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THE QUEST FOR TRADITION
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Tour package:
- 7 days / 6 nights
- 6 overnights in 3* hotels
- half board
- transportation: luxury coach
- professional guide
- entrance fees according to the program
- seasonality: April – October
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Banat - Maramures
There are places in the world where customs bound the folk to the ground, and their traditions stay pristine through the timespan.
Let’s go uncover them together!
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Departures
- April 08, 29
- May 27
- June 24
- July 15
- August 26
- September 16
- October 02, 16
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Day one: Timisoara
We meet up at the Timisoara International Airport, and over a friendly chat, we set up the details of our next days’ travelling tour. The day isn’t over yet, Timisoara is one of the largest cities of Romania, where East meets West, the locals are open, warm and eager company. Let’s get in touch with them.
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Day two: Timisoara - Oradea (160 km )
The road befits the traveller, so here we go! We head north, with a brief stop in the small town of Vinga, famous in the area for an incredibly beautiful neo-gothic church. As soon as we get to the city of Arad, we enter a star-shaped citadel, vestige of the old times, punctiliously rebuilt under the patronage of the Empress Mary Theresa. Then we go for a tour through the museum housed in the Palace of Culture. The traces of the former fortified town of Oradie, certified by historical papers in 1241, soon after a Tartar-Mongolian onslaught, astonish us with their preservation level. The uptown of Oradea is a real honeycomb of dwellings, archeological sites and urban monuments, as old as the 16th century. If we brace up for a short escalade, we could go up the tower of the Moon Church (late-baroque style), and admire the night’s heavenly body at midday! A clever mechanism makes a sphere revolve on its vertical axis, reproducing the four moon phases. In Union Square, we go through a glass-roofed passage, and find ourselves, surprisingly, at the gate of a palace. The architecture of the ensemble is profoundly original, and the lively-colored stained-glass windows are marked with the impressive emblem of the city: the black eagle.
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Day three: Oradea - Satu Mare - Baia Mare ( 180 km )
There are places in Romania where folklore and rural tradition have stayed untampered with to this day. The city of Satu-Mare is one of this charming places. Well-known for its churches, the city draws tourists from every corner of the world, to admire the protestant church, protected by “chains”. We cannot ignore the Dacia Hotel, a real architectural gem, in Secession style, built up on the old foundation of the Town Hall and the Royal Court, and awarded a special prize at the exhibition of architecture in 1903 Vienna. It’s time for a “jolly” respite. The unusual “merry” cemetery of Spanta, maybe not so famous as “the Valley of The Kings” in Egypt, but an absolutely unique sight, is an hymn dedicated to life. We are practically surrounded by tombstones onwritten with witty riddles, reminiscent of the dearly departeds’ personalities.
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Day four: Maramures Tour ( 150 km )
The Valley of the river Iza opens up in front of our eyes with its sight of the famous wooden churches, their towers supporting the sky above: Rozavlea, Ieud and Bogdan Voda. Sighetu Marmatiei, a typical town of this region, celebrated for its fairs and popular costumes, elaborately handmade, is more life-packed than ever, as if on the eve of a great ceremony. We cannot ignore the monument dedicated to the memory of the political dissidents, once tortured and condemned to life imprisonment here. We end up our day at Baia-Mare, where we stay overnight.
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Day five: Baia Mare - Oradea ( 160 km )
We make for Baile Felix, also known amongst the locals as “the spa of happiness”, the largest and most attended one in Romania. Here, in the dead of winter we can live a thorough a rich experience of the senses, letting ourselves be wrapped up in the gentle stirring warmth of the thermal healing springs. In the evening, the people of Oradea prove to be among the most surprising and hearty hosts in the world.
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Day six: Oradea - Timisoara ( 160 km )
After a hearty if unusual breakfast, mainly consisting in local specialities like homemade bread and slices of lard, we return to the Timis riverside. We are about to make an absolutely stunning tour of very different cultures, styles and religions. We admire the gentle beauty of the Orthodox Cathedral, the dignified majesty of the Roman-Catholic Church, the impressive baroque of the Roman-Catholic Dome, the Eastern Byzatine of The Metropolitan Church, the old City Hall. And this is not all. We brace up and step into The Huniad Family Castle, rebuilt during the reign of Carol Robert of Anjou, extended by the Romanian Prince Iancu de Hunedoara (one of the greatest medieval political figures in Europe) in the 14th century, and restored in 1856. The Museum of Banat, full of vestiges of the past, awaits us in here. In the evening, we pay a visit to the old “savoury” Recas Wine Cellar and share our fresh travel impressions over a rich meal.
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Day seven: Timisoara Departure
We bid farewell to the history-ridden sights, the unforgettable rural habits, the gentle and hospitable folk. It’s time to go back home, elated by our journey’s beautiful experiences which, from now on, will stay with us wherever we go.
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