The most popular travel packages for the Danube Delta include trips by floating hotels, boat rides, angling and guided photographic expeditions.
A UNESCO world heritage site, the Danube Delta reserve is considered a living museum of diversity, given its 30 different types of ecosystems. The reserve is also the recipient of the Golden Apple Award of the World Federation of Travel Journalists and Writers, the top award in the field of tourism. As it approaches the delta, the Danube splits intro three branches. The northern branch forms Romania’s border with Ukraine, the middle branch leads to the Sulina port, while the southern branch flows into the Sfantu Gheorghe port. The three branches form an area full of lakes, islands grown with osier willows and stretches covered with white water lilies.
Mălin-Matei Muşetescu, the governor of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, says the delta is a very special place when it comes to tourism: “It is not necessarily a place for entertainment, but one that needs to be approached just like a museum, a temple of nature. The visitors to the delta should understand this. They must respect nature and consequently the special rules of a reserve.”
The Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Administration has detailed records of the tourists who come here. Governor Mălin-Matei Muşetescu: “In 2016 there were over 73,000 tourists, more than 51,000 of whom were Romanians and around 22,000 foreigners. The officially registered accommodation facilities in the area can host 6,609 people, and they include 13 hotels, 119 boarding houses, 69 floating hotels, 2 waterbuses, 9 camping sites and a youth camp. These are the official figures. While Danube Delta tourism is traditional, and not recent, nowadays it is defined by the nature reserve model. This means that our foremost concern is with protecting the environment. Tourists are not allowed to spoil the place, because there are strictly protected areas. There are also parts of the Delta where tourists may go without restrictions, but others are strictly accessible for scientific purposes. There are 24 official tourist routes in the reserve, 15 water routes and 9 land routes. For the time being, no strict restrictions are enforced as regards diverting from them, and tourists may visit the Danube Delta individually, not only as part of organised groups. A lot of foreign tourists love to see the Delta from the kayak. This is the best way to see it, actually, from water level, without making noise or polluting.”
Mălin-Matei Muşetescu, the Governor of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Administration, told RRI that he had a soft spot for a particular route, the one thanks to which he had discovered the Delta back in 1978: “The Şontea-Fortuna region. Mila 23 village, which is a traditional fishermen settlement. Obviously, there are lots of must-see places, such as Letea Forest, the Letea-Rosetti area, the sand dunes in Caraorman area. The Delta is a mosaic and it’s hard to choose just one piece of it. But if you travel from Tulcea to Letea you have already seen a good chunk of it. And don’t forget that access to the region is 99% water-based.”
The impact on those who visit the place is extraordinary, the Danube Delta Reserve Governor Mălin-Matei Muşetescu also says: “People are amazed, but many of them ask us why we don’t do more here. They say that, had they had such an incredible place in their country, they would have done a lot more for it, to protect it and also to give a chance to its inhabitants, because the Danube Delta is a biosphere reserve. And the word ‘biosphere’ is not used accidentally. The Delta is an inhabited reserve, it’s not a place where only the flora and fauna are protected. The people who live here must have a chance to live a decent life, because this is the only way we can make sure they will be using the resources in a responsible and moderate way.”
Paul Branovici is the manager of several floating hotels in the Danube Delta, and he told us that this year 70% of the accommodation has been booked. All group reservations were made in 2016. He gave us details about a stay in a floating hotel.
Paul Branovici: “Tulcea is the starting point, and the route from there is decided together with the tourists. We have certain landing pontoons, along the tourist routes approved by the Administration. We leave the floating hotel there and we take boats along the smaller canals. To give you an example, we leave from Tulcea on Wednesday at noon, have lunch on board, and visit Sulina branch with the villages alongside it. We spend the night near Letea, and we visit Letea Forest the next morning. We have lunch at 2 PM, and the floating hotel moves again. Until dinner time, we visit the new location, and the next day we move on, so that tourists may see as much as of the Delta as possible. In Mila 23, for instance, we visit the village, the lakes around it, and we get back to have lunch, then we move again, and so on. We basically take our home with us and visit the entire Delta. Prices per person per night start from 66 euro, which includes accommodation, the cruise, three meals a day, and the boat rides. All that tourists are left to pay is a 5- lei-a -day access fee and the price of their alcoholic beverages, if any. Everything else is covered.”
Dragoş Olaru, a tour operator in the Danube Delta and a tourist guide, appreciates the improvement of transport in the area: “Water trips are very important. And over the past few years, we’ve seen a lot of improvement in terms of the boats available, which now have improved comfort and safety standards. The Danube Delta is open for tourists from March to December. A lot of foreign tourists come here from April through June, for bird watching. During the summer people come here to relax, and in autumn time they come for fishing. Compared to Romanian tourists, what strikes us with foreigners is that they are very much interested in culture as well. Almost every village has its own traditional music and dance group, preserving the traditions of the Russian, Ukrainian, Greek or Italian communities.”
The Danube Delta, one of the world’s largest wetlands, a water birds habitat and the planet’s largest compact reed bed, is waiting for you.
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