Romanian Walking Vacation
 

There are 4 of us (ages 36-54) considering a walking vacation with Pure Adventure in Transylvania. I have several questions for the list:
1. Has anyone used this company for Romania or other destinations? If so, please comment on guides, fitness level needed, accomodations, etc.
2. We are thinking about either early Sept. or early Oct. (mid-late Sept. is not a possibility). How is the weather for walking at this time? If one time is better than another, please let me know.
3. We are coming from the US - CVG is our closest international airport - does anyone have any input on 1. flying to Budapest and taking the minibus/train, 2. flying to another European destination and taking a local carrier, or 3. anything else that would bring down the airfare cost? I've been looking at a lot of consolidators as well as the usual search engines and am coming up with about $1000 US for Bucharest. This seems very expensive, but Budapest seems about the same. Any special tricks or ideas would be useful. We don't have a lot of time to spend getting to Bucharest, but could add one additional day on each side of the walking trip, if that would save us considerable money.
Thanks for any and all help!

We had a pretty different trip than the one you're taking as we did our walking on our own and used a car fo transport. But on the issue of airfare, we fly from a US city served pretty heavily by American Airlines who partner with British Airlines. BA had connections through Heathrow to both Budapest and Bucharest that were similar. Bucharest seemed to be consistantly $80 to $100 more. Of course it's a lot closer to most of Transylvania from there and I'm presuming you'll end up in the mountain areas for at least part of your time.

We picked Budapest as it fit in better with our plans, but had we not wanted to do some city time and were more attracted to Budapest than Bucharest, I could see where paying the little extra would have been a good idea.

Wow, thank you so much for the detailed information Dan. We are planning on Romania in a couple of years. I have bookmarked your page to save.

Clifton,
From reading your previous posts, I know that you traveled in mid-late Oct. Did you find the weather ok for hiking? We aren't much for slogging it out in the rain in Oct., if Sept. is a glorious month for walking. Additionally, the fares are about $100 US cheaper in Oct.
We are also toying with the idea of duplicating some/most of the tour itinerary on our own with a car, but might benefit from the guide and the movtivation to "keep up with the group."

While we didn't go on a walking vacation in Romania, we did go on a do it yourself driving trip through Romania. It is interesting that you are thinking of walking there because I have since thought to myself that it would be a great place to take a walking vacation because the scenery is absolutely gorgeous. There was only one thing I will warn you about that I did not like about the Romanian countryside--the incredible amounts of litter. Apparently the economy and infrastructure have not figured out a way to deal with trash (at least it hadn't when we visited 3 or 4 years ago). Any place a car could pull over there was trash dumped. By the way, we flew to Budapest and then took our rental car into Romania. If you do that make sure the rental company knows up front that you intend to to this because not all companies allow their cars into Romania.

Hi there. You better fly into Bucharest and get a private tour.

Skedaddle, in late October through early November, we had a total of one drizzly day. Sort of that misty wet kind of day, but no downpours at all.

It was a bit overcast and brisk for a good portion of our stay, but enjoyable - sometime with a light jacket, sometimes when walking, having to take it off. Of course, year to year, the weather could be different so earlier may be safer.

We had beautiful autumn color too, but I think just a little past peak. I'm thinking mid-October in the Carpathians would be gorgeous for walking.

Definitely pick a travel option that suits your personalities best, be it private guide, tour group or on your own. We never felt like we were over our head in the least there, nor that we were missing things unawares. But others may like to have a driver (the roads do require constant attention but are not in horrible condition these days). We found English speakers in many, but not all places, but we rarely encountered people who weren't willing to communicate one way or another with a smile.

Good luck to you!