Itinerary
Day 1 / BUCHAREST ARRIVAL
Meet your guide at the airport in Bucharest and transfer to the GRAND CONTINENTAL HOTEL 5*
Enjoy some leisure time at the hotel and dinner on your own, for which we have a very nice recommendation:
the oldest surviving restaurant in Bucharest: CARU’ CU BERE (The Beer Wagon), which offers also different shows each night (reservations upon request).
The restaurant was established in 1879 in Calea Victoriei Street by Ion Carabasanu, a former Romanian army volunteer, coming from Transylvania. The building and the establishment became famous in the commercial field of Bucharest, at the beginning of the 1900’s, when the owner, received the military decorations of the Order of the Romanian Crown and of the Order of the Star of Romania. Today, the restaurant is as loved as it was when it first opened. The restaurant is a relaxing 10 minutes’ walk from to the hotel.
Meal plan: no meals included on this day
Day 2 / BUCHAREST - CLUJ
After a delicious breakfast, you will dedicate this day to explore the capital city of Romania- Bucharest.
Your day will start with a panoramic tour and continue with the visit to the biggest administrative building in the world The Palace of Parliament.
Built by the former communist ruler Nicolae Ceausescu as part of his ambitious urban development, this building stands for one of the most extravagant and expensive constructions made in the last century.
Lunch on your own.
After the visit you will be transferred to the airport for the flight to Cluj. Arriving to Cluj you will be transferred to CITY PLAZA HOTEL 5*, where you will have dinner and spend the night.
Meal plan: Breakfast, Dinner
Day 3 / CLUJ - TURDA - BONTIDA - BAIA MARE
Breakfast at the hotel. Start this day with a visit to the amazing Turda Salt Mine. The mine was initially built in the 19th century as a horizontal gallery that was supposed to cut down the costs of the salt extraction. Afterwards in the middle of the 20th century the place was used as a storage hall for the cheese and was improved with waste and water pipelines. It was during the communist rule that the place became a Spa and relaxation center, as the proprieties of the salt were more researched. Nowadays the mine is widely known for its ability to cure different respiratory disease and the time spent here can improve the overall health. Inside the mine the authorities built different facilities that allow people to spend their time in a pleasant way like playgrounds for kids, an amphitheater, a mini-golf course, billiard tables, a small gondola as well as many other points of interest.
Lunch on your own.
You will continue the day heading to Bondita where you will visit the Banffy Castle, the place where the international festival Electric Castle is held.
After the visit you will be then transferred to Baia Mare to EUROPA HOTEL 3*, where you will have dinner and spend the night.
Meal plan: Breakfast, Dinner
Day 4 / BAIA MARE - SAPANTA - SIGHETUL MARMATIEI
This morning after breakfast you will head to Sapanta to visit the Merry Cemetery. While everywhere in the world a cemetery is considered to be a solemn place here at Sapanta, one man called Ion Stan Patras, decided to change all that into a nice story of happiness and celebrating life instead of the passing.
To do that instead of the cold grave stone, he was carving from wood and painting in vivid colors a wooden cross for each inhabitant of the city that was passing away. Not only that but with his artistic talent he added a small twisted story on this crosses about each individual life.
Far from being just a decent thing to say about the eternal inhabitant, this verses are describing the passions or habits of the person in life. Some are speaking about an infidelity or a drinking habit in a funny way, others simply represents the work of that person. In any case no one from the families seams to mind and on the contrary they say it makes them remember the person exactly as he or she was. Very popular with both locals and tourists this is a place of paradox where life is being celebrated every day and for sure this is a must see in Romania if only for the reason that nowhere else in the world you will smile so much in a cemetery
Continue the day with a visit to the Village Museum of Sighet. This is an open air museum that present the typical Maramures village with all the different types of wooden houses. They stand for the mixture of Jewish, Slavic, Hungarian, German and Romanian people that inhabited this area in the 17th and 18th century and they are perfectly preserved inside and outside.
Lunch on your own.
You will then arrive to the GRADINA MORII HOTEL 3* where you will have dinner and spend the night.
Meal plan: Breakfast, Dinner
Day 5 / SIGHETUL MARMATIEI - VADUL IZEI - BARSANA - POIENILE IZEI - BOGDAN VODA - VISEUL DE SUS
Breakfast at the hotel. You will start this day admiring the traditional carved gates of Maramures and have a glimpse of the way of life in the village of Vadul Izei. Continue the day with a visit to the Barsana wooden church, a UNESCO heritage site. Considered to be one of the most beautiful churches monasteries in Romania, this wooden building stands on a hill and it is surrounded by an orchard.
The beautify of this please is both given by the authentic looks as well as by the traditions kept so well by the villagers. Here everything has an order to such an extent that according to their age and sex people stay in different areas of the church when they attend the ceremonies.
Lunch on your own.
