Wildlife holiday in Romania
| country: | Romania |
| location: | Carpathian Mountains |
| departures: | This trip can be tailored to individual requirements with flexibility on dates |
| price: | From £630 (8 days) excluding flights. Single supplement £75. Flights from the UK and ATOL cover can be arranged. Price includes donations to Climate Care and The Travel Foundation |
the amazing things you'll be doing
You explore the massifs of Bucegi and Piatra Craiului, part of the South-Eastern Carpathians looking for signs of bears, wolves, lynx, red deer, wild boar in forest and mountain tracks. Piatra Craiului National Park is famous for being the base for more than 10 years of a research and conservation project about wolves, bears and lynx.
You drive from the mountains to the Danube Delta, staying overnight in a restored mansion with a fabulous wine cellar. You will explore the creeks and reed beds with an ornithologist , spending two nights in the Delta.
Finally you return through Babadag and the Macin Hills to Bucharest for one night and time to explore Bucharest on your last morning before transfer to the airport.
Accommodation, breakfasts & dinners, and entry to listed attractions included. This tour is by minibus, with an English speaking guide with a minimum group size of six.
You drive from the mountains to the Danube Delta, staying overnight in a restored mansion with a fabulous wine cellar. You will explore the creeks and reed beds with an ornithologist , spending two nights in the Delta.
Finally you return through Babadag and the Macin Hills to Bucharest for one night and time to explore Bucharest on your last morning before transfer to the airport.
Accommodation, breakfasts & dinners, and entry to listed attractions included. This tour is by minibus, with an English speaking guide with a minimum group size of six.
day-by-day itinerary
| Day 1: | Arrive at Otopeni Airport. Drive along the Prahova Valley to Moeciu de Sus – a village at the foothills of Bucegi Mountains. Overnight at a chalet-styled guesthouse in Moeciu de Sus (two nights). |
| Day 2 | From Moeciu de Sus. Walk up through the forest of the Bucegi Mountain to emerge in a delightful landscape of high crags and alpine meadows. Look for signs of wild animals. Enjoy the spectacular views over the mountains. Return to the guesthouse in the evening to relax and enjoy a good dinner. |
| Day 3: | Drive to Zarnesti at the foot of Piatra Craiului Mountain – heart of the CLCP study area. CLCP is now at the end of its research and its project leaders are concentrating all their efforts on building a Carpathian Large Carnivore Centre that will represent the culmination of CLCP's eco-tourism work in the area. Listen to a presentation about the interpretative centre, and stop to visit Crai and Poiana, the two hand-raised wolves of the project. Walk on the foothills of Piatra Craiului Mountain, largely formed of limestone and very rich in alpine flora, which offers spectacular scenery. We will search for signs of wild animals and if time permits we will visit a shepherd's log cabin to see how they make cheese. Overnight at a guesthouse in Zarnesti at the foothills of Piatra Craiului Mountain. |
| Day 4: | Head for the Danube Delta, leaving Carpathian Mountains behind. We then cross Buzau Pass and descend through Nehoiu to Berca village to see "the Muddy Volcanoes"- a strange landscape in the Buzau Mountains. These are gas emissions of "cold" boiling mud on the surface, in volcanic cones, sometimes 5-7 m high. The bubbling brown mud looks like a lunar landscape. We continue to Buzau after which there is another hour and a half drive to the Moldavian region of Vrancea, famous for its vineyards. Here we will sleep overnight in a wine village, in a beautiful old mansion restored in the traditional style with an impressive wine cellar. Time to enjoy in the evening the good Moldavian wine and the excellent meals cooked using only organic home produce. |
| Day 5: | Drive across the flat eastern plains to Braila where you will cross Danube into Dobrogea region. Continue driving on to the village of Murighiol where we take the Salcioara ferry to Uzlina, one of the best birdwatching centres in the Danube Delta. The afternoon is spent exploring ,with the help of an ornithologist, the channels and reed beds in the Uzlina area – a good place for spotting a wide variety of spoonbills, egrets, glossy ibis and waders. Overnight accommodation in guesthouse in Crisan village. |
| Day 6: | Visit Caraorman - the "carp country"- the most famous in the Delta. Here you will see the "Sahara type" sand dunes, or the famous "equatorial" forest. In a boat you will explore the most secret channels of the Delta where you may see dalmatian or white pelicans, and many other species. Return for overnight accommodation in Crisan. A special fish barbecue with wine and plum brandy can be organised for a small additional surcharge. |
| Day 7: | Drive to Murighiol and Babadag. The forests surrounding the Babadag village are popular with birdwatchers. Visit the Mosque Ali Gazi Pasha – Romania's oldest architectural Muslim monument. Drive through the Macin Hills back towards Bucharest. Overnight accommodation at a 3 star hotel in Bucharest. |
| Day 8: | Budapest. Use the morning to explore Budapest before transfer to the airport for your flight home. |
how this holiday makes a difference
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We are committed to playing our part through caring for the places and communities that we visit. We will continue to work with our suppliers to deliver a responsible product and quality performance.
We are helping to minimise the effects of emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases on the global climate from the transport that we use (aircraft, buses and cars) by contributing to Climate Care .This contribution is equivalent to some £1.50 per customer and will be invested, for example, in renewable energy schemes in less developed countries. We will continue to do this until governments bring in alternative ways in which to address the climate change impact of transport. We are contributing 50p per customer to The Travel Foundation– a British based charity that is implementing tourism projects and practice around the world to deliver long term caring. We will contribute also £1 per customer to a community project in Romania. Our customers are asked to make suggestions, based on what they see in Romania, about suitable projects to support. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |