Parietti Tours World Youth Day 2023 pilgrimage tour from Seattle
We are organizing our 4th World Youth Day (WYD) pilgrimage tour to Europe for next summer. WYD takes place in Europe usually every 6 years. In 2023 it will be August 1-6. Our past trips have been 17, 15 and 14 nights in Europe.
WYD is for 14-30 years olds, although their website mentions they will be a bit flexible if you are a year or two on either side of that age. WYD 1993 Denver ages were 13-35, so we possibly might accept 13 year olds. I have taken a total of twenty-four 14 and 15 years olds on my previous trips. We use the Seattle Archdiocese standard of 1 chaperone for every 6 kids under 18.
Unlike other Tour Operators, we offer a sliding price scale to help make it affordable for more pilgrims.
FOR THOSE WHO ARE INTERESTED IN GOING
We have two itineraries to choose from:
- Spain/Portugal – July 23 to August 9 – Barcelona (1 night), Montserrat, on the way to Zaragoza (1 night), Zaragoza, Avila (1 night), Salamanca, Madrid (2 nights), Toledo, Granada (1 night), Cordoba, Sevilla (2 nights), Lisbon WYD (6 nights), Fatima (1 night), Lisbon (1 night). Airfare from Seattle is ~$1,700. Estimated Land Only price for 16 nights: 25 pax ~$3,200/ pax; 30 pax ~$3,000/pax; 40 pax ~$2,700/pax; 50 pax ~$2,550.
- Rome – July 31 to August 16-18 (16 – 17 nights) – WYD (6 nights), Fatima (1 night), Avila (1 night), Lourdes (2 nights), Nimes (1 night), Florence (2 nights), Rome (3 nights) (if 17 nights can add a night in Spain, Assisi or Rome). For those interested in this itinerary, adjustments can still be made to the cities we will be overnighting or stopping at. For example, since we are doing Fatima, we could just do one night in Lourdes and only do a stop in Nimes to enable us to overnight 2-3 hours closer to Florence, making the next day’s drive that much shorter. Airfare from Seattle is <$1,300. Estimated Land Only price for 16 nights: 20 pax $3,500/ pax; 25 pax $3,200/pax; 30 pax =$3,000/pax; 40 pax =$2,750/pax.
Prices include: Priest, Motorcoach transportation, Lodging (WYD lodging which is sleeping on school or church floors), WYD fees, all breakfasts and dinners plus WYD lunches), entry fees, guided tours, tips to Tour Guides and Motorcoach Driver.
Estimates are conservative, so the prices should go down. We will know the exact price after I get a motorcoach contract and book the hotels.
Itinerary #1 is a go, working on revised itinerary as listed above.
Itinerary #2 will depend upon if we get at least 8 people. We can do vans/trains like we did in WYD 2016. A van of eight should cost $3,400 or less + ~$1,300 airfare. Two vans with 16 paying should be $3,150 or less + airfare. To include a priest with 15 paying should be $3,400 or less + airfare.
If a potential pilgrim can’t raise enough money for the whole tour, but wants to just go to WYD, it could be possible to piggy-back on our trip. Depending upon if they need a chaperone or not and whether they come with us to Fatima it would be approximately $500-1,000 plus airfare.
A $200 deposit holds your spot. This is fully refundable up to 5 months prior to departure.
Our payment policy is very flexible to enable kids to have a chance to fund-raise the money. After the deposit, the next scheduled payment will be $300 in January to cover the WYD fees. For those who aren’t quite sure if they are going, we will hold off paying the WYD fees as they are non-refundable. If we have paid them and you cancel 91 days prior to departure, if we find someone to take the cancelled person’s place, we refund the $300.
A potential pilgrim can cancel up to 91 days prior to departure and only lose up to $500 (if we can’t find someone else to use the WYD fee).
Fill out the Contact Form, send an e-mail to info@PariettiTours.com or give us a call if you are interested and/or you need more information.
If you know of anybody who is interested in going, please pass this on to them.
God Bless,
Paul
