Tourist Offers at the Romanian Tourism Fair

Todays edition is devoted to the 30th autumn Tourism Fair of Romania, held in Bucharest between November 14 and 17.

Daniel Onea, 21.11.2013, 14:42

Visitors could pick a destination for their winter holidays, or could simply consult some of the travel suggestions on offer for the spring and summer holidays of next year. For this reason on today’s show we will go through some of the most appealing such offers.

Marilena Stoian, the founding chair of the National Association for Rural, Ecological and Cultural Tourism, suggests a heavenly holiday in the countryside: “One way of celebrating the winter holidays is to spend Christmas and the New Year’s Eve in traditional villages, via our branches in Alba and Brasov counties. We have many offers in Covasna, Balvanyos, Valcea, Vrancea and nearly all of rural Romania. Our offers are available for next year as well. Even if prices are not still final, we’re trying to present some travel packages for 2014 in tourist and agri-tourist guesthouses”.

For instance, what should a normal family with two children choose? “I would tell them to go to Tulcinesti, near Targu Jiu. They can arrange accommodation there with an agri-tourist guesthouse. Breakfast consists of cheese and free-range eggs and homemade blueberry jam. They can retrace the steps of famous Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi, and even discover his works, the Endless Column, the Table of Silence and the Gate of the Kiss. They can even visit the house where he grew up. Village children are eager to teach them local carols. The next day, they can light a campfire and interact with the locals. If they extend their stay, they can take a ride on the horse-driven sleigh. We have French people over who admire Romanian traditions quite a lot, as well as German people who are quite fond of Sibiu and its surroundings, the Saxon villages there, and even tourists from Israel”.

Northern Romania, Maramures in particular, was richly represented among the travel offers at the tourism fair, ranging from those that address people who are keen on finding out more about traditional peasant households to those for winter sports lovers.

Cosmin Rohian is the representative of a tourist compound located here: “This year we also have New Year’s Eve packages on offer. Our room vacancy is only 10% at present, with prices ranging between 330 euros per person for a three-night stay up to 440 euros per person for a five-night stay with full board, ski pass, festive dinner on New Year’s eve and traditional dinner with folk music on January 1st. Moreover we want to promote our ski offers for the 2013-2014 skiing season. We have packages standing at 180 euros for four nights with half board, and ski pass. We have tourists visiting from Hungary, Germany and Belgium”.

In central Romania, in Harghita Spa, Kristaly Peter makes us the proposal of an adventurous holiday. The Balu Park, available for both grownups and children, has 11 marked tracks and a Tyrolean traverse cable. Measuring 985 meters, it is the longest such cable in central Europe.

Cosmin Rohian: “We organise team building sessions, we have a skating rink and a snow doughnut. A snow doughnut is in fact a snow-roller used for sliding. We also have ski tracks that are 7300 meters long and four T-bar ski lifts. The park is open between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. during winter. Most of our tourists are Romanian, but we also have visitors from Hungary and Britain. The American soldiers from the Miercurea Ciuc base also came here for training. “

A wonderful holiday has been offered to us by Camelia Goarna, owner of the Knights’ Temple Castle from Livezile, in Alba County. Here tourists have the opportunity to go for walks in the forest, do all sort of sports, extreme ones included, discover the secrets of the local cuisine and investigate the past of a castle that used to be a check point during the Austro-Hungarian empire and then a Romanian military barracks during the two World Wars.

Camelia Goarna gives us several reasons to spend our holiday in the area: “This is a tranquil area and tourists can have a luxury holiday in a medieval, rustic style. The furniture in all the rooms is made of wood and stone. Once here, you can visit the Turda Salt Mine, the Alba Carolina Fortress, the city of Cluj-Napoca and the Scarisoara Ice Cave. This castle dates back to the 1300s. It used to be a military barracks, then a mountain hunters’ barrack. It was later purchased by an investor from Brasov who refurbished it. The new building has been opened for 2 years and has 17 rooms.”

The last holiday offer today comes from Brancsik Zsolt, an assistant manager of the Aqua Park in Satu Mare: “This Aqua Park covers 12,500 sq m and is open daily, irrespective of the season. It has three interior swimming pools, a swimming pool for children and one for beginners. There are also seven saunas of 4 types, two Finnish sauna cabins, two infrared sauna cabins, two with steam as well as a saline one, a sports room, and a recently opened medical centre. We organise Christmas and New Year’s Eve parties and we have many surprises in store for our visitors.