3 1/2 weeks in Romania

Braşov: We took the train from Bucharest Nord, booking first class seats on the CFR Călători app easily. Then we rode the #4 bus into Braşov, using tap to pay onboard. (Twice had to try a couple of cards to get machines to work.)

Our 4 nights were 3 days. Day 1: we took the train back to Sinaia and bus up the hill to Peles Castle and Pelisor Castle, having booked the earliest entry into Peles ahead of time. Then we walked down the hill to visit Sinaia Monastery before returning by train. Backtracking by train was easier than trying to stop on the way, with luggage.

Day 2: a day trip through Get Your Guide to the Libearty Brown Bear Sanctuary, Bran Castle, and the outside of Rasnov Fortress for views. That evening we attended a beautiful performance in the Black Church, another concert in the Enescu Festival series.

Day 3: a lovely massage and dinner with new forum friends.

Tour with Teo:
This was such a great experience. I won’t try to tell you everything we did, but here are a few highlights for me (we all had some of the same and some different highlights).

• We stopped and talked to real people. A lot of them.
• We basically just mentioned things we were interested in and he made things happen.
• He adjusted stops and timings to make it all the best for us.
• And he was a fountain of knowledge about Romania: the geography, the history, the customs in all the different areas, the languages, and so much more.

As an example, I asked if the Maramureş really had the huge horses I had seen on Instagram. Absolutely, he said. And while those horses in Breb were up taking water to cows on the mountain, we stopped in to visit the village chronicler who ended up jumping in the car to lead us to a remote area to visit other horses, tromping through fields to get there. Just because I love horses. On my birthday on the way to Timisoara, he asked if I wanted to see more horses (what kind of question is that? 🤣). And we detoured right to a stud farm run by the government - and it doesn’t take a genius to see that the people working there responded so well to him because he was interested in them and what they do, which in turn meant we spent as much quality time there as we wanted.

Or when we stopped to visit the gypsy coppersmiths near Sibiu - it had been a while since he had been there, but they knew him and welcomed us to watch their work as long as we wanted.

I held a 16th century cross in my hand.

He knows where the ancient church keys are kept…..

I will leave Horezu for someone else to wax eloquent about, but again - another experience we could never have had on our own.

Conclusions:

• I am still not a tour person. I can’t imagine I would ever take a bus tour, even with just 12-15 people, which most consider small.
• I know Romania can be done cheaper. But this trip was value packed. It was definitely “Romania Our Way”.
• Romania is beautiful, far more diverse than I had any idea, and I love it.
• I loved our farm stay in Breb.
• And the only thing I might change would be to figure out how to end in Sibiu, with a few days there to just be there. It is a gorgeous little city. Now I know.
• I can see a return in the future, with some of the places we didn’t have time for and return to some of the places I really loved.
• Teo is a great tour guide.

Thanks for your great report! You certainly made the most of your time! We were in some of the places you visited and do agree that Romania has a lot to offer. Your report might cause others to visit:)

Thank you TexasTravelMom for a great report. I have been aware through this forum of your group’s plans as my wife and I did a Romania tour at the same time. I had been an independent traveler my whole life but recently have found tours to have benefits also. We did more or less the same itinerary as you but (for better or worse) in 10 days rather than 3 weeks. I will post a report about it as soon as I can. I definitely agree with you that Romania is a good destination. It doesn’t get a lot of love from Rick (no tours, no guidebook, no forum page, although the one show he did there is excellent), but it is recommended for a “Europe through the Back Door” experience. I think you must have been there too on Sept 25 (or around then) when overnight summer changed to fall. Luckily weather apps and packing layers had us prepared for that.

Thanks, TTM! I’m so sorry I’ll miss the zoom presentation.

I really enjoyed this trip report TTM. In 2022 I went to Romania but mostly stayed in Maramures and Bucovina areas. I too hired a guide - he served as the driver as well. It did make the trip so much more. It seemed like everyone knew him, whether a local farmer, wood carver and so on. Your report makes me think about going back and spending time in the Transylvania area.
I liked Breb too. Did you go to the Merry Cemetery?

@Carol, thanks! You know your trips have inspired several of mine!

@ BarbaraN, but isn’t it nice to have travel as a reason to miss a travel meeting!

@Slate, oh, yes! I melted from the humidity (not the actual temperature) in Bucharest and then it turned fall. 🤣 We were in Breb by then. And I bet we came close to overlapping in some areas - too bad we didn’t know so we could check schedules. Apparently there were several of us from the forum there last month. We actually drove the Transfăgărășan Highway with rain below and snow on the top. Teo told us we would have to do it again, as we missed the views - but seeing it covered in several inches of snow was magical.

jennya, I now know why you might mainly stay in Bucovina and Maramureş. Yes, we went to the Merry Cemetery (from Breb). We had 3 very full days counting our drive from Gura Humorului and 2 full days in/around Breb. We could easily have used another day (or two). One day we stopped and talked to people plowing up their potatoes with their horse and plow - and helped fill a couple of buckets (ok, Teo filled one and CWsocial and I filled one together). And yes, Transylvania was great. I absolutely loved Sibiu.

Combining independent travel with a local guide sounds like a great way to explore areas like Maramureș and Bucovina. Did Teo arrange local homestays or regular hotels for you?

@Jim, we had requested small hotels with private bathrooms. So our 3 night stay in Breb was on what I guess in Italy would be an agrotourismo - a farm with about 4-5 guest rooms. They provided breakfast - and dinner if you requested it. Everything we had was grown there: the eggs, the milk, the vegetables, the fruit, the sausage, the pork, the bread, etc. (not the coffee…..).

Our other stays were all small hotels with ensuite rooms, all in or near the city centers except one. All provided breakfast and all but Timisoara had their own restaurant and they were quite good (we didn’t try the one in Cluj). I don’t know what he might be able to do if someone wanted homestays. I suspect it would be easier in some areas than in others.

I read this with interest as my grandmother came from Timasoara. My cousin went to visit and tells wild stories of getting there by bus from Istanbul. A bit too wild for me! Anyway, this sounds like a fascinating way to travel. I too have never been on a tour more than a day and my husband looked uneasy when I suggested Romania recently.

Unfortunately, I must miss the zoom presentation as will be out of town. But I am going to book mark this.

Beth, that would be a great reason to go to Timisoara. We all really liked it. There’s a real mix of cultures and nationalities. We had originally looked at renting a car (I like driving and really didn’t see anything I thought I wouldn’t do - except drive in Bucharest). But unlike Western Europe (in general) it was so affordable to hire a guide to drive us that it just made sense. You could definitely do some kind of combination. And while trains are kind of slow, they do go more places than I thought.

I spent a week in Romania this summer as part of a tour and I think one of the most remarkable things about experiencing Romania at this time is that your guides have often lived through the transition from communism to current times. You not only see the locations where so much history has taken place, but you get first hand reports from those events.

This is a great country to visit!

It sounds like you had the best of both worlds, independent and guided travel. Thanks for introducing me to a country I'm unfamiliar with.

jeanm, it’s a beautiful place. I had no idea of the segments of populations from various countries that still retain their old customs, traditions, and languages. And the ways they all wound up in modern day Romania. So interesting in ways I wasn’t expecting. And so much I wouldn’t have known without Teo.

Carol now retired, you are absolutely right. We heard those kinds of stories from several people. Here we tend to think of it as old history, but it’s not.

It's been nearly 10 years since something like a comprehensive tour of Romania for me; but I have returned to Bucharest 3 times in recent years, and now you know why. It's not a tourist destination so much as it is a lifestyle destination, and it does that very well. Thanks for the reminder.