that) is the oppressive heat.  Why I decide to go places that are notoriously hot is beyond me.

The actual reason for this email is to tell you, as a representative of 206 Tours, what a treasure you have in Israel, specifically our guide Iskander (I believe his last name is Kando), and our bus driver – we called him Moses.

I have been on trips before and never had this high of a caliber of tour guides.  Iskander is an encyclopedia of knowledge. I was totally amazed each and every day with the backstory of the places we went. He is awe inspiring. I cannot begin to touch on how much he made this trip experience what it was. If I didn’t know better, I would say he lived in the time of Christ and experienced everything first-hand.

Now onto our bus driver. Moses is an incredible driver (and I do mean incredible).  Places are so tight and streets are extremely narrow.  He maneuvered that bus in places only a fly could fit. Traffic was beyond nuts at times. He never lost his cool. To take this beyond his driving skills, he was impeccably dressed, always greeted us with a smile, a good morning and goodbye. Each time we disembarked the bus, he was at the bottom of the stairs helping people off the bus. We started the day by getting to our seats, only to find a fresh bottle of water on each seat. When we were off seeing the sights, he would put another bottle of water on our seat.  That bus was in absolute perfect condition.  Cleaned every night (inside AND out).  I would see other buses with dust coating the windows, etc.  Not ours.  Again, 206 Tours is so fortunate to have him as an employee.

If you would be so kind, would you PLEASE let the offices who hire your employees in Israel what a gold mine they have in these two men?  We can only thank them enough in person (and believe me, we did).  I really want their direct supervisor to know how valuable they are. They may already know, but I feel it is important to let them know how highly the pilgrims feel about them.  I would appreciate you doing this for me.  We can always thank people here, but knowing who to talk to over there is impossible.

It goes without saying that both Fr. Jack Peterson and Mark Forrest were outstanding.  You chose well.

Thank you again for putting all of this together.  It was the trip of a lifetime; one I will never forget.

Jeannette Lienhart

Hello All,

It has been an active time since I returned from being the Spiritual Guide for our Pilgrimage to Our Lady of Guadalupe and Mexico City in May. My special thanks to Rinda, Danielle, Judith, and Jon as well as our Tour Guide Salvador and Bus Driver, Antonio. Without the blessings would not have been possible.

Our Pilgrimage has helped me in keeping a balanced life in the midst of some good, but very active times.

Again, I cannot thank you enough. If you need anything from me please feel free to ask.

May God continue to bless you and all the pilgrims you serve.

Now off to my long delayed social media post.

Gratefully,

Fr. Gary

Dear 206 Tours Team,

I would like to thank you for the opportunity to serve as a Spiritual Director on the 206 Tours pilgrimage to Tour # 40: Fatima, Spain, Lourdes, Lisieux and Paris (August 7-20, 2022) and I would like to provide you with some feedback.

I’m happy to share with you that this Pilgrimage was again a beautiful, pastoral and spiritual experience for me.
I’m grateful for the opportunity to visit and pray in so many sanctuaries. Most of them I visited for the first time.

In my opinion the planning of the program was excellent and our guide Quico Prado did a great job in adjusting it to our needs, when it was necessary. I must admit that he was the best guide I worked with so far. I appreciate his dedication, faith and participation in our prayers. I’m sure he contributed immensely to creating a prayerful atmosphere among pilgrims.

It was a blessing for me to accompany these wonderful pilgrims. Despite the changes of groups, we always managed to build a committed community that was united during Mass, rosaries and other prayers, as well as on the bus, during visits, or over the meals. I enjoyed their faith, kindness and friendship.

Overall, this pilgrimage with 206Tours was a beautiful and enriching experience for me. Therefore I look forward to leading another pilgrimage if you needed me again.

I keep all 206 Tours Team in my prayers!

In Christ,
Fr. Piotr

My wife, Virginia, daughter, Kathleen and I recently completed the tour (Aug 14-23, 2022) to Fatima, Spain, and Lourdes.  We want to express our satisfaction with tour guide Leopoldo Jimenez and spiritual director Fr. Kenneth Cienik.  Mr. Jimenez was very organized and fulfilled every request that was made of him.  He was always well prepared so that we stayed on time and was very knowledgeable about the sites we visited.  Fr. Cienik was also well prepared and mixed very well with all the participants on the tour.  He was always available to meet our spiritual needs.

Overall, the tour was very enjoyable and did not miss any important sites.

Thank you

Brain and Virginia Almon

PS – This was our second tour with 206.  We participated in an Ireland tour several years ago and we always tell our friends to use 206 Tours for any pilgrimage.

Hello,

Just wanted to send a quick note and tell you about the Pilgrimage we took to St. John Paul ll, Shrine of Divine Mercy, and other places in Poland and  Auschwitz plus Vienna and Salzburg and Oberammergau and Munich we’re absolutely wonderful. Such holy and fun memories!!!

It was jam packed with so much it is still filling me with so many emotions. It was a great pilgrimage and well worth everything we experienced.

I must compliment and commemorate our guide Agnes (Agnuska? not sure how to spell her Polish name). She was exceptionally good at her job knowledge and help during the whole trip.  You could tell she loved her Poland!!!  She was kind and generous with her time as well.  She’s a keeper for sure!!

We also were very pleased with Fr. Sean Connally.  He also knew a lot of church history to go right along with what we saw.

Thank you for a great pilgrimage and I will sure look to using 206 Tours on my next pilgrimage wherever that may take me.

I have attached a few photos of our trip.

Thank you again for a time well spent!!

God Bless,

Cindy Jansen

Leopold, Mo.

To 206 tours staff:

Just writing a short note of appreciation from one of my friends, Yvette Lobo and family, whom I recommended to 206 tours on a recent pilgrimage to Fatima, Spain and Lourdes. They just came back from their pilgrimage and are very happy with your services. The tour, service( from booking to the end of their pilgrimage) and staff were above and  beyond their expectations. She is looking forward for more pilgrimages with 206 Tours.

