Balkan Trails

We had an absolutely amazing tour of Transylvania and Maramures. Balkin Trails tailored the trip to meet our specific needs. They are very flexible and are very willing to work with you on what you want to see on your trip. Our guide was excellent and the lodging provided was just what we wanted. Romania food was delicious and our guide's restaurant recommendations was "spot on!" We had gorgeous views of the landscape (made even more beautiful by the fall colors), learned about Romanian history, toured the fortified Saxon churches and old wooden churches, explored several castles, including the beautiful Peles Castle and Bran Castle, and enjoyed a wonderful morning walking through the unique Merry Cemetery. We highly recommend Balkin Trails -- they planned and covered all the details. We just had to sit back and enjoy our unique visit to beautiful Romania.

We traveled to Romania 3 years ago with this company and have just returned from our Bulgarian 10 day trip with them. We must praise them for the excellent guide they chose and the comfortable clean hotels. The places we visited were varied and some will remain in memory for a long time. We especially liked the Thracian Tomb and Rila Monastry where the frescos were really good.Then also the houses in Arbanassi, Tryavna,the open air museum in Etara. At Etara we ate some freshly made bread with cheese baked in it, delicious.

We added a narrow gauge railway journey which took over 4 hours passing lovely scenery lots of bee hives(you must try the honey)and villages with minarettes.

We saw houses from different periods and the Ottoman one was a favourite so cool inside and the veranda was inviting.

We were looked after extremely well and had no downside. Thanks Balkan Trails we would highly recommend your company.

I made an enquiry re a tour in Bucharest. My mail was answered promptly with exactly what I requested. We arrived and our tour guide was informative and interesting making our time in Bucharest very interesting. I would highly recommend this tour company.

Overall, I give the trip an A rating. I feel that it was very well thought out. well executed, and extremely well integrated. Our guide was terrific in every regard, intelligent, communicative, thoughtful, thorough, dependable, interested, and takes the effort to "please his clients. Most of the accommodations were 3+ and 4 star (appealing and comfortable). The itinerary was exciting and hit items for history, architecture, nature and everyday, ongoing, current life in Bulgaria.

The company owners were: gracious, competent, dependable and very talented in coordinating such a tour. I recommend this company highly and without any reservations.

We joined the 12-day Romania Revealed tour with Balkan Trails from 3 to 15 Dec 2013.

Not only is the Balkan Trails guide very knowledgeable with Romania's various attractions and history, he has also been very patient and understanding with us, especially towards our 5-year-old son. We are very grateful for his kindness when our son misplaced his toy teddy bear at Hotel Casa Humor, and the guide immediately called the hotel for us to arrange for them to return the bear to us at Brasov. We are also thankful for his nice gesture of getting a snow sled for our son as a surprise.

We are extremely pleased with the itinerary and the various lodgings provided. We were seeking for accommodation with local flavours, and Balkan Trails has provided just that for us. The stay at Pensiunea Teleptean and Viscri 125 was especially memorable - having superbly delicious home-cooked food specially prepared for us was an absolute delight for us. We of course wish to thank the owner of Pensiunea Teleptean for her kind hospitality towards us.

The gypsy home visit was an amazing experience for us. We had a good time with the family, and are extremely grateful towards the gypsy lady host for her kindness and her very delicious walnut bread. Her daughter was also very friendly towards us. My son had a lot of fun playing with the lady host's son. The gypsy home visit was definitely the main reason why we chose Balkan Trails' Romania Revealed tour.

Our only disappointment was that we were not able to go into the Hunyad castle and Biertan fortified church, due to unforeseen circumstances.

Nevertheless, we have enjoyed ourselves thoroughly throughout our stay in Romania. We will definitely recommend highly Balkan Trails to anyone who wishes to visit Romania. In fact, already a few of our friends have enquired about Balkan Trails, after they have seen the amazing photos we put up in social websites!

Having attended a fascinating lecture in London about the Saxon fortified churches of Transylvania my husband and I decided we simply had to see them for ourselves. I found Balkan Trails on the Internet and having chosen a 5-day tour with roughly the right destinations I emailed to see if the itinerary could be changed to include specific villages. The reply was immediate (all the replies to my many emails were immediate) - no problem, they'd do their best to accommodate our request - and astonishingly no extra charge for providing a customised trip! Apart from the weather the trip was absolutely fabulous. Our guide spoke excellent English. He was an excellent driver and we were able to relax completely despite the famously erratic behaviour of some of the other road-users. He was a mine of information and had clearly swotted up on the unusual destinations we had chosen. He was also determined that we should have the very best impression of his country, and in one village moved heaven and earth to track down the old lady who looked after the church key! His suggestions for meals were great.

