Itinerary Summary Tour map Price table How to book
This is an extended photo tour, dedicated to both professional and beginner photographers, so we added in this trip everything that a photographer would like to so capture in Romania. We start in Maramures, continue with Bucovovina, then we spend a few days in Transylvania, and at the end of the trip we will explore the Danube’s Delta. Having this in mind, we will start the trip in Cluj (the international airport has good connections with major airports in Europe, and finish the tour in Bucharest.
So, if the length of the trip is not fitting with your time here, we can trim the itinerary, so we can accommodate the time you have planned for your trip to Romania. For further details, please contact us or fill our custom tour form.
We will decide together about the accommodation, but we suggest choosing small boutique hotels in the cities or guesthouses run by families in the countryside.
The price starts from 1140 EUR/person. This price is valid for a group of 8 persons and for an average price of accommodation of a maximum of 70 EUR/night for a double room, including breakfast. Please see below the price per person, depending on the group size. The hotels or guesthouses where we will stay will be chosen together; we will give you a few options and you will have the final word regarding the accommodation. Depending on the hotels you choose and the final itinerary, the price can change, so, for a custom offer please contact us.
Itinerary
We will meet you in Cluj, and then start the transfer to Maramures region, arrive in one of the traditional villages of Maramures, where we will check-in at traditional house transformed into a guesthouse. We will use the afternoon to stroll around the village, to meet the locals and observing them (we may see horse-driven carts, sheep, cows, people working their land).
Farming landscape with hay stacks
Early in the morning, we will go to the local church to observe the locals dressed in their traditional clothes attending the Sunday mass. Then we will drive to Sapanata to visit the Merry Cemetery with its unique blue-painted crosses. Then we will go to Sighet to visit the Memorial of the Victims of the Communist Regime (a former prison where the Communist Regime imprisoned the Romanian elite after WW2). In the afternoon we will drive to Barsana, to visit the monastery in the village. On the way back to our guesthouse we can stop along the route to capture different moments of the village life.
The colored crosses from the Merry Cemetery
Today we can go to Viseu for the Steam Train ride. Started as a logging train more than a century ago, nowadays the train is mostly used for tourism. The 30 kilometres long narrow gauge track winds through the Vaser River valley, deep in the heart of the Carpathian forests. Transfer to Bucovina through a mountain road.
The steam train in winter
We will visit the painted monasteries in Bucovina and have the possibility to capture the mountain landscape and the villages scattered around it. We can also visit the pottery workshop in Marginea, a village famous for its black ceramic unique in Romania. Overnight in our traditional guest house.
Sucevita painted monastery
Leave Bucovina, drive back to Transylvania, over a few mountain passes. We can stop at Borgo Pass, where we can admire the view from an observation point near the monastery nearby. We will continue our drive to Colibita, a tourist resort built on the shore of a lake in the middle of the mountains. Then we will head to Targu Mures or Reghin where we will spend the night. Possibility to visit a violin factory to capture the manufacturing process.
Natural landscape at Borgo Pass
Today we will visit Sighisoara, one of the last medieval citadels still inhabited, and then we will go to Viscri. Before reaching Viscri, we will stop at Rupea fortress, to admire the Transylvanian landscape from the top of it. Arrived in Viscri, we will take the horse-driven cart to the sheepfold (around 1 hour away), and there we will capture the moment of milking and the process of making the cheese.
Sighisoara – view of the lower town
We will wake up early to capture the morning buzz of the village: people, animals (sheep, goats, geese). Then we will visit the local blacksmith, where we can capture some moments of his work. Then we will leave Viscri to Biertan, where we will climb a hill to have some good instance of the village and the fortified church. Our last stop of the day will be at a nearby village where we will visit a Gypsy family, whose main occupation is making copper objects. Overnight in Sibiu or in a guesthouse nearby.
Mornings in Viscri
Today we will visit the Corvin Castle, the largest gothic castle in Romania and Alba Iulia, an imposing fortress built in the 18th century by the Austrian, decorated with elegant Baroque monumental gates. We will return to Sibiu, but before reaching the city we will stop in the nearby village to admire the storks ( almost every electricity pillar has a stork nest on top).
Corvin Castle
Today we will spend in the countryside, in the villages around Sibiu, to have the opportunity to capture more of the daily life of peasants. If possible we will visit a brickmaker or a beekeeper. We will have also the possibility to visit the old Town of Sibiu or the Astra Museum, the second-largest open-air museum in Europe, dedicated to traditional folk art and architecture. If it is Sunday, we can also attend the Sunday mass to one of the churches or monasteries from the area.
The Large Square in Sibiu
We will leave Sibiu and head to Transfagarasan road. There, we photograph and admire the stunning mountain landscape and the whirling road laid over the cliffs. We will return back from the road and stop at a nearby village to visit a traditional installation (water-powered) used to clean the gross wool and the traditional rugs and carpets. Other possible places that can be visited are a monastery built at the foothills of the mountain or a functioning watermill. We will arrive in Bran in the late afternoon.
250 km, 4 hours of driving
Transfagarasan at sunset
Today we will visit Bran Castle, also known as Dracula Castle, a 14th-century border stronghold transformed into a royal residence by Queen Maria of Romania at the beginning of the 20th century. Then we will drive a mountain road to capture the beauty of the mountain and rural landscape. Overnight in Bran or Brasov.
150 km, 3 hours of driving
Piatra Craiului Mountains
In the morning we can visit Rasnov fortress, and then we will drive to Sinaia, to visit Peles and Pelisor castles, the residence of the first 2 kings of Romania, located in a beautiful natural setting, at the foothills of the Carpathian mountains. Then we will drive in the direction of Tulcea (the port of Danube Delta). We will not reach Tulcea on this day, due to the distance, but we can spend the night at one of the guesthouses belonging to the vineyards of Prahova Valley.
150 km, 3 hours of driving
Wineyard at sunset
We continue our drive to Tulcea through the Danubian plain, where we can capture a different landscape, flatlands, wind farms, medieval fortresses, Romanian and Turkish villages. We will drive as closest as possible to Danube Delta by car, and then, our partner from the Delta will arrange the transfer by boat to Sfantu Gheorghe, the town based at the mouth of the Danube. We will use the afternoon to capture the sunset from the boat. Overnight in Sfantu Gheorghe.
375 km, 5 hours of driving
Sunset in Dobrogea
Early morning photography of the sunrise in the area of Sacalin, photographing a ship in the morning light and photographing many birds. Then, after breakfast, free program with lunch at the local and around 4:30 pm a trip on lakes and canals with photographing of all the interesting things encountered on the route.
Sunset in Danube Delta
Sunrise from the meeting point of the Danube with the Black Sea and photographing a colony of cormorants, then photographing a fisherman working. Lunch, then transfer back to the car by boat. Return to Bucharest in the afternoon. Overnight in Bucharest. End of our Romania photo tour.
300 km, 4 hours of driving
Tour map
Price table
Group Size | Currency | Price |
---|---|---|
8 | EUR | 1140 |
7 | EUR | 1260 |
6 | EUR | 1300 |
5 | EUR | 1560 |
4 | EUR | 1700 |
3 | EUR | 2260 |
2 | EUR | 2890 |
sgl supplement | EUR | 520 |
*for groups larger than 8 persons, please ask for a customised offer
More info
1 Review
We spent a dozen hours and exchanged lots of emails with Florin before we set up the program of our Romania photo tour. I have to confess that Florin is a very patient tour guide, pays a great deal of attention to details and is really passioned about his work.