I am very grateful and happy that my friend and family enjoyed their pilgrimage with 206 Tours.

Thank you for your wonderful and excellent service,

Jocelyn and John Ybarra.

This was a trip of a lifetime. We were so blessed and everything was fantastic! Our driver, Isaam was fantastic and such a wonderful person. Habib, our guide was also spectacular, with so much knowledge and so much kindness. Lorine, Fred and Father Pat Kibby are so inspiring. Father Kibby gives the best homilies that are so practical and life changing. Everyone went out of their way to make it an awesome experience. This definitely strengthened my faith and created memories forever. Thanks-your organization is fantastic!

Take care.

Tracey Doering

It was a lifetime experience. The service 206 provided  us was excellent. Everything was perfect, our guides was the best in both places. The best was the free or included lunch that was a big “Plus” God Bless. Danielle, you’re doing a great job, like you know exactly what our spiritual leader would wants. I give you a 10/10  for making people feel safe with your agency’s services.

Thank you!

Justine Saint Fort

Dear Rinda Kanidinc and 206 Staff,

I would like to let you know that our Pilgrimage was excellent. It was really a spiritual awakening call. The pilgrims were very spiritual and all enjoyed each other‘s company. Our tour guide, Slavica was great. She was willing to do anything for us. Same with our bus driver and other local guides. Here with I am attaching some group pictures.

Thank you so much for all the hard work you do. Everything was well organized. Thank you for giving me this opportunity, especially to watch the Oberammergau Passion Play. It was a unique experience that I can hold dear to my heart. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

I assure you all my prayers.

May God Bless you all.
Fr. Michael, cmi

Dear Rinda,

Its been a couple weeks since we returned from our tour.  I wanted to let you know that this was a trip of a lifetime. It could not have gone any better. There are a lot of words to describe the trip…but one that comes to my mind first is: Abundance

There was an abundance of food, walking, prayer, fellowship, sunshine and memories.  There is nothing on the tour that I would change.

A huge part of this trip’s success was due to our guide and driver, Quico and Alvero. In my opinion, they are the perfect team to support this trip.

Quico is an absolute delight.  He ensured, coordinated, and organized everything down to the Nth degree. You (206 Tours) have certainly teamed with an outstanding person who represents 206 Tours in spectacular fashion. Many in our group are looking for additional tours that Quico may be hosting. He was outstanding.

Alvero is genuine and kind. He is a bit more reserved and less comfortable with English, but his kindness shows through in all he does to support the tour. It was a great site to see him at our checkpoints each day! He too was outstanding.

We will always remember Quico and Alvero. They are forever tied to our memories of 206 Tours. We think of them often and remember them in our prayers.

We have many friends and family who continue to ask us questions about our trip…pilgrimage. They are fascinated by how well the trip is organized and how complete, inclusive the trip was.  We already have friends looking into an El Camino trip for next June.

Best Regards and God Bless
Brett & Patty Coleman ……and Fr. John

Dear Rinda,

This is my sixth pilgrimage with 206Tours and they all have been a blessing. Given it is a pilgrimage, the pilgrims are marvelous people. They have a common interest in working together and realizing it is a spiritual and fraternal journey simultaneously. The itinerary was as always well planned as expected.

The pilgrims on this pilgrimage were a delightful group and had a good relationship with each other and enjoyed themselves. The 206Tours Guide, Viola, was amazing and dealt with some practical issues very well. The bus driver, Andrea, was also particularly good and went the extra mile literally to get us as close to our drop-off destination as possible. The food as always was exceptionally good and given the area we were in; the beer was excellent!

I have attached a picture of the pilgrims and me at the Shrine of the Infant of Prague. After celebrating the Eucharist in the Church, we posed as a group with the statue of the Infant of Prague. Though the group was small we were great together and fun to be with.

For those of us who joined us for the Passion Play in Oberammergau, we were both moved and touched by the performance. It would be hard to imagine if not having been there. It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and a memory that will be treasured for years to come.

As a chaplain, I want to thank 206Tours for the opportunity to be a part of this ministry. It is a gift to be able to travel and celebrate the Eucharist at these various places of worship with such good people.

My prayers for the continued success of the mission of 206Tours.

Sincerely in Christ,

Fr. Joe

Milanka,

It was so nice to meet you and visit with you on our pilgrimage. Our pilgrimage exceeded our expectations, from the spiritual experience itself, to the knowledgeable guides, Rami, Sa’id and Usama and of course our drivers, Fr. Mike and Fr. Joe, Chris and Natalie, accommodations and food, and last but not least the wonderful companions on our journey that we now consider friends.

Celebrating mass each day was a highlight, along with following the Magnificat Holy Land Companion. We have been back a week now and are still processing where we went, what we did, and now discerning what our next steps are as we live out the sixth gospel Fr. Mike referred to at our final mass. We are so appreciate of the support Chris continues to offer at Real Life Catholic.I wish you all the best in your beautiful ministry.

Forever Grateful,
Beth Harris

Mikanka!

Yes, we got back with no problems and now back in our routine. But we cherish our memories of our pilgrimage in the Holy Land! We will never forget it and the way you took care of us! We have told many friends and family about our great experience and will continue to do so! May God continue to bless you and your business. You do such a great job at it!

Talk soon!
Blessings,
Bea

Enjoyed are tour so much that we are planning the next one.
My daughter Sarah, being blind since birth, enjoyed the sounds, aromas, friendships and the history of each and all locations.
We’re booking another trip soon!!!!!!
Hope you like her picture.

Blessings and a big “thank you ” for this wonderful experience. Sarah and I are hooked for life.

Ana Badillo

Dear Milanka,

It’s only the second day that we have been home as we reflect on what we were doing a week ago.  Then it will be two weeks ago, then three!
Oh how we love to reflect on our beautiful time in Israel!  Definitely worth waiting for!
On Sunday we plan to have our neighbors over who were such a wonderful help in watching over things while we were gone.
We’ll be serving them “A Taste Israel” which we will do our best to try and duplicate!

