Pilgrim Tours Omdömen 1 722

Transfers were handled easily
Accomodations were very nice, clean and safe
Dinner was not included the last two days
We were told we'd have to walk 3 miles a day but three days it was 6
A Christian tour should have Christian tour guides
We were promised adjoining rooms and sometimes weren't even on the same floor
We had to leave early the last day because someone else had an earlier flight
One morning we had to get up at 3am to make a flight

Excellent experience and It's my safety tour thanks a lot every pilgrimage tour members 👍🏻😊

We were slated to go to Israel with Pilgrim Tours. Then the war broke out, so we quickly changed course and booked the Costa Rica Tour. We were told that our "tour" would be very intimate since there would only be 5 people on the tour. The communication from PT before the tour was great. The what to pack and how to be prepared was very helpful. Unfortunately, our "tour" had a few mishaps. We paid for airport transfers to/from the airport. The other couple on our tour arrived at the San Jose an hour earlier than us. It took them an hour to clear customs and they were supposed to wait for us and we would all be transported to the hotel together. Unfortunately, customs had a shift change at 3:00 p.m. and closed all but one line. By the time we made it through customs 2 hours later, our driver was no where to be found. We did find out that it was not PT fault. Our other couple on the tour was tired of waiting and demanded to be taken to the hotel. PT did refund our transfer fee. However, much stress and angst could have been avoided had the driver contacted us to let us know. We ended up having to pay $50 for the Verizon travel pass because of all the phone calls we needed to make to PT and the Costa Rican Travel company. All of our pre-trip documentation stated we would have a guide. We found out after the day 2 that this was not so. PT contracted with a Costa Rican travel company and we had a dedicated driver for the hotel to hotel and hotel to airport. Everything else we farmed out to Costa Rican public tours. I wish we would have been informed of this. The pre-tour information was vague. The information from the Costa Rica travel company was detailed, however, we didn't receive that until Day 2. Again, much angst could have been avoided with more communication if we would have had the detail before departure. We also paid $125/per person for a tour which the Costa Rican Travel company had no knowledge of. PT did refund our money for that. Pilgrim Tours was very apologetic about all the mishaps, however, much could have been avoided with more clarity and communication. Costa Rica was beautiful and despite the mishaps I'm glad we went. The hotels and food that are included with the tour are fabulous.

I would highly recommend the 16 day tour of the seven churches of Revelation in Turkey and the footsteps of Paul. This was a trip of a lifetime! Pilgrim Tours took care of everything! They are very Professional and Knowledgeable! Absolutely Loved Every Minute! Looking forward to my next trip with Pilgrim Tours!

Despite the tensions with Hamas and the missile attack by Iran while we were in Israel, we NEVER felt unsafe and our tour guide was superb with finding alternate sites for us to visit when normal sites were considered too risky. We trusted Pilgram Tour implicitly to ensure our safety and they did. They were very helpful and reassuring to our daughter, who was terrified for our safely after the attacks (not realizing we were well north of that area), and even contacted us to ensure that all was well. We do not regret at all going to Israel when we did. And the balance of the trip (Turkey and Greece) were all led by extremely knowledgeable and helpful tour guides.

We had the most amazing time on our 10 day Israel tour. The guide assigned to us was extremely knowledgeable which helped us fully grasp the entire history of the areas toured from Bible times to present. She directed us to Bible passages that related to what we were seeing so we could fully understand the significance of each location in history. She also arranged for topic specific experts to teach us and answer our questions at special locations.

The Jewish people expressed great gratitude that we would come to Israel during such a time as this, and we were treated like kings. We were even welcomed with open arms by the Christians in Palestinian controlled Bethlehem. Contrary to the news in America of the conflict, we felt absolutely safe.
We will definitely use Pilgrim Tours again.

I would leave 6 stars but I can't. We have been on tour 3 times to Israel with Pilgrim Tours and every time has been over the top.we have great transportation, 5 star hotels, and educated guides. In our 3 trips we have not had any complaints and we went at the end of covid and this time during war! We were always safe. We never felt afraid and would go back, well actually we are already planning our 4th trip! We love Pilgrim Tours

Israel was a trip of a life time and a dream come true. With all the political unrest and the war going on we decided to keep our plans to travel anyway under the guidance of God Almighty. The areas that we visited were very calmed without incidences. I only heard on television that there was a war, but physically I hadn’t seen any evidence of it.
Upon arrival we were picked up from the airport in Tel Aviv and driven to Netanya to our first hotel where the adventures would start. The trip was a sublime experience. Everywhere I went was filled with rich history whether biblically or historically or culturally. I enjoyed all the places I visited. There’s so much to see and learn from. In the future I would plan another trip there again to continue the visit.

