My husband and I just returned from a 10 day trip to Romania. We spent most of our time in Transylvania, which is both scenic and uniquely interesting. Our major reason for traveling to this part of the world was to visit the city of Cluj, where my husband’s father lived before emigrating to the U.S. in the 1930s, and to see the specific places where he and his family lived.

Our trip planners, Raluca and Malvina, did a great job of incorporating this into our itinerary, and also providing experiences that gave us a deeper appreciation of the overall history of Romania and Transylvania, particularly that of the Jews. We knew little of this history before the trip. It was very moving to visit the few synagogues that have been preserved and to meet the people who take care of them. And it was extremely interesting to tour the medieval citadels and fortified churches that dot Transylvania and to spend time in the mostly preserved traditional Saxon village of Viscri. We felt transported back in time watching the horse drawn carts, geese, goats, sheep and cows that wander through the streets of this picturesque place and we enjoyed the simple but delicious traditional foods that are truly farm to table.

We also loved going truffle hunting and enjoying the truffle pasta dinner prepared for us by our truffle guide, as well as our beautiful horseback ride through lovely meadows and forests. One of our most unusual experiences was visiting the vast and otherworldly salt mine in Turda which we would highly recommend. Throughout our trip, our guide, Paul, provided great information and suggestions that very much enhanced our overall understanding and enjoyment of the various places we visited. And it was great to spend time chatting with the lovely local people we met who provided insights into various aspects of life in this intriguing country. Overall, it was a very worthwhile trip.

On April 13-23rd we had an incredible trip organized by Raluca Spiac and her team. This was no ordinary touristic trip. After years of genealogical research, my siblings and I planned a trip to those areas where our parental grandparents had roots. With Raluca’s expertise, an itinerary was developed which touched the many towns and villages where our grandparents and great grandparents were born, lived, worked, and died.

My initial conversation with Raluca was outstanding. She was from Arad, one of the towns where we had some ties, and her parents still live there. Raluca was enthusiastic about our plans and even identified our guide early on, as Alex was a knowledgeable guide who was also interested in genealogy. What a perfect match!

Over the months of planning, I was in touch with Alex, our prospective guide, as he investigated each of our ancestral sites to determine whether there was anything to see at these locations. This research was critical to planning our final itinerary. Raluca was continuously monitoring his work and making sure that he met our needs. The itinerary was finalized and soon enough everyone was traveling to our meeting point: Budapest, Hungary.

Right before we left for Budapest, both Raluca and I had a glitch with which to deal. Our prospective guide (Alex) was going to be unavailable due to health reasons and I had an extra last-minute tour participant! Raluca found us an excellent substitute tour guide (Andrei) and she and I worked out my last-minute addition without missing a beat. While originally disappointed, our new guide, Andrei, was continuously coached by our first guide to make sure everything we had planned happened. There would be no disruption because of this change.

We started our adventure in Hungary in the small town of Aldebro, known to be the Wagner family nest going back to the early 1700s. Raluca put us in touch with an excellent individual in Budapest who not only gave us a fabulous tour of Budapest but made sure we had a good guide the following day when we traveled to Aldebro in Hungary.

Our visit in Aldebro was unbelievable. By pure luck (and perhaps some divine intervention by my deceased grandparents), we were able to meet up with a real relative of ours!!!

We then returned to Budapest and the next day Raluca sent a driver and luxury van to take us to Romania to continue our ancestral journey.

Our first stop was Arad, a large city, and with the help of our guide and driver, we were able to locate both the homes of my grandparents and that of my grandfather’s sister! Then, once again, a fabulous experience occurred. We went to the cemetery to look for my grandfather’s sister’s grave. Our new guide, Andrei, was able to talk to the record keepers and they identified the exact location of her grave! It was overgrown and there was no marker, but it was the right place. Our family of four (all living siblings) brought flowers and candles. (Andrei educated us on the Romanian custom to bring candles and he took us to the marketplace to buy beautiful flowers.) It was a very moving experience for all of us. We had the site cleaned up, removing the overgrown weeds on top covering it. We knew that my grandfather’s sister died alone, her life forever altered by the arrival of communism and the impossibility of travel to Mexico where my grandparents lived. Her many letters went unanswered, unfortunately, and she was unaware my grandfather had had a stroke and could not respond. He died shortly thereafter.

