see_the_world7

We are just starting to plan a trip to Romania in June. We plan to spend a couple days in Bucovina to see the Painted Monasteries. I have found information about the monasteries and their locations, but I can't find anything online that gives the opening days or hours. Can someone point me to a link? Or does anyone who has traveled recently have this information? Are they open all days of the week including Sundays?

Thanks for the help!

flat4

Most of them are open all the time, as they are in fact functioning monasteries (with monks or nuns, daily religious services, pilgrims etc.)
On Sundays and on major religious holidays they can get very crowded.

valtor

Flat4 is right.

tower

I never thought to ask about opening/closing times, on several visits over a period of 30 years to most of Bucovina's monasteries...I just had the feeling that they would be opened all day and certainly into the evening....but as functioning monasteries, i think both Valtor and flat4 are right in their asessments. If you wish I can send an email to one of my trusted Romanian contacts to verify..but I really don't think it necessary. They are all sights to see and quite remarkable.

Near Voronets, a quite nice place to stay is Casa Elena...a full service lodging within walking distance to the Voronets monastery. The casa's newer additional buildings are quite modern and the restaurant is one of the better ones.

While visiting the area, you may wish to take in a delightful rather funky/fun museum which we loved and have sent friends and family to visit....Nicolae Popa's Folk Art Museum in the small rural town of Tarpesht fairly close to the bigger city of Piatra Neamts. Enjoy Romania..it's "different"...

stu tower

tower

http://www.frommers.com/destinations...va/H57666.html

Frommer's review of Casa Elena.

tower

Necula Popa's Folk Art Museum:

http://www.visitneamt.com/2011/08/tr...from-tarpesti/

tower

https://picasaweb.google.com/stuartt...n7__rD1Z2E9wE#

Here are pics I took at Popa's in 2005...

I had taken a group of my readership (16) on a footsteps tour based on one of my historical novels...Popa made sure they all had costumes and a fun times was had by ll.

Stu Tower

see_the_world7

Thanks for those links Stu! and thanks flat4 and valtor for replying too.

We're just trying to determine the direction or our travels. Right now, it looks we would either be there Saturday and Sunday or Wednesday and Thursday.

We'll be traveling with our two kids (ages 10 and 11) so we'd like to find a family room or an apartment type accommodation if possible. I really haven't started looking much though.

We mainly plan to visit the Painted Monasteries and the Transylvania Region (our son has been asking to go there for many years). So if you have any particular tips we'd love to hear them.

Thanks again.

Michael

You may want to read my trip report on Hungary Romania, of which one section covers Bucovina even though it is getting a little old; click on my name to find it.

see_the_world7

Michael, I was reading through a trip report yesterday and I think it was yours. I'll check again though to be sure. We are very early in our planning at this point.

tower

Will you be driving, stw? You'll find it far easier to get around if you do. Train travel is not the way to see Romania IME.

On a ten day itinerary, fly into Bucharesht...stay a night or two. Pick up car ans drive north on Hwy 1 to Sinaia, mainly to see Pelesh Palace...then on to Bran for Drac's place (that will proably interest your son!)...this followed by a night in Brashov..and on to Sighishoara (Drac's birthplace/home)...from there, it's a colorful drive through Bicaz Gorge..(see pix)...and stay in either Piatra Neamts (Hotel Central is adequate) or go on to the aforementioned Popa Museum in Tarpesht...and on to Casa Elena near Voronets...use this as a base to visit as many of the monasteries as you wish. You can, if you wish, drop the car in Suceava and take local flight back to Bucharesht to fly home..ALL depensd on how much time you have..I'm basing this on ten days...otherwise I would strngly suggest you go on to Maramuresh region for "colorful old Romania" at its best...another three days...and fly from Cluj back to Bucharest after dropping car. I'm tryng to save you too much extra driving after seeing the sights.
Stu

tower

note STW...check to be sure if you can drp the car (within Romania but ina different location. Fpr a whle you could, then it changed but I believe it's doable now.

stu

flat4

Better get there on Saturday and Sunday; it can be more crowded as I mentioned earlier but that just makes it more interesting.

A very popular base area for visiting the monasteries is the one around Gura Humorului: Gura Humorului town itself, its suburb Voronet and the contiguous village Manastirea Humorului
In these three places there are over 150 guesthouses, hotels etc., you could definitely find the kind of accommodations you want.

As for the general route you could do I agree with Tower: start in Bucharest, head to southern Transylvania (Brasov and the nearby castles, Sighisoara, Sibiu, maybe some old Saxon villages), on to Bucovina and finally to Maramures if possible.

If you get to Maramures, the kids would probably enjoy a steam train ride on the Vaser Valley narrow gauge railway.

Southern Transylvania can be done by public transport relatively easy, for Bucovina and Maramures it's better to rent a car.

Almost all local rental companies allow dropping off the car in a different location but they charge an extra tax for that.

see_the_world7

We're actually looking at flying in and out of Tirgu Mures. It is cheaper and we are ok with missing out on Bucharest. We generally prefer to stay in a place more than 1 night and just do day trips out. We're flying from England so won't have a problem with jet lag.

My initial rough idea was to head toward the Bucovina area first after picking up a rental car at the airport (possibly taking a scenic route...suggestions?) We'd probably spend 3 nights there (2 full days - this would be Saturday and Sunday) to see the painted monasteries. Then spend the next day driving to the Transylvania area and probably stay in/around Brasov. This would be a long driving day but if there is a particular route that is most scenic or somewhere on the way we should make a quick stop we're open to suggestions. We would plan to drive through the Bicaz Gorge on this drive.

We're thinking of spending the next 5 nights there seeing parts of Transylvania. Our last day we'd drive back to Tirgu Mures and I thought we could stop at Sighisoara for most of the day. We'd then continue to Tirgu Mures and just find a hotel near the airport for an early morning flight out the next day.

It looks like we could visit Sinaia, Bran/Walachia, and other areas from Brasov. I would also like to visit Poenari Fortress so perhaps we'd drop one day from Brasov and spend one night in this area, before spending the last night near the airport.

The photos of Bicaz Gorge look amazing. Depending how much we have planned in the Brasov area we might have to plan to spend a night here.

We looked at Maramures, but I don't think we're going to have time to fit it in. The other two areas are higher priority for us and we'd rather not rush through.

Thanks for the help and information. Nothing is booked at this point so we are completely open to more suggestions. I just thought I'd give a rough idea of what we were thinking so far.

flat4

Looks OK .

From Targu Mures to Bucovina you could take the slightly longer route via Reghin - Bistrita - Vatra Dornei - Campulung Moldovenesc (it's relatively scenic and Bistrita is worth a short stop as it has a small medieval quarter ).

On the way back from Bucovina if you decide to spend a night in the Bicaz Gorges area there's a small resort at its western end at Lacu Rosu/Red Lake.

Try to get to Poenari fortress especially if you could drive along the Transfagarasan road afterward (although its top section will likely still be closed in the first part of June).