I highly recommend these local guides we used during our three weeks in Romania. See Romania Trip Report for more details.
With another couple, we went on a guided tour of northern Romania with Teo Ivanciuc of Maramureș Tour, and we very highly recommend him. We had a wonderful time over 9 days/8 nights on a custom version of his Maramureș and Bucovina Tour. He shares a wealth of information about Romanian history, culture, and how those affect life in Romania today. We really enjoyed his sense of humor, opinions, and viewpoints to help us understand the complexities of Romania. But the most valuable aspect is when he spontaneously stops and talks to people. We had so many one-on-one interactions with local people and learned about things we would never have experienced on our own.
From Sibiu, we spent a day with Adela Dadu of Transylvania Essence Journeys, touring the Transylvanian Highlands and visiting Saxon UNESCO villages. We learned a lot about the Saxon history in this area but also really enjoyed learning about her family’s experience during the Communist period, what the revolution period was like for her in Sibiu, and her insights into raising her child in present-day Romania.
We went on a half-day walking tour in Bucharest with Razvan Trancu. He can be found on TripAdvisor, GetYourGuide, etc., but we arranged our tour through Alina Brasoveanu of When in Bucharest. Alina was super responsive and helpful throughout the planning process. We had a wonderful time with Razvan and learned a ton about Bucharest's history and politics while on the walk through Bucharest.