Halloween holiday in Transylvania with party at Bran Castle

Planet

We encourage our guests to do a little reading before coming to find out more about the environment problems in Transylvania: deforestation, pollution of waters, soils and atmosphere, soils degradation, soils erosion. We provide suggestions on how best to protect the surrounding environment. Guests will receive a pre-trip information pack via e-mail, to minimize the use of paper, which will inform them about issues relating to the place they will travel.

Furthermore, our tour guides are well-educated multilingual people who can offer guests their advice about what each of our guest can do, during their trip, in order to minimize the impact for the environment and as an interpreter, offer insights on current regional issues: have a recyclable garbage bag and that the waste will be disposed only on the special arranged areas. Learn a few Romanian words and phrases - included in our pre-trip information pack.

Being small group tours, these trips not only minimize the negative impact on the environment but also allow you to interact more easily with the locals, giving you the possibility to learn about culture and traditions straight from the source.

People

These tours offer you a well rounded Romanian experience, introducing you to Transylvania’s finest scenery and folklore and providing you with the possibility of getting in contact with the genuine peasant culture by exploring rural areas, the work shops of famous artists and craftsmen, visiting museums or landscapes made famous in the Romanian literature. Besides the economic aspect – we use only local suppliers - your visit is of great importance for the artist, craftsmen, museums, castles or the small rural communities you’ll visit as it provides them with the a motivation, a reason to carry on the traditions. You’ll be able to purchase locally goods starting with food and ending with souvenirs, handicrafts.

To give you a full taste of the local culture you’ll delight yourself with home cooked traditional meals, like in Ieud, in the Maramures region or shop for souvenirs in Madam Monica Cosma’s small but very interesting shop offering one of the finest selection of handicrafts in Romania.

To make sure the money stays where needed we only use local suppliers and where the itinerary allows us we also use small family run businesses, like in Ieud, a beautiful traditional village located in the magical Maramures, where you’ll accommodate in guest houses. This is actually an ideal opportunity to spend more time with the locals but also ensure that the financial benefits of your visit reach the people of the area and not some large companies based outside the region.

The entry fees will help maintain and even restore the precious tourist attractions visited throughout the tour and guides will help explain local customs to our guests, for example when in a museum first ask if it is permitted to take photographs. Many museums or heritage sites also ask for a small fee if you use your camera or video-recorder.

We’re also making financial contributions for every persons who books one of our tours, in the amount of £1 per person to support Saint Daniel’s Foundation programme entitled 'A grand father for a nephew – A nephew for a grandfather', helping elderly and orphans, people most in need.