Overall, this was an excellent tour. The guide was calm, friendly and knowledgeable. The driver was cautious and friendly. We had a larger bus so there was plenty of room to spread out. I enjoyed the later starts in the mornings. Castle Peles was the top attraction, pity there wasn’t time to visit the other on site. Castle Bran was a great stop. Considering the age of the travellers, the stairs at the Braşov accommodation were difficult. The location, however, was perfect. The visit to the local house could have been organised differently, there was too much waiting around and not enough time in Sibiu itself.

The places we visited were interesting and the countryside was really nice.
Unfortunately a couple of things marred the trip - the bus was too big which meant that we were unable to go to certain places including one hotel.
One of the hotels was not up to Backroads standard- my room was in the loft and could only be accessed by spiral stairs which were really steep! Our bags were not taken to our rooms and there was no way I could get it up the stairs- thankfully our guide took my bag for me and even he struggled. Most of the group were 60+ hence expecting people to climb steep stairs carrying bags was ridiculous!
The guide and driver were both fantastic.

I enjoyed Romania very much and am seriously considering a return visit. However, it will not be with Back Roads. Whilst being generally pleased with some aspects of the tour - hotels, driver and guide, most parts of the itinerary - overall, I feel that Back Roads failed to deliver in too many ways for me to give them any more than a very average rating.

The tour is sold as "Mountains to Monasteries". We certainly saw the mountains - though an eight hour drive through them on one day with only comfort stops, lunch and a 20 minute stop (with no explanation of where we were and its significance) at the only monastery we visited on the tour hardly delivered the promise of the name.

This was not the only unmet promise. The tour was sold as a small group in a small bus that would allow access to back road sights in inclusive companionship. 18 people in a 46 seat coach saw everyone spread out and seated in isolation in their own space with none of the interaction and sense of being a group I have experienced on other small bus tours.

A "cooking lesson" that entailed no more than a few of the group chopping up vegetables - no explanation of recipe or technique; a "traditional" Hungarian lunch of grilled chicken and chips; a "stroll around the picturesque streets of the village of Viscri" that was more of a route-march with no suggestion of visiting either an interesting nearby fortified church or Prince Charles' village house, both of which allow visitors - it seems every day brought missed opportunities.

My final assessment?
Romania: Showing real promise
Back Roads: Could do better

The fact that the itinerary was only released to our travel agent a couple of weeks prior to travel did not give us enough time fully research and evaluate. The 46 seater bus contradicted the message that Back Roads gave us about a small, close knit group in a smaller bus able to negotiate back roads. We had lunch in a traditional Hungarian restaurant and what was that ? Chicken and chips !!!!!!! Yet the food being served to others looked really good . The initial get together dinner was equally bad. Chicken and boiled rice with again, other food being served in the restaurant looked really good.
Back Roads attitude to others with problems was contemptuous. Several people had suitcases irreparably damaged and had to buy new ones. BR gave them 35 euros. Insulting.
Despite that we enjoyed Romania, saw a lot that we would not normally see. We saw lots of mountains but only one monastery. Perhaps the tour should be renamed.

My trip to Romania - Mountains to Monasteries - was very good. We were fortunate to have a very knowledgeable guide, Bonta Stelian, who was passionate about his country. We learned about the history of Romania from the time of the Ottoman invasions and subsequent wars, the Communist era to the present time. The drive through Transylvania and the Carpathian Mountains was memorable. Our driver, Andrew, was very competent which was important due to the very winding roads. He did have trouble getting us to a couple of the hotels because of the size of the bus. Shouldn't have been booked at these because we then had to walk.

Tour was mostly good though some hotels left much to be desired. The trip to the salt mine was disappointing as there was nothing to see in relation to the actual mining of salt, just a large cave. The day making ghoulish was a waste of time as only 4 of the 18 in the group got to participate. The time spent in the small villages with entertainment and cafes was good. We were not impressed with Romanian food, too much potato and polenta. Some hotels had very poor breakfasts.

I enjoyed this tour very much, but strongly recommend the itinerary gets some tweeking. There is only one monastery in the tour, so the tour's title is a bit misleading, and the monastery is not especially interesting. The majority of the sites visited are Saxon - and what a fascinating history!!

I don't understand why you would not include (and market in your advertising) the ancient Dacian civilization??? They were the first settlers of Romania !! Their artefacts are few but amazing, they are held in only two locations, one where the tour starts and ends in Bucharest, the other close to one of our overnight stays.

Ditto not mentioning Dracula and Bram Stoker....???

So not a tour called Romania - Mountains and Monasteries, but perhaps Romania - Transylvania's Mountains and Saxon Heritage....?

The tour guide and driver were excellent. Accommodation was good, noting that Romania is still developing its tourism infrastructure.

Note I have sent a long detailed letter to Backroads via my agent, Connelly and Turner, Melbourne. .
The tour was not up to usual Backroads standard (and I have done many) .
Leader was below par. We paid to get into churches (never experienced before), trip was incorrectly named , we passed over mountains on last day and saw one painted monastery for five minutes.
If you take a private tour with driver you see at least five painted monasteries.
Too much free time in towns where the square was delightful but can be seen in one hour.
This is only the second time this trip has been
Running. Pkease please please do something to make it to the standard if your other trips.
Leader could t recall our NINE names, was unhelpful and told us his personal views on Covid injections and bragged about other things.
Jane Hills

Disappointed the salt mines were flooded and there not being more castles to view. Our guide was excellent, knew so much and was easy to be with.

Need a full day tour of Bucharest, not just the short tour we had then drive to the next town.
So many castles, monasteries, cathedrals, walled towns, fortified churches! All spectacular but…Need some variety. The brandy tour and the cooking class good but how about a winery visit and a concert at one of the many philharmonic halls?
Mountains great: pity about closed road from snow on peak so we couldn’t reach the view from the top.
Guide excellent. Driver also. Good bus. Good mix of compatible tourists.
Should review that last day: maybe extend a day to include say a winery or something but mainly to avoid that long boring 5 hour non-stop highway drive back to Bucharest.
All in all a very interesting trip. Worth doing. Ex-communist country working to adapt to democracy, still quite poor but climbing. Infrastructure insufficient yet: needs roadworks badly. A couple of highways but every other road is a back road. Far more traffic than roads can accommodate: result congestion.
We saw only a small part of Romania of course, and it might be worth going back to see more.
Great first effort. Looking forward to see how you tweak it