Milanka,  you and your team have been absolutely amazing to us!
We will continue to pray for your mission as we look forward to booking another pilgrimage with 206 Tours!

God’s blessings on you!

Russell and Bonnie Yount

Dear Cara and Milanka,

How can I begin to thank you!?

Cara – from the start, you answered every question I had without delay, and you paired me with Mary as my roommate, who is now a great friend!!

Milanka – your graceful and generous spirit permeated the pilgrimage. Knowing that we were all able to experience the Holy Land and encounter Christ there because of your “yes” to the Lord is so inspiring.

As an administrative assistant, I know that there were many many details that I will never know about that were done on our behalf for our pilgrimage. Thank you to Tamara, Simon, our guides and drivers, and everyone on the team for taking care of everything.

I felt before I left home that I had not done enough to prepare, and was then consoled to realize that you had done all of my preparation for me. Again, as someone who normally handles logistics for others, it was an immense gift to receive the fruit of your expertise, careful planning, and prayers for us. Thank you so much!

God bless you all!

Sarah Jimenez
Real Life Catholic Holy Land pilgrim

Hey Cara,

You all at 206 did a FANTASTIC job this past week and a half (and the year-s leading up to the trip)!  We had to worry about NOTHING, and focused solely on the pilgrimage.  The topper was the return home flight issue.  You guys got us on another flight, extended our hotel, and got us to the airport.  It provided for our last day in Jerusalem to be amazing, so many blessings

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

Blessings to you and everyone there.

Eric Gardner

Good afternoon!

My name is Jesus Jayward W. Chan, and I took a pilgrimage tour to Italy with Father Rick on 12-20 June 2022.  I am a life-long parishioner of Saint Bartholomew.  This was my 4th trip with 206 Tours.

I would like to commend our tour guide, Federica, for her caring, efficiency, patience, and professionalism throughout the tour.  Many of the pilgrims were elderly, and walking long distances have become a daily ordeal for them, but Federica made sure of their comfort (e.g. by escorting them to the next destination by taking a taxi if they were unable to walk any further). Though many were lagging behind, she was always at the end of the group to make sure everyone was accounted for.  During meals, she made her presence known and saw to the comfort and meal needs of the passengers.  She was truly wonderful in all aspects.  She is a great asset to 206 Tours.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Jesus Jayward W. Chan

Just wanted to let you know how much we enjoyed our Pilgrimage. Our tour guide, Ivan was so professional, knowledgeable, helpful and joyful. An Exceptional tour guide and he’s the reason it was such a success!!! If we go on another pilgrimage we would request his services.

Again thank you so much for a job well done 🙏

Louise

Sent from my iPhone

Dear 206 Tours,

We write today to share how much we enjoyed our recent pilgrimage. We appreciate your efforts to make the experience meaningful and fulfilling. We would also like to acknowledge how our tour guide, Habib, made our trip outstanding. His knowledge, humor, professionalism, and gracious manner helped us learn, laugh, reflect, and admire the passion he has for his work.

Kind regards,

Regina and Charles Mistretta

Dear Rinda,

It has been a wonderful pilgrimage of Fatima, Lourdes and Oberammergau. We have a marvelous group of pilgrims that share our bond faith and enjoy the journey together. I want say thanks to you and your team that has put this into place. God bless your work and look forward to provide spiritual direction for the next pilgrimage.

Blessed Corpus Christi,

Fr. Hung

Dear all,

I want to offer our sincere thanks for organizing the dinner and the opera for us, especially as it was a surprise birthday gift for Virgil!  The evening was a complete success.  Dinner was awesome, and the opera music was just glorious!  We especially want to thank Rinda for her help in organizing Saturday evening for us, especially the front row seats!

Again, thank you from

Pamela and Virgil

Dear Milanka,

We have just finished the Jordan and Holy Land parts of our tour (Ober152). I want to express our sincere and deep appreciation for the arrangements made for us, especially given the Jordan leg was only for us and Fr Terry O’Connell.

Fr Terry greatly enriched our pilgrimage experience in so many ways with deep spiritual knowledge and formation. His warmth and generosity of spirit provides him the ability to connect with people quickly and in a very special way.  His masses were always relevant to both where we were celebrating mass and how we could apply the lessons from the New Testament to our ordinary life.

Our guide in Jordan, Suleiman was knowledgeable and most helpful. He certainly provided a solid grounding for what was to come in Israel.

I would particularly like to praise your Israeli guide Habib Boutros. His knowledge of scripture was unbelievable, his ability to connect places, events and geography and communicate this concisely and clearly, using memorized Bible references, was stunning. Habib is a humble, holy and deeply caring person. The oppression of Christians in Israel is most and we will continue to pray for Habib, his family and all Christians in Israel. I strongly urge 206Tours to engage Habib as much as you can. Habib would be embarrassed if he knew I was sending this message and I would not send it if my experience was not heartfelt.

Tonight we attend the Oberammergau Passion Play – we are looking forward to this as we booked our pilgrimage in December 2017.

Thank you once again for a wonderful Pilgrimage experience (our second 206 pilgrimage). Celebrating Mass inside the empty tomb of the Holy Sepulchre with Fr Terry was such a privilege.

Yours in Christ, God bless

Warwick and Donna

Hi, just want to thank all the staff in the USA, Jordan and the Holy Land, wow the guides were once again excellent and the drivers .I want to especially want to highlight Suleiman the guide in Jordan for his kindness and his driver a very kind man not for getting Laith in Jordan, I want to also acknowledge the owner of the shop in Petra called PICK AND MOVE for his kindness to me .In Israel wow what a guide he was a literal encyclopedia on the Bible and also very kind patent ,he is a credit to 206 ,I EVEN TOLD Tatamara in Israel that he is a gem and a credit to 206 people on the group only want him they told me if they return what else can I say is DONT LOOSE HIM HE IS ONE IN A BILLION. I also want to thank Moses he was very patient and very cheerful no matter what time of day Habib and Moses were great team and hopefully when I return I have no problem with them there 2N TO NONE WELL DONE MEN.