A word about Andrei, our substitute guide. He was wonderful. He was well informed about our goals and had performed the appropriate research. He was continuously in touch with our first guide, Alex, who was making sure there were no missteps. He was knowledgeable about the areas we visited and gave us excellent background information. He laughed over the fact that two of the villages we were visiting, to his knowledge, neither tourists nor locals exactly visited them. “No one ever wants to come to these areas. You are the first!” Andrei meant that comment as a joke, but the reality is that it was true. As a side note, Andrei had a wonderful sense of humor and not only were we learning as we traveled, but he also constantly made us laugh. This made our long vehicle rides traveling from site to site go amazingly fast. We traveled from one end of southern Romania to the other! There was no better substitute guide for Alex than Andrei.

We visited beautiful Timisoara and had the good luck to have Raluca join us. She was phenomenal and so interested in our experiences thus far. She had planned to be with us about 30 minutes but ended up giving us one and a half hours of her time and what fun we had with her! What a great travel agent choice we made thanks to Wendy Perrin’s WOW List of travel agents around the world.

Our next incredible experience was in Petrosani and, specifically, Petrila. We had a 1930s picture of my grandfather and my father at a coal mine and wanted to replicate that picture. Alas, the now defunct coal mine was locked, and we could not access the site. There was, however, one man there and Andrei went to see if we could gain access. While this individual did not have the authority to do so, there was to be a meeting of volunteers with a guest speaker and if we wanted to wait, we might gain access. Sure enough, men started gathering there and the head of this group and the guest speaker eventually arrived. They were astounded we had that picture and, of course, allowed us to take pictures there. We were then invited to visit the small museum in what was previously an office building and the guest speaker insisted on giving us a personal tour. Amazing!

My great grandfather worked for the railroads so, again, Andrei was diligent in taking us to all the sites where my great grandfather had worked and most likely lived. My grandfather was born in one of those buildings!

With the visits to our ancestral sites finished, we then toured many beautiful parts of Transylvania enjoying great food, amazing castles, great historical buildings, and the charming towns of Sibiu, Viscri and then Brasov on our way to Bucharest.

I would be negligent to not include the special effort by Monica in Raluca’s office to arrange a surprise birthday party for all our siblings at a restaurant in Sibiu. We all celebrate birthdays in April-May within weeks of each other. This was over and above the call of duty. Thank you, Monica!

This fantastic trip came to an end in Bucharest, from where we would all depart to a number of different destinations, but there was one last surprise. Our original guide, Alex, joined us for lunch! What a treat it was to be able to meet the individual who had worked so hard on our itinerary.

Overall, there is nothing more superlative I could say about Raluca Spiac and all her staff and guides. Our long-awaited trip could not have been better. Raluca’s personal attention to every detail was phenomenal. Not only her first suggestion of Alex to be our guide, but our substitute guide, Andrei, who was equally as good. Monica was formidable! The hotels recommended were perfect and the restaurant recommendations excellent. Wonderful job!

I travelled to Romania on a last-minute graduation trip with my daughter, Amelia, from August 2 through August 11 2023. We have done numerous trips with Wendy’s WOW List agents before and knew that finding an agent through Wendy was the only way to go. Even the destination of our trip was inspired by articles written by Wendy. Since the trip was last-minute (before my daughter began her new career as an RN) and it was the height of tourist season, we wanted to pick a destination that was less travelled. We chose Romania and Wendy matched us up with Raluca and Ioana. We provided them with a broad description of what we like to do and they took it from there. We love to see beautiful landscapes and the outdoors, enjoy local culture, and not spend too much time indoors in churches and museums. Important to us was connecting with the local people and understanding the country.

