Romanian cuisine has strong influences from the surrounding countries including Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary.

We will try fantastic home-cooked meals on this trip as we spend most nights staying with local families and in guesthouses.

Breakfasts will consist of homemade bread and cheeses plus a selection of locally sourced meats, salad, and tea or coffee.

There are five picnic lunches, two at a local family home and three enjoyed al fresco. They are made by the staff at our guesthouses and will usually be sandwiches, salad, fruit and more of their homemade cheese. Some days we will have a traditional vegetable soup for lunch with homemade crème fraiche and bread.

Dinners are usually centred around pork or beef. Lots of guesthouses will prepare sarmale cu mamaliguta, a traditional Romanian dish of minced pork wrapped in pickled cabbage leaves and served with polenta and a chilli.

It’s not all about the food though; every household makes their own tuica (pronounced tsweeka), a spirit usually made from plums and flavoured with herbs from their garden or the surrounding area. This is usually drunk while being welcomed into the house and after dinner.

Tour the UNESCO-listed fortified church of Biertan, rising above vineyards and Saxon-roofed houses. Cross defensive rings to reach a late-Gothic sanctuary, where sturdy buttresses and a concentric system of walls speak to centuries of frontier life.

Inside, discover Renaissance details and a church designed as both house of worship and refuge. Bastions, towers, and gateways reveal how faith and fortification intertwined in Transylvania’s Saxon settlements.

Walk the cobbled lanes of Sighisoara’s UNESCO-listed citadel, one of the best-preserved inhabited medieval towns in Europe. Pastel guild houses, covered stairways, and burgher towers frame a living fortress where history remains part of daily life.

See landmarks such as the Clock Tower and the house linked to Vlad Dracul, father of Vlad the Impaler. The blend of Saxon craft heritage and Transylvanian folklore gives this hilltop town its magnetic, time-capsule character.

Visit Cobor Farm, a restored village homestead championing organic gardens and traditional breeds. Stroll the beds where heritage seeds are nurtured, learn about conservation grazing, and see how a once-abandoned property has blossomed into a model of rural regeneration.

Meet the team behind projects that protect nature while sustaining village life. The garden-to-farmstead setting, birdsong, and aroma of sun-warmed herbs capture Transylvania’s quiet, restorative pace.

Explore Viscri, a Saxon village of lime-washed cottages and cobbled lanes, where you’ll visit the fortified church of Viscri and meet the craftspeople—brickmakers and a blacksmith—who helped restore it. Experience a horse-drawn cart tour that rolls past gardens, barns, and orchard-backed homes.

Learn how community projects, supported by heritage advocates including King Charles III’s restored house, have revived skills and traditions. The village’s UNESCO-listed character shines through its robust walls and thriving craft culture.

Climb the old fort towers above Brasov for sweeping views across red roofs and the 14th-century Black Church. Return to street level to wander Council Square (Pia?a Sfatului), where merchants once traded beneath pastel baroque facades.

Brasov’s Saxon walls, narrow lanes, and mountain backdrop illustrate the city’s role as a medieval trading hub. The panoramic outlook pairs perfectly with a gentle old-town stroll through cafes, churches, and lively pedestrian streets.

Stroll the landscaped grounds of Peles Castle, a forest-framed royal residence in Sinaia famed for its Neo-Renaissance architecture. Terraces, fountains, and alpine vistas set an elegant scene at the foot of the Bucegi Mountains.

This short, scenic pause is typically made during the transfer toward Bucharest, time permitting. The setting highlights Romania’s late 19th-century royal era, with ornate facades and mountain air combining for a refined, picture-perfect interlude.

Step inside a Saxon fortified church in either Apold or Bradeni, where sturdy towers and enclosing walls once protected villagers and their harvest. The quiet nave and thick defensive ramparts evoke centuries of shared labor and faith.

Explore fresco fragments, wooden galleries, and a grassy churchyard tucked beside modest farmhouses. This intimate visit illuminates how rural communities built sanctuaries that doubled as strongholds across the Transylvanian plain.

See a working wool mill in the village of Lisa, where blankets and garments are produced using time-honoured methods. Step inside a modest workshop where century-old machines still card and finish the wool, preserving techniques that once clothed farming communities across the region.

Learn how local artisans maintain living craft traditions, from raw fleece to finished fabric. The hum of belts and the scent of lanolin evoke a slower era, offering insight into Transylvania’s self-sufficient rural economy.

Visit the Ohaba Watermill, the oldest working flour mill in Fagaras county, and watch the river-powered wheel turn timber gears as grain becomes flour. Set in a quiet valley, this small workshop offers a close look at the tools and rhythms that still shape rural Transylvanian life.

Hear how the mill survived the Communist period and continues serving local families. The scent of fresh flour, worn millstones, and creaking beams reveal a craft passed down through generations—an intimate snapshot of authentic village heritage.

Step into the Cistercian monastery at Câr?a, a serene complex with Gothic fragments dating from the early 13th century. Wander among ivy-touched walls, quiet graves, and meadow-like grounds framed by views of the Fagaras Mountains.

As one of Transylvania’s earliest Gothic ecclesiastical sites, it reflects the spread of Western monastic culture to the Carpathian frontier. Pause beneath weathered arches and stone tracery to appreciate the region’s layered medieval past.