Again thanks 206 for the pleasure on been a Spiritual Guide to the pilgrims who were so impressed with Suleiman and his drive sorry can’t recall his name and Laith in Jordan. The one and only Habib, Moses and Tatamara well done.

Fr. Terry

Dear 206 tours,

I wanted to let you know that we had an awesome trip with no problem getting between the countries. Additionally, I wanted to provide feedback on Ivan and the phenomenal job he did as our tour guide. He was very attentive to the whole group, very engaged, personable and professional and was the main reason we had a great trip. We especially appreciated his knowledge of all of the sites we visited. I would like to thank you again for our wonderful faith filled experience.

God Bless You,

Mark. Maria, and Joseph

Dear Piernha,

Thank you so much for all your work and your team! It was really an amazing pilgrimage and I am so grateful to have been able to go. The way things were structured allowed for myself and no doubt the others to participate and simply receive the peace and calm that God’s love and grace gives as we journeyed from saint and holy site, to hotels and bus stops making for fun and good memories. Melchor and Vanessa were most instrumental in making for such an awesome experience.

With heartfelt gratitude and prayers – cheers and God bless!

Conor Edmund

Chris,

My pilgrimage was FANTASTIC. Of course the Passion Play was the highlight but I had such a wonderful time traveling through Europe with my new Friends in the Faith. Thank you and 206 for a wonderful trip. I am eagerly looking forward to my next trip in January.

Mary

Hi Rinda and 206 tours

The pilgrimage come to an end but want to thank you for all your patience & help prior to our pilgrimage. All the questions been answered by you.

The pilgrimage was awesome. I cant complained anything from Prague to Budapest to Oberammergau . Our guide named Viola is very nice and accommodating. Its good to travel with with an experienced and knowledgeable tour guide with an outstanding spiritual leader Father Ferrucio and a reliable driver.

Watching the Passion play in actual was so amazing. I can feel the pain of Jesus. I was teary eyed while watching the play. It was really a good play. I hope to watch again after 10 years. Thru this pilgrimage i have meet some good friends.

Again, thank you 206 tours for everything & to Viola our tour guide.

God Bless us all 🙏🙏🙏

Rosie Lao

Sent from my iPhone

Hi Milanka-

I am currently on your 111 tour in Jerusalem. This is my third visit to the Holy Land and have never experienced such a wonderful tour guide and spiritual leader. Habib’s knowledge is incredible and has a great personality to go along with it. He is so exceptional that I did not want to wait til the end of my tour to compliment him. We are all so amazed with his talent.

Also, Fr. Terry is such a fun loving spiritual person. We are all loving him with us. He makes you feel so at ease that you can approach him about anything. He makes you feel your questions are not only valid but important. I don’t think I have ever met a priest as warm and knowledgeable of his Catholic faith. Wish I could bring him back to my parish!

Thank you for choosing such an amazing team!

Sincerely-
Sandra Cannon

Sent from my iPhone

Dear 206 TOURS STAFF:

Thanks for welcoming us back home. and thank you also for arranging a very well planned and guided tour/pilgrimage. Our tour escort Jorge was so energetic and concerned for our welfare throughout the pilgrimage. He  always made sure that all of us were OK. Alvaro our driver was so helpful and went out of his way to help Jorge locate or search for our co pilgrims that were walking far behind us just to make sure they will reach to our meeting points. Most of all I was moved by the persistence and perseverance of our Spiritual adviser Father Pierre Deglaire who at his age of 80 was still able to walk with us. There are times that I got tired and felt all the aches and pains in my body but I always thought of Father Pierre and I kept my spirit going. Our accommodations were good enough and I thought I would lose weight after the pilgrimage but how can I since wherever we eat even along the way our meals were all more than I can take and mostly were delicious. I posted some pictures in FB and some people were asking me already about this trip.

This pilgrimage is very significant to me  since I made a request to have my petitions granted and also in  thanksgiving for all the graces that God gave us. I considered us very lucky and blessed to have walked 100 kms to Santiago that only few of us were able to do in our lifetime. We had been to some Pilgrimage sites but as my daughter said that this is a REAL PILGRIMAGE . I’m very thankful that I was able to make this journey with my family (with my husband and child). This is our JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME.

All the trials and joys of our lives were reflected in this pilgrimage. We had walk trough hills and valleys with rough roads/pathways amidst the heat of the sun and the pouring rain but we still had the time to appreciate the beauty of nature along the way.  This is LIFE after all.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH AGAIN from me and my family and we hope that you will continue bringing people to places that could enrich our Catholic Faith.

Sincerely,

Rosemarie

(May 9-19, 2022-St James way)

Rinda,

While I know we have a few days to go on the tour, I wanted to take the time to thank you and 206 tours for the wonderful experience. The visits were interesting, engaging and informative, the food was wonderful and the whole experience was a joy. It’s like being in a story book and getting to actually experience things as the story unfolds. Most important was our tour guide. She’s the best. She is kind, helpful and very organized. She made sure we were safe, that our needs were met and all our questions were answered. This can’t be an easy job for her and I commend her for it. Currently, I’m sitting in Belvedere park next to the fountain enjoying the evening. Once again, Thank you so Much.

Sarah Badillo

Sent from my iPhone

Just finished our despedida dinner with our guide Val (Valvanera). The group would like to thank you very much for arranging our trip (pilgrimage) with 206. We are very happy & satisfied with all the arrangements, food, hotel accommodations & itinerary. Our trip was made especially successful & enjoyable mostly because of our guide Val (Valvanera).she was very intelligent, caring & friendly& courteous. Please let 206 know about this gem that they have in their company. also drivers were very helpful, courteous & very safe. For me personally thank you for the scooter I was able to enjoy the sights & be with the group. Val & driver set up scooter daily for me. Again what a pleasant, beautiful rewarding trip for everyone, because of you & 206 & our guide Val.

