About Catholic Trips
Catholic Trips corporate office is located in a wonderful farming community area known as the Illinois Valley, which is located in the small town of Spring Valley in the diocese of Peoria.
OUR MISSION statement is "To use this company as ministry for providing quality, affordable travel packages for Catholics, and at the same time, help generate money for the Catholic schools, newspapers, charities and other Catholic non-profit organizations in the diocese the travelers lives in."
WE ARE an innovative, progressive and experienced travel company.
JIM WEST, who is founder and CEO of the company brings over 23 years of experience in the travel industry. The entire staff of agents at Catholic Trips are all seasoned travel planners who are genuinely interested in seeing that your trip is the best it can possibly be.
OUR PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY is "plan each and every trip as if we were planning it for ourselves and our own families. Look for the best value, best price and exhaust every possibility before we arrive at the final vacation package."
WE BELIEVE Catholic Trips is God-inspired. We also believe that what we do is a ministry, using our gifts to serve Him. On our pilgrimages, we laugh, we hug, we pray, we may even shed a tear. We are a family and we open our arms and our hearts and invite you to be part of our family as well.
THANK YOU so much helping us help others. May God bless you on all your journeys through life.
Jim West
Personal cruise expert & event planner!
JIM WEST has been in the travel industry for 23 years and has organized cruises and tours for most of his life. His background as a Catholic stems from a large Catholic family in Spring Valley, Illinois. Jim attended the Catholic Consolidated School, St. Bede Academy and was an alter boy for six years. As an adult, he has coordinated weekends for Catholic High Schools and participated in many WATCH (We Are the Church) programs. Jim has also been certified in Basic Youth Ministry from the University in Steubenville, Ohio, has been a team leader on Cursillo weekends and has been actively involved in TEC (Teens Encounter Christ) for over 25 years.
In his professional career, Jim is one of the most sought-after cruise professionals and tour guides in North America and Ireland, where he now makes his home. As a Cruise Director for ten years, and having worked onboard the cruise ships of Celebrity Cruises, Princess Cruises, Orient Lines and Fantasy Cruises, Jim has logged over 1540 cruises in his nautical diary. He has sailed to all seven continents (including a three-week cruise to Antarctica with Sir Edmund Hillary), explored over 72 countries around the world, and has had the unique opportunity as a Cruise Director to fulfill the needs of over one million cruise passengers who sailed with him.
Jim is the author of four cruise/travel books: The Essential Little Cruise Book (now in its 4th edition and has received the honor of being rated the #1 cruise book 2005-2009 with www.amazon.com), CRUISE CONTROL-Secrets from a Cruise Director for the Perfect Cruise Vacation, Talk Like a Sailor on a Cruise Ship and the newly released Chicken Soup for the Traveler's Soul, for which he contributed the story "Dancing with Isabel." He received the honor of being selected as the 2004 "cruise expert" for the Travel Channel's show Cruise Ships FAQ, during their Cruise Week presentation.
Jim is the chairman of Travel Alliance, Inc., which owns and operates, not only, Catholic Trips but also 21 other niche travel markets around the world. As a resident of Galway, Ireland, Jim has organized many tours to Our Lady of Knock Shrine and is the managing director of the first annual Catholic College Conference of Ireland in the summer of 2012.
To personally contact Jim, email him at Jim@CatholicTrips.com
