World Youth Day 2008 - Sydney, Australia

For the past five World Youth Days; Manila, Paris, Rome, Toronto & Cologne, Unitours has been intimately involved in sending Catholic pilgrims from around the U.S. to these wonderful destinations.

Thousands of Unitours' WYD participants have hailed each endeavor a success. In operation under the same ownership and management since 1957, Unitours is one of the most highly respected names in Catholic Pilgrimages and tours.

Now World Youth Day will be held in wonderful Sydney, Australia in July 2008. This is fortuitous as Australia is a wonderful country with so very much to see and just as we had our own European staff handle all of the details in Paris, Rome and Cologne, once again Sydney based partners with whom we and our sister companies have worked for many years will handle all of the local arrangements with the same high quality and attention to detail for which the Unitours family is known and our clients expect. This means local Sydney travel professionals will handle the temporal details of your World Youth Day experience so that you, the group leaders can focus on pastoring your World Youth Day participants.

In addition, we have already had one meeting with the World Youth Day Sydney Committee staff who promise their complete cooperation in making certain Unitours is intimately aware of all of the WYD details to make your pilgrimage a success. The Sydney Committee assures us that their City's vast experience gained from hosting the 2000 Olympics and many other large and World Class events will result in a well managed event.

Flexibility: We have learned over the past World Youth Day experiences, that group leaders want flexibility in making their own World Youth Day plans. Typically, this applies to hotel selection and location, meal plans and extensions. However, Australia is unique and combined with our many years of World Youth Day experience, we have done our homework and know what will work for you. Thus, rather than lock you into rigid “take it or leave it” programs, we allow you to build your own program with several options. We start with our very comprehensive eight-night central Sydney hotel and breakfast package at only $2,399 triple/quad occupancy from Los Angeles and economical fares will be available from many other U.S. gateways as well.

Days in the Diocese : In cooperation with the WYD Committee, Unitours shares in the enthusiasm for our pilgrims participating in the Days in the Diocese that are being offered by Parishes throughout Australia. As in the past, we expect each Diocese involved to offer to host your group for a period of time in which the hosts will provide lodging and food plus exciting events leading up to the actual beginning of World Youth Day. While we at Unitours are not involved in these specific arrangements which will be made through the WYD Committee in Sydney, we will accommodate your group’s decision to participate by arranging for transportation between your home, your host diocese and back home from Sydney. Of course costs will depend on the distances involved. If you plan to be involved in this aspect of WYD, we suggest you contact the 2008 Committee of WYD Sydney when they have such details available. (Click here for link to their official web site)

Guaranteed departures: For individuals, family groups and smaller groups, we will offer the basic program and certain extensions with guaranteed departures regardless of your number of participants.

Client Comments – In 2005, Unitours hosted several thousand pilgrims for the Cologne World Youth Day. Click HERE to read comments of some of the host leaders who participated with us.