Albert Medenilla on behalf of Jose Nebres

Greetings, 206 Team! My husband and I enjoyed an excellent pilgrimage! We could not have seen all the sites we were able to visit should we have ventured on our own, plus traveling with such an experienced and knowledgeable tour guide along with an outstanding spiritual director enriched the trip and deepened our faith. Thank you for all your hard work to make the trip such a success.

I do have one question….we have an unused tote bag, belt bag and a sleeve of not read books that we would like to return to you so you can use them for other travelers. Would you please provide an address where we could send these?

Thank you!

Warmly,

Christine Barber

Thank you. This trip was filled with blessings and your team was amazing! I will certainly recommend your company to all.

God bless!!

Peg Lias

We were fortunate to have been part of this pilgrimage!  Our Spiritual Director, Father Lou Phillips, provided inspiring homilies to a dynamic and diverse group of pilgrims coming from different parts of the country.  An addition to this mix was our patient and accommodating Tour Guide, Nena, who was amazing!  Her knowledge of the places and the holy sites we visited in Greece and the Greek Isle was remarkable.  At departure, she made sure that each pilgrim checked-in at the airline counter for his or her correct return flight.  Like our six previous pilgrimages with 206 Tours, this trip has provided spiritual and personal enlightening experiences.

We continued to Medjugore and Dubrovnik for another six days.  Slavenka, our Tour Guide, was equally super-great.  Her vibrant personality and expertise – as a seasoned Tour Guide – were in full display as she guided us in and around Medjugorje.  Of particular note was our invigorating climb to Apparition Hill, with stops, praying each decade of the Joyful Mystery.  Our personal time in praying the Stations of the Cross culminated at the veneration of the Statue of the Risen Christ as we experienced, wiping with our handkerchiefs, some oil-like liquid oozing from the knee of the Statue.

In Dubrovnik, we visited the famed Church of St. Blaise, where Father Gabriel Cillo, MIC (Spiritual Director), celebrated Holy Mass and gave us throat blessings.  St. Blaise is the patron saint of throat ailments.  And finally, I consider this incident as a “personal miracle” and the highlight of my entire trip: From afar…while taking a picture of St. Blaise, outside at the upper wall, a white dove – from nowhere – swooped into my camera lens, which was captured in the picture on top of St. Blaise.  We learned later that white doves occasionally appear in Dobrovnik only in February.

Meeting our expectations, we accomplished all the activities included in the pilgrimage itinerary.  Nevertheless, we still found time to do some “touristy stuff” in Athens, Meteora, Mykonos, Santorini, Mostar, and Dubrovnik.  Thank you 206 Tours for another well-organized pilgrimage!

Ammie Laguilles

Hi 206 Tours Staff,

Overall, I would give this trip a 5-star rating. Would prefer to give the 6-pointed “Star of David” if I could.

1. Communications are awesome: emails are responded promptly, phone calls and live chat are manned continuously – staff are very professional and helpful.; however, emergency calls are routed by an operator and had to leave a message; call was, however, returned after a few minutes.

2. Trip was well-organized, even have veils for the spouses renewing their vows at Cana and had cake and roses for Mother’s Day

3. Hotel accommodations are awesome, except the shower room at Olive Tree Hotel is small and half open – glass covering is half open and nothing to protect water from overspilling. Unable to enjoy my daily shower.

4. Food/buffet in the hotel was awesome! Lunch at the local restaurants was also special.
Heard from another pilgrim on a different tour (not 206) that their lunch was not included. On top of that they never rec’d any backpack, belt bag, purses, etc. She took 206 Tours info from me.

5. United Airlines flight to Newark was 1-hour delayed; after getting through the customs and TSA, we had to literally run in order to catch our next flight. Otherwise, we would had missed it.

6. Our guide, Said Mriebe is knowledgeable, patient and very helpful.

7. In participating this pilgrimage, I learned about the local culture which helped me understand Bible stories better and what Jesus meant in so many of his parables. Glad that you assisted me to Walk where Jesus & Mother Mary Walked.

8. I would recommend 206 Tours for sure. Even started encouraging my neighbor to go and visit Holy Land.

God Bless,

Jack

Hi Rinda!

I would like to express gratitude and appreciation for the opportunity to serve as chaplain for the pilgrimage “Shrines of Italy.” I can say based on my experience and observations  that the pilgrimage. was a deeply enriching spiritual experience for me and the members of our group. I consider it my Annual Retreat. Our tour guide Vanessa was very helpful and knowledgeable. I pray that 206tours continue to resume the pilgrimages and that we ultimately overcome this Covid pandemic. I heard that some of my Morgan City parishioners and some friends really enjoyed their pilgrimage to Egypt. You offer a first class service to your pilgrims. I try in my little way to recommend 206tours whenever some friends and former parishioners ask me for a referral. If I can be of service, let me know and I am willing as long as my schedule allows me.

Warm regards and best wishes!

Sincerely,

Fr. Wilfredo

Hello,

Once again 206 Tours did a phenomenal job. I’m not only speaking for myself but for my entire Boston group. It exceeded our expectations. From the moment we landed in Cairo, it was 12midnight, the 206 Tours representative (Ahmed Khalil) was right there as we were coming down from the escalator holding up the 206 Tour sign what a pretty sight for weary travelers so relieved to see him. All through out Ahmed Khalil (aka Antonio Banderas to us) went above and beyond his duty.

The tour began on April 23rd and met our tour director Khaled Nabil Osman. Omg everyone that I know in our entire group was so impressed by him. He to went above and beyond his duties he was there every step of the way to help us, answer any questions we have and even helped us when we bought stuff he was there bargaining for us. He wanted to make sure we got our money’s worth and not be taken in.

Mr. Osman was like an open book. He wasn’t just smart but the word intelligent applies to him. If before I was fascinated with Egypt, I am much more now with Mr. Osman’s influence. He opened our eyes to the beauty & historical importance and contribution of Egypt to the world. He left a big impact on me and because of that I want to immerse myself, read as many books as I can get about this beautiful ancient world. So rich in history, culture, engineering, arts, you name it.

