HIGHLIGHTS * Bran Castle, Peles Castle * Medieval town of Sighisoara * Maramures wooden churches * Painted Monasteries from Bucovina * Danube Delta	OUR EVALUATION Culture***** Nature**** Comfort*** Human contacts**** Climbing and walking skills*

Day 1
Hungary – Oradea (Bors) – Cluj-Napoca (… km + 150 km)
Arrival in Romania through Bors. Continue to Cluj-Napoca crossing the town of Huedin. Arrival at the camping. Meet our representative to discuss the travel file and pick-up of the GPS.
Camping-car’s park in a camping before Cluj-Napoca.

Day 2
Cluj-Napoca – Dej – Beclean – Salva – Sacel - Botiza (Ieud) (180 km)
Departure to the Maramures. Stop in Bontida and visit Counts Banffy’s castle. The castle is in restoration; all works are supported by Transylvania Trust – prince Charles is quite involved in it. Continue to the Maramures, along the beautiful Salauta Valley. Lot of picnic places invite you for a stop. Final destination: the village of Ieud, a tiny village, still preserving old times perfume.
Dinner in a guesthouse. Camping-car’s park in the guesthouse grassed yard in Botiza (Ieud).








 

Day 3
Camping-car tour of Maramures
Botiza (Ieud) – Barsana - Sighetu Marmatiei – Sieu - Botiza (Ieud) (110 km)
Breakfast. Visit the two wooden churches in Ieud: the Orthodox "Church on the Hill" (which was considered as the oldest in Maramures - the inside can't be always visited) and the Greek-Catholic church (build in 1718) which houses one of the largest collections of glass painted icons in Maramures).
Drive through Sighetu Marmatiei and continue to the Merry Cemetery in Sapanta, unique on world for its painted and carved crosses. Back to Sighetu Marmatiei and visit the Memorial Museum of the Communism Victims, a museum placed in one of the hardest politic prisons in Romania of the ’50s. This museum presents all the sides of the political and social life in Romania after the Second World War. Each cell is itself a museum, keeping a sad moment of the history after 1944.

Drive to Barsana and visit the new monastery which is well known in Maramures as a pilgrimage spot. The entire complex is build out of wood and perfectly integrated in the landscape.
Dinner in a guesthouse. Camping-car’s park in the guesthouse grassed yard in Botiza (Ieud).


 

Day 4
Camping-car tour of Maramures
Botiza (Ieud) – The Vaser Valley – Botiza (Ieud) (100 km)
Breakfast. Departure for Viseu to catch the narrow gauge steam engine train which is going to take you in the wonderful Vaser Valley. A 60km length narrow gouge rail plunges into the depths of the forests almost touching the Ukraine. Besides the wood transport, the small trains are assuring the shuttle for the people working upstream and carrying the visitors. It’s a unique experience.

Return by 5pm. Free time to discover the rural life in Maramures: the ensemble of traditional houses, the peasants, the religious art, the carved gates etc.
Dinner in a guesthouse. Camping-car’s park in the guesthouse grassed yard in Botiza (Ieud).


 

Day 5
Camping-car tour from Maramures to Bucovina - Romania
Botiza (Ieud) – Sacel – Borsa – Ciocanesti – Campulung Moldovenesc – Sucevita (180 km)
Breakfast. Drive to Bucovina passing through Prislop Pass, the “border” place between Maramures and Bucovina; every year, in august, here is a big festival of traditional dances. If it’s in place (depending of season), visit a local sheepfold.

Drive to Ciocanesti. Stop to visit the village, famous for its out walls painted houses – symbol of Bucovine. Continue to Sucevita.
Dinner in a guesthouse. Camping-car’s park in the guesthouse grassed yard in Sucevita.


 

Day 6
Camping-car tour around Bucovina - Romania
Sucevita – Moldovita – Voronet – Solca – Marginea – Sucevita (100 km)
Breakfast. Visit the painted monasteries: Sucevita and Moldovita and then visit in Moldovita a local egg decorator.
Departure to Voronet Monastery (surnamed the “Sistine Chapel of the East”), the most famous monastery in Bucovina and also included in UNESCO Patrimony.

