Gypsy Trip

About Tour

Let your prejudices aside and come to celebrate this exclusive feast, because to celebrate is what the gypsies do best. This trip presents the complex image of one of the most interesting and personalized ethnicity from Romania: the Gypsies.

We will discover the world of an ethnic group that strongly individualized through traditional features that had done in a small degree to integrate in Romanian society of those times and continues to experience difficulties in adjusting to new realities and requirements arising from EU membership.

1 st Day

Arrival

Included highlights:

  • Arrival in Bucharest, the capital of Romania.
  • If time allows a short city tour can be organized. Bucharest will be the first point where we will start to discover the Gypsy World. You may even stumble upon a Gypsy band in one of Bucharest’s beautiful city squares. If such is the case, you’d be hard pressed not to take part in the joyful dancing that always accompanies such impromptu concerts. You can get a taste for the vibrancy of Roma culture - and surely you’ll get a strong sense of how gypsy culture is rooted deep within Romania’s history.
  • In the evening a meeting with a local personality of gypsies’ will take place and you will have the chance to discuss over dinner about their history and culture.
  • Check-in.

2 nd Day

Discovering Gypsy communities in Transylvania

Included highlights:

  • Departure to Sighisoara, the only inhabited medieval citadel, the Rothenburg of Eastern Europe.
  • Stop in Viscri, where we will discuss about Prince Charles projects regarding the gypsy communities in Transylvania
  • Have lunch.
  • Arrival in Sighisoara.
  • Dinner and check-in.

Included meals:
  • Breakfast
  • Lunch
  • Dinner
3 rd Day

Discovering Sighisoara and the Gypsies

Included highlights:

  • Enjoy the city tour of Sighisoara - the place of Dracula’s birth and the best preserved medieval citadel of Romania - part of the UNESCO patrimony.
  • Visit the gypsies from Valeni.
  • Traditional gypsy lunch and Barbeque with the gypsies and enjoy the traditional gypsy life.
  • Continue to Reghin.
  • Check-in.
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4 th Day

Discovering the Gypsy life

Included highlights:

In the district of Apalina, situated in the suburbs of the Municipality of Reghin, live 466 gypsy families, but not at all a easy life. People from there succeed to survive from the social help delivered by the City Hall and also by colecting recyclable materials. Here we will visit a family that is involved in Horse breeding.

  • Visit the Gypsies from Apalina,
  • Lunch with the Gypsies
  • Continue to Bacau.
  • Check-in at the hotel in Bacau.

Included meals:
  • Breakfast
  • Lunch
5 th Day

Listening the Gypsy Music

Included highlights:

  • Lunch in the neighborhood of Bacau,
  • Listen the gypsy fanfare - a brass band of Gypsy heritage. Music is a very important part of their life. They attend all the important moments in the village life such as weddings, baptisms, funerals and all the other family or community celebrations. The musicians are men and their instruments have been passed on from father to son for generations. Roma being involved in performing at the weddings have always represented an important link in economic and social life of the local community.
  • Continue to Botosani city.
  • Dinner and check-in.

Included meals:
  • Breakfast
  • Lunch
  • Dinner
6 th Day

Full day dedicated to the Gypsies

Included highlights:

Full day dedicated to the Blacksmiths, Lingurari (producers of domestic products of wood tools) and musicians at Stefanesti. Formerly also an important jewish center, Stefanesti exhibits a very interesting mix of the 2 Roma groups plus Jewish remains and influences. Return to the hotel.

Historically gypsies were divided as follows:

  • “rudari” or goldsmiths, were dealing to pursuit the gold in rivers;
  • “ursari”, who wandered the country with their bears;
  • “lingurari” dealing with domestic products of wood tools;
  • “laiesii” who were blacksmiths, builders, manufacturers of combs, were small thefts. They did not have stable housing, living in tents and wandered the country in order to get the bare necessities of life.

7 th Day

Discovering the Gypsies from Moldova

Included highlights:

  • Visit Soroca, the Gypsy “capital” of the Republic of Moldova with a sizable Gypsy minority settled here.
  • Visit the fortress which is a unique monument of defensive architecture of Europe.
  • Visit the “Gypsies’ hill” where we will get acquainted with local sightseeing -“Palaces” where the gypsies live. Here you will have a tremendous possibility to visit a gypsy family owner of a bakery, to get familiarized with the gypsies’ way of life
  • Try the dishes of traditional Gypsy cuisine.
  • Visit Chateau Vartely. Here we will have an excursion around the complex, visit the wine factory, have the wine tasting
  • Have dinner in traditional Moldovan or European style at Chateau Vartely.
  • Check-in

Included meals:
  • Breakfast
  • Lunch
  • Dinner with wine tasting
8 th Day

Wine tasting in an underground wine city

Included highlights:

  • Check-out
  • Discover TIRASPOL (capital of Transnistria) - the old USSR is still alive and well in Transnistria. It is a breakaway territory within the internationally recognized borders of Moldova.
  • Enjoy a brandy tasting and lunch.
  • City tour of Tiraspol
  • Visit the Football Academy.
  • Departure to Chisinau,
  • Check-in
  • Wine tasting in the underground wine city Milestii Mici, registered in the Guinness Book of Records for being the biggest Wine Collection in the world. It contains over two million bottles of wine highly appreciated by the winemakers from all over the world. The wines lie right there, at a depth of 80 meters, in bottles covered with dust and mold, in small elegant houses which are completed every year.
  • Return to our hotel.

Included meals:
  • Breakfast
  • Lunch with brandy tasting
9 th Day

Departure home

Included highlights:

  • Departure from Chisinau.

Included meals:
  • Breakfast

What People Say

More reviews ›

What a wonderful holiday. Everything was well organised and went well.

The guide, Cristina, was excellent, good English and very knowledgeable and keen that we should see every cultural and characteristic aspect of Moldova.

The visit to the Roma "family" was fascinating-not a "family" visit but a meeting with the Roma head of family in his huge house ornate and wealthy and we had a delicious home make cherry juice and had a question and answer session with him. He,Robert, is a relative of the Roma king; This was very informative as I am very interested in everyone and everything but tourists need to be interested in the Roma people and way of life otherwise input wouldn't be so fascinating!!

The visit to the "old believers" village was just great-tea from a samovar and cakes and a very pleasant woman the librarian and museum custodian.

In Gaugazia we met the Museum curator and again a fascinating insight into Gaugazian history.

Much of our enjoyment and insights was enhances by Cristina who translated everything so well.

The visits to the wineries were an eye opener and the wine tasting too. I recommend tourists who go to the Cricova winery to to wear warm clothes and a scarf as we go deep down into the underground "city" to see the stored wine.

We loved the food (and all the wine).

Dear Natalia, we want to thank you sincerely for your expert and skillful guiding during our trip to Moldova. Our experience in Dumbraveni – as we told you – will prove unforgettable for us always. You have a wonderful way with people which will take you far.

During my recent holiday to Moldova, I was lucky enough to have Miss Victoria Odobescu as a guide and driver on two occasions.  One day we went to Orheiul Vechi, and another to Soroca, the XV fort guarding the Dnistre river crossing.  Miss Odobescu speaks very good colloquial English, her range is wide and is a confident and safe driver.  Victoria, was exceptionally well-informed about the history, culture, and people of Moldova. In addition, she was very sensitive to my needs and wants. I highly recommend the services provided by Victoria Odobescu. I am sure she will have success in her career in Tourism.