Raluca and Ioana went above and beyond our expectations. They set us up with a local guide, Tavi, whose personality matched well with us, which was a good thing since we drove around Romania for 10 days with him. He was knowledgeable, charming, and funny and made adjustments to our plans as he got to know us better. We started in Bucharest, which was great for my daughter to learn what can happen to a country if you vote in a narcissist authoritarian as a leader and understanding what life was like under the latter parts of communist ruling. We had a university history professor give us a tour of an apartment frozen in time from the 1980’s under communist rule. We enjoyed wonderful restaurants, an amazing art exhibit, and historical sites in the city. When we left Bucharest, Tavi adjusted our route so we could travel the Transfagarian Highway. Being from Colorado we enjoyed the winding mountain pass and enjoyed Tavi’s stories of back country skiing the areas around the pass. For our first stop in Transylvania, we stayed in the corner barn of the Bethlen Estates. The bedding was wonderful, the food delicious and the staff was amazing. From here we enjoyed visiting the Cris Bethlen Castle which was literally down the road. It was particularly fun for us since one of our favorite horror movies, The Nun, was shot there. A local man who lives in town jumped in and gave us a detailed tour including side stories on the actors during the filming. We went on an amazing mountain bike ride (about 20 miles) primarily in the hills and forests with some fun single track as well. The mountain bike guide had helped to build the trails which will eventually connect a large portion of Transylvania for mountain bike tours.

We saw wonderful fortressed churches and cities throughout our trip, including the beautiful Sighisoara. Always enjoying them without crowds and with a random local who had the keys to let us in the church or describe some interesting tidbit of history through our guide as the interpreter. We met a local weaver whose family had been doing traditional weaving for generations and who rescued a loom headed for destruction. I introduced her to the Navajo weavers of the US and she was fascinated with their symbols and designs and was planning on reaching out to them. We enjoyed a visit with a local herbalist whose herb garden was expansive and her knowledge of remedies was sought out throughout the area. Here we enjoyed a dinner in her home, again understanding her story and her life and sharing ours. We enjoyed seeing the UNESCO site, Viscri, supported by King Charles and enjoyed the views from the fortressed church over the rolling hills. We moved onto Brasov, staying at the Schuster Boarding House with a good location for walking around town. Here we had a private tour of Bran Castle and after connecting with the guide, had the opportunity to climb into the highest turret to view the mountain pass that the lookouts would use in centuries past. When we expressed interest in a hike, Tavi took us up a mountainside where he helped a friend build a cabin. We met one of his friends, a local shepherd, and discussed bears threatening his flock and how the handling of these bears was different between Colorado and Romania. Again a full in-depth conversation with Tavi as our interpreter.

Bottom line our visit was filled with unique experiences where we connected with the people of Romania and attempted to understand their stories. Romania is a beautiful, relatively undiscovered country with rich medieval history and more recent history of the rise and fall of communism. It is not as restored as other places in Western Europe but its beauty, its history, and its people are wonderful to experience. The smaller crowds allow for a much more enjoyable visit than other European countries. We would not have had the same trip without the guidance of Raluca, Ioana and Tavi. I do not enjoy just visiting a place. I enjoy experiencing it and that’s what Raluca’s team did for us in Romania, they gave us unforgettable experiences. A final shout-out to Raluca, Ioana, and Tavi for coordinating the shipment of some art and pottery we purchased during our trip. They definitely went above and beyond the call of duty and we will have these beautiful items to enjoy and remember Romania for a lifetime.

We had begun planning our trip to Romania several years ago but it was postponed because of Covid. When we were able to depart this spring we found the trip to be even better than we hoped for. Raluca had worked very diligently, with frequent emails and an initial Zoom, to plan our trip around Orthodox Easter celebrations, small village and town stays, and the chance to see spring flowers in the countryside. We knew the latter would be limited somewhat because of early Orthodox Easter.

After landing in Bucharest we left the next morning for Brasov, stopping at Peles Castle on the way. The castle visit was the only crowded time of our whole 2-week trip but very interesting inside and out, and we began learning the complicated history of Romania from our excellent guide Andrei. Our accommodations in boutique inns in Brasov, Sighisoara, and Cluj were all excellent, with a unique combination of traditional furnishing and modern amenities and excellent breakfasts in all. One of our highlights near Sighisoara was an afternoon and evening in a small village with Emese and family, touring her herb gardens, good conversations about her familiy’s history, and having a delicious traditional Easter meal.

