Best Romania Archaeology Tour

Romania has an ancient civilization, thousand years ago these fertile blessed lands have been by the people who were hunting and farming. Only one month ago, during excavation works for the building of a highway, it has been discovered an 8000 years old written stone plate, probably the oldest writing world wide.

The Romanian dances are a major subject of interests, the songs set the language barrier

Is is fascinating to navigate through the Romanian history, searching artifacts and thinking to the daily life of the people. Even this thing I am going to propose you, in an unforgettable History and Archaeology Tour of Romania. We are going to start from the antique Greek and Roman times in Tomis, the father of the today Constanta. I propose you also something based on the overexagerated legend of Dracula, and I am not going to miss a visit in the most important History and Archaeology Museums in Romania, in Bucharest and Constanta. Bear in mind that the time is late for this year, the winter comes and is knocking on the door. My tip: still possible to do and book this year, getting a 10 % off discount!

The antic ruins of Histria are simply fascinating if try to figure the daily life in those  old times

Day One  
Arrive in Bucharest, drive to hotel in Constanța. At the moment Constanta is not anymore animated and overcrowded, an excellent season for visiting the charming city

Day Two
Explore Constanța, the ancient city of Tomis, including some current excavations, including the ‘mosaic building’. The large museum houses finds from all over Dobrogea, including the famous ‘Sculpture Treasury’.

Contemporary Bucharest

Day Three
Day at Histria, the largest excavation site in Romania. It was an ancient Milesian apoikia (trading colony) from the 7th century BC, which was subsequently abandoned. Most of the visible monuments are Late Roman in date, including city walls, baths and several Christian basilicas.

Day Four
Drive to Adamclisi to see the Tropaeum Traiani, the triumphal monument erected in celebration of Trajan’s vistory over the Dacians - the provincial counterpart to Trajan’s column in Rome, one of the very few such monuments which still survives. Continue to Bucharest. Optional, wine tasting in Murfatlar.

The monument of Adamclisi celebrates the Roman conquest of the ancient Dacia 

Day Five
National Museum in Bucharest, containing treasures from all over Romania, including lifesize replicas of the reliefs of Trajan’s column in Rome. The museum’s ‘treasury’ is also very impressive displaying Romania’s most valuable artefacts (including much gold and silver) from prehistory to the modern era. ‘Pharaonic House of the People’, the world’s largest civilian building, built under the Ceausescu regime, which now houses the Romanian Parliament. The old city of Bucharest is changing fast - those who want to see it should hurry! Free afternoon. Discover the typical architecture of an Orthodoxe church in archbishopic of Bucharest. Extra free discount: Bucharest Architectural Tour

Day Six
Drive along the Prahova Valley to Bran Castle, popularly linked with Dracula, founded in the 14th century and later used as a defence against the Ottoman Empire. Continue to Brasov (‘Black Church’) and city break

Sarmizegetusa in the mountains, the former Capital of Dacia

Day Seven
Sibiu, a Medieval town founded in the 12th century by Saxon settlers, became the most important of Translyvania’s ‘seven cities’. Charming old town with narrow lanes, Medieval houses, churches, merchants guild and the Bruckenthal Palace, which houses one of Romania’s largest and oldest museums. It was European ‘Capital of Culture’ in 2007.

Day Eight
Sarmizegetusa Regia, capital of the Dacian kingdom - monumental architecture with Greek influence, and a quite unique appearance, including defensive walls, artificial terraces, temples and sanctuaries. Nearby fort of Costesti.

Day Nine
Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa, capital of the Roman province of Dacia, with amphitheatre, temples, forum and the residence of the province’s financial procurator. On to the Gothic Hunyad Castle at Hunedoara, associated with John Hunyadi, the Romanian general who fought the Turks.

Day Ten
Drive back to Bucharest for flights home.

Total costs of 990 Euros include good *** hotels with lunch, breakfast and lunch, as also all necessary fees and entrances,  but exclude the flight, the optional wine tasting and tipping.

The best spa retreats in Romania

There are many possibilities to relax in Romania, and I have presented a few of them, and I would like to keep on!

About relaxing, maybe I should remember you that Ana Aslan was a famous gerontologyst, living in Romania and leading even in the tough Ceausescu times rejuvenating cures.  Bucharest was a world capital of gerontology, and many world leaders and prominents have been cured here. Ana Aslan had a legendary vitality and died in a good menthal shape at 90 years. Many of her medicines are still made in Romania, and largely used in the today spa retreats.

Ana Aslan, the founder of the Romanian geriatrics school, and founder of gerovital

And there is another important fact I will reveal to you: the Romanian Transilvania has a huge geothermal potential, it lies literally on a underground sea of hot water, and has an unbelievable geothermal potential. Many of the popular water pools in Oradea are based on this hot water, which is also excellent for fighting against rheumatism, carrying many salts and minerals.Several cities in transilvania are heated with these hot waters and heating pumps.

