Budapest to Bucharest: Maramures and Transylvania

1. Day 1: Arrive in Budapest

   Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport to your hotel in central Budapest

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Dinner
   • Stay in Budapest
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport (BUD), about 20 km southeast of the centre. A driver meets you in the arrivals hall, whenever you land, and takes you to our central hotel on the Pest side, about 30 to 45 minutes. If you land early, walk along the Danube embankment to the Shoes on the Danube Bank memorial and look across the river to the Castle District, or sit in a café on Vaci Street. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing: how the border crossing works, how long each drive is, what to pack for the Maramures village nights and where the free afternoons fall. Then we walk to a welcome dinner of Hungarian food, goulash soup, chicken paprikash with dumplings and a glass of wine from Tokaj or Eger if you want one. To make the briefing and dinner, plan to land by about 5 pm; if you land later you are still met at the airport and catch up with the group at dinner or at breakfast.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport (BUD)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

   Activity: Plan to land by about 5 pm for the briefing and dinner. Later flights are still met, and you join the group at dinner or breakfast.

2. Day 2: Budapest: the Castle District and the Parliament

   Buda Castle District, then the Parliament on the Pest bank

   • Drive about 15 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Budapest
   Day 2 details

   After breakfast the van takes us up to Castle Hill in Buda, where a licensed local guide walks us through the old quarter for about two hours: Matthias Church with its patterned tile roof, the white turrets and terraces of the Fisherman's Bastion with the view across the Danube to Pest, and the lanes of the medieval town behind them. We walk down through the gardens of the Royal Palace and cross the Chain Bridge on foot, then sit down to lunch in Pest. In the early afternoon we have a booked guided tour inside the Hungarian Parliament, about an hour through the domed hall where the Holy Crown is kept under guard, and the old upper house chamber. Tours sell out and need your passport, which we ask for when you book. The rest of the afternoon and evening are free: soak in the Szechenyi thermal baths in City Park, take an evening boat on the Danube when the bridges are lit, or find dinner in the old Jewish quarter.

   Included

   • Castle District walk with a licensed local guide: Matthias Church and the Fisherman's Bastion terraces (entries included)
   • Walk across the Chain Bridge
   • Sit-down lunch in Budapest
   • Guided tour of the Hungarian Parliament

   Optional experiences

   • Szechenyi thermal baths
   • Evening boat on the Danube

   Easier option: Ride the van down from Castle Hill instead of walking across the bridge.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free

   Activity: About 3 hours on foot, with slopes and steps on Castle Hill. Bring your passport for the Parliament.

3. Day 3: Across the plain to Debrecen and Oradea

   Budapest to Debrecen, then across the Romanian border to Oradea

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Oradea
   Day 3 details

   We leave Budapest at 8:30 am and drive east across the Great Hungarian Plain on the motorway, about two and a half hours to Debrecen, Hungary's second city. In the yellow Reformed Great Church on the main square, Lajos Kossuth read out Hungary's declaration of independence from the Habsburgs in 1849; your guide shows you the church and the square before a sit-down lunch. From Debrecen it is about an hour to the Romanian border at Bors and on to Oradea, the first night in Romania, which breaks the long crossing to Maramures into two days. Oradea was rebuilt around 1900 by architects working in the Vienna and Budapest Secession style, and in the late afternoon a local guide walks us around Union Square, through the stained-glass arcade of the Black Eagle Palace and past the Moon Church, whose 18th-century mechanism shows the phases of the moon. The evening is free on the riverside or on Strada Republicii, the pedestrian street.

   Included

   • The Reformed Great Church and main square in Debrecen with your guide
   • Sit-down lunch in Debrecen
   • Oradea walk with a licensed local guide: Union Square, the Black Eagle Palace passage and the Moon Church

   Free time: Evening free in Oradea

   Activity: Carry your passport at the border; there is usually no routine check, but spot checks happen. If day 3 falls on a Sunday, we time the Debrecen church visit around the morning service.