This trip was truly a trip of a lifetime made possible by 206 Tours. I want to thank Rinda Kanidinc in particular for helping me organize this trip for my group, the never ending questions, sometime repetitive yet so patient & very professional and courteous. Helped arranged our Dubai trip which was amazing to say the least. Rinda is an asset to 206 Tours. Thanks to Danielle Guttilla for our last minute change of itinerary to include the Miracle Garden a must see when in Dubai.

Our accommodations, the hotels and River Cruise line are absolutely wonderful. Milanka is a very classy woman whose goal is not just to make sure the pilgrims can learn from their tour by hiring top notch tour directors but also to be comfortable after a long days walk and lectures.

I can’t say anything negative about 206 Tours. You are the “BEST”. More power to 206 Tours.

Till our next travel/adventure.

Angie

Piernha,

Thanks!  The trip was wonderful and our guide (Yousef) and driver were incredible.  Yousef went above and beyond every single day and was very good, very accommodating, and made the trip great.  We could not have asked for a better guide, he far exceeded expectations.  Of course Fr. Clement as well.

One issue we just realized is that when we gave Yousef and our driver their tips, we made a mistake in calculating the currency conversion and feel like we did not give as much as they deserved.  Is it possible to send more after the fact?  Please let us know as we would like to fix this.

Matt Bonyak

This was a wonderful pilgrimage, thanks be to God and the most congenial group that I have ever encountered and a most professional, patient, and competent guide, Nena Papadopoulou.  It was a delight to work with Nena. She is, perhaps, the best guide you can possibly imagine.  The pilgrims absolutely loved her, and she was incredibly kind and patient with each and every one of them. Nena is an absolute gem.

This pilgrimage exceeded my expectations. We’ll done, and I was happy and privileged to be a part of this pilgrimage

I hope that our fellow pilgrims felt the same.

Fr. Lou

Good morning Milanka,

I cannot thank you and your staff enough for everything that you did for us on our Egypt/Dubai trip. Your staff here in the states and Egypt are phenomenal.

We are indeed very fortunate to have Mr Khaled Nabil Osman as our tour director. He went above and beyond his duties, he was there every step of the way, helping us attending to our needs .He is our protector, teacher, guide. If before I’m fascinated about Egypt so much more now after having visited this great country and having a very knowledgeable tour director we are in awe of his intelligence to know all the names, dates etc I know through experience and his also a teacher but not all teachers are good, he is Excellent. Now I can’t wait to read everything about Egypt. I’m looking forward to see all those movies of course you have to separate the facts from fiction. I would like to let you know we are also greatful to Ahmed Khalid he was there at Cairo airport holding the 206 Tour sign for us to see at 12:00 midnight. He too went above and beyond his duties didn’t leave us until we are all set at the airport. Mr. Osman and Khalid spoiled us. They are truly the best.

Anyway thank you from the bottom of my heart and I am also speaking in behalf of my Boston group. We are a happy contented batch.

Many thanks to your great and wonderful amazing company so well organized. So proud to always have the opportunity to travel with 206 Tours there is no other pilgrimage company like yours.

God Bless and more power to 206 Tours

Angie Rodriguez

206 exceeded my expectations!!! Our Israeli guide was super knowledgeable and Father gave beautiful homilies. Thank you.

Kathleen Barone

Dear Series Tour Team (aka Rinda, Judith, Danielle, and Cara — I hope I haven’t left anyone out inadvertently),

I have been meaning to write since I returned home just before Holy Week. But all the liturgical events of Holy Week have kept me very busy. So while we are still in the Octave of Easter let me drop you and line to thank you for this unique experience that I enjoyed in Spain on the Camino. What a beautiful preparation for the Paschal mystery this year.

Let me first complement you on the impeccable organization of the pilgrimage, from the preparatory information to the booklet The Way, Walking Toward God day book. Everything was organized to the letter. I so much appreciated the opportunity to celebrate the Eucharist in the historical churches along the way and the chance to concelebrate at the Pilgrims’ Mass in the Cathedral of Santiago which I will never forget. I recognize that this just doesn’t happen but requires major planning and superb execution on the part of 206 Tours.

I would like to add a word to complement our guide Cristina Calvo. Her wit and personality served us so well. We all loved her wonderful sense of humor which kept thinks lights and the group buoyed up along the way. I can’t think of any tensions that developed at any time, particularly on the long 18 mile days. Whatever you need to do, please keep her in your employ since she is invaluable.

The food and lodging was really tremendous. I had hoped to drop a few pounds from such long hikes, but that was not the case. Everyplace where we stayed or ate we were treated royally. Cristina even got us to try foods like « pulpo » (octapus) and « presebe » (goose neck or feet barnacles) which looked scary but were absolutely delicious. We were also treated to some fine Spanish and Portuguese wines. Thanks for all these things.

I had such a good experience that I would love to offer my services for future pilgrimages. Let me say a few words about my educational and ministerial background which might be useful. I lived and studied in Florence, Italy, my junior year of university, and returned to Rome for five years of seminary study. For doctoral studies I went to Paris where I studied at the Sorbonne and the Institut Catholique for four years. Needless to say I speak Italian and French fluently having studies in these languages and having written my doctoral dissertation in French. During my 25+ years teaching at the University of Notre Dame I benefited from many trips abroad, most memorably a three-year fellowship in Jerusalem at the École Biblique. Looking at your website and all the various places you visit, my experience may be of use to you.

I hope that the pilgrims in the group I accompanied had an opportunity to submit their evaluations. In my opinion, we got along famously and the time for spiritual formation and guidance abounded. One of our group members lost her husband and mother to COVID in a short period of time. You can imagine the grief that she is experiencing. But she shared that with the group and we prayed in a fervent way with her at the Eucharist and Morning and Evening Prayer and give her space to talk about it freely. I believe that she benefited from this greatly. I can honestly say that I really enjoyed meeting and getting to know rather well our pilgrims. On the Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory I am an off-the-chart extrovert. So meeting new people brings me great enjoyment. Since our return on April 4 we have stayed in contact and I am confident that this will be the case for the future.

If ever given the opportunity I would love to travel again with Cristina. She is truly an exceptional person with deep faith and wonderful human skills. So again, Happy Octave of Easter. Like all the Easter Prefaces for the Eucharistic Prayers declare, we are « overcome with paschal joy. »

Christos aneste,

Fr. Michael

Dear 206 Tours Team,

I would like to thank you for the opportunity to serve as a Spiritual Director on the 206 Tours pilgrimage to Rome (Tour 97, Apr 11 – 15, 2022) and I’d like to provide you with some feedback.

As previously with 206 Tours, it was again a beautiful pastoral and spiritual experience for me.
I was impressed how well and thoughtfully the pilgrimage was organized in this liturgically intensive time of Holy Week.
I enjoyed cooperating with our guide Luigi, who was very respectful and supportive of my role as a spiritual director, especially when we had to find time for prayers and rosary. I also appreciate the comprehensive information provided by our local guide Guerrina and her excellent expertise in art history.
Finally, it was a blessing for me to accompany and guide this committed group of pilgrims on their spiritual journey in Rome. I’m grateful that they shared their faith, kindness and trust with me.

All in all, the pilgrimage with 206 Tours was, as always, a beautiful and enriching experience for me.

Therefore, I look forward to leading Tour # 40: Fatima, Spain, Lourdes, Lisieux and Paris (August 7-20, 2022).
I hope the preparations for this departure go as planned and I’ll be able to set out for the next pilgrimage with you.

I keep all 206 Tours Team in my prayers!

In Christ,
Fr. Piotr

Hi Liz and Natasha,

Sorry for the late reply. I just want to let you know that this trip more than met my expectations and that I will be highly recommending 206 Tours to others. This was my first time going to the Holy Land (and on an overseas tour for that matter), so I really can’t compare it to another time, but I got the sense that we had some divine assistance along the way based on how everything just fell into place for us given all that is going on in the Holy Land and the World right now (I mean we had time to sing Silent Night at the spot where Jesus was born with no one else around. I could see that even Giovanni couldn’t believe it!) And to this last point, Giovanni is the absolute best!!

Thank you again for a life-changing experience and God Bless you all!

Sincerely in Christ,
Deacon Peter

p.s. did I mention that Giovanni is the absolute best!!

Hi Cara,
Better late than never! I am sorry it has taken such a long time to respond to you regarding our trip. It was UNBELIEVABLE!! Probably not an hour goes by without my thinking of the experience. On so many levels it was excellence. 206 Tours and your command of our trip was remarkable. Everything was excellence!
We had an outstanding group-so compatible in every way. Your organization and selection of hotels, the guides, stupendous, our schedule, restaurants – just everything!
May I call you tomorrow morning? Would love to have a personal conversation to relay my thanks,

Patty

Good Morning Liz,

The entire pilgrimage was a superb experience! Great pilgrimage leaders (Deacon John Hunt, Deacon Peter Richardson and Bishop Robert Hennessey) and an absolutely outstanding tour guide (Giovanni?). Hotel accommodations, meals and travel schedule management within the Holy Land were all first rate. Given that Israel is just coming out of Covid, we toured all sites with very little competition from other tour groups. Even the weather cooperated. In addition, given that it was a relatively small group (about 20 of us), we all had the opportunity to get to know each other very well and became a spiritual family as the week went on.

Without a doubt, our faith has grown significantly as a result of this pilgrimage. Thanks to you, Natasha and the entire 206 team for providing us with the trip of a lifetime !

Best,

Jane and John Morency

Thank you for a wonderful pilgrimage.
Quico was an amazing tour guide. He was professional at all times.
He was incredible as he shared his knowledge, information, dates, spirituality, etc.
Quico is a bright young man with a personality type that he was able to communicate with a variety of pilgrims of all ages and walks of life.
He was aware of all of the pilgrims physical limitations, habits, needs, personalities, and provided all of us with a very safe environment.
Most informative pilgrimage out of the 8 I have been on.
The swag (206tour bags, etc) were used and enjoyed by all. Excellent quality!!!
I will continue to advertise 206tours by using my gifts you provided. Thank you!
I will highly recommend 206Tours to all of my friends and acquaintances!!!

Cheryl Hungate

Greetings, 206Tours team. . .

We have returned home from our March 2022 pilgrimage to the Holy Land. It is hard to put in words all the wonderful memories we made while on this pilgrimage. Sa’id Mreibe’ was an excellent guide! His knowledge of the history of the Holy Land was phenomenal. He had a way of weaving that history with our Catholic faith. Sa’id’s attention to every detail and need was sincerely appreciated. He took excellent care of us on our pilgrimage while Ashoor (our bus driver) amazed us each day with his excellent driving skills.

Fr. Bob Newbury was a joy to have on our pilgrimage. He was excellent as our spiritual guide while being someone who fit in as one of the pilgrims. We look forward to continuing our relationship with Fr. Bob.

I must also mention our sincere appreciation of Lufti (the young man who picked us up at the Tel Aviv airport). Paul had inadvertently misplaced his phone in the airport which he discovered after we were outside of security at the baggage claim area. Lufti navigated the process of locating and retrieving Paul’s phone which we feel was a miracle! Without his kind, patient tenacity, the phone would have been forever lost.

We truly look forward to participating in another 206 Tour. You all are the best!

Sincere regards,

Jeanne and Paul

Hello Cara.
Thanks very much for the follow up.

