Turistic objectives

The mighty Danube River flows 1,788 miles from its springs in Germany’s Black Forest to the Black Sea. Just before reaching the sea it forms the second largest and best preserved of Europe's deltas: 2,200 square miles of rivers, canals, marshes, tree-fringed lakes and reed islands. The Danube Delta is a wildlife enthusiast’s (especially a bird watcher’s) paradise.

Travelers can spend three or more days exploring its passages, teaming with the highest concentration of bird colonies in all of Europe. The maze of canals bordered by thatch, willows and oaks entangled in lianas, offers the perfect breeding ground for countless species of birds, some of them from as far away as China and Africa. Millions of Egyptian white pelicans arrive here every spring to raise their young, while equal numbers of Arctic geese come here to escape the harsh winters of Northern Europe.

Some 300 species of birds make Danube’s Delta their home, including cormorants, white tailed eagles and glossy ibises.  The bird watching season lasts from early spring to late summer. Birds are not the only inhabitants of the Delta. There is also a rich community of fish and animals, from wildcats, foxes and wolves, to even an occasional boar or deer. Altogether, 3,450 animal species can be seen here, as well as 1,700 plant species.

BUCHAREST

Founded in 1459, on the banks of the Dambovita River, by ruler Vlad Tepes, Bucharest become later the capital city of the Princely Court.
The tradition connects the founding of Bucharest with the name of Bucur who was either a princely person, an outlaw, a fisher or a shepherd according to different legends.

But a fact doubtless: the name of Bucur is of a Thracian-Geto-Dacian origin.

BUCOVINA

The landscape is so beautiful that one can hardly find words to render it, but more important is that there are no industrial enterprises, people having as main occupations cattle breeding and wood processing.

Here, everyone venerates King Stephen the Great : a hero and a founder of the local history, he used to repeatedly defeat the Ottoman Army and, after each glorious battle, he used to have a new monastery built; there are fourty seven in all, as many jewels for the tourists to discover when they come to visit this region.

The monasteries of Voronet, Sucevita, Moldovita, Humor and Arbore, built in the 16th century, fortified or with outside painted walls, have been taken under UNESCO protection, because their features make them unique in the whole world. 

Dracula History and Legend

Throughout the 14th and 15th centuries Wallachia and Moldavia offered strong resistance to Ottoman Empire expansion towards Europe.

During this struggle the prince of Wallachia, Vlad Tepes (known as the Impaler, because he rarely ate a meal without a Turk writheing on a stake in front of him), became a hero; he later became associated with Dracula (Lonely Planet) and made famous by Bram Stoker's Book - an Englishman that had never visited Transylvania.

The Biography of Vlad III Dracula the Impaler (1431-1476)

Dracula was born in 1431 in the Transylvanian city of Sighisoara (old roman Castrum Rex). At that time Dracula's father, Vlad II Dracul, was living in exile in Transylvania.
The house where Dracula was born is still standing in the citadel of Sighisoara.

Vlad the Impaler - Journal of the Dark

Vlad became quite known for his brutal punishment techniques.
He often ordered people to be skinned, boiled, decapitated, blinded, strangled, hanged, burned, roasted, hacked, nailed, buried alive, stabbed, etc. He also liked to cut off noses, ears, sexual organs and limbs.
But his favorite method was impalement on stakes, hence the surname "Tepes" which means "The Impaler" in the Romanian language.
Even the Turks referred to him as "Kaziglu Bey," meaning "The Impaler Prince." It is this technique he used in 1457, 1459 and 1460 against Transylvanian merchants who had ignored his trade laws.
The raids he led against the German Saxons of Transylvania were also acts of proto-nationalism in order to protect and favour the Wallachian commerce activities. 

Mountains

The Carpathian Mountains are the eastern wing of the great central mountain system of Europe curving 1500 km (~900 miles) along the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Romania and the Ukraine.
The Carpathians, which only in a few places attain an altitude of over 2500 m, lack the bold peaks, the extensive snow-fields, the large glaciers, the high waterfalls and the numerous large lakes which are found in the Alps.
They are nowhere covered by perpetual snow, and glaciers do not exist, so that the Carpathians, even in their highest altitude, recall the middle region of the Alps, with which, however, they have many points in common as regards appearance, structure and flora.

SEACOAST

Having an eastward orientation and a record number of sunny weather (2300 - 2400 hours yearly), no tides, wide beaches covered with fine golden sand and sloping gently into the sea, the Romanian Black-Sea Coast has become to be one of the favourite vacation places for people of many meridian.

Natural Therapeutic Elements:  sea water, sea air, the sand, the therapeutic mud extracted from Tekirghiol Lake. 

SPA CURES

Health - a Gift from Nature

The blend of curative and recreational tourism turns Romania into a reference point in Europe.
Romania owns a great number of health resources offered by nature to prevent the illnesses, throwing away the stress and recovering health and work capacity:

• mineral and thermal waters (1/3 of the springs in Europe)
• therapeutic mud (sapropelic, peat, mineral, volcanic) mofettes

The average of the cure duration is 18 days.
Repetition of the cure is recommended for 2 - 3 years in the same spa.

TRANSYLVANIA

Transylvania,  whose name derives from the Latin "TRANSILVANA" (the country beyond the forests) lies in the center of Romania, being surrounded with the Carpathian mountains.
Its very name brings to mind visions of mountain peaks rising up to the sky above wooded valleys and sparkling streams, visions of high-roofed wooden churches, legendary castles and a troubled history.

But there is much more to it: ski resorts and health spas, hiking trails and the Retezat National Park, fascinating medieval towns, art museums and good hotels.