Did you also look at Bowdoin? Admissions would be no more likely than Colby, but it is at least another very good small school in the area.
I agree with this. We did tour a few schools that were way over budget, but at least we limited this to schools that were nearby (eg, none more than one hour from where we were already going to be). We did tour some schools that required an overnight stay, but these were ones that we knew would be affordable, or at least the NPC said that it would be affordable in one case (and the actual offer ended up matching the NPC exactly).
We have two daughters. One changed there mind quite a few times. One just did not come to a decision until after a lot of time and thought. I do not know if the process was all that different inside their minds, but what we could see from outside seemed quite different. Both ended up with a university that was a good fit for them and also fit the budget.
This process might be more fun years later when you are looking back at it, with the knowledge that it did come out just fine in the end.