Romania: stunning scenery, Transylvania & medieval villages | 11-23 June 2025
SNOW-CAPPED PEAKS, WILD FORESTS WITH WOLVES AND EUROPE’S LARGEST BROWN BEAR POPULATION, MEDIEVAL VILLAGES AND FORTIFIED CHURCHES, FAIRYTALE CASTLES, PAINTED MONASTERIES AND A FOLK-ART CULTURE WHERE WOODCARVERS, BLACKSMITHS AND FARRIERS ARE PART OF EVERYDAY LIFE – ROMANIA IS EUROPE FROM ANOTHER AGE, MINUS THE CROWDS AND BEYOND FABULOUS.
From Bucharest we’ll travel north to the rolling countryside of Maramures to villages from another time, crowned wooden churches, where horse-drawn wagons still do much of the heavy lifting. We’ll visit the fascinating Merry Cemetery, dine with shepherds in the mountains and meet village craftsmen pursuing trades from centuries past. We’ll travel south into Transylvania to explore Saxon towns with their own unique architecture, massive fortified churches, woodlands that are home to Europe’s largest population of brown bears, the castle that spawned the story of Dracula and taste food sourced from within walking distance of your plate.
Experience
A storied landscape
Transylvania, “beyond the forest” is Romania’s heartland, cradled within the crescent formed by the Eastern Carpathians and the Transylvanian Alps. This is Europe’s most intact medieval landscape, still dominated by Saxon fortified churches, hilltop citadels, palaces and Byzantine churches. In its craggy mountains shepherds still guard their flocks from wolves and eagles, grazing their sheep on pastures smothered with wildflowers that pesticides and fertilisers have erased from most other parts of Europe. Even its folklore belongs to the Middle Ages – wolfmen, witches and, of course, Dracula.
Visit
UNESCO churches
Maramures is home to the famous UNESCO world heritage wooden churches. Built mainly during the 17 and 18th century, their tapering, shingled spires soar from the villages, a finger pointing to the heavens. The frescoes inside are marvellous examples of folk art, panted for a population that understood the world through pictures rather than words. We’ll also visit the Merry Cemetery, famous for its folk-art headstones, each inscribed with a poignant epitaph in memory of a bittersweet life.
Wildlife
wonder
We’ll spend an evening in a forest hide watching bears, and possibly a fox or two. Hunting bears was forbidden during the Communist Party era, and Romania has the largest brown bear population of any European country. Storks’ nests are common in the villages, often perched on top of light poles, but even when they make their enormous, shaggy piles on top of chimneys they’re undisturbed since storks bring good luck, and prosperity.
Stay
Experience traditional accommodation
Our accommodation ranges from rustic to regal. In Maramures we’ll stay in timber and stone cottages that have been transported from the surroundings and reassembled here, each one a fine example of vernacular architecture. In Miklósvár, a village populated by Romania’s Hungarian-speaking minority, we’ll stay in Count Kalnoky’s Guesthouses cottages that once housed the estate’s workmen, transformed into pretty suites with lace curtains, hand carved furniture and embroidered linen, and underfloor heating and proper bathrooms.
Taste
Authentic farm to table
Romania brings to the table a simple but substantial cuisine, based on local ingredients with flavours that say “organic produce”. Sausages, cheeses similar to ricotta and mozzarella, grilled lamb meatballs and bean soup with smoked pork are some of the favourites, often with a hint of spices that recall the time when Romania traded with the Ottoman empire. A favourite dessert is papanasi, a spongy doughnut filled with sweet cow cheese and covered with strawberry jam and berries.
Explore
a hungarian speaking enclave
The cities of southern Transylvania, most notably Brasov, Sighisoara and Sibiu, are splendidly endowed with palaces, great squares, fountains and opulent civic buildings. Interspersing the cultural jewels are long stretches of Transylvanian countryside that might have sprung from a woodcut – muddy villages where the houses huddle defensively along the main street, and in the fields, scarved women sheaving corn. Horse-drawn carts are more common than tractors, water mills are still used to grind corn and village wells are a gathering point in rural areas.
Cost
FITNESS
Generally any reasonably fit person should be able to participate & fully enjoy all that the tours have to offer.
You should be comfortable walking around towns and countryside. The tour will include some optional walks (typically 1-2hrs).
Be able to walk and negotiate stairs and pedestrian thoroughfares
Be able to stand for 30-60 minutes in galleries and museums at a time without a break
Be able to get on and off a coach with stairs, unassisted
Use a combined shower/bath (please note that we cannot guarantee walk-in shower facilities at all hotels)