8 days / 2-9 August 2020
8 days / 20-27 Sept 2020
Price: 1650€ / guest
USD or GBP payments: interbank exchange rate on booking date
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You might have heard that the most rural places in Romania are in the Northern part of the country. Romania is a rural country. Simply if you take a road further than the end of the asphalt, where an ordinary tourist would stop, you will find a country untouched by the 20th century. You ask “Why?” Because they don’t have electricity, but instead, you will find a living museum. That’s why we choose to drive 4×4 on our holiday tours, so our guests can experience a life in such small communities, where travelers are very welcome. All mountain regions in Romania hide these places. Don’t believe that people can still live like centuries ago? Come and see yourself!
Arrival: Saturday
Otopeni International Airport – Bucharest
We meet at the Otopeni International Airport, drive to Bucharest, check-in at the hotel, have a rest. In the evening, we all get acquainted, have a briefing about the holiday trip ahead and spend quality time in one of the city’s restaurants.
Day 1: Sunday
We leave Bucharest in the morning, driving towards the former capital of Walachia, the city of Târgoviște where Vlad the Impaler ruled the country. It is also the place where Ceausescu and his wife spend the last days of their life in the military garrison, having been convicted by military tribunal and sentenced to death. Leaving the city we drive to Cimpulung Muscel trough oak forests, hills and villages, along the apple orchard on the side of the road. In Cimpulung we will stop at the local fruit and veggies market. Our road will carry on the trough green valley, water crossing and pine forest to arrive in Nucsoara village. Beautiful natural lake in the middle of the village, atop of a hill, makes the place unique. We drive to Vidraru Lake, trough a gorge and pine forests. We will spend the night in one of Ceausescu’s villas, now turned into a hotel.
Day 2: Monday
We leave the hotel in the morning and drive around the Vidrau Lake to stop at a dam to see a huge construction made in 1966 by the communist regime. The road will take us trough the Lovistea County, the South of Fagaras Mountains, trough forest, gorges and villages, hidden from the 21st century. We will cross the Olt valley and take a road to Voineasa. The road will go along side rivers and lakes. From there we start to climb a road to the Latorita Mountain Ridge. From the top of the ridge we will view beautiful sceneries of the mountains surrounding us. We will come to a road cross in Obarsia Lotrului from where we will drive over a mountains pass to get trough a dense forest road deep into the Sureanu Mountains, where we stay overnight.
Day 3: Tuesday
We drive further into the Sureanu mountains to arrive at Sarmizegetusa Regia, the former capital on Dacian tribes, destroyed by roman invading army at the beginning of the 2nd century AD. The remaining ruins you will see are just a few of existing in the area. After an aerial search scan, British archeologists claimed that the mountain has been a very big settlement for the Dacian people. In the afternoon we stop to visit a sheepfold and taste some cheese or even try to cook a traditional Balmos (cheese, milk and polenta). In the evening we arrive at a place nearby Deva.
Day 4: Wednesday
We leave the guesthouse in the morning to drive deep into the Apuseni Mountains, the road will take us to remote villages where evolution has stopped over a hundred years ago, people are living on what they manage to cultivate themselves and on what livestock is providing to them. We stop in Patrahaitesti to listen to a traditional alphorn used in the past by local people to communicate between villages, each song has a different meaning. We arrive in the evening in the Arieseni area, where we will stay overnight.
Day 5: Thursday
In the morning we drive towards the Scarisoara Ice Cave, the glacier is one of the biggest in the Eastern Europe. A road from the glacier will take us all the way to Belis, trough dense pine forests. We will cross the Fantanele dam and drive trough Marisel mountain village, the last challenge for the day will be crossing the Cold Mountain to arrive in our evening guesthouse found on the Lara valley.
Day 6: Friday
We leave the guesthouse and drive towards Turda to visit a salt mine, first mentioned in the history at the beginning of the 11th century (UNESCO). After we spend some time in the underworld we take a road to the center of Transylvania. We will have lunch in a 17th century French Renaissance style castle (private property) on the Tarnava Valley, this place takes us back in time. After the lunch, we drive to our next stop to visit the Biertan fortified church and go to the last location for the day, a medieval town – Sighisoara. The town is the place of birth of Vlad the Impaler (Dracula).
Day 7: Saturday
We leave the medieval town and drive to Viscri village, to see the 1225 A.D. fortified church in a good condition. The road will take as to the Olt River, Racos Gate and Székely villages, to Tusnad Spa town, where we sample the mineral water straight from the spring. Local people use the water to treat different medical conditions. From the main road we will turn on a small road with sand and ash ground, left from the last volcanic eruption in the area, at the end of the road we reach the St. Ana volcanic lake, we stop to walk around the lake in case we have time, but this should be done in a group because it is an area with a lot of bears hanging out. This is the last point of interest for the day, from here we drive to Brasov, where we stay overnight.
Day 8: Sunday
The day starts with a visit to a fortified church from Prejmer (UNESCO heritage), the best-preserved construction of this kind in the Eastern Europe. Afterward, the road will bring us to the village of Vama Buzaului where we will stop to see the European Bison, which has been populated in the area with the hope that, in one day, they will go back to the wild in the Carpathian Mountains. The road will take us into the last village in Transylvania before we take a mountain road to Walachia, not before we stop to see a water howler and a trout farm. Crossing the mountains into Walachia, we will arrive at Valenii de Munte, a small town in Prahova County. Once we reach the Muntenia planes, we pass the Ploiesti city, an area well known for oil extraction fields and petrol refineries. And the final point – Bucharest.
We arrive in Bucharest around 18.00 hours (we will line up the itinerary according to your flight time).
