Special Interest Tourism of Romania

Active Vacations
Bird-watching
Hundreds of species of birds call the Danube Delta home at least from late Spring until mid-Fall. Bird-watchers do not need any equipment (although binoculars help), no license is required, and there are plenty of locations throughout the Danube Delta to watch fowl in their natural habitat. Most bird-watchers are lucky enough to spot Black Pelican colonies. Specialized tour operators will assure the most successful bird-watching trip to the Danube Delta.

Camping
Get close to Romania’s natural beauty by spending a few nights camping beside one of its many rivers or one of its magnificent mountains. From late Spring until early Summer nature lovers flock to Romania’s camping areas to enjoy an abundance of nearby attractions.

Cycling
With a terrain that ranges from steep and challenging to gentle and relaxing, Romania offers bikers of all skills and levels something to enjoy along its bike trails.

Fishing
With more than 160 species of game fish, the Danube Delta is truly a fisherman’s paradise. Trophy-size catfish, carp, pike, sturgeon and more thrive in the hundreds of lakes and rivers that dot the land of Romania. Fishing is permitted in most lakes and rivers of Romania, year round, except from April 1 until May 31.

Hiking
The Carpathian mountain range forms a huge arc in the centre of Romania. In fact, 31% of the country is mountainous. Within this range are innumerable places of natural beauty: mountain peaks, gorges, lakes, forests, caves, mud volcanoes and fossil deposits. It is very easy to find a great hiking trail. Romania has more than 400 parks and nature reservations protecting hundreds of species of flora and fauna. The variety of terrain, from mountainous to gentle, offers something for every hiker regardless of skill or level. Rock-climbing enthusiasts should head for the main rock-climbing gateways: Busteni, Sinaia, Zarnesti and Petrosani.

Horseback Riding
Romania’s Carpathian mountains and rural areas offer excellent possibilities for Horseback Riding vacations.

Rafting
Most popular rafting rivers in Romania are Aries, Basca, Bistrita, Buzau, Cerna, Crisul Repede, Jiu, and Nera.

Skiing
A multitude of mountain resorts offer slopes from novice to challenging. Many of these resorts offer a multitude of other activities including cross-country skiing, snowboarding and tubing. The highest ski point in Romania is located at 6,600 ft. above the sea level. Major ski resorts include Poiana Brasov, Sinaia, Predeal, Paltinis and Runcu.

Motorcycling
Romania has numerous scenic drives, best known are perhaps the TransFagarasan, TransAlpina and TransBucegi (over the Carpathian Mountains). Of course you can always design your own driving / motorcycle tour on country roads or along the Danube river.

Architecture
Romanians’ vivid imagination and intense spirituality have always been expressed through their architecture. Fortunately, they also have strong preservation instincts, resulting in village museums that display bygone ways of life through found and restored peasant houses, elaborately carved gates, barns and other architectural elements. The best and most comprehensive of these is the Village Museum (Muzeul Satului) in Bucharest. Constructed by a visionary during the 1930s on a large tract within the city, this is a fascinating collection of more than 300 houses and other structures from every region of Romania. It also has a small museum and shop of fine Romanian crafts. Other such village museums well worth visiting are Museum of Wood (Muzeul Lemnului) in Campulung Moldovenesc and Museum of Peasant Techniques (Muzeul Tehnicii Populare) in Sibiu. Both have collections of early farm tools and household implements.

Monasteries, churches, synagogues, castles and palaces throughout the country, some dating from the 12th Century, depict the country’s tumultuous history. Even its Communist era is expressed through Ceausescu’s master planning and rebuilding of Bucharest. The best example of his testament to secularity is the Palace of Parliament — the world’s second largest building after the U.S. Pentagon — whose 1,000 rooms reflect the country’s best architects, artisans and building materials.

Among the best examples of Romanian’s Orthodox religion are the painted monasteries of Southern Bucovina, acclaimed as masterpieces of art and architecture, “perfectly in harmony with their surroundings and unique in the world for their painted exteriors.” They hold UNESCO’s Prix d’Or for “artistic, spiritual and cultural value.” Of the five best known, the most famous is Voronet, also called the “Sistine Chapel of the East” whose blue exterior background lent its name to the color “Voronet Blue.” These are essential sights for anyone interested in religious architecture, but they are only a few of Romania’s architectural treasures.

