Tours in Romania

Romania rewards the person who gets out of the capital. Bucharest is loud, grand and a little untidy, with wide boulevards that suddenly give way to quiet courtyards and old churches tucked behind apartment blocks. Give it a day, then head north into the hills, where the country starts to make more sense.

Transylvania is the part most people come for, and it lives up to the name. Brașov is a good place to start. The old centre opens onto Piata Sfatului, a broad square where people sit with a coffee and look up at the mountain behind the rooftops. Walk the lanes off it and you find a town that has always traded, argued and eaten well. Beer is part of that. A brewery on the square, a tasting, a board of cured meats and cheese with a small glass of palinca, and you have learned more about the region than a menu could tell you.

From there the map fills in quickly. Sibiu and Sighisoara are towns of steep streets, painted façades and clock towers, best walked slowly with no plan. Bran Castle and Peles Castle draw the crowds, and a local guide can take you to them at a better hour. Further north, Maramures has wooden churches and hay fields worked by hand. Cluj-Napoca is a student city with good cafes, and the Danube Delta in the east is all reeds, water and birds.

We only sell one tour here so far, and it is a good one for a first evening. For the rest, ask. Castles, painted monasteries, Carpathian drives and the markets of Bucharest are all things a local guide can arrange for you.