Our first small village stay was in Breb, in the beautiful Maramures region, with green fields with haystacks, and distant snow-covered mountains. Our stay in The Village Hotel, a small group of restored traditional cottages, was wonderful with the help of the owner Penny and assistant Andrada. Dinners in a villager’s home were excellent with everything self-sourced. We did not overall visit museums but the Museum of Communism in Sighetu was very powerful and worthwhile.

Next stop was Bucovina area for Orthodox Easter celebrations. We attended midnight service, which involved passing lit candles, walking in and out and around the beautiful painted monastery, and responsive singing, all very moving. Easter Day included more services, with traditional dress, and tradition of cracking painted eggs at breakfast with the words “Christ has risen” and response “He has truly risen,” along with traditional Easter morning and Easter dinner lamb dishes. Our stay was again in an individual restored cottage at Casa Cu Cerbi with unique traditional bed arrangements and furnishings. The painted monasteries including Voronet were another highlight.

Back in Transylvania we stayed in the very remote village of Valea Zanalui in King Charles’ cottage. A very informative walk with a local biologist to look for flowers and discuss the area’s natural history had been set up ahead and very worthwhile. Communication was more difficult here because of the small staff primarily Hungarian, not Romanian, speaking and without our guide and preplanning we would have been unaware of potential available activities in the area.

In our last village Viscri, where we stayed at the very comfortable Viscri 125, we had our best chances to meet local craftsmen including watching a Roma woman making boiled woolen slippers, a blacksmith visit, and a very educational time with a beekeeper who supplies King Charles with his honey.

Lastly Bucharest surprised us with its vitality, green spaces and wonderful old buildings.

Each area we visited was unique with differences in architecture, language, food, and dress due to the complicated ethnic and political history of the country. Because of this and the beautiful landscape, churches, cleanliness, and friendliness our visit was very rewarding and enjoyable.

We would not have been able to appreciate any of this if we had attempted to plan and drive ourselves or been part of a large group staying in nondescript hotels on the edge of town. All of our accommodations were exceptional and we know that Raluca visits them all regularly to reassess. Monica checked once or more daily to adjust the schedule for weather changes, restaurant closings, etc. and made sure everything ran smoothly. Our wonderful guide Andrei was able to determine our interests, physical limitations, and schedule very easily and was always pleasant, reliable, easy to talk to, and extremely knowledgeable about Romanian history and culture. He was also flexible so we could easily add or subtract activities not on our planned list.

We would without question recommend planning a visit to Romania with Raluca.

PANDEMIC TRAVEL  Have just returned from our first trip to Romania and wanted to say thank you to Raluca for a warm welcome to her fabulous country! From first contact we knew we were in good hands. A phone call helped Raluca determine what type of adventure we were looking for and from that moment on, everything ran smooth as silk! Recommendations for sights, restaurants and hotels were all spot on.
Our personal guide, Alex escorted us into the countryside for sightseeing, hikes in the Piatra Craiului Mountains, led a private tour of the magnificent Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest, and even arranged access for us to services in the beautiful Choral Synagogue. By the end of our trip, Alex felt like an old and well informed friend!
Raluca kept in touch during our visit via email and phone calls just to make sure all was going well. COVID and seasonal changes threw a few obstacles into our plans, Raluca however was on top of everything and adjustments were made without having to miss anything on our agenda.
I cannot give enough kudos to Raluca and her team and look forward to planning our next trip to Romania!

Raluca and Roxanna listened carefully to what we had in mind and planned a magnificent trip, making a number of changes based on our comments to their first effort. They were in contact with our guide several times a day to make sure all was going smoothly. And the guide could not have been better–Andrei was extremely knowledgeable and, perhaps even more importantly, extremely easy to be with for almost two weeks. I cannot recommend highly enough/

