Lourdes, Guided Walking Tour in the Sanctuary

I thought this tour was fantastic. We were in a small group of 7 (our English speaking tour party of 3 joined with Spanish speaking tour party of 4) and Veronique could not have been a more fantastic guide. She jumped easily between languages, was so knowledgeable and had lots of top tips for our travel beyond the sanctuary itself. The sanctuary is beautiful, beyond my wildest expectations. I cannot rate this tour highly enough.

Veronica was a wonderful guide. She was able to easily switch between two languages within our group and provided us all with the stories and history of the sanctuary. We appreciated her insight.

We have to drive from Zaragoza, Spain To Lourdes France. But we made it thanks to Josrph our tour guide that made it happen. A very knowledgeable and professional and friendly fellow.

Our guide Veronica was born in Lourdes. Having grown up she has experienced all the wealth of faith in this area. She was very knowledgeable, answered all our questions and gave a thorough view of St Bernadette.

2 star hotels. Closed restaurants closed vandalised hotels, cheap tacky shops selling tat. Shirkankin and Indian cuisine is predominant. Religion and it's beliefs exploited. Simply a dreadful place to visit. Perhaps the wealthy catholic church needs to spend some of its money here.

Guide did not show up. We drove 3 hours to visit the sanctuary. Got to meeting place early. Tried calling contact no answer tried calling guide booking spoke with representative who tried to reach contact with no answer. Then customer got cut off and sent an email saying here is a link to audio. Total scam feeling. Also ruined are day. Booked through trip advisor but subcontracted out.

Very good experience with a highly recommended guide, a very interesting tour between monuments and history.

KIJK NIET NAAR DE DOOR DE OPERATOR BIJGEPLAATSTE FOTOS WANT DAAR KLOPT HELEMAAL NIKS VAN. Je gaat niet door een bos wandelen en je ziet al die beelden helemaal niet. ZWAAR teleurgesteld. Wat een volksverlakkerij. Wij kwamen op tijd op de ontmoetingsplaats maar wisten niet waaraan we eleven gids moesten herkennen. Het bleek een aardige goed engels sprekende man te zijn, maar zijn naam kregen we niet mee. De gids wist veel te vertellen over Bernadette en de crypte. Hij was vriendelijk naar iedereen in de groep die op zich leuk was. We zagen de grot, de kraantjes, het park aan de overkant, de kaarsenruimte en dan nog de ondergrondse betonkerk (vreselijke ruimte helemaal geen kerksfeer). En toen was het afgelopen. We waren niet eens in de basiliek du Rosaire geweest... Afgaande op de omschrijving en de foto's die bij de boeking zaten, voelden wij ons flink opgelicht. 50 euro per person voor iets wat je MAKKELIJK zelf en zonder gids kunt doen. In zeker die volkomen onjuiste foto's die heel duidelijk aangeven dat je een wandeling in de natuur daar doet waar I allerlei heiligenbeelden en bijzondere plekken gaat zien. Niets van dat alles is waar. Het zijn lokkertjes en het is compleet fout. Oh ja, nog even een waarschuwing: HONDEN ZIJN NIET WELKOM! Dat is wel iets wat ook vermeld moet worden. Wij wisten het niet en juist omdat we dachten een mooie wandeling te kunnen maken, hadden we eleven twee Shelties mee. Maar die moesten noodgedwongen in eleven auto blijven. Nogmaals: de gids was een aardige en vertellende man, de groep was heel erg leuk. Maar wat je krijgt voor 50 euro per person, kun je net zo goed uit een boekje halen en zeker overal waar we naar binnen gingen, kun je zonder enige betaling helemaal zelf ook doen. Wij voelden ons echt opgelicht. Geen wonder dat niemand de gids een foi gaf... iedereen voelde zich opgelicht. Dat is niet by schuld van de gids. Maar wel van de organisatie die yesterday buy zit. Waardeloos. DO NOT LOOK AT THE PHOTOS ADDED BY THE OPERATOR, AS THEY DO NOT CORRESPOND TO THE REALITY. You don’t walk in a forest and you absolutely don’t see all these images. VERY disappointed. What a scam! We arrived on time at the meeting point, but we did not know what our guide looked like. He was a friendly man who spoke good English, but we did not remember his name. The guide told us a lot about Bernadette and the crypt. He was friendly with everyone in the group, which was nice in itself. We saw the cave, the taps, the park on the other side, the candle room and then the underground concrete church (a horrible place, without any church atmosphere). And then it was over. We hadn't even been to the Rosary Basilica... Seeing the description and photos provided at the time of booking, we felt completely deluded. 50 euros per person for something you can EASILY do yourself and without a guide. Especially these totally misleading photos that clearly imply that it is a walk in nature where we will discover all kinds of statues of saints and unusual places. None of this is true. It's just advertising bait and it's completely false. Oh yes, one more little warning: DOGS ARE NOT WELCOME! This is something that should also be mentioned. We didn't know and it was precisely because we thought we could take a nice walk that we took our two Shelties. But they had to stay in our car. Again: the guide was a friendly and eloquent man, and the group was very pleasant. But what we get for 50 euros per person, we could just as easily read in a tourist guide; and above all, wherever we entered, we could have done it ourselves without paying a cent. We really felt cheated. No wonder no one tipped the guide... everyone felt cheated. It's not the guide's fault. But the organization behind it. No.

The guide was lovely, however, we were not able to hear everything clearly because we were not provided microphones as in other groups tours.

We had a wonderful experience with Joseph! He walked at our pace, was informative and thoughtful. Excellent tour and guide for overview and some details of Lourdes and St Bernadette.