Christian Church Group Travel Guide in 3 Easy Steps!
How To Organize your Christian Group Travel
Planning a trip for your Christian church group and unsure where to start? You’re not alone. Many churches travel in groups to places like Israel, Turkey, Greece and Italy on Holy Land tours, Footsteps of Paul cruises, and Christian tours of Europe every year. Planning an event like this for the first time can be intimidating and leave group leaders frustrated and uncertain. Here are 3 practical steps to take when making your Christian church group travel plans.
1.) Assess interest within your congregation: Churches who don’t assess interest before setting up a trip can either be happily surprised or sadly disappointed by the response of their congregation to go on a group trip. Instead of waiting until you have a Holy Land Tour or Footsteps of Paul cruise completely organized, ask your church for sign-ups, it can be helpful to assess interest first. Some churches access interest within Bible Study groups or make a church announcement, requesting that anyone interested in joining the group give the appointed leader their name and email, so organizers can get an estimate on how many people want to go. Also, by getting emails right away, it will be much easier to communicate travel details as you plan your trip!
2.) Decided where you’d like to go: Decide what type of trip your church would like to take. For instance, would you church like to focus primarily on the Holy Land of Israel, making your trip a land tour? Or instead, take a cruise exploring Turkey, Greece and Italy in the footsteps of Paul? There are even week long tours available to Egypt, to study the Exodus, or Ethiopia, where the Ark of the Covenant is believed to be kept today.
3.) Find the right Christian Travel Agency: Finding the right company to organize your group travel plans can be a daunting task. How do you know what company to choose? First, find 3-5 Christian group travel companies via searching the internet. When calling around to these different travel companies you’ll want to know:
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- What size ship do they use – a small, luxury ship or a large commercial ship?
- What Bible locations can they offer you?
- What is the price per passenger, including the fine print (fees and transfers)?
- What’s included – does the “per person price” includes airfare and hotels?
- Does the group leader travel for free?
- Is there a minimum group size required?
Once you know these things, you can choose a Christian travel company based on what your group values most (price, accommodations, quality/quantity of Bible sites, etc). This article titled “Insiders Scoop on Church Group Travel” includes more information about Christian group travel.
To learn what Living Passages Cruises & Tours can do for your group, visit our church group travel page or call us at: 888-771-8717 for a quote and group travel details.