Romania cycling vacation

Price
1829 excluding flights
Duration
8 Days
Type
Small group
Reviews
More info
The price includes: airport transfers, accommodation, full board, caves entrance fees, English speaking guide, MTB rentals, craft demonstration fee. The price does not include: personal drinks, insurance, souvenirs.
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Description of Romania cycling vacation

Price information

1829 excluding flights
The price includes: airport transfers, accommodation, full board, caves entrance fees, English speaking guide, MTB rentals, craft demonstration fee. The price does not include: personal drinks, insurance, souvenirs.
Make enquiry

Check dates, prices & availability

Travel guides

Carpathian Mountains
Pack your rucksack with keksy wafers, a hunk of bread and a slab of creamy goat’s cheese before waving goodbye to all your troubles and setting off to...
Transylvania
Follow a farm track past flower-filled meadows, fast-flowing rivers and steeply sloped primeval forests; in the distance you spy the turrets of a cast...

Reviews

2 Reviews of Romania cycling vacation

4 out of 5 stars
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Reviewed on 10 Sep 2017 by

1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your vacation?


Dramatic views over the Apuseni mountains from the Casa Traditionale that we stayed in and on the rides themselves. The sunsets were amazing. One of the caves, the Crystal cave was totally amazing. I have travelled a lot and never seen anything like it. The "Palinka" (plum brandy) that we drank every night and the local cherry brandy as well as the Transylvanicum a herbal spirit were all wonderful. We saw people driving horses and carts and stooking hay, hoeing fields by hand. 2 black squirrels and a water snake as well as a salamander larvae.

2. What tips would you give other travelers booking this vacation?


Take a puncture repair kit and some tools and a bottle cage to fit on the bike yourself unless you cycle with a camelback. A sheet sleeping bag or even sleeping bag if you go after the 1st week in September, as we were just given blankets. ( it may be that we should have known about this, but the link to the traditional casa website didnt work, fortunately we had taken towels which also were not provided)The bikes were good mountain bikes, well maintained. We didn't get a puncture, it is just they expected us to bring these things and we had to do some minor repairs with our own tools.

3. Did you feel that your vacation benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?


Yes the house where we stayed is beautiful and was moved there from nearby to preserve the traditional architecture but was then modernised inside so it had double glazing and a shower and kitchen, but a traditional wood-burning stove with tiles that stayed warm 25% of the money went to further conservation. The guide and driver were involved in conservation work particularly with bats and invertebrates in the caves they look after. All the food we ate was grown within 200 yards and local women cooked it. The tracks we rode on were not signposted but were gravel tracks or small roads.

4. Finally, how would you rate your vacation overall?


Wonderful. The guide was friendly, knowledgeable about Romania, the countryside and edible fruits and we tried a few. The caves and little museum we visited were fascinating. The weather was poor the first 2 days but this did not spoil it for us as it was so lovely to be there. many beutiful pots and wooden spons in the house.

Reviewed on 31 Oct 2017 by

1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your vacation?


The Maramures area is beautiful but not spectacular. Some biking and some trecking.

Expect the biking to be rather hard because of the trails and hills.

2. What tips would you give other travelers booking this vacation?


Be careful and very specific about the schedule and accommodations.

3. Did you feel that your vacation benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?


No

4. Finally, how would you rate your vacation overall?


Good. This is a rather low cost destination and worthwile overall.

Read the operator's response here:

Thank you very much for your feedback. We’ve taken it onboard and will look into the issues that you have raised. In regards to question 3 and how your vacation benefited the local community, you stayed in family run guesthouses, your meals where made from local & organic ingredients, your trip was organized locally by a local conservation NGO (and the margin they gain is reinvested in their conservation programs) and all the craftspeople you have visited received a small payment for their effort to show you their craft.

Responsible Travel

As the pioneers of responsible tourism, we've screened this (and every) vacation so that you can travel knowing it will help support the places and people that you visit, and the planet. Read how below.

Planet

Leave No Trace: we work hard to leave fewer footprints in our office and in the outdoors. We take special care of the waste management in our trips, we use as much as possible sustainable ways for transport and eat and consume local products.
Invest money and effort in conservation: we pledge between 5 to 10 % of our incomes after taxes into local projects that support nature and local culture conservation. We are active partners of the Apuseni Nature Park, Padurea Craiului Natura 2000 site and other protected areas and landscapes.

Small groups: we promote travel in small groups: 4 to 12 people and very rarely to 15 people. That allows us to interact with you much easier and to keep a good quality of the entire trip. The group’s dynamic is much better and you enjoy your vacation in a small, friendly group, instead in a large one.

In the office, we use recycled paper for all of our docs, bike or walk to work and use only electronic brochures instead of printed ones.
We provide travelers with an updated Codes of Conduct (responsible travel guidelines) in which we suggest different ways to reduce natural resource use in their destination as well as to minimize damage to the environment, wildlife and local culture.
During our trips, we provide suggestions to travelers to actively support local projects which tackle issues related with local environment and/or local culture. Several ways of support local project are available: donations, voluntary work or transfer of know-how.

People

Local guides and local services – we use in our programs as much as possible, local services (at least 50% of the services included in the itinerary are owned and operated by local people/businesses) and local people (local guides besides the tour leader). This is good for the local communities, because we support them to become self sustainable and reliable and is good for you too, because you can have a better interaction with the locals, and experience their way of life in a direct manner. Please note that we never combine groups (unless you want this) together, so you’ll always have your own personal guide, taking care only of you and nothing else.

In all of our trips we use more than 80 % local services (in terms of accommodation, meals, local transport and local guiding), mostly family run businesses, in which locals are self employed.

Respect for local communities and their environment. Our guides and staff will help you to understand and respect the places and people you are visiting, so you’ll be more comfortable and enriched visiting them.

Fair trade travel - we pay people with the fair wage for the services that they provide to us and we make sure that nothing we do in the mountains or in our office exploits people.

We encourage learning about local cultures- our trips have an educational component, both for the traveler and for the local people. We encourage you to learn about local culture and we design our trips according with this principle. We believe that our trips are designed in order to facilitate you not merely to see but to understand.

In the travelers code of conduct as well as during our preparatory communication with the travelers we ensure that enough and accurate information is provided to them in what regards the social, environmental and economic situation in the Apuseni Mountains and Romania.

In the Traveler Code of Conduct, we provides travelers with suggestions of several ways to minimize their impact on local culture and during the trip, the tour leader or the local guide provides suggestions to support local projects (environmental and social) or initiatives which benefit the host communities and their well being.

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