Responsible tourism in Romania

While it remains a captivating time capsule of unspoilt nature and rural tradition, key Romania responsible tourism issues involve protecting these precious assets to avoid them being cheapened by commercialisation or damaged by careless drives for modernity. Rural tourism is a vital supporter of wonderful traditions at every level - supporting characterful accommodation rather than bland hotels, encouraging protection of local species and environments, plus bolstering local crafts.

Animal welfare is another issue where Romania can benefit from responsible tourist input. In particular, show your distaste at caged or performing bears, and pointedly shun places that have them. Visit/support the marvellous Libearty sanctuary, and show an interest in other wildlife – and also native flora. All this shows your awareness of Romania responsible tourism issues.

Adept at sustainability

Saschiz is the headquarter of the Adept Foundation – a charity working to protect the special countryside of the Tarnava Mare area and give local people a secure future by promoting sustainable agriculture and marketing of high quality food products, while encouraging ancient crafts and skills, rural tourism and nature conservation. The area - home to 23,000 people in 27 small villages - is also a focus of an approach to sustainable development integrating two EU programmes: Natura 2000 for nature conservation and LEADER for rural community development. The principles promoted by the Adept Foundation apply, of course, across Romania in terms of using traditional accommodation providing work for local people, and buying Romanian products wherever possible.

What you can do
Use local services, plus buy local food and craft products. And donate to the Adept Foundation.

Bear necessities

For years, bears in Romania have been trophy-hunted, forced to dance in the streets and trapped in cages outside restaurants. Kept in cruelly cramped conditions and regularly abused by their owners, these bears are now being rescued and brought to Libearty near Brasov, Romania's largest bear sanctuary. It was founded by Cristina Lapis, who was spurred to action in 1998 after seeing three bears in a small cage outside a restaurant in central Romania where they were used to attract customers.

In 2007 Romania joined the European Union and that brought new laws including the EU Zoo Directive - which meant all zoos in Romania had to come up to a certain standard of animal management. Many zoos could not comply and the bears in these zoos faced euthanasia - but were saved by being re-homed in the bear sanctuary.

The Libearty bear sanctuary - based in oak forests above the town of Zarnesti in central Transylvania - conducts regular tours for visitors to see around 80 bears enjoying life in 70 hectares of forested sanctuary areas, where they can climb trees, swim in pools and forage naturally. The sanctuary also offers unique opportunities for more committed visitors to work with the bears. The sanctuary has also helped to create better awareness of the issues affecting bears in Romania, and enjoys a high media profile to become one of the country's primary symbols of optimism for the protection of Romania's rich natural environment.

Romanians can exhibit what can seem surprising candour and lack of conformity to some social 'rules' familiar to Western European visitors. People will happily smoke, smoke and talk where they aren't technically supposed to. You may also be surprised at what may seem overly-personal questioning about your views on all kinds of subjects, how much you earn and other things deemed generally off-limit in the UK. But they aren't being rude – it's just part of a Romanian belief in being open about what you think so they can understand where you're coming from! At Responsible Travel, we do not support keeping dolphins in captivity. On Romania's Black Sea coast there is a dolphinarium where these creatures perform for tourists several times daily - which we urge you not to visit. For more information on our stance, and on where to see these marine mammals in the wild, take a look at our Dolphin watching guide.