Single day trips in our autumn collection of thrills
Every autumn we harvest the finest of close to Bucharest locations to bring some of the season’s delights in your usual Saturday getaway. Guided wine tasting, a 200 year old manor, heavenly monastery dishes, pottery classes, this autumn it’s all about the enchanted Oltenia region. Book any of these 3 full day-tours or try all of them.
The end of May and early September are two splendid moments to join our group along the celebrated Wine Route. Seven renowned wineries spread their tens of acres of the world-class grapevines on top of the Vineyards Hill. The blessed vineyards face the sun-kissed Olt River Valley at only a mile away from the small city of Dragasani.
Before embarking on the ancient and sacred tradition of winemaking, we invite you to have a well deserved coffee break at the former communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu Memorial House in Scornicesti. The coffee break includes hot fresh ground coffee, homemade muffins and a short guided tour. Naturally, the Scornicesti stop may be replaced with a visit to one of Ramnicu Valcea’s main attractions: the Village Museum, the Anton Pann Memorial House (composer of Romanian National Anthem) or the Zoo.
The city of Dragasani welcomes you to stretch your legs down the town’s centre to the newly refurbished Wine Museum only to continue your journey to the idyllic and Tuscan resembling Vineyards Hill. Take a few moments to enjoy the panorama: colorful beehives, rose hip bushes and dark violet grape bunches heavily hanging above the ground during the autumn season or waves of small yellow flowers during the flowering season at the end of May.
The guided wine tasting and wine production tours shall be hosted by one selected winery. The tour usually takes about 3 hours and is accompanied by home cooked meals prepared exclusively with locally produced organic ingredients.
Join us to a safe and laid-back journey back to Bucharest.
*This one day tour is available May to October due to weather conditions. It is organized on every Saturday of the selected months. The meeting point is at 8 AM, at the Herastrau Park main entrance. We welcome groups of 4 up to 20 guests, but we require a two-week prior notice to check availability. The tour price is available upon request and group size. A multiple language guide joins the tour. All fees are included.
Regardless the time of the year, the light is always perfect to take a great deal of beautiful photos during our one day trip to the Nicolae Balcescu Manor, one of the best preserved examples of the Brancovenesc architectural style. After a comfortable two-hour drive from Bucharest, we turn left at the entrance of the Milcoiu village and take the most picturesque road up to the manor with a chance to spot ox-drawn hay wagons. It is serenely placed on a large estate right at the edge of the forest, completely immersed into deafening silence.
Catch your breath on the manor’s porch with a cup of hot coffee, pastry and fresh milk while listening to a pleasant introduction about the long history of this place. Shortly afterwards you are invited to explore the rest of the manor, crossing high ceiled rooms adorned in gothic and traditional style, unspoiled for the past 150 years. The small and dedicated team working in the museum surely does its best in recreating the revolutionary and artistic effervescence of those times.
The high pavilion has a wonderful view, but for high quality pictures we recommend the gardens and the old wooden church similar to the vernacular style in Maramures. The lunch shall be enjoyed al fresco, among the rose bushes with a complete view of the forest and the manor.
At sundown it’s about time to head back to Bucharest.
*This one day tour is available all year round, on every Saturday. The meeting point is at 8 AM, at the Herastrau Park main entrance. We welcome groups of 4 up to 20 guests, but we require a two-week prior notice to check availability. The tour price is available upon request and group size. A multiple language guide joins the tour. All fees are included.
Join us for an early start as we take the long and winding road to Horezu, the crown jewel of the Romanian pottery. As we hurry over hill and dale to the city cosily sheltered at the foot of the Southern Carpathians, we first stop for a short coffee break at the Growing stones Museum. Although Trovantii or the living stones seem sculpted by Brancusi himself, they were actually created through millennia old natural processes. There is enough time for explanations and nice pictures.
Most proud of their ancient workmanship, the craftsmen of Horezu welcome you to begin your artistic journey with a visit to the contemporary Popular Art Gallery which hosts impressive proofs of local and national pottery, wood carving and weaving artistry. Thereafter join some of the local master potters in presenting their techniques then take a seat behind the potter’s wheel and let your imagination soar! After modeling, your object shall be left to dry for a few days, after that burned in special ovens to be finally delivered to your address.
Lunch is a simple, yet impressive display of the heavenly cuisine mastered by the nuns in Hurezi Monastery. The meal is perfectly suitable for vegetarians and it shall be relished in the monastery’s refectory. Soon after, you might wish to take a restful walk around the monastery premises before leisurely return to Bucharest.
*This one day tour is available all year round, on every Saturday. The meeting point is at 8 AM, at the Herastrau Park main entrance. We welcome groups of 4 up to 20 guests, but we require a two-week prior notice to check availability. The tour price is available upon request and group size. A multiple language guide joins the tour. All fees are included.
Note that in certain contexts, Romania might be an overwhelming experience as there are areas which do not avail modern day facilities such as television and Internet connection. Furthermore, parts of the local infrastructure weren’t intentionally modernized in order to preserve the rural, authentic surroundings. Roundtrip transportation from Bucharest can be organized upon request and number of tourists by car (private tour or rental), coach, train or airplane. Some tours are subject to availability as the activities depend on the traditional farms’ yearly schedule (mowing, fruit/mushroom picking, jams, pickles and preserves etc). However, all tours are flexible and may be adapted, as well as the activities interchanged. Local families are trained to cook special meals for vegetarian and vegan tourists.
All tours and activities represent suggestions to selected areas and can be changed according to individual client requests.