Raluca and her team gave us invaluable assistance in the development of our 2 week trip to visit 3 regions of Romania…Bucovina, Maramures and Transylvania. Our objective was to see the beautiful country-side, visit small villages/medieval towns and meet/engage with the local people and their daily life/customs. Raluca was always responsive and worked collaboratively and patiently with us to iterate a final itinerary that met these desires and the trip did not disappoint! Our stay in 3 small village guest houses provided direct interaction with the owner families over home cooked(and delicious) breakfasts and dinners; the boutique hotels recommended in the old towns of Cluj, Sibiu and Brasov provided exemplary service and gave us quick and direct access to the historic centers(and, again, delicious breakfasts!). Our guide/driver for the entire trip(Ilona) was terrific! Ilona was pleasant always and patient as we juggled each day’s travel; and her extensive knowledge of Romanian history coupled with her art history background provided excellent insights to all we did. Ilona had also cultivated personal relationships with many of the people we met throughout our journey which greatly enhanced our experiences These people were genuinely pleased to see her and meet us. We had our WOW moment on this trip as well. An after hours visit with private guide of Bran Castle with access to the tower was superb…..no crowds, no rush, unlimited photo opportunities and personal attention from an excellent guide. Raluca’s team produced 2 other surprises as well. They were able to arrange access for us to William Blacker’s Transylvanian village house which is not open to tourists. William left the UK and spent several years living in this village in the late 1990s with a local family which he chronicled in his book “Along the Enchanted Way”. Since we had read his book before we left, this was a special connection for us. They also arranged a birthday surprise for me while we were in the village of Breb…. our dinner host baked me a cake and, with her niece/nephew dressed in traditional garb, sang me happy birthday. Thoughtful and special. So a 5 out of 5 for Raluca and her team from planning, to delivery, to choice of guide and accommodations!

Raluca and her team made our three week visit to Romania spectacular. She selected, Andrei, one of the best guides we have ever to be our guide and driver for most of our trip.

We were attracted to Romania by the biennial Georg Enescu Classical Music Festival held in Bucharest. Raluca provided us with the programs for each concert and secured us tickets. In our phone and email discussions with her about other things to do in Romania she suggested a week or so in Transylvania and several days in the Danube Delta. We found Transylvania to be much more than Dracula – a dinner with a Saxon family in Vescri complete with geese parading by and freshly picked vegetables, a trip to a gypsy iron mason who made us a trophy horse shoe on his forge, a dinner with a Hungarian herbalist, and probably most fascinating, a meal with a gypsy family where we could ask any questions we wanted to about their lives in Romania. During the days in Bucharest where the Festival was held, Andrei provided us with a stories about living under Communism and what it is currently going on in his country. We visited Ceaucescu’s palatial home and had several tours of the hidden gems of Bucharest. With the recommendations of Raluca and her team, we experienced several gourmet meals in Bucharest, and will always remember one which was a seven course meal designed for the Enesccu Festival where each course was explained to us personally by the award winning chef! The Danube Delta was a fascinating surprise. It is the largest wetland in Europe and our guesthouse was only accessible by a 1 and 1/2 hour boat ride. We experienced a private tour along canals both wide and narrow, into small inlets and lakes while observing close up swans, ducks, pelicans, loons, etc., with no one else in sight.

Romania is a gem and deserves much more acclaim. We thank Raluca for showing us that.

From my initial email to a detailed post-trip feedback form looking for suggestions to make their future trip design and support even better, our entire experience with Raluca’s team was wonderful.

We loved: the suggested itinerary, the responsiveness to suggested changes, questions and our interests, the final itinerary, the willingness to change the itinerary during our trip, the checking in during our trip to make sure all was okay, the delicious treats from Grano Restaurant and gift of beautiful decorated eggs, all of our guides, the hotels and restaurants, the wonderful food related visits and experiences, the chance to learn to carve a wooden spoon with a fantastic wood artist, the photography tour/lesson, the chance to spend time with many Romanians in different towns.

Some of the particularly special experiences were an afternoon carving wooden spoons, a day spent visiting a local market and cooking with a wonderful woman known for the herbs, jams and handmade christening gowns she sells in Romania and abroad, four wonderful days in the village of Viscri (up from the two days originally planned because we didn’t want to leave) – we visited shepherds in the hills as they milked 500 sheep, spent lots of time with a local family tasting delicious local foods and homemade cherry brandy and learning to cook a few dishes, and we watched the cows come home ambling down the village street each evening, a great photo lesson in Cluj and more. The trip was the perfect mix of city and country, led by wonderful local guides arranged by Raluca and her staff, who gave us a sense of Romanians past and present.

