Looking for Romania Private Tours?
Our Romania private tours offer a rich, immersive, cultural experience as only a local can provide. Romania’s castles, churches, and museums are interesting and we include those as well, but since 2011 our promise to you and all our travelers is to …
Get a real taste of the country
Experience only what truly interests you
Tell us what interests you and we’ll organise a private tour of Romania. It will be tailor-made and only for your family or group. It can start and finish anywhere.
Go as local as you can
We take people to castles but our best experiences are traditional events & weddings, small farms and markets, quaint small towns, wineries, boutique hotels and B&Bs.
Why trust us for a private tour of Romania?
We got great reviews for Romania private tours
Exhibited at large international travel fairs
Featured in National Geographic Traveler
One of our tours was placed second among NGT Romania magazines’ recommended 11 tours of Transylvania. We’re also recommended in Bradt and Routard travel guides.
Types of private tours of Romania that we can organise
Guided tours
We can include the following services: tour guide, transportation, accommodation, meals, entrance tickets, visits, workshops.
Such tours can be private, individual or shared group tours (usually in partnership with other travel agencies from abroad).
Self-guided tours
We can include the following services: rented car, accommodation, meals, some entrance tickets, train tickets, visits and workshops. And we prepare a personalized booklet with information about the places you will visit during your vacation in Romania, places to stop along the way, restaurant recommendations and even parking locations.
Are you interested in one of our suggested private tours of Romania?
Private Tour of Romania (rich in culture)
Tour of medieval Transylvania from Bucharest
Transylvania itself is a natural fortress surrounded by mountains from all sides. You’ll discover what’s inside, the charming medieval towns, well-preserved rural life and beautiful nature.
Romanian Orthodox Easter traditions tour
The Easter holidays offer a wealth of traditions: painting eggs, a farmers’ celebration, people in folk costumes going to UNESCO churches and hearty food.
Christmas and New Year traditions tour
This is the time of the year richest in traditions: carols, traditional clothes, pig “cooking”, steam train, Christmas markets, ice hotel, castles under snow … a fairytale!
Genuine Food and Wine tour of Transylvania
This is an emerging concept as the region has so much to offer culturally and culinary. And some excellent wines, mostly white, but some good reds too.
Tour of Transylvania from Budapest or Belgrade
If you’re coming from far away it makes sense to visit more than one country. Hungary and Serbia are really close, so cross the border.
Maramures and Bucovina tour (UNESCO churches and rural charm)
These regions will really take you back in time and they are worth at least 2-3 days each. You can combine them with Transylvania too.
Hiking Tour of Romania
Be active up in the Carpathian Mountains and also get a taste of the culture and history down in the valleys. Easy to medium hikes, up to 6h/day.
Romania Genealogy Tours
You have family originating from Romania? We organize tours to their place of origins and also do research. And we show you Romania as well.
Contact us and we will make a custom-made tour proposal for you!
The above tours are meant to offer you inspiration and to show how our tours of Romania look like. Please contact us by email at info@true-romania.tours and tell us how you’d like your tour to be. We will then work on a tailor-made tour proposal for you!
What makes our private Romania tours special?
The way we love to travel is reflected in the way we organize private tours of Romania for our travelers:
- We focus on what’s true (therefore the name). We’d rather listen to traditional music in a village from where the music originates. Or see people dressed in traditional clothes in their hometown rather than at a parade. Or stay in a typical wooden house or a centuries’ old castle. As for souvenirs to remind you of your vacation in Romania, we recommend a horseshoe done by a genuine blacksmith instead of a magnet. And no, we don’t think Dracula is true. 🙂
- Our tours are longer than most other group & private Romania tours. That’s because having a rich cultural experience needs time. So we travel slower and spend more time in some places which are worth the time. Our Romania tours also cover most regions of the country: Transylvania, Maramures, Bucovina, Wallachia, Banat, Danube Delta. And we can extend our tours to the neighbouring countries: Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, Ukraine.
- We combine the must-see attractions of Romania with the less known, more local places and we include (when possible and wanted) visits to local markets, traditional events, genuine craftsmen and locals, or unplanned stops along the itinerary when you see something interesting. We believe a visit to Romania would be incomplete without such experiences and they are usually the most memorable ones.
- We include comfortable accommodations which contribute to a real Romanian experience. Such as boutique hotels in historic buildings in medieval towns, charming family-run bed and breakfasts in rural areas or even stays in castles, manors or fortresses.
- Our group & private tours in Romania wouldn’t be complete without truly local dishes, some palinca (brandy) or wines (the local red Feteasca Neagra is our recommendation). Among our culinary recommendations are the many delicious soups (yes, we add sour cream), cabbage rolls (sarmale) and dishes which include porcini mushrooms, eggplants, or lamb.
- We organise custom private tours of Romania (for medium and small groups) as this way we can tailor them to your expectations and travel needs. The average group size is 5-6 people but we’ve organized many tours for couples and individuals too. And we’ve organised tours for over 20 people.
- We work with over 20 local guides, usually in their 30s or 40s, a well-educated and traveled, modern and flexible generation of guides with an objective view on Romania’s rich history and culture. Guides hold a huge role in the success of our trips in all regions of Romania.
Our main tour categories: Cultural Private Tours / Transylvania Tours / Food & Wine / Genealogy Tours / Rural & Nature / Photo Tours
Important milestones for our Romanian tour company
2010
Daniel Rosca, the founder of the company, returned to Romania in 2010 after 4 years of living in Belgium, Poland, Turkey and Egypt, where he last worked for Microsoft in Cairo. Loving travel, he wanted to change his career and started a travel agency offering group & private tours in Romania.