4. Day 4: Baia Mare, the Gutai pass and into Maramures

   Oradea to Satu Mare and Baia Mare, then over the Gutai pass to Desesti and Breb

   • Drive about 5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Breb, Maramures
   Day 4 details

   This is the longest driving day, about 250 km and about five hours at the wheel, because Maramures sits behind a ring of mountains with no faster road in; the night in Oradea already takes the Budapest leg off it. We break it into four short legs. We leave Oradea at 8 am and drive north for about two and a quarter hours to Satu Mare for a coffee stop on its main square, then an hour and a quarter on to Baia Mare, an old gold- and silver-mining town, for a walk around Liberty Square under the 15th-century Stephen's Tower and an unhurried sit-down lunch. Then the road climbs through beech forest over the Gutai pass, about an hour, and drops into the Mara valley. At Desesti we stop at the wooden Church of St Parascheva, built in 1770 and one of the eight wooden churches of Maramures listed by UNESCO; its walls are painted with saints and a Last Judgement. A few minutes on is Breb, a village of carved wooden gates and hay meadows, where we stay two nights in a family-run guesthouse, every room en suite. Dinner is cooked in the house.

   Included

   • Baia Mare walk: Liberty Square and Stephen's Tower
   • Sit-down lunch in Baia Mare
   • Desesti wooden church (UNESCO) with a local guide
   • Home-cooked dinner at the guesthouse

   Free time: Early evening free in the village

   Activity: The longest driving day, about 5 hours, broken by a coffee stop in Satu Mare, lunch in Baia Mare and Desesti; no leg is longer than about two and a quarter hours. The guesthouse rooms all have private bathrooms.

   

5. Day 5: Maramures: the Merry Cemetery, Sighet and Barsana

   Breb to Sapanta and Sighetu Marmatiei, then the Iza valley to Barsana and back

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Breb, Maramures
   Day 5 details

   We leave the village at 8:30 am to be at the Merry Cemetery in Sapanta at about 9, before the coach groups. Since the 1930s the village carvers have marked each grave with a blue wooden cross painted with a scene from the person's life and a short verse in their own voice, often funny, sometimes blunt; a local guide translates a few. A few kilometres away in Sighetu Marmatiei, the former prison is now the Memorial of the Victims of Communism and of the Resistance, where many of Romania's pre-war politicians died in the early 1950s; we spend about an hour and a half inside. Lunch is at a local family's table: soup, sarmale, cheese, bread and palinca if you want it. In the afternoon we drive up the Iza valley to Barsana Monastery, a 1990s complex of wooden churches built in the old Maramures way, with one of the tallest wooden spires in the region. We are back in Breb by about 4 pm for a free late afternoon and dinner at the guesthouse.

   Included

   • Merry Cemetery in Sapanta with a local guide
   • Memorial of the Victims of Communism and of the Resistance, Sighetu Marmatiei
   • Lunch with a local family
   • Barsana Monastery
   • Home-cooked dinner at the guesthouse

   Easier option: Skip the Memorial and wait in a café in Sighetu Marmatiei, or stay in Breb for a quiet day and join the group for dinner.

   More active option: Skip Barsana and walk up the Rooster's Crest, the rocky ridge above Breb, with a local walking guide (about 3 to 4 hours return, steep in places).

   Free time: Late afternoon free in the village

   Activity: Cover shoulders and knees at the monastery. The Memorial is a sober visit, with cells and testimony of political prisoners. The Sighet Memorial is open daily from mid-April to mid-October and closed on Mondays after that, which is why mid-October departures do not start on a Thursday.