Our guide Mickey Nikolaev was the best. Boy! This man knows his stuff. Not only understands his own culture and history but also the international politics and culture ones too. He made each stop easy to understand by mentally preparing us with a brief passage from the Bible to enlightened the sites and proof of what had happened then. I truly appreciated his help and because of his vast knowledge and ease of explanation I came back home with a better understand of the locations mentioned in the Bible. He was the best guide I’ve ever had. Pilgrim Tour would need to clone him and put him on each bus tour.

Unfortunately tourism is at its lowest there, because of that many places were closed. But on the lighter side it was good for us not to have to wait in lines at all and have great pictures without strangers photo bombing either. That was a plus for all of us. No one hour or more wait in the heat.
The hotels were ok. The first two we went to were packed with refugees. However the last hotel Leonardo Plaza in Jerusalem which was the nicest of all three had an A/C issued. A few of us in my group tried to set it up to a comfortable setting but none of them worked. When we mentioned it to the employees they just told us to turn it off. It was so cold that it felt like being in an igloo. So one day we turned it off but when we got back to the room it smell damped and muggy so we had to turn it back on and suffer through the cold. The hotel needs to fix its thermostat or pilgrim will need to address the issue with them. Other than that everything else was pleasant throughout the trip. I will go back again when time allows.

Going to Israel was a chance of a lifetime treat. We were very nervous about the civil unrest that we were seeing on the news and I know some US based corporations had stopped travel to Israel for their employees, so we knew that some of the US news had elements of truth. After talking to Matt and a traveler from the late February trip, we decided to trust in God for our safety and “go for it”
Our first day in Israel was in Netanya and when we went to a local restaurant the owner came and thanked us for visiting Israel and made a significant point as to how the tourism industry had been hit so hard and for so long. From that point onward we recognized the scarcity of tourists and began to appreciate the small (or non-existing) crowds. Because of the low tourism we were able to see about 20% more sites, and we stood in one or two lines the whole time we were there, and even those lines were no more than 10 minutes long. Often our bus was the ONLY bus in the parking lot.
Mickey was an excellent guide being able to share the Jewish history and the Christian significance of each site since he is a Messianic Jew. His understanding of history, scripture and political climate was bar none and he was always open to answering any questions.
There was only one visit that I felt was outstandingly poor and that was The Jerusalem New Souvenir Store which specialized in olive wood carvings. The prices were absolutely outrageous.
At the end of the trip, I was looking forward to coming home as the taking in of all that we had seen and heard was a lot to process. I have felt sorry for the Israeli tourism industry because I really did feel that it was safe in the areas that we visited. After all Pilgrim has every interest in keeping their groups safe.
Once home, I don’t think I will ever read the Bible again but what I will have a mental picture of the places and things that we saw. My objective in being able to get a lay of the land and appreciate the size and proximity of the towns and countryside was absolutely met.
May 2024

Excellent trip and first class experience also customer service was always there to answer any questions

co-led a tour of Turkey, the Islands, and Greece for our St. Stephen's University (SSU.CA) travel module for two weeks. The attendees described it as the trip of a lifetime, featuring amazing bucket-list sites, VERY warm and knowledgeable guides, and Pilgrim Tour's ability to create a fast and flexible solution when we faced a city-wide bus, taxi, and Uber strike on the day we needed to get to the airport.

We have been with Pilgrim many times, found this same consistency, and when our previous trip was cancelled due to COVID, they are able to recover for more of our deposits than was their obligation under the contract.

This last trip was so good that one of our attendees immediately booked two more tours with them. We have shopped around for alternatives before, but clearly won't need to do that in the future.

Thank you for making our tour-Nov 23-30, 2023 an amazing experience! Not once, from landing in Cairo until we departed from Amman did we feel unsafe. We couldn’t have asked for better guides or drivers, they took care of everything, from our border crossings to checking us in at Amman airport. We loved being a part of the different cultures, seeing the Deserts of Egypt, Mt Sinai, the Red Sea, Mt Nebo, brought the exodus of the children of Israel alive. We are thankful we went, thankful for the dedicated services provided and encourage others to take the tour! Your guides are waiting and will give you an incredible experience! David & Lily Bear - Ohio

What an amazing experience! Our guide, Roman, was very knowledgeable and made history come alive. A great way to experience the history of the Bible. Would definitely use Pilgrim Tours again!

Pilgrim did an incredible job from before we ever booked until after the trip with their follow up and incredible service. We did the 10 day Israel tour but wish we had added the exodus. Will use them again.

