Do you want to discover Transylvania beyond guide books?
If you are looking authentic travel experiences and try to get a sense of Transylvania’s profound spirit, this trip is for you. We have put together a list of special activities and we mixed them with sightseeing and visits to the locals to give you a better understanding of real Transylvania.
The tours we are proposing are dependant on our partners’ program (craftsman, farmers, local hosts). Tourism is not their main occupation, so it’s advisable to contact us in advance in order to be able to do all the arrangements for the trip.
The price starts from 32 EUR/person/day. The price includes transportation and guiding and is valid for a group of 8 persons. The price of the experience or the accommodation is not included in this price, but if you are interested in a custom price offer, please contact us and we will answer you right away.
This is a list of 6 trips, focused on local experiences, all of them starting from Sibiu. You can book all of them or just one of them. Together, we can design a tailor-made tour, mixing some of the activities listed below with different tours from our website.
Discover Transylvania through its gastronomy. Are you interested in local gastronomy? This tour is for you. The recipe for this day is to go to the countryside, do a sightseeing tour of the village, meet the locals and learn to cook from them.
This tour needs special preparations and we need to do all the arrangements in advance: location, our host availability, and last but not least: the recipe and the ingredients.
Today we will visit the oldest functioning complex of traditional wool processing installations in Romania, dating from the 1850s. The craft of wool processing using water-powered installations has been passed down from generation to generation. We will see the entire process, from wool sheared from sheep to fine fibre and finally to hand weaved rugs.
Then we will visit a watermill, one of the last ones still functioning, another craft passed down from one generation to another. We will learn more about how it works, we will find the secrets of a perfect flour and, in the end, we will start to….bake.
Today we will visit a quaint village hidden deep in Transylvania plateau. We will visit the fortified church, admire the old paintings and then we will visit a weaver in the village. We will learn more about the type of fibres she is using and how she is dyeing the material using only natural pigments. In the end, we will discover more about the extraordinary world of old symbols put on traditional rugs. And of course, we can learn to weave, but we don’t guarantee it will be easy.
Then, we will go to the next village for a pleasant encounter with the farm animals. We will see sheep, goats, cows. We can assist our host in milking the goats and we will learn more about how the cheese is made. And, in the end, a home-cooked meal will be awarding our “difficult” work.
On this trip, we will drive up in the mountains, on the Transfagarasan road, where we can spend the rest of the day taking pictures, enjoying a picnic and in the end, we can assist the milking and cheese-making process at a sheepfold up in the mountains (this last activity can be done only in summer months when the shepherds are herding their flocks on the alpine pastures).
Today we will visit one of the last factories manufacturing stoves made of ceramic tiles. The factory is more than a century old, and there they are still making glazed tiles by hand. We will observe the entire process and we will learn more about the art of tile decoration.
Then, we will have a walking tour of Medias, one of the seven Saxon towns of Transylvania. During the tour, we will visit the fortified church, with its tilted bell tower and the interesting collection of Turkish rugs.
In the afternoon we will head to a nearby village to visit a small organic farm, meet the owners who will give us an introduction to organic farming, and last but not least, we will be able to enjoy a brunch made with products from the farm.
Discover Transylvania wines: today we will visit a vineyard and we will be able to taste the wine. But as we don’t want to do this in the morning, we will first stop at Saxon fortified church. There, besides the church itself, we will visit the bacon tower. We will learn why they have a bacon tower inside the fortification, and of course, we can have a tasting of the bacon and the sausages stored there.
Then we will visit an NGO which is rescuing and taking care of injured animals, especially storks. Why storks? Because there are a lot of them in the area, and unfortunately, sometimes, the beautiful birds get injured. At the NGO there are a dozen of storks, but sometimes they are taking care of horses, donkeys, or even hedgehogs.
In the afternoon we will head to the vineyard, will have a tour of the area and of course, we will taste the best wines they are making there.
I spent 5 days in total with Florin – several day trips in Sibiu surroundings and the most impressive 2 days tour over the Carpathian mountains along Transalpina and Transfagarasan roads. It was absolutely pleasant time in a company of a very friendly person, sharing my own interests in travelling and cooking. Among other places, it was very nice to visit the Pastoral Museum in Jina village and to be invited by the museum’s host Mrs Ileana to have some conversation (over the cheese with tomatoes) – and to feel that your guide is the welcome guest here. During all these days Florin was very attentive and helpful, and even several days later, already after the tour, he was so kind as to help me with the reservation for me of a bus seat. I will gladly subscribe under all the kind words spoken in the other reviews and highly recommend Florin’s travel agency to organise your tours in Romania.
Custom tours, extraordinary experiences!
Let us be your guide and discover Romania with us!
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3 Reviews
Florin organized our day in the countryside between Sibiu and Basovand his pre-visit communications were prompt and accurate. The stops at the wool washing whirlpool in Lisa and the wheat /corn mill in Ohaba were absolutely memorable. Amazing traditions kept alive by faithful and hard-working families. Florin is very personable and professional, he accommodated all our needs and went above and beyond when he offered to take us all the way to our next destination, even though that made it for a very long day for him. We enjoyed getting to know him and would wholeheartedly recommend his services. Loved the impromptu picnic on the riverbank
My wife and I had a wonderful three day tour with Florin. He drove us all over Transylvania and is a bastion of knowledge. We saw all the “must see” stuff plus experiencing some more “off the guidebook” stuff for example visiting a working farm and eating a meal of their homemade vegetables cheeses. Florin is easy to talk to and a fun guide for traveling through Romania, highly recommended.