So, the result is that Romania could be a spa paradise, which is not totally true, as this kind of tourism has been neglected a long period! nevertheless, there are a bunch of excellent spa retreats you should count, if you wanna feel better and looking as the 18 years! Besides, you will agree that most of Romanian hotels have a very relaxed atmosphere. Unfortunately, during these long  medical cures ( at least 2 weeks) you may drink only two glasses of wine, once to the dinner and once to the lunch (forget the third, to the breakfast!). But count on me for recommending the right wines!

In my opinion, the following resorts deserve to be nominated as the best Romanian spa retreats :

1. Baile Felix, where a series of proofed treatments are being executed in the many hotels of the resort. Baile Felix lies on an underground hot water sea, amazing!. Visit the Hotels Nufarul and Continental, and book also a rejuvenating Aslan treatment.

Open pool in Baile Felix, with thermal water, near Hotel Continental

2. Baile Herculane has been correctly evaluated even by the Romans, 2000 years ago!  The strong Hercules himself visited the resort and took a refreshing bath there! 150 years ago was at the peak of its glory, many elites from Vienna and Budapest came here for relaxing.

One of the many pools of Baile Herculane

3.Techirghiol carries the name of a neighboring lake, whose sapropelic mood has special properties against rheumatism. Has also a good tradition; also the Romanian Black Sea coast is there and you have a wide selection of ways to have fun.

Fun at Techirghiol dea in the early 60's

4.Eforie Nord has a special treatment basis in hotel Steau de Mare, with mood from Techirghiol, spa, mecicines and Aslan cures. The treatment is possible all year long, not exclusively during the peak deason from April to September. So, you can book right now!

Dracula Tour on Haloween

There are more opportunities which you don't want to miss very soon, within a few days. On one hand, the frequent passages and aggressive marketing Dracula enjoys in Romania, on the other hand the celebration of scaring Halloween worldwide (which is again a matter of marketing, of course). My idea and proposition for you is the Halloween Dracula Tour in Romania, a clever combination of these two events.

You must be very carefully, and book very soon, the Halloween falls on the 31st, and we must be on the way! Let,s start on the 28th, as the tour itself lasts 3 days long and costs only 270 Euro, as a way to thank you this last minute reservation! Completely not recommended for honeymoon!


The historic truth served as a base for a well known novel of Bram Stoker . There was a Wallachian ruler called Vlad Tepes (The Impaler) who was a very cruel man, his favorite execution method being the impalement. He hated the Turks and strongly fought against them, being celebrate as an athlete of Christianity and being supported even by the Pope.

Vlad Tepes The Impaler, also called Dracula, was cruel, severe, but right and fair, according to Romanian myths and legends

He had no trust in the local influent big boyars, who betrayed his father. These categories of enemies of Vlad Tepes gave him the unhappy opportunities to execute many of them. In the Romanian myths and legends, Vlad Tepes has been portrayed as a right, but severe ruler. His opened mass executions freightened even the big Sultan Mehmet II The Conqueror, coming to Wallachia to cash his tribute or kill Vlad Tepes. So, Mehmet II lost his temper and gone back, when seeing terrible scenes of impaled Turks ( a slow difficult death).

Starting from this truth, Bram Stroker's Novel made from Dracula a world symbol of horror, which is a terrible mistification. But we shall also marketing the Dracula legacy! And I gathered in this Romanian Dracula Tour everything which can remember the life and rule of Vlad Tepes Impaler.

Sighisoara is the birthplace of Vlad Tepes, and a well preserved medieval fortress

Day 1 Sighisoara in Transilvania is the birth place of Vlad Tepes The Impaler. The town of Sighisoara is even nowadays a very well preserved medieval fortress, and many buildings look in the same way they did a few centuries ago, during Tepes childhood. Stay a day there, walk and look the traces of Dracula. Wine tasting in Jidvei possible, and even probable.

The Bran Castle has many in common with Dracula  and makes a good marketing and publicity for it

Day 2 Travel to Cabana Fantanele, a mountain chalet, where Dracula used to refugiate, and Bran Castle, where you can find a torture room and the genuine atmosphere of the old times. You are supposed to eat a lot of garlic during all the day, in order to keep the Devil away (The Romanian Dracula originates from Dracu, or Devil). Not recommended for people with heart diseases, and only possible with a prescription from you Physician.

The Monastery of Snagov  hosts, according the legend,  the tomb  of Dracula

Day 3 Travel to Bucharest and visit the Monastery of Snagov, where according to the legend Vlad Tepes the Impaler was buried. This is again a mistification, he lies most probably in Comana monastery! Besides, you can visit other nice places in Bucharest or one of its wine tasting rooms.
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