I have taken two tours with Pilgrim and both tours were exceptional! Their guides are very knowledgeable and the buses were very nice and comfortable. I highly recommend Pilgrim Tours.

Just returned from the 12 day Israel Superior tour. Our tour guide Olga was great. Very knowledgeable and able to quickly juggle our schedule into new interesting sites when a rockslide forced temporary cancellation of Masada, which we then got to see later

The trip was well organized. Our arrival at the airport to our departure after 10 days. The hotels wel good. Their food was excellent. The best part our our trip was the tour guide. She was the best of the best. She was excellent. She deserves more the a five stars. Thanks for making our trip a success and we wish to have you again as our tour guide next year.

If we were just reviewing the Israeli staff, we would give 5 stars. However, the actions of the US staff diminished the rating. The Israeli staff hired by Pilgrim Tours was exceptional. Our guide Katherine, was passionate about her topics of discussion, knowledgeable, talented and compassionate. She made our tour such a joy; it was both an inspirational and thought-provoking experience. Likewise, our guide in Bethlehem, Lahdo, was excellent. He went above and beyond to help those in our group who had mobility issues see the places we visited in comfort. Our bus driver, Bassam, was also a blessing to our group. Besides being an excellent driver who could impressively navigate the large bus through very tight places, he was knowledgeable of the area and helped us find the best places to enter our sites so everyone was able to participate.

On the other hand, our experience with the US staff at Pilgrim tours was a “Comedy of Errors” at best, and frustratingly incompetent at worst. Many mistakes were made by employees of Pilgrim. I will highlight some here. The price of our tour was raised $100 at the time our final payment was due. We were told this was because they no longer honor the discount for early booking when you have a group going, although this information is not posted on their website or in any literature, and was confirmed by our assigned Travel Advisor. This cost several in our group a $100 penalty when they had to cancel the tour. If you have a group, we recommend waiting until the final payment deadline to book in case you need to cancel.

Other mistakes involved errors with booking transfers and errors with the instructions given for tip money we were asked to carry for them. The quality of hotels was VERY low-end. Many in our group had more serious issues with our final hotel, the Leonardo Jerusalem. Problems ranged from bed bugs to drainage issues. The thermostat in our room didn’t work. The average temp in the room was 64 degrees F. When we asked for help we were told to turn off the unit when we were cold, and turn it on when we were hot. We did this all night long for 5 days.

We will not choose Pilgrim Tours again for any future travel. If you choose Pilgrim, be prepared for changes in price and watch very closely whenever they send documents to check for mistakes. You'll also want to double-check arrangements made for transfers. And you might want to request a different hotel than the Leonardo in Jerusalem.

Well, everything was okay except that I was made to have waited for 6 hours before I was collected at the airport, after making several calls to America from Turkey...
But the overall experience was very positive & powerful to have visited the 7-Churches that the God of the Bible told Jesus to Dictate to John the Revelator; to have seen Churches were St-John pastored & seen where St-Policarp pastored... And also for me to have slept in a hotel that I called {19-29} meaning that the hotel that I slept in Izmir was the tallest building that I have ever slept, "the 19th floor & in 20th room"; so I called my hotel 19-20... Overall, everything was ok, I'm looking forward to going to Greece this October, God-willing! {So, all I'll say to the organisers is: Press-On!

The Pilgrim Tours people are fantastic!

Our trip to the Holy Land and the "Steps of Paul" tour made reading the Bible come alive. The tour guides were well versed in the historical events that took place at each location.

The Pilgrim Tours management even followed up and contacted our group at one of the restaurants we were in and asked how we liked the tour so far. We had nothing but good things to say.

We had one of our group who had an minor accident in the airport and was having trouble walking. He really wanted to see one of the locations our tour was scheduled to see, but to get there, everyone had to walk. He could not keep up. One of the Pilgrim Tours people approached him and offered to take him there in a cab, which he accepted. When the presentation at that site concluded, this same Pilgrim Tours person, took him back to the hotel in a taxi. Pilgrim Tours went out of their way to ensure our satisfaction.

Our four in-country guides (Irite - Israel; "Shebee" - Turkey; Dimitri - Greece; Maria - Greece) were incredible.

They warned us when we were in semi-unsafe areas, gave us safety tips everywhere, answered ALL of our questions (or researched them and gave us the answer the next day), found us at each airport, made sure we got to the correct place in each airport when we were leaving.

Besides being very knowledgeable about the history of each place we visited, they were very kind and had a great sense of humor. We could not have asked for any better treatment. I cannot give Pilgrim Tours any higher recommendation ... they were GREAT! (And no, I am not working for Pilgrim Tours and they are NOT paying me for this commendation.)