They're based in the country of Bulgaria so if plan a tour of Romania you're better off with Undiscovered Destinations. A second option is Cox & Kings and their Transylvanian Explorer to include Bulgaria and return flights on British Airways. The latter is a private tour. C&K has the advantage of real good local guides worldwide.

In regard to pre-trip planning and attention to detail I would mark Balkan Trails Very Good I know many people have reservations about booking on the net with unknown names but I would have no hesitation on reccomending this small company.Vlad was excellent in keeping us up to date with the arrangements and altered the tour to accomodate us flying in from Budapest to Tirga Mures.

The trip itself was excellent and an eye opener when compared to what the Lonely planet and others have been describing. I will be sending a report to Lonely Planet asking that they amend their latest edition dated 2010 as it is very wrong on many parts especially about stray dogs, toilets and Roma problems.

Firstly our guide Isabella ; a wonderful young lady very well educated, knowledgeable, excellent people skills and her English was first class. As a Blonde driving a Bucharest registered car she received little or no courtesies from other drivers but impressed us both with her driving skills good nature and ability to safely get from A to B. My wife and I were amazed that within a few hours she could clearly understand our Scots accent especially as we were the first Scots she had as personal clients. Her depth of knowledge in regard to Historical, geographical, demographic, political and current affairs in regard to Romania was superb. I cannot praise her highly enough.

Our Itinerary was very good and gave us a good cross-section of the country both rural, village and towns. Bucharest was Bucharest another city produced by Socialist Planning but worth a visit just to emphasise the alien constructions and practices of the communist period.

The accommodation and food was excellent as was the places Isabella chose to use as lunch/coffee break stops. All very clean good toilet facilities and nice staff.We especially loved staying with Alania and her family in the mountains.A great experience to see how the real people live and the food and surroundings were marvellous. The architecture is wonderful and the Painted Monasteries can match most historical buildings we have seen.

We both agree the trip was good value and an excellent taster of the delights of this wonderful part of Romania. We learned a lot, saw and did a lot and most importantly had fun while doing so and are looking forward to our next visit.

Thank-you to Vlad and staff for a trip which will be memorable for all the right reasons.

This review concerns a nine night tour 'Romania revealed', undertaken by my wife and I (pensioners) and our son (40's) in July 2011. I must admit to being worried about using an unknown Agent in a foreign country and paying up front, but Vlad's correspondence was re-assuring and in fact everything worked out perfectly. We were met at the airport by Sorin, who was the best guide we have ever had - very knowledgeable and with a keen sense of humour, he quickly became part of the family! We were fascinated by the Saxon towns of Sibiu, Sighisoara and Brasov in Transylvania and loved the countryside and the monasteries in Maramures and Bukovina. Sorin made all these places come alive and we could not believe that as each day succeeded the last he had more and yet more fascinating things to show us.

The hotels selected, often being small hotels of historic interest helped create the atmosphere and the visit to the private guest house in Vadu Izei was a highlight, letting us understand more of life in Maramures.

Now four months ago, we still talk about this fascinating trip almost daily. We had magnificent weather, but being July it was swelteringly hot, 35C upwards every day. Sorin recommended the most comfortable month for Northern Europeans as May. We give the company our highest recommendation.

Very nice trip. Balkan Trails was very accommodating and made this trip very nice and worth while. Because my arrival date was a Thursday and some of the sites would have been closed on Monday, they offered to do the trip in reverse so I wouldn't miss anything. The hotels booked for me were safe, clean, and in well located area's. The tour moves at a nice pace so that I could have 'guided tour' time and time to explore on my own. My guide was a licensed tour guide and she was excellent. Her English was excellent, I had no issues with communication. Her knowledge about Romanian history made the whole trip worth while. The Romanian countryside is amazingly beautiful and the sites I visited were equally beautiful, but the information I learned from m guide made it that much better. I was very pleased with the trip, learned so much, visited very cool places, and would recommend it to anyone wishing for a personalized tour in a not as visited Eastern European country.