Grand Tour of Romania

Romania grand tour

     Welcome to Bucharest, the capital of Romania, the city formerly known as the Little Paris due its beautiful architecture resembling the French capital. We transfer you from the airport, assist you checking-in and after a break take you in an exciting tour of the city.

     Our sightseeing experience will include a drive on the Victory Avenue, a central axis of the city displaying monuments of unique importance such as the Royal Palace, the Athenaeum Concert Hall, The Officers’ club or the Savings Bank Palace. From classic we will continue to modern driving around but also stopping at the Palace of Parliament, the 2nd largest building in the world for whose construction, a surface of the city that equals the one of Venice was demolished and cleared.

     Fortunately, not all historical town was affected so we will stroll in a nice pedestrian section of the city, where the mid and late XIX century atmosphere can still be felt among many hidden treasures of the city that await to be discovered by us

     In the morning we will visit the 2nd largest building of the world, situated in the heart of Bucharest, the Palace of the Parliament. Built in the last years of Communism as a Testament of an extinguished era, the Parliament initially called the House of the People was meant to be a large construction surpassing any other alike in Europe.

     We then continue to the open-air Village Museum, according to many, the nicest one of Bucharest, where authentic houses, some of which 3 centuries old, were brought from all over the country. We will have lunch in a restaurant on the lake Herastrau.

     Leaving Bucharest behind, we will head to Sinaia, visiting the Peles Palace, the summer residence of the Romanian royalty, a wonderful display of various architectural and interior styles and modern equipments for its time. Peles is the pearl of Romanian Interior Arts heritage, mostly because of its unsurpassed woodworks masterpieces done by Karl Liman, a Czech artist.

     Late in the afternoon we will check-in our hotel in Brasov and enjoy free time in the city.

     We will start the day touring the city of Brasov, mostly during a walking tour meant to get us acquainted with the historical downtown. Brasov is a Transylvanian city known for its genuine Town Hall Square, the Black Church, the largest Gothic construction East of Vienna, the beautiful Synagogue and the narrowest street in the country, the Rope street.

     Less than an hour away from Brasov, lies the castle of Bran, associated with most of the Dracula stories & legends. We will visit the impressive medieval castle listening to the Dark Ages stories all the way the recent ones, after the WW1 when the castle was the favorite residence of Queen Mary of Romania.

     After lunch in the Queen’s Inn we will continue to Sighisoara, one of the only European fortresses where people still live inside of the fortifications, a beautiful sample of medieval German architecture in the Romanian lands. Walking through the fortified town will reveal unique stories and let us fell the spirit of the astonishingly colorful citadel dating back to the Middle Ages.

     In the morning let yourself be surprised by a less know city, Tirgu Mures, having a balanced ethnical mix of Romanian and Hungarians, with neat buildings and nice provincial town atmosphere, where we will walk & drive before having a delicious lunch in a local restaurant.

     After the lunch we will head to Cluj, the capital of Transylvania, where after checking-in at our hotel and having a break we will tour the city. Cluj is a very interesting city founded on a Roman castrum foundation called Napoca that is why the city is also known as Cluj-Napoca. We will see the Cathedral and the Opera House facing each other in a Central square, but also a part of the city fortifications, the birth place of Mattyas Corvinul, the most proeminent Hungarian king or the famous Cluj University.

     In the late afternoon and evening you will enjoy free time to roam the city at your own pace.

     After some days of mostly urban experiences, the following 2 days are mostly focusing on the countryside. Today we visit the beautiful area of Maramures, the most Northern Romanian territory, starting with a less joyful but strongly educational visit to the Museum of Communism in Sighet. A former Communist prison was transformed in an excellent museum revealing real life hidden stories from behind the Iron Curtain about all types of imprisoned lives.

     In the vicinity of the prison lies a half sad half funny site, the so called Merry Cemetery, or the Cemetery of the Last Laugh. People from the area have always had a different approach towards death considering it an absolute normality, therefore why not making fun of it. A forest of vivid, colorful crosses with caricatures and funny poems describing one’s life opens just in front of our eyes.

     We will visit more of the region’s highlights including Barsana & Ieud two wooden monasteries competing for the highest wooden constructions in the world. We will overnight in a private house, attending some of the house activities and eating a nice home hosted dinner.

     Today we cross the mountains into Moldova, another major Romanian region enjoying breath taking landscapes and beautiful wild nature. Our first stop after being over the mountains is Campulung, the museum of Woodworks displaying a wide range of wooden tools, musical instruments, weapons and anything else one can think about in terms of modeling wood.

     After lunch in a household where we will also overnight we drive to the close-by monasteries of Moldovita and Voronet, Unesco world heritage site, artifacts of a time when the only expression of Arts in this corner of Europe were the religious architecture, painting and music. We will learn together why the latter was nicknamed by many Arts Critics, the Sistine Chapel of the Orient.

     In the afternoon we are back at our hosts just in time for a cooking lesson and an egg painting demonstration followed by a tasty and authentic meal.

     We have learned the previous day what a wonderful land, the North of Moldova is, well, today we will proceed to discover even more of it. Another monastery, Sucevita is on our way to Marginea, the place where local artisans turn simple black pottery into pieces of art.

     The route takes us to Suceava, the medieval capital of Moldova, where a strong fortress is ready to share with us its glorious past. The fortress of Suceava has never been conquered despite the fact that invicible armies undersieged it several times, among them we can mention the armies of Mehmed and Baiazid the Ottoman sultans, Mattyas the Hungarian king or Jan Albert, the Polish king. In Suceava we will also visit the Village museum and the Royal Inn, an interesting combination of a real medieval inn with a genuine Ethnographic collection.

     In the afternoon we arrive in Iasi, the largest Moldavian city, where we have dinner and a brief drive through the city by night.

     We will walk the historical centre situated between the exquisite neo-gothic Palace of Culture, the landmark of the city, the Viennese neo-classical National Theatre, the largest Orthodox cathedral in the country and the Union Square where the Eiffel Company build hotel Traian lies. We also visit the beautiful Iasi University, the first in the country and Cetatuia, an interesting mixture of a fort, a monastery and a former royal court.

     We will have a local and traditional lunch in the most famous Iasi restaurant, Bolta Rece founded in 1786 that still keeps the spirit of old Moldavians inns.

     After lunch we depart for Sarata Monteoru, a small and neat resort, within less than 2 hours from the Bucharest airport where you will fly from the next day.