6. Day 6: Surdesti and on to Cluj

   Breb over the Gutai pass to Surdesti, then Baia Mare and Dej to Cluj-Napoca

   • Drive about 4.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Cluj-Napoca
   Day 6 details

   We leave Breb at 8:30 am and cross back over the Gutai pass to Surdesti, whose wooden Church of the Archangels, built in the 1760s and another of the UNESCO eight, has a shingled spire that rises far above the village houses; we give it about 45 minutes with the key-holder. From there it is about three and a quarter hours south, with a coffee stop in Dej, through Baia Mare and the Somes valley at Dej to Cluj-Napoca, Transylvania's largest city, where we arrive for a late sit-down lunch. In the afternoon a licensed local guide walks us for about two hours through the old centre: Union Square and the Gothic St Michael's Church, the equestrian statue of King Matthias Corvinus, and the house on a side street where he was born in 1443. Cluj is a university city and the evening is free; the old-town streets fill with students, bars and small restaurants, and you are a few minutes' walk from the hotel. Tomorrow we stop in Sighisoara at midday on the way to Brasov.

   Included

   • Surdesti wooden church (UNESCO)
   • Sit-down lunch in Cluj-Napoca
   • Cluj-Napoca walk with a licensed local guide: Union Square, St Michael's Church and the Matthias Corvinus house

   Free time: Evening free in Cluj-Napoca

   Activity: About 4.25 hours of driving, a little over the cap, split by Surdesti, a coffee stop in Dej and lunch on arrival in Cluj.

7. Day 7: Sighisoara at midday and on to Brasov

   Cluj-Napoca to Sighisoara, then Brasov

   • Drive about 4.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Brasov
   Day 7 details

   Today's driving adds up to about 275 km and four and a half hours, over the cap, because we see Sighisoara as a long midday stop instead of moving hotels for one night. It splits cleanly: two and a half hours from Cluj, three hours in the citadel, two hours on to Brasov. We leave Cluj at 8:30 am and reach Sighisoara by about 11. With a licensed local guide we climb into the walled citadel, a lived-in medieval town on a hill and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and up the 14th-century Clock Tower for the view over the roofs and guild towers. We pass the house where Vlad the Impaler is said to have been born, climb the covered wooden Scholars' Stair to the Church on the Hill, and sit down to lunch inside the walls. We leave at about 2:30 pm and drive through Saxon farm country to Brasov, arriving about 5 pm at a hotel by the old town, for two nights. The evening is free.

   Included

   • Sighisoara citadel walk with a licensed local guide: the Clock Tower (entry included), the Scholars' Stair and the Church on the Hill
   • Sit-down lunch in Sighisoara's citadel

   Easier option: Skip the covered stair and the Church on the Hill and wait in a café on the Citadel Square.

   Free time: Evening free in Brasov

   Activity: A long driving day, about 4.5 hours, split by three hours in Sighisoara. The citadel is steep and cobbled, and the covered stair has about 175 steps. The Clock Tower museum is closed on Mondays, so day 7 never falls on one.

   

8. Day 8: Viscri and Brasov old town

   Brasov to Rupea and Viscri, then back to Brasov

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Brasov
   Day 8 details

   We leave Brasov at 8:30 am and drive about an hour and a half north through rolling farmland, past the basalt hill of Rupea fortress, then down a country lane to Viscri, a Saxon village of pastel farmhouses along one long street. Its fortified church, begun in the 12th century and walled in the centuries after, is part of the UNESCO listing of Transylvania's villages with fortified churches; climb the wooden stairs of the tower for the view across roofs and hay meadows. We spend about three hours in the village with time to watch the blacksmith at work and see the wool socks and felt slippers village women knit and sell, then sit down to lunch at a local family's table. We are back in Brasov by about 3 pm, and a licensed local guide walks us through the old town: the Council Square, the Gothic Black Church, named for the soot of the great fire of 1689, Rope Street, barely wider than your shoulders, and the Catherine's Gate in the walls. The evening is free.

   Included

   • Viscri fortified church and tower
   • Village walk in Viscri with a blacksmith demonstration
   • Lunch with a local family in Viscri
   • Brasov old town walk with a licensed local guide: the Council Square, Rope Street and the Catherine's Gate
   • The Black Church (entry included)

   Optional experiences

   • Cable car up Mount Tampa for the view over Brasov

   Easier option: Skip the tower stairs at Viscri and sit in the churchyard inside the walls.

