This was a good trip in the main, but there were a few bits that were not so good.
Good things
Top marks for the Tour Manager and Local Tour guide. They both did a really good job.
The best part of the trip was the Bear reservation, I wish we could have stayed there a lot longer.
Bran castle was another good trip. We had a great talk by Peter and had time after the castle to have lunch and shop in the market.
We had a wonderful talk from a local priest in the oldest schoolroom in Romania. He was a real character.
Hotels were all of a good standard, my room by the Black Sea even had a balcony. Not all had tea and coffee making facilities though.
Food on the whole was good, with European style breakfasts.
The Danube cruise was good, though a lot of the wildlife had migrated, and the Ukraine border was fascinating.
Not so good things
There was a lot of time spent on the coach. On a couple of occasions we left one hotel at 8 am and didn't get to the next until almost 7 pm. The "comfort breaks" were mainly in petrol stations where there were only 1 or 2 female toilets. So we spent a lot of time queuing up!
One day we visited a village with a few churches. There were a lot steps to get to the village, and all the churches had a load of stairs too. By the time we got tot he last one (which had 175 steps to get to it) a few of us decided we couldn't be bothered and went for a coffee instead.
We had a few medical problems. One lady falling down stairs, one gentleman fell in the shower and he had a suspected broken arm and 2 of us got food poisoning!
Romania is a lovely country and the people were really nice. I am glad I went, but wish there had been fewer steps and less time spent in the coach.
Lindsay