2011
We launched our Romania tour operator company under the name Via Transylvania Tours as we initially focused on Transylvania region and with time we expanded to the other regions of Romania. We had our first 4 Romania tours: 1 for Christmas, 1 for an Indian couple and 2 photography tours.
2012
We started working with La Route des Voyages, a French travel agency and the local National Geographic Traveler magazine featured one of our tours second among their 11 recommended tours of Transylvania. We also organized our first biking tour of Romania and we joined Responsible Travel.
2014&2015
We exhibited as a guest of the Romanian Tourism Board with a stand at the World Travel Market travel fair in London and at ITB in Berlin, the largest travel fair in the world. In 2015 we also organized our first wine and wildflower tours of Romania. We started working with partners from the US and we organized our longest private tour to date (32 days).
2016
The range of our private tours in Romania expanded and we organised our first Jewish heritage and genealogy tours for a Holocaust survivor and for Americans with origins in Romania. The instructor for one of the photography tours we organized was a Pulitzer Prize winner.
2017
We started working with partners from Italy and Brazil and were recommended in the 3rd edition of the travel guide for Transylvania published by Bradt, popular in the UK. We launched the True Romania Tours website which over time has replaced our initial www.viatransylvania.com website. And we finally got listed on TripAdvisor after being rejected twice for not offering day trips.
2018
We started working with Swiss and British partners. We were recommended in the 2018-2019 edition of the most important French travel guide, Routard after organizing their private scouting tours in Romania.
2019
Our travel agency license was renewed by the Romania Tourism Ministry. Launched with the help of an EU grant a sister tour company called Romania Photo Tours focused on photography tours only.
2020
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic we didn’t organize any tours in Romania and we postponed all booked tours to 2021. A New York Times journalist contacted us for a non-travel related topic and quoted our opinion in an article.
2021
The pandemic continues to affect our group & private tours in Romania. Many of the planned tours were rescheduled for 2022. During Easter, after more than a year we had our first American tourists after more than a year. As vaccines are being rolled out and the number of covid cases are going down, we are resuming organising tours. The guides we work with are fully vaccinated.
Information about Romania and visa
Romania is a safe country to visit, which has significantly improved since it became part of NATO (in 2004) and the European Union (in 2007). Safety during our group & private tours in Romania is of paramount importance and since 2011 we didn’t have any significant incident.
For more detailed information about Romania you can visit the website of the Romanian Tourism Board where they offer extensive information about Romania’s top attractions and up-to-date practical travel information, which will prove very useful if you are planning a private holiday in Romania.
Information about the Romanian visa can be found on the website of the Romanian Foreign Affairs Ministry.
About Covid-19 pandemic in Romania and travel advisories
As most of the world, Romania has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, thousands of people lost their lives, and many more suffered from it.
The travel sector has been severely affected and most inbound visitors canceled or postponed their tours of Romania.
As the world recovers from the pandemic and people start traveling again away from home, we feel like the type of Romania tours we offer will be more relevant than ever: private, small group, to places where few people go.
The pandemic is evolving over time so to get up-to-date information we recommend the following sources
- The official European Union Re-Open EU website where they present if there are any restrictions to travel to Romania and all other European Union countries.
- Romania travel advisory of the US Department of State, the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, and the Canadian government.
- Wikipedia does a good job at centralizing the situation in Romania in an easy to understand way.
Testimonials
Once we’re contacted for a private tour we communicate closely by email and phone and during this time both sides can feel if the chemistry is right. And this is key to providing a great tour experience, our happiest travelers are those with whom we get along well from the very beginning. This explains the great reviews for our Romania private tours!
Here’s what some of our previous travellers have to say about our individual and small group Romania tours:
The tour itself turned out to be great. Our guide met us in Bucharest, and toured with us the whole 12 days. We visited castles and countryside, ate delicious food, explored local architecture and customs, met local people. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable about history and local customs and provided great insight into the current situation in Romania. As unexpected opportunities presented themselves, he was very willing to add small side trips or to stop for photo opportunities (of which there are many) or to chat with locals. The choice of accommodations was great too – no faceless international hotels, but instead smaller, locally run establishments. We’ve never worked with a better company.
We had such an amazing time on this self drive tour of Romania: the highlights being the Ice Hotel experience, the Bear conservation opportunity, the dog sledding and seeing the magical cities of Sibiu and Braşov (in winter)!
We did a 4 day cycling tour, a 3 day photography workshop and a visit to the Danube Delta and stayed with a local fisherman. It was an incredible, culturally enriching experience and we both said it was probably our favorite trip we had ever been on!
The tour included highlight visits to many UNESCO wooden churches, a steam train ride into the picturesque Vaser Valley, the painted monasteries of Bucovina plus excellent accommodations. Many very special opportunities arose through the guide’s slick planning, one a traditional wedding and another a sheep milk measurement traditional event. Again thanks for a fantastic time and it will most certainly be one of our all-time outstanding tour adventures. Bar none! It did feel like family and a strong bond in such a brief time frame. Wow!!
Contact us for a tour of true Romania!
Thank you for having the patience to read this far!
If you feel like we could organize for you a tour of Romania as you’d love, please write us an email at info@true-romania.tours.
We look forward to hosting you in Romania!
Our main tour categories: Cultural Private Tours / Transylvania Tours / Food & Wine / Genealogy Tours / Rural & Nature / Photo Tours