I had no idea how appealing Romania and Odessa would be. The landscapes in the countryside of Romania where my specialist recommended and where my guide took me were breathtakingly beautiful. And Odessa is spectacular – cosmopolitan., lively and colorful. All the sights became more meaningful when accompanied by the narratives of Alex, the guide, whose depth of understanding of history, culture, nature, politics and architecture was astounding. I plan to return to Romania and Ukraine such was the visual joy and intellectual stimulation I experienced.

Wendy, thanks for the WOW moment on this trip. We really enjoyed getting to visit the highest tower at Bran Castle, an area generally off limits to the public. Our very experienced guide had never been there.

Raluca Spiac is an extremely attentive trip planner. I had many conversations with her and the attention to detail shown by Raluca, and Greg Helm, our guide, was best in class. Raluca went to extraordinary lengths to find us the right accommodation. I had requested an apartment in Bucharest and had found some on-line that seemed suitable. Raluca tracked down a private residence where we had a private suite and were treated like personal friends of the family staying for a weekend. Greg made adjustments to the itinerary on the fly to accommodate our requests and suggested activities as he came to know us. For example, Greg arranged a trail ride for our daughter at a horse ranch owned by our hosts in Bucharest. Raluca’s support team was constantly available to Greg.

In a couple of cases, the venues Raluca selected were extraordinary. For example, we had 3 nights in Brasov in a lovely 3 room hotel and 4 nights in Maremures on a 70 Hectare property in our own house. The house was probably 100 years old and had been saved from destruction in the local village, moved to the host’s property, and completely remodeled inside. Raluca arranged for a cook to come to the house and make us breakfast and dinner–truly special.

This was the second time that a friend and I used Raluca Spiac and her staff to plan a trip to Romania. The first trip, most of it in eastern Romania, was so terrific that we decided to visit the western side of this fascinating country.

Raluca does an excellent job of designing itineraries, willing to make any changes desired. Not every hour of our trip was planned, allowing us to just take off and explore, always with our expert guide, Greg. He had great suggestions and provided a wealth of information.

I also appreciated that Raluca had inspected all of our accommodations before making reservations.

I cannot speak highly enough about the excellent service, guidance, and friendship provided by Raluca Spiac and the rest of her staff.

Lastly, Romania itself is amazing. The bucolic scenery, stunning vistas, colorful villages, friendly people, interesting variety of architecture. Every day brought a surprise.

When preparing for our trip to Romania and excitedly sharing our plans with family and friends, we heard one question a lot: Why Romania? We would usually answer with a smile and announce something we were looking forward to, but after our trip, we have a bold and enthusiastic response of how much we recommend this trip to anyone who is looking for a new adventure! We are so glad that Wendy Perrin planted the initial idea of Romania to our travel plans and that we were able to work with Raluca to make it happen. Traveling to Romania was truly like traveling to another time! We were struck by the history we were surrounded by; we explored, climbed, slept in structures that were erected before the United States were even established. We learned about the context of Romania and its beautiful people from several centuries’ worth of history, from Vlad the Impaler (of course) to more recent communist rule. On our trip, we had the opportunity to work with a local guide who translated for us, filled in cultural gaps we would not have understood without him, and encouraged us to take advantage of every moment we were there. Raluca’s team did, in fact, go beyond! With their action-packed excursions and wonderful hotel reservations, but also the personal touches they included. Never did we imagine planning a trip where we would be able to make personal connections with the people from the agency themselves. That is something we will carry with us. So if we go back to the initial question: Why Romania? Meet great people, eat fresh and local food, live parts of history, appreciate simplicity, take in natural beauty, and be reminded of how small this world of ours really is.

I would absolutely recommend Raluca and her team! They did a fabulous job with us on the trip from start to finish. They were always attentive to our requests. Raluca was able to diplomatically tell us we couldn’t do all that we wanted within the time period we had established. Her thoughtful planning created a wonderful trip for us.

