Fátima Tours in October 2026

The highlights of the trip were Fatima, Lourdes and Barcelona. The flight from Boston to Zurich was not very comfortable at all. The approach to solving our flight from Zurich to Portugal was disconcerting. A call was placed to the emergency number for Collette and we waited for a call back. Father Ray had to solve the issue of getting 40 people to Portugal on his own. Very stressful for both Father Ray and the rest of the pilgrims.

I have been on many Collette tours, and I would say, while I enjoyed this tour, there were a couple of details that were disappointing, and I found to be outside the norm for a Collette tour. First - the excellent. Collette never disappoints when it comes to the location of the accommodations. We were always within quick walking distance to the highlights of the tour - Fatima and Lourdes especially. Barcelona accommodations were in an excellent place albeit not close to the historical city. The location in Barcelona still provided us ample options for dining. The local tour guides were outstanding as they have always been. They provide color and depth to the history of each place and that is greatly appreciated. Lourdes was a majestic place, and we were provided ample time to take it all in. Unfortunately, our tour manager was not what I have come to expect with a Collette tour. While a very pleasant person, there were times she was not clear with her communication or directions which created confusion with the large group. I was disappointed in the optional tour to Lisbon. We did not have a local guide, and our tour manager was not informative in an interesting way to learn about the history of Lisbon as a local guide may have provided. It felt very much like we were just walking/driving through a large city.

You would think that so many sites in one day is not possible, but it is possible in this more than full day trip. Our guide/driver (Joao/John) would give some background information in the car before arrival at a site and explain the main things to see once there. After that there was enough time to walk around on your own, take pictures etc. He was always willing to answer questions and is a good driver. The sites are very impressive, each in their own way. After all the churches, chapels and monasteries, the medieval town of bidos is a very nice final stop. We were only 4 people on the tour, so almost private. Very good deal for the price.

I particularly liked Lourdes and the Grotto for my personal experience. Fatima was interesting too. The EXPERT tour guides were very knowledgeable and kind. Most of the dinners were wonderful. Enjoyed the shopping (but not much time to do so). The Gothic quarters extra excursion and dinner were poor. Cathedral was closed. Tour guide pushy, arrogant and uninformed. Montserrat mountains were amazing. No time to take the cable cars through them and only 20 minutes to shop use the rest room and grab some lunch.

We started out with a wonderful tour guide but he had a dental issue and had a friend take over the tour. He was neither familiar with the tour nor did he try to get himself acclimated ahead of time. I’m sure it was very short notice for him but there was free time during the tour that he could have tried to familiarize himself with the places we were going to beforehand so we weren’t searching for them like we did. I don’t think it was necessary for all 40 of us to be using a map, the tour guide should know where he is going especially on the premises of Lourdes. The meals that were at the restaurants were much better than those at the hotels and restaurants stops, would appreciate more of those. When I go to Europe I like to immerse myself more in the city. Also, we were very disappointed that we did not get into see La Sagrada Famillia . That was to be the highlight for us, and since we booked the trip back in March the tickets should have been secured early on. The return flight was canceled due to the hurricane which was unfortunate but we should have been able to deal with it on a case by case basis instead of as a group! Just for that reason, I would have no interest in doing such a large group tour again! We started out as 34 and Collette added even more , 6 more to our tour to fill the bus. That was a lot of people to keep track of and added a lot of time in rest stops and breaks.