Stop in Cacica (close to Solca) to visit the salt mine. Visit the village of Marginea, famous for its black pottery, where the tradition is inherited from Dacians (the pre-Roman period).
Dinner in a guesthouse. Camping-car’s park in the guesthouse grassed yard in Sucevita.
 

Day 7
Camping-car tour from Bucovina to Transylvania - Romania
Sucevita – Falticeni – Targu Neamt – Izvorul Muntelui – Bicaz – Lazarea (200 km)
Breakfast. Drive to Lazarea, following the lake side Izvorul Muntelui (Bicaz) for 48km. Stop near the lake; if time and weather are permitting, half an hour cruise on a little ship on the Bicaz Lake.
Continue to Lazarea, passing through Bicaz Gorges, where the vertical limestone walls are really impressive. It’s a good occasion to walk along the road, in the thundering of the Bicaz river and meet the artisans selling their products.

Stop at the Red Lake (Lacul Rosu in Romanian). After the fall of an enormous piece of rock during a great storm in 1837, the Bicaz river course was blocked and a natural lake flooded the pine forest. You may still see pine sections out of the water. During the great rains, the deposits brought by the torrents are colouring the lake water in red – which gives the name “Red Lake”
Arrival in Lazarea in the evening. Dinner in a guesthouse. Camping-car’s park in the guesthouse grassed yard in Lazarea, close to Gheorghieni.


 

Day 8
Camping-car tour from Transylvania to Eastern Wallachia - Romania
Lazarea – Gheorghieni – Miercurea Ciuc – Braila (300 km)
Breakfast. Drive South to Danube Delta, passing through Miercurea Ciuc.
Camping-car’s park in a camping close to Braila.


 

Day 9
Camping-car tour from Eastern Wallachia to Danube Delta - Romania
Braila – Tulcea - Crisan (90 km + cruise)
Departure to Danube Delta. You have to leave your camping-car in a parking in Tulcea. Cruise to Crisan, in the middle of the Delta, on the Sulina channel.

Dinner and accommodation in a guesthouse (private or shared bathrooms). It's a good occasion to taste the local fish specialties and the famous “borsch” – a sort of the Romanian “bouillabaisse”.




Days 10 and 11
Danube Delta in a boat
Incursions in the Danube Delta (2 days) in a fisherman boat (driven by the fisherman himself). Besides the specific and attractive landscape, the Delta dues its reputation to bird’s diversity. The boat will take you to narrow channels to discover the “Birds Paradise”: Dalmatian and White Pelicans, Egrets, White-tailed Eagles, Ferruginous Ducks, Spoon Bills, Swans, Ospreys and many more… The species are different, depending on season.

The human intervention more than discreet allowed the survival of flora - more than 1000 species of different plants. White and yellow water lilies decorate the lakes, oak forests covered by lianas - giving them the aspect of a tropical forest, alternating with sand dunes in grove forms with their specific flora. You'll also discover villages where fishermen continue, since centuries, the old way of life. These 2 days you'll stay in Crisan in a fisherman's guesthouse (private or shared bathrooms, full board).

 
Day 12
Camping-car tour from Danube Delta to Eastern Wallachia - Romania
Crisan – Tulcea – Braila – Ramnicu Sarat (170 km)
Breakfast. Cruise back to Tulcea. Take your camping-car and continue West to Buzau region.
Camping-car’s park in a camping close to Ramnicu Sarat.





