The Enchanting Tour of Maramures and Bucovina - PRIVATE TOUR in 6 or 8 days

First, the title of this private tour is inspired from the book "Along the Enchanted Way" which is probably one of the best books about Romania. And also about a great, but so unique love story.

Private Tour in 6 or 8 Days

Short intro about the private tour: it was September 2018 when Wendy Driver, a travel journalist from UK and her friends Cathy Cooper - a professional photographer, Laura and Maggie landed in the city of Cluj Napoca to meet myself and start our 6 day private tour in Maramures and Bucovina.

This private tour is inspired from the actual private tour with Wendy and her friends. In January 2019 the popular newspaper Daily Mail from UK published Wendy's article "In the heart of Romania - where life has changed little over the centuries" on their online website Travel news. You can read the full article - which is actually a complete description of the private tour - if you click here.

Cathy Cooper was very kind to provide and allow me to use her professional photos from our private tour which you can find in the gallery of the tour.

The 6 day private tour starts from Cluj-Napoca and ends in Suceava, as these were the two cities where Wendy and her friends landed into and flew out of Romania.

NOTE: The private tour can be customized to start from Bucharest too and come back into the same place, with few stops in Transylvania. The minimum length would be 8-9 days for this option. For this option the price shall increase. Please check the details at the end of the full description of the tour.

1st & 2nd Day

After picking you up from your hotel or airport in Cluj we start towards Maramures.

Our first stop is in Turda for the Salt Mine, one of the most impressive Salt Mines in the world. Now we get ready to experience Maramures and on the way to Breb village, our base for this first part of the trip, we shall visit the beautiful Wooden Church in Surdesti, part of UNESCO World Heritage list.

The traditional centuries-old village of Breb shall be our base for the first part of our private tour. We shall accommodate into a traditional Wooden House. Also we shall be able to enjoy few traditional meals prepared by locals including one visit to a Shepherd’s place where we get to meet his family too.

Breb village is that special place that served as inspiration for William Blacker's book "Along the Enchanted Way".

In the late afternoon we shall get ready for our first special experience, a traditional meal and visit to a Sheep Station - a moderate amount of walking is involved. Please take a quick look at this video click here

Next day while in Maramures, we shall visit the Wooden Churches included in UNESCO World Heritage list from Budesti and Barsana. Also, while in Breb we shall visit the Wooden Church – one of the oldest in Romania itself. 

The Merry Cemetery from Sapanta is one of the weird but very funny attractions of entire Romania. People in this area considered death as a beginning and this faith has been reflected on the carvings.

On our way back to Breb, visit a local farmers market – where both Romanians and Ukrainians come to sell their products.

Accommodation - 2 NIGHTS IN BREB VILLAGE IN MARAMURES

3rd Day

We shall have a relaxing walk in the village of Breb and then we get ready for another interesting experience over a local that still weaves the wooden loom for carpets and warm cloths for the cold winters, but also produces the local plum brandy in their own distillery. And this is the double distiled one, called "horinca", no less than 56 degrees alchool.

We shall have a perspective over the ancient ways of doing things by visiting a wooden craft workshop. Except the Wooden Churches, the most impressive are surely the traditional wooden gates. Some people own a home atelier where they craft their wood works and are very proud and willing to show you the way it is made.

4th Day

Today we have another special experience, a ride by the Steam Train “Mocanita” (9.00 am – 14.30 pm) – one of the few steam trains still operating in Europe.

Mocanita (Romanian-“MocăniÅ£a“) was born more than 100 years ago and it is called also a narrow gauge steam train used for the Romanian forestry. Please take a quick look at this video about Mocanita click here

Continue our private tour to the second part, the holy land of Bucovina with its UNESCO Painted Monasteries

We shall have a stop in the special village of Ciocanesti – the Romanian village where the traditional patterns are imprinted on the walls of the houses. The whole village is considered a museum, the only one in Romania of this kind.

The famous Lonely Planet featured Ciocanesti village in their online article "Places that pop : 10 of Europe's most colourful destinations"

In Ciocanesti we shall visit also the National Museum of the Painted Eggs and also serve an early dinner in a local lady’s house 

We continue to Voronet UNESCO painted monastery which is often called the Sistine Chapel of the East 

Visit one of the most impressive fortresses in Romania, Neamt Fortress

Very close by is Agapia Monastery – where the second largest number of nuns for any monastery in Romania (over 300 of them ) still live. Some of the beautiful paintings of Nicolae Grigorescu - one of Romania’s famous modern painters – are in Agapia. Visit the Vivant museum in Agapia to see how the nuns live.

Drive you to Suceava city, from where you have the flight next day to UK

OVERNIGHT in the city of Suceava