As you know, our pilgrimage was very much anticipated by everyone, and we had high hopes when we put this together.
I have to say that you and Giovanni and Suliman definitely exceeded expectations on virtually every level.
We all had an extraordinary experience that created life changing moments with really no hiccups.
You were always very attentive, timely and responsive.
Giovanni was over the top. Without question the best guide we have ever had in our many international travels. He has a gift.
The accommodations we all very comfortable/nice and the drivers were each very responsible and courteous.
Fr John was an amazing spiritual guide, and all our daily mass locations were prepared nicely and provided very special liturgies.

Bottom line – we will be recommending 206 Tours to everyone we know and I’m pretty sure we would like to travel with you again.
Thanks for everything you did to make our experiences so special.

Cheers,
Mz

Mike Zoellner

It was a well done pilgrimage. The small group responded and shared with interest.
The communication within was soon established and we felt at ease from the first day.
Spiritual activities were well timed – all services excellent.
Fr. Ferruccio

Trip was awesome! 206 (Said and Father Bob) were the perfect team…knowledgeable, efficient, and we were never disappointed in accommodations and food.

I have 2 comments for improvement:
1. Our Covid tests prior to departure were supposed to have passports on the results. Many of us could not accomplish this. If 206 is going to continue to strongly push this, it will help if you can find testing cites that can accommodate this requirement. Otherwise I recommend you soften the language in the final paperwork to a suggestion as opposed required.

2. Avoid using Austrian Airlines whenever possible. They were horrible. The worst was, after checking our bags, going through multiple security checks, I was told I needed an N-95 mask at boarding time. I was lucky that another passenger had a spare otherwise they were not letting me on the plane. The company should’ve given more notice to this requirement… you don’t wait until boarding time to drop a bomb like that. I flew Lufthansa on the last leg of my trip and I felt like I went from a Hyundai to a Cadillac.

Otherwise I just feel so blessed that I went, that I had such a great group, that we had Said and father Bob leading us…just couldn’t have been any better.

Vr,
Greg Fisher

Dear Rinda,

Having recently returned from Medjugorje after our 206 Pilgrimage tour from the 10-18 March my first comment is that of thanks for having been offered the opportunity to lead a tour and also thanks for the pilgrims of the previous tours I have led to Fatima and Lourdes who encouraged me to place this jewel of the Marian Crown to my continued growth in the knowledge of the immense love that the Immaculate Heart has for each of us. Truly this pilgrimage brought together some of the most devout souls who had a deep desire to experience this affirming and restoring love that we all need in our lives, I saw among them great courage, devotion and persistence in beseeching the intercession of Our Blessed Mother in their lives and indeed for the world. Leading such a group is more of a challenge in Medjugorje because the focus on the usual affairs such as Mass and times for prayer are amply supplied by St. James Church and the enthusiastic worshipers who display welcome and gracious spirits to all pilgrims. The accommodations provided were a key part of a time of rest and stressless movement to local events as being in the centre of town was a great blessing that allowed pilgrims to participate at their own pace. Meals were excellent and provided with the flexibility that allowed pilgrims complete access to local devotions and events.

Of course none of this would have been possible without the wisdom and knowledge of Slavanka who is a well known and loved member of the Medjugorje community. Indeed her intimate relationship with the visionaries and local pastors afforded us many blessings that few would receive. She went above and beyond in assisting us to accomplish what ever we needed help with. Also I now have a real experience of the origin of the company name “206 Tours” and understand better the implications. The staff at 206 also assisted pilgrims with the unfortunate circumstance of luggage problems during the influx of travel in Europe during this period.

Finally let me not to forget to thank the Lord for keeping us free from any threat of violence during this turbulent time in world history, we were truly under an open Heaven constantly being cared for by Our Blessed Mother.

Yours Truly

Fr. John

Recently concluded our, my wife and I, Guadalupe Pilgrimage. we have a better understanding of Our Lady of Guadalupe. i grew up knowing Our Lady of Fatima as I went to elementary and high school at Our Lady of Fatima Academy, a Catholic school. We did did the Marian Tour last year with 206 Tours, visiting Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal and Our Lady of Lourdes in France. In Mexico, Javier Garcia, our tour guide, gave us a comprehensive history of Our Lady of Guadalupe by talking about the various aspects of how it came to be, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Juan Diego, the Bishop, Juan’s uncle Juan Bernardo, persecution of Catholics in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution and the anti-Catholic movement in the early 1900s. Grateful to be part of Guadalupe Pilgrimage, Feb. 24 to March 1.

Sincerely,

Chicpaul and Carmelita Becerra
Victorville, California

Dear Natasha and Alex

I hope all is well!

We wanted to thank you for the beautiful Marian Pilgrimage that you have planned for us, we have no words to express how grateful we are !!

It was a wonderful experience. The hotels and the food were excellent, our drivers Pedro from Salamanca and Hugo from Lisboa were very kind and professional. Our tour guides Javi and Filipe were amazing!!!! We can’t thank you enough.

We love all the places that we visited, we learned a lot. We had a spiritual experience and this pilgrimage touched our lives in so many ways! We enjoyed every minute.

Please call me when you have a minute so we can start planning our pilgrimage to Israel 2023!

May God continue blessing you and the 206 tours family!
Please thank Milanka from all of us.

Xo

Arlyn

Dear Milanka,

Greetings!
We returned last night from again a well organized tour to the Holy Land. Also on behalf of Gabriele and the other participants, thank you! All went very well and the weather until the last day was excellent. Your guide Rami took good care of us. Its always a great joy to experience the amazing service of 206tours and its partners. We pray for a continued blessing of all you do.

With much love and God bless!
Fr. Guido

Hi Natasha and Alex

I hope all is well with you and your family !

We wanted to thank you and your team for an amazing pilgrimage! We had a wonderful time and we were so blessed during all these days and felt the presence of God on our hearts!
You were on our prayers.
Javier, Filipe and our drivers were amazing, as well as the local guides.
We can’t express our gratitude to all of you!

May God bless you always,

Arlyn

God bless You. Fascinating pilgrimage, unspecting blessings, the fraternity of the group and of guides as well; programming to go with you on my next trip. 🙏

Teresa De Moya