Our guide Greg was top notch! We thoroughly enjoyed his company, his knowledge of the area and its history, his quiet ability to give us “information time” while at sites and then time on our own to wander. He was also very good at touring by the seat of his pants sometimes as I made requests to stop at this shop, oh, this one too, and “do you know any weavers in this community?” etc. I also liked that Greg provided us with a phone, which came in handy.

Alex, our Bucharest guide, did a great job too. He was very informed on the history of the country, events in Bucharest, and a good driver. He carefully saw we were taken care of along the way at spots where no English was spoken, such as The People’s Palace.

I really enjoyed visiting with the local craftsmen known by our guide Greg…the blacksmith, bee man, jam man, also liked seeing the women’s knotted, woven, and boiled work. Along the same lines, I liked staying at the Viscri (spelling?) very much. Next time, an extra day there, maybe on a horse! I loved driving through all the different villages and eating local. Meals were always good; Greg did a great job knowing where and when to stop. And the Bucovina area was all so stunning and a fantastic place to stay and take our meals.

I didn’t expect the simplicity, beauty, and slow pace of life outside Bucharest. We will return, and the next time we’ll stay longer.

Great well organized people with excellent ideas that were tailored to my every need. I organized a trip for 20 very demanding people; all of whom were overwhelmingly  enthused.  Overall the experience was fantastic with the uttermost compliments from all!

From an organizational perspective, everything was perfect. Laura was fantastic !!

Great country and a great opportunity to see some of it. I did really love Brasov and the hotel!!

Our two-day tour simply spectacular from a VIP perspective.

My people overall VERY impressed which is hard to do. All of my group wish to use her again. In fact, I made referrals to colleagues who similarly had excellent experiences.

My husband and I are frequent travelers who enjoy interesting places and luxurious comforts, sometimes a difficult combination. Recently we took a trip to Romania and were fortunate enough to have Raluca Spiac as our travel advisor.

Over a three month period, Raluca questioned my likes and dislikes, got to know my husband and my interests, style and budget and proceeded to plan one of the best trips we have ever taken. I have never worked with a travel consultant that better identified what I wanted, needed, or would like to discover in a more consultive way than Raluca.

My husband and I tend to be “loners” when we travel. We are not the folks that take group trips, or follow a specific schedule of the highlights of a given place. We love to see the best of a place, but sometimes that happens to be a small shop on side a street, or a conversation with an art dealer who does NOT have a shop in the main tourist area, or a dinner with a truffle hunter in a small village. We love to sleep in wonderful beds, eat fresh, well prepared food, learn some history, visit a castle, and pick berries in a verdant field we may happen upon. We’ve taken walking trips in the English countryside, rented villas in Italy in towns where only the Italians go, stayed in 5 star hotels in France, hiked in Austria staying in small family owned inns, driven across the United States, toured Japan with Japanese friends, fished in Patagonia and even just relaxed on the beaches of Hawaii.

Romania is a very under-valued country. It has the elegance of Vienna, yet the charm and countryside of Sicily in the early 1980’s. The food is excellent and would impress the likes of Alice Waters for its provenance and flavor, the people are welcoming, generous and kind, the scenery is jaw dropping, and the culture is so very interesting because not many have discovered it yet. It is a true jewel in the rough, and Raluca and her team understand this and have made it their mission to show you the best of it. It’s impossible not to be moved by it, or fall in love with it.

Raluca takes her mission seriously. It is like having a very hospitable and intelligent friend plan a trip for you and follow you around to ensure that all is well. We were coddled, yet left alone. There was always someone there to assist, yet we had our privacy. That is a difficult one to engineer. We found ourselves truly relaxing because we knew everything would be taken care of. All we had to focus on was enjoying the moment.

Thanks to you we used Raluca as our travel agent, and I cannot rave enough about their excellent work. We worked mainly with Raluca, but all the staff had input into the itinerary. They did four revisions, back and forth with us, to get it just right. We sent lists of what we wanted to see, they made additions, lots of good back-and-forth communication. And the price was amazingly reasonable.

My daughter-in-law showed the itinerary to a friend of hers who grew up in Romania. She said it is absolutely a fantastic itinerary.

I cannot thank you enough for recommending Raluca.