Transylvanian tour, Heritage & Landscapes

Planet

We are passionate about leaving the Romanian Countryside as we find it and as such we operate a strict no litter policy, taking all refuse to either be recycled or properly disposed. We work with the policy of ‘take nothing but memories, Leave nothing but footprints’.

As an alternative to flying it is of course possible to travel from the UK to Bucharest by bus or train. Both involve extending your adventure by several days as the fascinating journey route takes you through some of the highlights of Europe! The train route for example, starting in London, stops at Brussels, then Frankfurt, Budapest and then Bucharest. Total journey time (if you don't do the obvious thing of breaking it to visit some of these wonderful places!) is around 34hrs. A bus is also an option though it is 30 hours, taking you through Belgium, Austria, Hungary and finally into Romania.

During the adventure we use private mini bus transport plus of course some walking to experience the sights, sounds and smells of this beautiful country on foot.

Day 5 of our itinerary is spent in the village of Cobor - an example of AgroTourism where the village is run as part of a Biodiversity Conservation program by the NGO Foundation Conservation Carpathia (FCC). Our clients are invited to learn more about the charity and to make a donation to support them, and the area they are visiting, if they would like.

All of our leaders have been trained on how to promote responsible tourism, particularly focusing on reducing the use of single-use plastic. We are very proud to be working with Pure Hydration, specialists in personal and expedition water purification, instantly, and on-demand.

Having a re-usable filtration bottle avoids single use plastic, with each bottle purifying 350L of water. RRP is £39 but our clients are able to purchase a bottle for £20.00. We recognise that the ability to produce safe drinking water from sources off the beaten track, of sometimes dubious quality, that's why we offer incredible benefits to our adventure travellers and so are excited to be subsidising this product to make it more accessible to you.

People

We work directly with a small Romanian operator who provides the local guides for our adventures - our clients benefit from their expertise, and they benefit from our employment. We also use small, locally run hotels and guesthouses during our adventure rather than larger internationally run chain hotels.

Some areas of Romania, such as Bran Castle and Viscri, are well known to tourists and visitors. We are conscious of the need to avoid potential negative effects of tourism and work closely with our local contacts to ensure that the local communities are benefitting from us - we have a lunch prepared by locals and a chance to support local artisan craft workers during the visit.

Our Romanian partner has a fabulous network of local contacts who are passionate about developing the right kind of tourism in Romania, which supports local communities as well as the environment. We include 3 lunches, prepared locally using home grown produce, and served by local Romanians in rural villages we visit. We include opportunities to learn about the traditions of the Rroma and to support them directly through purchasing artisan craft souvenirs.