Romania's traditional culture is not a museum exhibit — it is still lived. In the villages of Bucovina, Christmas is announced by carollers moving house to house before dawn. In Transylvania, Easter is marked with painted eggs and outdoor processions that have not changed in three hundred years. In the Maramureș, a wedding still lasts three days. This eight-day journey moves through these living traditions across three regions, following the Orthodox calendar into a cultural world that most of Europe has long forgotten.
Arrival in Sibiu. Transfer to guesthouse. Evening walk through the medieval old town. Welcome dinner with local hosts, introduction to the journey and the traditions calendar.
Drive into the Saxon villages south of Sibiu — Biertan, Viscri, Saschiz. In Viscri, meet a family that still keeps the old Saxon customs: bread baking, candle making, and the Kirchweih festival traditions. Afternoon visit to the fortified church and its 600-year-old community archive.
Transfer to a village in Transylvania known for its Easter traditions. Morning with a family painting eggs using hot wax and plant dyes — a technique unchanged for centuries. Evening procession and midnight service at the village church. (Programme adjusted by season.)
Drive north through Transylvania to the Maramureș region. En route, stop at the Sibiu open-air ethnographic museum — the largest in Europe — for a landscape overview of Romania's village building traditions. Arrive Maramureș in the evening. Dinner with local hosts.
A full day in the Iza and Mara valleys — visiting three UNESCO wooden churches and a traditional gate carver who still works in the 400-year-old Maramureș style. Afternoon at a village market. Overnight at a local guesthouse.
Drive east to Bucovina. Afternoon visits to Voroneț and Sucevița — two of the eight UNESCO painted monasteries. The nuns at Sucevița still maintain traditional weaving and icon painting workshops. Brief visit to the active monastic community.
Full day in the village of Cacica or Vama — a community known for preserving the colindă tradition. Meeting with a group of colindători who rehearse and perform year-round. Afternoon visit to Moldovița monastery. Farewell dinner with folk music.
Transfer to Suceava airport or train station for onward travel. End of programme.
7 nights in village guesthousesAll breakfasts + 4 dinnersLocal cultural guide throughoutAll workshop & monastery entry feesPrivate transportInternational flightsTravel insurance