If what you are looking for is a more odd, off the beaten track sort of holiday, look no further: you've come to the right place! Get your tailor-made tours here!
Since your guide is based in beautiful, yet not properly known, Timişoara (Western Romania, hence not just any tour guide, but Timişoara Tour Guide!), most tours are designed for your accommodation in and departure from this city towards several other destinations in the area of Banat and Transylvania. Most of the tours are perfect for a city break sort of getaway, landing in Timişoara and taking short trips to the surrounding areas, both towns and villages, which will give you the opportunity to gain some real insight into Romanian life, culture and tradition. Expect contrasts which will shock your pants off and leave you wanting to come back for more!
Trips to Transylvania are also available for all you Dracula lovers out there. However, if you wish to do some extensive travelling, I suggest you include: the Danube, boat rides, traditional meals, cart rides, nature, lots of nature, medieval towns, fortresses and churches, haunted lakes and more castles, mining and industrial architecture, all of which you will find thrilling and also detailed in the Week trip to Transylvania below.
My tours have a social impact and are what you might call travelling with respect: I advise tourists to choose handmade and homemade products as souvenirs, both of which will help support local businesses. Also, for accommodation, meals and entertainment, I recommend local family hotels, restaurants and bars. Besides the charm and personalized treatment they are offered, they will also have the opportunity to contribute in a responsible way to the local economy and to support crafts and craftsmen. I also try to encourage tourists to mingle with the locals. I inform the locals and involve friends who give guests a hand and welcome them into their homes, allowing them to take part in their activities, for a more thorough understanding of our life and reality. To my guests and new friends I explain the local customs, what is and what is not appropriate, local rules and regulations, so that our and their activity may be carried out in harmony and in the most respectful way towards the locals.
Tours are carried out in English, Spanish and Romanian and always with a friendly smile on your guide's face and a red umbrella in her hand. So get ready, on your marks, get set... FOLLOW ME!
Day trip to Arad County 1
Some of the suggested options for a day visit to Arad County include:
• visiting one of the oldest monk monasteries in the country, and (on Sunday mornings or on religious holidays) participating in the morning service of the Hodos-Bodrog Orthodox monastery; legends and mysteries and a very original way of celebrating Orthodox rituals, not something you get to see everyday, that's for sure!
• a city tour of Arad, with its beautiful Art Nouveau architecture (also Austro-Hungarian heritage), and lunch on the banks of the river Mures;
• the Catholic Basilica of Maria Radna, an extremely important pilgrimage place for the Catholic community of Banat thanks to its miraculous icon.
Extras:
*Arad County is also famous for its wines, so that a visit to the Wine Princess winery can also be organized, upon request, so as to try an exquisite glass of wine.
Rate: EUR.../group of up to 4 people
Included: guiding service and transportation (in a Toyota Yaris);
NOT included: donations or tips, wine tasting, meals (the customers will pay for the guide's meal; they will also pay for the driver's meal, when the group exceeds 4 people and we have to rent a minibus).
For larger groups, please request a non-committal quote.
Afternoon trip to Stanciova - experience village life
Stanciova is an unusual place in the Western part of Romania (40km away from Timişoara) that has known an accelerated development in the last years. Here Time has taken a break to rest in this village laying at the end of a stone road that discourages cars, all surrounded by hills and forest, with quaint rammed earth houses painted in the local style, with horses, carts and free running animals all over.
Stanciova offers the city dweller stressed by noise, pollution or work deadlines a magic place. Here life follows the rhythm of the seasons, silence caresses the ears and the local naturally grown products spoil the senses.
Every season has its own rhythm and type of work. Before Easter the whole village renews its appearance as every house and gate is freshly painted. The main work in the summer is collecting the hay, autumn is the time for harvesting, making preserves for the winter and of course, preparing „ţuică” (the local alcoholic drink). In winter there is „Ignat” (when people prepare the pork meat specialties) and of course there are the traditions and carols for Christmas and New Year (each celebrated twice, as the people here use the Romanian calendar as much as the Serbian one). Even if modernism is closing in on these people too, the old activities are still vivid and appreciated here.
Activities:
• Cart rides: for those who want an interesting ride to and around the village, a horse driven cart is the most comfortable option. The local horses are beautiful and their drivers are competent, original guides.
• Walks: those who love walking in nature can recharge their energy in the surrounding forest. With some luck one can even see interesting birds, pheasants, foxes, rabbits or deers.
• Theme workshops: in many villages the traditional life style is fading away. In Stanciova the people are still using their own knowledge and resources for surviving. The local NGO Ecotopia Romania is trying to capitalize this knowledge and to promote it through workshops on various themes: building with earth (plastering, ovens and cooking stoves) gardening, preparing winter preserves.
