Romania Self-Guided Tours and Trips

Journeys between places visited were too long, but the visits were all interesting and well organised, with a lovely guide.

Transylvania is a fantastic destination for hiking with stunning scenery, fabulous views, and so many wildflowers. The areas we hiked in felt remote and unspoilt. We saw very few hikers on the routes we took and even had one of the mountain huts to ourselves. As some of the other reviews say, this is a challenging week and requires a good head for heights (some parts are very exposed) and a good level of fitness. The days are long (8-10 hours of walking on the first three days, 6 hours on the last three days as the walks were cut short to avoid afternoon storms) which means little 'down time'. The terrain is varied (rocks and scree, pastures, meadows, forests). A significant amount of scrambling is required the first three days, and in particular the third when heading up to La Om. The other days don't require scrambling but are still demanding in terms of the terrain and elevation gain/loss. Two nights are spent in simple huts, with basic facilities (outside drop toilets), but the location of Cabana Malaiesti is spectacular as well worth it.

An excellent overview of three Balkan countries, with a reasonable amount of free time to self explore / chill out. Itinerary was good, the only place that felt like a "filler" was Kaliarka Fortress on day 15 - I would trade this part of the itinerary for more time elsewhere (either in the Palace Gardens at Balchik, or in any of the 3 capital cities). All accommodation better than expected. The local guide was excellent, though a little nervous as it was only his second tour. A bigger bus would've been nice as there is a good amount of time spent in the vehicle (driving ca 3,200km).

The tour was GREAT - a lot was packed into the two weeks, but there was more free time than I expected. Our guide was great, very kind, thoughtful, caring and ORGANISED! We covered a LOT of miles and the minibus was pretty comfortable, and we always had regular stops. So much to see - churches, historical buildings, the Danube (!), beautiful cities and lovely countryside. I'd definitely recommend this tour if you are interested in history and culture.

Our tour leader Constantin was amazing and made sure that everyone had a fabulous time. We could not have asked for a better person. He worked hard to ensure everything went to plan, provided clear instructions for each day, gave valuable historical and cultural information and was a great guy to chat to and spend time with. He organised group dinners and arranged additional activities/visits as requested by group members eg boat trip on Danube. We had a delay at immigration on the Serbian boarder and Constantin worked hard to ensure that we held our place in the queue. Overall we were amazed by the whole trip and are very grateful to Constantine and the driver Christian for their hard work and friendship.

Two days of long bus ride going from town to town was too much to bear. For these long trips not even a bottle of water was provided. The attitude of TD was less than satisfactory.