Maramures & Bucovina
€ 512
per personGet in touch with your spiritual side while visiting the countryside and meeting the real peasants. Find out why freedom has so much meaning for Romanian people. Let your self seduced by the gracious and yet naive religious paintings.
Travel Details
Destination
Maramures & Bucovina
Start / End
Cluj-Napoca
Duration
4 days / 3 nights
Service
guided
Seasonality
April - November
Tour type
discover
Departure time
9:00 am
Dress code
for the monasteries: shoulders and knees should be covered for both men and women. Skirts and scarfs are sometimes offered at the entrance. For the salt mine: non slippery-shoes & appropriate warm clothing recommended (the constant temperature inside the salt mine is 10-12° C)
Visits
3 wooden churches (UNESCO); Merry Cemetery; traditional dowry room; Communist Resistance Museum; craftsmen; traditional decorated houses in Ciocanesti; 3 painted monasteries (UNESCO); Easter egg decoration; Cacica salt mine
Distance
about 900 km / 559 mi
Car transfer duration
see daily details in Tour Plan
Notes
accommodation locations & order of visits may suffer changes
The Eastern Carpathians, covering large territories in northern Romania, have always influenced the lives and the character of their inhabitants. Not only were daily life and work determined by the geographical positioning, but so were the spiritual believes and practices. Although divine beliefs were blamed and discouraged during the communist regime, due to the positioning and to the fact that the village systematization plan of the Romanian communist party was never implemented in this part of the country, the area still preserves some authentic ancestral symbolism and rituals.
The region of Maramures (north-western part of Romania) is known for the wooden architecture, one of the main decoration element of this type of architecture being the sun (used with both celestial and spiritual symbolism). Furthermore, still in Maramures, archaic fertilization ceremonies are still celebrated in winter and spring time.
Bucovina (north-easter part), on the other hand, is famous for the painted medieval monasteries and for the Easter egg decorations, the paint applied on this eggs being impregnated with religious and archaic symbols.
Beside the spiritual side, this guided tour to Maramures and Bucovina is also meant to reveal you wonderful mountain scenery, some surprisingly beautiful countryside roads and village life and, nevertheless, to put you in touch with the gentle inhabitants of Maramures and Bucovina.
Cluj – Maramures
Departure from Cluj at 9:00 am, heading for Maramures. Stop on the way to visit the wooden church of Surdesti, the tallest of all eight wooden churches included in the UNESCO heritage list.
Lunch in a restaurant.
Continue with the visit of another UNESCO wooden church (Desesti or Budesti).
In the afternoon, take a walk in the most famous traditional village in Maramures and visit some craftsmen.
Dinner and accommodation in a guesthouse in Maramures.
Car transfers: approx. 4h30min; ~210 km / 130 mi
(lunch & dinner included, breakfast not included)
Maramures
After breakfast, visit the Merry Cemetery in Sapanta, an unusual colorful spot, unexpectedly reflecting the love for live of the locals, and a traditional dowry room. Continue the journey with the visit of the Communist Resistance Memorial Museum in Sighetu Marmatiei.
Have lunch in a restaurant and visit a third wooden church (Ieud or Poienile Izei)
Dinner and accommodation in a guesthouse in Maramures.
Car transfers: approx. 3h00min; ~120 km / 75 mi
(breakfast & dinner included, lunch not included)
Maramures - Bucovina
Breakfast and departure for Bucovina, across the Carpathian Mountains. Stop in Ciocanesti to see the traditional decorated houses.
Lunch on the way in a restaurant.
Visit the painted monastery of Moldovita, famous for it’s Siege of Constantinople fresco scene. As decorating the Easter egg is an ancient Hutsul tradition that you must not miss, you’ll have the chance to assist at such a demonstration. Continue the journey with the visit of the most complete and best preserved of the painted monasteries: Sucevita. If you’re looking for spiritual perfection, you may find inspiration here, admiring the Ladder of Virtues fresco scene.
Dinner and accommodation in a rural guesthouse.
Car transfers: approx. 4h00min; ~215 km / 133 mi
(breakfast & dinner included, lunch not included)
Bucovina - Cluj
After breakfast, visit Cacica salt mine, in the heart of the Polish inhabited micro-region of Bucovina.
*It is not recommended to visit the salt mine if you have heart, lungs, digestive and other health conditions. You can check them all here.
Lunch on the way in a restaurant and continue with the Voronet painted monastery, the most famous of all eight painted monasteries included in UNESCO heritage. Get back to Cluj in late afternoon. End of the tour.
Car transfers: approx. 6h00min; ~330 km / 205 mi
(breakfast included, lunch & dinner not included)
Included:
Not included:
Check here what discounts apply to this tour.
All prices are listed per person and calculated on an 8 participants basis.
For tours for more than 8 participants, please request a quote.