An afternoon in Stanciova could look like this:
• arrival around 18:00, after a pit stop at our famous winery in Recaş, where you can buy a little something to go with your dinner;
• approx. 30 min presentation of the household (garden, animals, traditional building techniques with earth and wood)
• approx. 30 min cart & horse ride in the village
• dinner - local organic food (vegetables, salads, finger food, locally raised rabbit or poultry meat)
• movie screening in the barn ”Tales from the Golden Age” (together with friends from the village and international volunteers)
• if in the mood - local wine and spirits around the fire
*alcoholic drinks are not included (wine can be bought at the Recas winery along the way; locally there are ”ţuica” and fruit liquors for sale; conventional beer at the village shop)
! Minimum group size: 3 persons (of whom one may be your guide)
Recommendation:
* Perfect activity to combine with a morning tour of Timişoara
Rate: EUR.../group of up to 4 people
Included: guiding service and transportation (in a Toyota Yaris);
NOT included: donations or tips, horse-driven cart ride, meals.
For larger groups, please request a non-committal quote.
Day trip to Transylvania - Corvin Castle (Day 1)
Day trip towards the border with Transylvania to visit:
• Densuş, the oldest Orthodox church in Romania still in service;
• the ruins of the Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa, the Roman capital of Dacia;
• the 75 million-year-old dinosaur nests found in the Dinosaur Park area of Hateg;
• the very well preserved medieval Corvin Castle in Hunedoara, one of the castles built in the time of world's favourite blood sucker, Count Dracula;
• return to Timişoara in time for a late dinner and well-deserved rest after a day you will definitely not forget.
Warning:
*This visit implies a long drive and a tiresome trip, 12 hours of which most will be spent in the car.
Rate: EUR .../group of up to 4 people
Included: guiding service and transportation (in a Toyota Yaris);
NOT included: entrance tickets to the castle and ruins, donations or tips, potential accommodation, meals (the customers will pay for the guide's meal; they will also pay for the driver's meal, when the group exceeds 4 people and we have to rent a minibus).
For larger groups, please request a non-committal quote.
Tip:
*Make this a 2-day trip, spend the night in the Realm of the Forest Dwellers and continue the journey to Transylvania the following morning, with a visit to one of the greatest landmarks in Romania - the Alba-Iulia fortress (see description below). Should you decide to continue the trip, before dinner we have the 2 following options (only in summer time):
• a very old mining village (mine now in ruins); shocking sights and industrial architecture (attention! not for the faint-hearted); local households and trades (available on request in summer time);
• an afternoon stroll on the banks of a beautiful artificial lake (haunted, as the villagers say) created by the communist regime by flooding 4 entire villages (sometimes, the top of the Catholic church can be seen rising from underneath the water); available on request in summer time.
Rate for the 2-day trip: see "Trip to Transylvania - Alba Iulia Fortress (Day 2)" below.
Trip to Transylvania - Alba Iulia Fortress (Day 2)
To make the best of your stay, turn the visit into Hunedoara a 2-day trip. After visiting the Corvin Castle, spend the night in the Realm of the Forest Dwellers and continue the journey to Transylvania the following morning. The tour includes one of the greatest landmarks in Romania - the beautiful fortress of Alba-Iulia, the second capital of Romania. This is the place where back in 1918 Romania officially became a country. Spend the day within the walls of the Roman, Hungarian and Austrian fortresses, enjoy a nice meal in the old gun-powder warehouse and return to Timisoara in the evening.
*At the end of Day 1, we have the possibility of spending the night in an old manor (small capacity, so best to book ahead), have dinner and a Romanian short-movie screening in the garden of the hotel to make the end of the first day as enjoyable as possible.
Rate/ 2-day trip: EUR ..../group of up to 4 people
Included: guiding service and transportation (in a Toyota Yaris);
NOT included: entrance tickets to the castle, fortress or possible donations and tips, accommodation, meals (the customers will pay for the guide's meal; they will also pay for the driver's meal, when the group exceeds 4 people and we have to rent a minibus).
For larger groups, please request a non-committal quote.
Day trip to the Banat Highlands - the Danube Gorges
We set off early in the morning for a journey down south, to the natural border between Romania and Serbia – the Danube Gorges. Along the way see an Orthodox monastery carved in the mountain and we visit the old Austro-Hungarian Imperial thermal baths in the Herculane resort (goes back to Roman times, with its times of glory in communist times), that Empress Sisi so dearly loved. After a delicious fish lunch on the banks of the Danube River, we take a short walk to pay our respects to the biggest rock-carved statue in Europe, of old Dacian ruler Decebalus, ancestor of the Romanian people. We are now ready to enjoy an exciting private boat ride on the Danube and to visit 2 caves that nature carved into the old rocky shores. At the end of the day and our adventure, we either return to Timisoara or spend the night in a hotel or guesthouse on the Romanian banks of the Danube so as to continue our journey into the Semenic Mountains the day after.
