Discovering Maramures

Day 1: Cluj Napoca
Private transfer from the airport to your accommodation. Free evening. Dinner included. Alternatively, you can choose to arrive in Bucharest and reach Maramures by overnight train.

Day 2: Maramures (40 km; +/-500 m)
Your adventure begins after breakfast when, following a circular route, you will reach the town of Sighetu Marmatiei, former capital of Maramures, on the border with Ukraine. Be sure to visit the Memorial of the Victims of Communism and Resistance located inside the former prison, once controlled by the communist regime's political police. After the visit, you can relax on the terrace of one of the cafes overlooking the pedestrian street and take a walk through the city center. This is also the birthplace of Nobel prize winner Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor.

Day 3: Maramures – Breb (30 km; +/-400 m)
Today's itinerary takes you to discover the characteristic villages of the region, where you can admire typical houses, churches, and monumental gates decorated with a variety of scenes wonderfully carved into wood. You will reach the village of Breb, a hidden treasure surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains. You will spend the night in a traditional guesthouse.

Day 4: Breb – Botiza (40 km; +/-600 m)
You will leave Breb and head towards the Iza Valley, cycling through quiet typical villages such as Budesti and Valeni, while in Barsana you can admire the magnificent wooden church built, in 1711, on a hill above the village. The final destination of the day is the village of Botiza.

Day 5: Botiza – Viseu (47 km; +/-400 m)
The itinerary takes you to the Viseu Valley. Along the way, you can stop to visit the wooden church of Ieud, the oldest in the region and a Unesco site. You then cross the Iza river and, as you approach the Ukrainian border, pass through beautiful villages. You finally reach Viseu de Sus, from where the Mocanita, the last steam railway line in Europe that used to transport timber downstream to be worked, departs.

Day 6: Viseu (20 km; +/-100 m)
In the morning, a steam train tour departing from Viseu de Sus. You will go through breathtaking landscapes and a dense forest that served as a battlefield during World War I. Lunch at the end of the route. Once back, you will cycle to the nearby village where you will spend the night.

Day 7: Viseu – Poienile Izei (40 km; +/-400 m)
Today you will cross the hills between the Viseu Valley and the Iza Valley, dotted with villages. You will reach the village of Poienile Izei, where you can visit the wooden church, a World Heritage site containing a cycle of frescoes dating back to the 18th century. Overnight in a family-run guesthouse.

Day 8: Cluj Napoca
After breakfast, return the bicycles and private transfer to Cluj Napoca. End of services. Alternatively, you can return to Bucharest by overnight train departing from Sighetu Marmatiei.