Arts and Crafts of Romania
Crafts of Romania
“What is that impulse, that irresistible force which will not let the peasant rest content with the merely useful, but drives him to seek the best proportioned and most harmonious forms that appeal to the eye by color and line, are pleasant to the touch and produce that rare sense of contentment, poise of mind and joy which characterize aesthetic enjoyment?
(Peasant Art in Romania, by George Oprescu, 1929)

While there are great Romanian fine artists, among whom 20th century sculptor Constantin Brancusi is probably the most famous, the typical zest for life and almost naive optimism that the world is really a beautiful place seem best expressed in the traditional art and craft of Romanian peasants, extending even to their colorful, unique grave markers. In the “Merry Cemetery” of Sapanta,” bordering Ukraine, carved wooden crosses are painted traditional Voronet blue (named for the nearby painted monastery) and embellished with fanciful borders, renderings of the deceased and often anecdotes of their lives. An erstwhile town mayor is memorialized with anecdotes of his womanizing ways.

As in most parts of the world, full-time artists and artisans are drawn together, tending to form communities throughout the country, where locales are aesthetically inspiring and economically viable. Bucharest and a few of the larger towns boast a few galleries showcasing work from such artist communities, but most don’t have galleries. A few examples of local artists’ and artisans’ work are shown and sold in town museums, but most is sold in street markets adjoining major attractions. Sellers usually are also the makers and many speak English. A conversation with them can reveal fascinating facets of Romanian culture.

Arts of Romania
Works of Brancusi are in various locales, but one of the finest collections is in the city of Targu Jiu, in Oltenia province on the southern border of the Carpathian Mountains. “The Endless Column” (Coloana Infinita), “The Gate of the Kiss” (Poarta Sarutului), “The Table of Silence” (Masa Tacerii) and “The Alley of Chairs” (Aleea Scaunelor) are displayed in the city’s main park as indicated by the great sculptor.

Nearby Horezu is a major center for ceramics, wood carving and iron forging and the Horezu Museum of Art showcases some of the best work of past and contemporary artists.

Romania has a great diversity of museums preserving every facet of its history and arts. Some are small museums, catering to enthusiasts with a taste for special interests such as pharmacy, clocks, railway trains, folk arts and architecture, wine making and traditional crafts. Larger museums host regular exhibitions from around the world, as well as housing permanent collections of paintings and sculptures. Prominent museums include Romania’s National Museum of Art, the Art Collections Museum, the Village Museum, the Museum of the Romanian Peasant in Bucharest, and the Bruckenthal Museum in Sibiu.

Dracula Legend
Some say that Transylvania sits on one of Earth’s strongest magnetic fields and its people have extra-sensory perception. Vampires are believed to hang around crossroads on St. George’s Day, April 23, and the eve of St. Andrew, November 29. The area is also home to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and it’s easy to get caught up in the tale while driving along winding roads through dense, dark, ancient forests and over mountain passes.

Tales of the supernatural had been circulating in Romanian folklore for centuries when Irish writer Bram Stoker picked up the thread and spun it into a golden tale of ghoulishness that has never been out of print since its first publication in 1897. To research his immortal tale, Stoker immersed himself in the history, lore and legends of Transylvania, which he called a “whirlpool for the imagination.”

Count Dracula, a fictional character in the Dracula novel, was inspired by one of the best-known figures of Romanian history, Vlad Dracula, nicknamed Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler), who was the ruler of Walachia at various times from 1456-1462. Born in 1431 in Sighisoara, he resided all his adult life in Walachia, except for periods of imprisonment at Pest and Visegrad (in Hungary).

Although he never traveled to Romania, Stoker crammed his book with descriptions of many real locations that can still be visited in present-day Romania. They include the most important historical places associated with Vlad Tepes, such as the 14th century town of Sighisoara where you can visit the house in which Vlad was born (now hosting a restaurant and a small museum of medieval weapons).

Other Dracula sites include: the Old Princely Court
(Palatul Curtea Veche) in Bucharest, Snagov Monastery, where, according to legend, Vlad’s remains were buried; the ruins of the Poenari Fortress (considered to be the authentic Dracula’s Castle); the village of Arefu where Dracula legends are still told, the city of Brasov where Vlad led raids against the Saxons merchants, and, of course, Bran Castle.

Some tours also cover the folkloric aspects of the fictional Dracula. For instance, visitors can eat the exact meal Jonathan Harker ate at The Golden Crown in Bistrita and sleep at Castle Dracula Hotel, built no so long ago on the Borgo Pass at the approximate site of the fictional Count’s castle.

Danube River Cruises
The mighty Danube River, named by the Greek historian Herodotus “The King of the European Rivers,” forms much of Romania’s southern border, with Bulgaria. The Danube enters the territory of Romania at the famous Iron Gates (Portile de Fier) and it ends its 670 mile journey through the country in the Black Sea.

Before meeting the Black Sea, the Danube forms one of the most spectacular wetlands in the world, the Danube Delta – a unique 2,100-square-mile wildlife reserve – home to more than 300 species of birds and about 160 kinds of fish, both fresh and salt-water species.