Extras:
*If time allows and you are still up for it, before our return to Timisoara, we can hike up the Gorges to see the Danube from above. The trip is medium difficulty and it takes 1 hour to go up and come back to the car.
Warning:
*This visit implies a long drive and a tiresome trip, 14 hours of which about 6 will be spent in the car. However, the trip can be adapted, so you can drop the visit to Herculane and focus mainly on the Danube, so you have more time to relax and enjoy the view.
Tip:
*The boat ride offers the opportunity to take a dip in the Danube and some guesthouses have their own swimming pools, so make sure to bring a towel and swimming gear. Also, trekking shoes and windproof clothing may come in useful.
*For the greatest outdoor experience on the menu, make the trip to the Danube Gorges a 2-day outing and add a day into the Semenic Mountains to your stay (see description below).
Rate: EUR ..../group of up to 4 people (in a Toyota Yaris)
Included: guiding service and transportation (in a Toyota Yaris); private boat ride through the Danube Gorges and entrance to the caves along the shore.
NOT included: meals, donations or tips, potential accommodation.
For larger groups, please request a non-committal quote.
Day trip to the Banat Highlands - Semenic Mountains
During our journey to the Semenic Mountains and the more rural area of Banat, we stop by the open-air Steam Locomotives Museum in the town of Reșița. Once in the mountains, we take a light walk up to the tallest peak to see the view. We later stroll through the old village of Gărâna (Wolfsberg), with its traditional 19th century colonial houses, the favourite weekend destination of the town dwellers nearby. We have lunch in the inn where the biggest jazz festival in Romania came to be back in 1996. After lunch we visit an old traditional house (museum), preserved and furbished with the old household items of the German colonists, brought from Bohemia or the Bavarian Woods. After the museum, we drive to one of the several lakes and resorts on the mountain, where you can swim, rent a canoe or just have a refreshing drink and enjoy the scenery before returning to Timisoara in the evening.
Rate: EUR .../group of up to 4 people
Included: guiding service and transportation (in a Toyota Yaris);
NOT included: entrance tickets, donations to the museum or tips, potential accommodation, meals (the customers will pay for the guide's meal; they will also pay for the driver's meal, when the group exceeds 4 people and we have to rent a minibus).
For larger groups, please request a non-committal quote.
Week trip to Transylvania
For an unforgettable experience in the region "beyond the forest", you may design your own trip by picking several or all of the sites mentioned below, some more mainstream, some totally off the beaten path. They will take you through legends and mysteries, through stories of old, they will bring forth new tastes, new smells and unique experiences. Enjoy nature and visit UNESCO World Heritage sites alike.
If you are on the market for a longer trip, choose to land in Timişoara and we will start our journey here and head down south, then over the mountains into the core of Transylvania...take a look for yourself:
• We begin in the historic area of Banat, in Timişoara and its surrounding area, then drive south to see:
• the Danube with its beautiful views of the Romanian and Serbian shores, castles and monuments, both of which you can see by taking a boat ride on the river; don't miss out on the delicious fish meals available in the villages in the area;
• Count Dracula's real castle, one of the foggiest, creepiest, most haunted places I've had the opportunity of getting to know;
• the spectacular views of the Transfăgărăşan road, crossing the Carpathian Mountains from Wallachia to Transylvania;
• the medieval towns of Sibiu, Sighişoara and Braşov;
• Bran and Peleş Castles;
• the medieval fortified Saxon churches (HRH Prince Charles owns several houses in these Saxon villages);
• Cluj-Napoca, in the heart of Transylvania, wherefrom you can either return home or resume your journey back to Timişoara aaaaaaand, on the way, visit....
• the best preserved Vauban fortress in Romania - Alba-Iulia;
• the old mining villages in the Apuseni Mountains (the very controversial Roşia Montană) and in the Realm of the Forest Dwellers;
• the haunted artificial lake, created by the communists by flooding 4 entire villages;
• one of the most visited castles in Romania, medieval Corvin Castle;
• the oldest Orthodox church in Romania, still in service - Densuş.
All these make for a memorable one to two weeks holiday. Care to try it out?
Recommendation:
*Comfortable shoes, garlic and a bottle of holy water are a MUST!