 

Day 13
Camping-car tour from Eastern Wallachia to Bucharest - Romania
Ramnicu Sarat - Berca - Buzau – Urlati – Ploiesti - Bucharest (180 km)
Visit the “mud volcanoes” in Berca, which are declared a natural reserve since 1924. This is one of the most interesting mixed reserves (geological and botanical) in Romania. It’s a seldom phenomenon met in the world. The reserve is placed 12 km far from Berca and has a surface of 30 ha. It’s formed by lots of mud volcanoes, which are in eruption all the time. The strange landscape merged by hills has a lunar aspect.
Continue to Bucharest, passing through Urlati. The Voievod Constantin Brancoveanu (so called the "golden prince") owned here a winery and he erected the princely mansion. Into an old Romanian house, monument of traditional architecture from the 19th century, you will discover a beautiful collection of traditional art. Stop at a winery, to taste the famous local red wine in the caves. Sometimes, they allow visits at the winery, where you may see the wine stocks in the cellars (enormous barrels) and the wine processing.
Camping-car’s park in a camping close to Bucharest.
 
Day 14
Camping-car tour in Bucharest- Romania
Bucharest tour (60 km)
Discover Bucharest, surnamed "the Little Paris of ‘30s". The city will charm you with its architecture and as well by its variety of shops and the shady narrow streets, which preserve their charm even in our days. Visit Stavropoleos Church, the former merchants' street Lipscani, the Village Museum, the University Square, the old trade centre in Bucharest, “the Beer Cart” – famous restaurant.

Continue the tour: the Palace of the Parliament (Ceausescu's new palace, the second building in the world after the Pentagon).
Camping-car’s park in a camping close to Bucharest.


 

Day 15
Camping-car tour from Bucharest to Transylvania - Romania
Bucharest – Ploiesti – Sinaia – Predeal – Rasnov – Bran (160 km)
Drive to Brasov. Stop in Sinaia and visit the impressive Peles Castle, dating from the end of the 19th century. It was built by the First King of Romania, Carol I of Hohenzollern, brought in Romania to eliminate the existing corruption among the local governors. This is how Romania became a kingdom, cause of decision of the politicians in that time.

The result is a marvel in the true sense of the word: an imposing Saxon neo-Renaissance castle with vertical and slim sharp profiles, irregular shapes, fragmented composition, abundance of carved wood and decorative elements. It shelters large valuable collections of firearms, art objects, furniture.
Thus, considering the natural background and the bourgeois summer residences built here, it is not surprising why Sinaia was surnamed "the Pearl of the Carpathians".
Continue to Bran. It’s one of the most well known mountains regions in Romania, situated between Bucegi and Piatra Craiului Mountains.
Dinner in a guesthouse. Camping-car’s park in a guesthouse grassed yard in Bran.
 
Day 16
Camping-car tour of Transylvania- Romania
Bran – Rasnov – Brasov – Prejmer – Harman – Bran (100 km)
Breakfast. Visit the Bran Castle, fortress placed at the old limit between Transylvania and Walachia, dating from the 13th century; the castle is falsely attributed to the prince Vlad Tepes (Dracula), even if he never passed here. Its irregular shape is due to the raw material it was built of (river rocks, wood, bricks) but as well to its architects imagination.

Drive to Brasov with stop in Rasnov, where, on a hill, a fortress built in 13th century by the Saxon colonists dominates the surroundings. It has a 146 m depth well.
Continue to Brasov, the "Crown City” of Transylvania, named "Kronstadt" by the Saxon colonists. Visit the Council Square and the Black Church, the greatest Gothic church between Vienna and Istanbul.
Departure to visit the peasant fortresses dating from 13th century Prejmer and Harman, ones of the biggest from the South-Eastern Europe.
Back to Bran. Dinner in a guesthouse. Camping-car’s park in a guesthouse grassed yard in Bran.




 

Day 17
Camping-car tour of Transylvania- Romania (continuation)
Bran – Fagaras – Cartisoara – Balea – Sibiu – Saliste (180 km)
Breakfast. Drive to Sibiu. Stop and visit the fortress in Fagaras, which is the main tourist point in town. Its construction started at the end of the 14th century, on the place of a fortress dating from the 12th century. In the 16th century, the castle was transformed in a castle fort and in the 17th century it became a princely residence. Between the two world wars, the castle served as a military garrison and during the first part of the communism time, notably until 1964, the castle was transformed in a prison.