   More active option: Walk up Mount Tampa on the marked forest path after the town walk (about an hour of climbing) and ride the cable car down.

   Free time: Evening free in Brasov

   Activity: The tower stairs at Viscri are steep wooden ladders in places. On a Monday the Black Church opens at noon; our visit is mid-afternoon.

   

9. Day 9: Bran Castle at opening, Sinaia and Bucharest

   Brasov to Bran, then Rasnov, the Predeal pass and Sinaia to Bucharest

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Bucharest
   Day 9 details

   We check out and leave Brasov at 8:15 am to be at Bran Castle when it opens at 9, about 40 minutes away, before the tour coaches come up from Bucharest. The castle sits on a rock above the Bran pass, the old road between Transylvania and Wallachia, and was built by the Saxon townspeople of Brasov in the late 14th century as a border and toll fort. The Dracula link is borrowed: there is no firm evidence that Vlad the Impaler stayed here, and Bram Stoker never visited Romania. Its real story is Queen Marie, who made it her home in the 1920s, and your guide tells both in about an hour and a half. Then we drive back past Rasnov and over the Predeal pass into the Prahova valley to Sinaia for lunch and a walk in the grounds of Peles Castle, the royal summer palace. The last leg reaches Bucharest by about 4 to 5 pm, about four hours of driving in all; the hour of slack covers weekend traffic on the Prahova valley road. We end the day with a farewell dinner.

   Included

   • Bran Castle at opening, with your guide
   • Sit-down lunch in Sinaia
   • Walk in the grounds of Peles Castle
   • Farewell dinner in Bucharest

   Activity: Bran Castle is all narrow stairs and small rooms, with an uphill walk from the gate; you can wait in the garden café below. Bran opens at about noon on Mondays, so departures do not start on a Sunday or a Tuesday, and from mid-October not on a Thursday. Peles is closed on Mondays; we walk only its grounds, which stay open. The Peles interior is not included.

10. Day 10: Bucharest and home

    Palace of Parliament and the old town, then Bucharest Henri Coanda Airport

    • Drive about 45 min
    • Breakfast and lunch
    Day 10 details

    Our last morning is Bucharest. At 9 am we start a booked guided tour of the Palace of Parliament, the vast civic building Ceausescu ordered in the 1980s, about an hour and a half through its marble halls to the balcony view down the boulevard built to lead to it; bring your passport. Then a licensed local guide walks us into the old town by the ruins of the Old Princely Court, where Wallachia's princes kept a residence from the 15th century, and Stavropoleos, a small 18th-century church with a carved stone porch and a quiet courtyard, and up Calea Victoriei to Revolution Square, where Ceausescu gave his last speech in December 1989. After a farewell sit-down lunch, the van takes you to Bucharest Henri Coanda International Airport (OTP), about 17 km north, arriving by about 3:30 pm, or to a central hotel if you are staying on. Book a flight leaving after about 6:30 pm.

    Included

    • Guided tour of the Palace of Parliament
    • Bucharest old town walk with a licensed local guide: the Old Princely Court, Stavropoleos Church, Calea Victoriei and Revolution Square
    • Sit-down lunch in Bucharest
    • Drop-off at Bucharest Henri Coanda International Airport (OTP) or a central Bucharest hotel

    Activity: Book a flight from Bucharest leaving after about 6:30 pm. Bring your passport for the Palace of Parliament.

Wildlife and weather: May, June and September are mild and green, with hay-making in the Maramures meadows from about late June. July and August can be very hot on the Hungarian plain and in Budapest and Bucharest, and busy at Bran, so we go early. October brings autumn colour to the Maramures hills and cool evenings. Brown bears live in the Carpathian forests; we never feed them.

• Budapest2 nights
• Oradea1 night
• Breb, Maramures2 nights
• Cluj-Napoca1 night
• Brasov2 nights
• Bucharest1 night