After lunch you will continue to explore the beautiful landscape and settlements and pass through the villages Poienile Izei and Bogdan Voda, with stops along the way.
In the afternoon you will arrive to MONTANA HOTEL 3*, where you will have dinner and spend the night.
Meal plan: Breakfast, Dinner
Day 6 / VISEUL DE SUS - STEAM TRAIN RIDE - VISEUL DE SUS
Breakfast at the hotel. Today you will travel back in time as you will board Mocanita Steam Train, and travel up the valley. As your journey begins in this 18th century train, you will lose contact with the modern world as you experience the forestry railway and train that is still used today for the same purpose it was built in its heyday.
This day trip will take you along the cascading river and trough the village of Viseul de Sus, before entering deep in the forest and passing among gorges and dark tunnels dug in the mountains centuries ago. At one point in the journey the train will stop in a meadow and you will enjoy a picnic lunch.
In the afternoon you will return to the hotel
Meal plan: Breakfast, Lunch- Picnic, Dinner
Day 7 / VISEUL DE SUS - BISTRITA - REGHIN - CLUJ
You will have breakfast in the morning and depart towards Bistrita where you will have a cit
Bistrita was fist mentioned as a city in the year 1264, and it was a flourishing one during the middle ages when a bastion with 18 towers was built to protect the city from the foreign invaders like the Tatars. From them the Cooper’s Tower is the only one still standing today.
Nowadays Bistrita is a city with about 90000 inhabitants, and it is the capital of Bistrita Nasaud county.
Your tour will start with the Evangelical Church built in the gothic style and where you can observe its 75 meters tower. You will see then the city’s Sinagogue, one of the few buildings of its kind that survives today in Romania and continue with a pedestrian tour in which you will observe the beautiful buildings like Sirul Sugalete and the Cooper’s Tower.
Lunch on your own.
Continue the day with a visit to the Violin Museum in Regin and then head to Cluj where you will spend the night.
Acoomodation at CITY PLAZA HOTEL 5*.
Meal plan: Breakfast
y tour.
Day 8 / DEPARTURE FROM CLUJ
Breakfast at the hotel. Today in time for your flight you will be transferred to Cluj airport where you will board your conection flight to Bucharest and then back home.
Meal plan: Breakfast
Accomodation & Tarriffs
| Location | 3* Category | 5* Category |
|---|---|---|
| Bucharest | Grand Continental Hotel | |
| Cluj | City Plaza Hotel | |
| Baia Mare | Europa Hotel | |
| Sighetul Marmatiei | Gradina Morii Hotel | |
| Viseul de Sus | Montana Hotel |
| Tarriffs | 5* Category |
|---|---|
| Total tarrif/person | 2190 euro |
Included services
- 7 nights’ accommodation at the specified hotels or similar
- Meals specified in the program
- English speaking guide throughout the tour
- All transfers and tours indicated in the outlined itinerary
- Excursions, visits and activities, according to the program
- Entrance tickets for all the mentioned visits
- Passenger welcome kit with map, suggested restaurants, gift and pick-up time
- 24-hours emergency phone numbers
- Visa assistance if required
Extra services
- Visa costs if visa is required
- Flights or other flight related costs
- Early check-in & late check-out
- Porterage (airport & hotel)
- Other meals, except for the ones specified in the program
- Additional drinks, except the ones indicated in the meal plan
- Tips for guide and driver
- Optional excursions and visits
- Personal expenses
- Medical insurance
- Other services or expenses, except the ones mentioned in the “included” section (for example: massages, casino, telephone, internet, etc.)
Observations
- Remarks about feasibility of tours: most tours can be done also during the winter November- March but some roads may not be accessible in that period due to heavy snow fall.
- Tariffs are subject to changes, especially if heavy fluctuation in exchange rate and/or fuel prices.
- All tours and tariffs are subject to changes in case of cancellations or overbooking of flights, changes in timetable, bad weather and road conditions, strike, closing of sites, natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods.
- No services have been blocked for this tour. Ground services availability will be checked when we receive your enquiry. The availability will be re- confirmed, when the deposit has been made and received.
- In case of a last minute notification from the hotel, regarding the already confirmed availability, we commit ourselves to replace it with another hotel from the same category, or a superior one.
- For the transportation services, we will use cars, mini vans or buses, adequate to the number of participants.
Reservation
- The prices are valid for 2018, except legal holidays in Romania, when additional costs may apply.
- We will supply you with all the required company details, including the SWIFT code, in order to safely proceed with the payment.
- Payment will be made in Euros, to the provided bank account.
- In case of payment by credit card, the bank will perceive an extra comission of 1.6%, of the full value of the transaction.
- The payment will be made, as follows:
- For the ground services, an advance payment of 30% of the full value of the package, will be made at the moment of the reservation.
- The other 70% of the full value of the package, will be paid the latest, one month before the beginning of the services and the exact dates for the payment will be set through annexes to the contract.