If the weather is fine, take the road to Fagaras Mountains crossing the Meridional Carpathians, leaving from Cartisoara. Take the cable car to Balea Lake. You’ll go up to 2000 m. Walk all around the glacier lake Balea. Back to Cartisoara, descending on one of the most impressive and great mountains routes in Romania.
Drive to Saliste, near Sibiu. Dinner in a guesthouse. Camping-car’s park in a guesthouse grassed yard in Saliste.


 

Day 18
Camping-car tour of Transylvania- Romania (continuation)
Saliste – Sibiel – Orlat – Gura Raului – Sibiu – Cristian – Sacel – Saliste (90 km)
Breakfast. Short walk in the village (still a village in a Saxon style) and drive to Sibiel, to visit the glass painted icons museum. The local naive painters (most of them peasants) were painting everyone at least one icon on glass, in order to expose it in the “big room”, to have their house protected by God. The icons are their interpretation of biblical facts. Before being exposed in the house, the icon had to be “approved” and blessed by the local priest.

Drive to Sibiu and visit: the two squares (The Big and the Small Square), the open-air ASTRA Museum (museum of rural techniques), the Evangelical Cathedral. Drive to Cristian – it’s the “village of storks”, almost every pillar or house roof has a stork nest on top.
Back to Saliste. Dinner in a guesthouse. Camping-car’s park in a guesthouse grassed yard in Saliste.


 

Day 19
Camping-car tour of Transylvania- Romania (continuation)
Saliste – Sibiu – Slimnic – Valea Viilor – Biertan – Sighisoara (130km)
Breakfast. Departure to Sighisoara. Stop in Slimnic and Valea Viilor and visit the fortified churches. Next stop is in Biertan, one of the most important Saxon fortresses in Transylvania. Here, every autumn, in the beginning of September, many Saxons who emigrated from Romania, meet for a 3 days festival (obviously, the beer can’t miss!).

The fortress is protected with many rows of fortifications. The treasure’s room in the church is very interesting, thanks to its door which has a locking system in many points.
Continue to Sighisoara. Camping-car’s park in camping in Sighisoara.
 
Day 20
Camping-car tour of Transylvania- Romania (continuation)
Visit of Sighisoara and hiking in Danes region
Tour of medieval Sighisoara, an impressive fortress, still inhabited, placed on the top of a hill, which dominates all the valley. Visit the museum housed in the Clock Tower, which higher terrace gives an amazing sight.
Ascend then by feet to the Church of the Hill, passing through the covered wooden staircase, which facilitated the access on the hill. Visit the Church of the Hill and, after getting down, the Saxon Church.

Hiking in Danes region (take the road to Sibiu).
Camping-car’s park in the same place as the day before.


 

Day 21
Camping-car tour of Transylvania- Romania (continuation)
Sighisoara – Targu Mures – Turda – Cluj-Napoca (160 km)
Drive to Cluj Napoca, the most important urban centre in Transylvania, with old cultural, collegiate and economical traditions. Visit the city – occasion to discover the richness of the gothic and baroque architecture in the city centre: St. Michel Catholic Cathedral, Babes-Bolyai University, the house where Matei Corvin was born, Banffy Palace which hosts the Art Museum, the Orthodox Cathedral, the National Theatre and the Opera House. Time allowing, visit the Botanical Garden – the second in Europe as importance.

Camping-car’s park in a camping close to Cluj Napoca.
 
Day 22
Cluj-Napoca – Oradea (Bors) – Hungary (160 km + …)
Departure to Hungary passing through Oradea.




 

2012 RATES
NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS		PERIOD	PRICE/ PERSON		PRICE INCLUDES
2-8 (1-4 camping-cars)		May - September	575 EUR		- 10 nights camping-car’s park in a guesthouse grassed yard or orchard - 10 days half board (breakfast and dinner) in guesthouses - 3 days accommodation and full board in rural guesthouse in Danube Delta - 2 days boat guided tour in Danube Delta - full travel file with access details - GPS with full detailed Romania maps hiring
Quotation on request for other group sizes or discounts for children under 12