Premium hiking in Romania - 9 days from 896 €

Arrival by plane to Cluj-Napoca, capital of Transylvania and meeting with the guide. Transfer by car to Breb, at the foot of the Gutai mountains, a typical village of the Maramures region in terms of architecture, customs and traditions. You will be received in traditional houses. Traditional dinner prepared by our guests.

After breakfast, we leave for an easy walk of about 2-3 hours - circular walk to discover the surroundings.

In the afternoon, transfer to Sapanta, where we can find the Merry Cemetery (unique in the world because of its colored and painted crosses with humorous epitaphs).

On the road, lunch in a traditional restaurant in Sighetu Marmatiei. Then visit the cemetery and the workshop of the sculptor and painter who provides the crosses. Then, discover the new church, Sapanta Peri, one of the highest wooden buildings in Europe - still under construction.

In the late afternoon, we head towards Breb. Traditional dinner and accommodation on the spot.

In the morning we will head to the Iza Valley, where we will stop to see the workshop and exhibition of Mr. Barsan, one of the last Maramures sculptors specializing in traditional wooden sculpture.

We will take a break at Poienile Izei to see the interior painting of a wooden church of Maramures (included in UNESCO's heritage list). From there we will continue by foot through meadows, orchards and country roads and after the picnic we will arrive in the village of Botiza.

From here we will continue to the village of Ieud, the cradle of Transylvanian peasant intellectuality, one of the oldest villages in Maramures, home to one of the oldest wooden churches in the country.

Accommodation in a traditional house belonging to the teachers of the school village.

In the morning we will visit the Church on the Hill, which is included in UNESCO World Heritage and then transfer to Bucovina, an oasis of Romanian spirituality, home to the famous monasteries painted on the outside (Voronet, Moldovita, Sucevita, Arbore and Humor), included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The road will take us to the golden valley of Bistrita. On its banks, we find typical villages of Northern Moldavia, such as Carlibaba, Botos, Ciocanesti, which consist of very well maintained and tastefully decorated houses. Most houses are decorated with traditional symbols. Even the new buildings carry these decorations, including the town hall and the post office.

In the afternoon we will reach the village of Sucevita. Dinner and accommodation.

We will pass the Obcinile Bucovinei hills and we will stop in the village of Moldovita. After seeing the monastery - built at the beginning of the 16th century and dominated by the yellow color - we start a gentle climb through pastures, meadows and forests, to the hamlet of Runc. It is a place almost completely cut off from the modern world, where there are no routes, sidewalks, traffic lights, cars, but small trails, springs, orchards, haystacks, carts, horses. The village itself is situated at the top of a 1000 m hill, surrounded by coniferous forests, populated not only by the largest number of carnivores in Europe (7000 bears, 3000 wolves and 2000 lynxes) but also a mythical world of fairies, saints, dwarfs, giants, witches, trees and magical sources. This is only a small glimpse of the highland archipelago in northern Romania, a place that is probably home to one of the last live food crops in Europe.

We will go down into the Moldovita Valley and into the eponymous village, we will visit Glicheria Hretiuc, one of the local skillful masters of the art of egg painting.

After a visit to his exhibition we can choose to enjoy a beer in a local pub or go directly to our hosts in Sucevita to spend a few more hours in the tranquility of their garden. Dinner and overnight accommodation as the previous evening.

In the morning we will visit the monastery of Sucevita and the workshop of black pottery, 5000 years old in the village of Marginea, where we will have the opportunity to see the artists at work.

Then we head south to the region of Moldova. The route will lead us into a series of typical villages, with original architecture.

At noon we will reach the village of Tarpesti. This is one of the cultural highlights of our trip, as we will have the opportunity to visit the vast collection of popular artifacts belonging to Mr. Popa to see the archaeological discoveries he personally made on more than 20 sites and his collection of wood and stone sculptures.

We will have a delicious lunch in the relaxed atmosphere of his garden.

We will then leave Tarpesti and head west towards Varatec, pass the hills, arrive at Valea Arini and Valea Seaca, two quiet villages with a specific Moldavian architecture, then the impressive gorges of Bicaz, with vertical limestone walls and overhang up to 350 m.

We will reach the Red Lake, a natural barrier lake, formed at the beginning of the 19th century and located at about 980 m altitude. Easy walk in the afternoon.

Accommodation in a 3 * hotel.

In the morning we will begin our hike in the Hasmas National Park, mountains with a special charm given by the pastoral life and the ancient rituals that survive here. We climb a steep hill and then, through dark woods, often crossed by the many bears in the area, we arrive at the White Prairie and then, through wide open spaces, to the summit, where we will reach an altitude of 1797 m.

We will have a panoramic view of Eastern Transylvania and the Moldavian Carpathians: white limestone cliffs, green and flat meadows, dotted with small lakes and lined with dark coniferous forests. Many shepherds shelter at night the semi-wild horses and flocks of sheep that run through this land during the day.

In the afternoon, transfer to the village of Viscri - a German village, like most of the Saxon settlements nestled among the oak forests that cover these hills.

Dinner and accommodation in restored traditional farmhouses.

In the morning we will take a cart pulled by a horse and we will head towards the hills around this small village. The German settlers arrived 800-900 years ago when they were invited by the new leader of Transylvania, the Hungarian king. They occupied the fertile valleys, bringing feudal organization, laying foundations for villages and towns. The mountains on the other hand, the upper lands, as well as the lands near the borders of Transylvania remained Romanian, or as they called them at the time, Valachian.

Nowadays, after the invasion of the Red Army in 1944 and the Communist era, most of the German population left. You will have the privilege of immersing yourself in a huge open-air museum, the heritage that the Saxons have left behind and that consists of naturally preserved architecture, especially the medieval fortified churches, unfortunately only a handful of them are protected by UNESCO. We will meet some artisans of the village to visit the fortified church.

Viscri is one of the villages in Romania where Prince Charles has a traditional house.

We will return to the village for lunch.

Transfer to Sighisoara - a medieval citadel, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, home to a multitude of medieval monuments, including the house where, almost 600 years ago, the famous character all over the world today, Dracula, was born.

Accommodation in a 3 * hotel in the center of the citadel. Time to discover the citadel. Dinner.

In the morning, transfer to the airport of Cluj Napoca for the return flight.