Please find below some of the feedback received from past clients, regarding the quality of their travel experience. Many of our clients, even though they may not have sent us a testimonial, have agreed to provide reference on the quality of our services. If you want to get in touch with any of them before booking a trip with us, please get in touch.

Vlad,

We wanted to let you know how much my husband and I enjoyed the Transylvania Escape tour with Isabella. She is a wonderful tour guide, very sweet and a wonderful driver. It was the first time I haven’t been scared to ride in a car since I’ve been here. She made it a very relaxing trip.

She made the trip so interesting and enjoyable. Her knowledge of the area and the history is amazing. Her command of the English language is excellent.

She went out of her way to make it a nice day. My husband wanted to stop at a fruit stand on the way home and she made sure that we found one and then she went with him to interpret what he wanted.

We would recommend her and your company to anyone. She makes you feel like you are old friends. She is truly an asset to your company.

—————————————————————-–Mike & Dana Hunter, traveled to Romania in July 2010

Hi Vlad,

Just a quick note to let you know how much my wife and I enjoyed the Transylvania tour, which was definitely the highlight of our visit to Romania.

Isabela was a fantastic tour guide, she made the tour interesting and seemed to enjoy showing us her country. The restaurant she recommended after the tour was an excellent choice and we thoroughly enjoyed the Romanian meal we had there.

—————————————————————-–Lori & Paul Desmond, traveled to Romania in July 2010

Hi Vlad

We are safely home in Texas after a wonderful experience in Bulgaria.  Thank you for facilitating a trip that we will always remember.  Toma was an excellent guide, always professional, courteous, and well informed. Each of our stops was enjoyable and worthwhile.  Bulgaria has much to offer thoughtful travelers, and Balkan Trails helped to make it a great choice for us.

—————————————————————-—Mr. & Mrs. Daniel Kasten, traveled to Bulgaria in June 2010

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First of all we must say thank you to you Vlad – as they say the first impression is the greatest – for the details, thoroughness and quick response of communication, it shows a great professionalism.  It was also nice to meet your wife Zoe in Varna.  Both of us used to work in the travel industry for many years and we recognise the value of great customer service and professionalism.

Toma (the “superguide” as called in Frommers) lived up to his name. He showed us a side of Bulgaria which our previous group tour to Bulgaria, Macedonia and northern Greece (the one we didn’t book with Balkan Trails) did not show.  We learnt more in one day with Toma than we did in 2 weeks with Explore.  It confirms why we have great reservations in ever booking a group tour again.

The hotel accommodation was second to none and enhanced the trip greatly.  We recommend the hotels we stayed in, especially Boris Art Hotel in Plovdiv and the Musala Palace in Varna because of their style of accommodation and their location.

Our Vidin day tour was also great to show us another part of Bulgaria.  Even though it was a long drive it was nice to get out of Sofia and we would recommend it to those who have extended time in Bulgaria.

The highlights for us in Bulgaria have been -

- The old town of Plovdiv

- Our day trip to Koprivshtitsa

- Veliko Tarnovo

- but number one is the country side and people

We must add that our only disappointment in Bulgaria is the weight we have gained due to the size of the meals!  Nothing that a little exercise won’t fix!

—————————————————————-—Shareen and Gavin McMillan, traveled to Bulgaria in June 2010

Hi Vlad,

We arrived home from our 16 day adventure in Bulgaria and Romania with many great photos and memories!  We really enjoyed seeing Bulgarian monastery churches with their extraordinarily colorful murals and icons.  A big surprise to us was the 100 year old ornately decorated Russian Orthodox Church at Shipka, and the Roman theater, stadium and mosaics in Plovdiv. We’ve never seen gold covered cathedral domes or gold burial objects such as those found in 4th C.Thracian tombs.  Entering an original tomb (limited to twenty people per day) was something very different.  The beautiful green countryside was full of red poppies and wildflowers, and the large stork nests  perched on top of poles along the roadside were so unexpected. The rose oil hand cream smells exactly like the real roses along the highway.

Touring the houses once owned in the 1800s by Bulgarian merchants with their carved wood and intricate painted interiors was amazing.   Stoyan, our guide would get a special key to a side room of a  monastery, take us to an unscheduled history or anthropology museum of interest to us, buy a local food treat, or suggest a site to tour that was not included in our itinerary — such the national museum, ethnographic village and the first capital of Bulgaria.

When you, Vlad, met us in Varna we continued our tour with several scenic stops along the Black Sea.  We really liked Histria and Queen Marie’s retreat.   Our biggest adventure, once we entered Romania, was the all day motor boat trip in the Danube Delta with a naturalist; we saw colonies of nesting cormorants, swans and egrets plus lunched at a fish camp. The “Happy Cemetery”, the painted monastery churches, and the wooden churches scattered throughout the countryside are very unique.  Most unusual of all in the northern part of Romania are the colorful home roofs, gates and sidings of tin, carved plaster, and wood.

It was fun to visit to a local village market to see the sale of animals arriving by cart or on foot, tomb stones to buy from a pick up truck, fabric displayed on top of a car, and those delicious roasted sausages you shared with us. This was a great cultural experience along with home cooked meals and an unscheduled visit to a church to hear the elderly Saxon caretaker talk about the art and history of the church.  Not to be missed were visits to various museums,  including the Memorial Museum built to remember those who suffered during the Communist era. Bram Castle is amusing, and Peles Castle is one of the most beautiful castles we have seen in all of Europe.

All the hotel accommodations you selected were very nice and we were so pleased that we often had a view of a river, cathedral or farm field.  Both you and Stoyan are extremely accommodating, pleasant, and very knowledgeable about the history, culture, economy, and politics of Bulgaria and Romania — so conversation was always interesting and lively.  You kept us happily on the go without tiring us out.  We loved it all and came home with an appreciation for the great beauty, variety of things to see, and history of Bulgaria and Romania!  Thank you so much.

——————————————————–Suzanne & Matt Ryan, traveled to Bulgaria and Romania in May 2010

Keng’s favourite bits were the Danube Delta and the salt mine.  I don’t know about my favourite bits. Definitely the delta and the salt mine, but what about the mini volcano where we could walk around and see all the bubbling mud right there, and what about the bee hives and oil rigs in the canola, and what about the old folk sitting in front of their houses and the horse and donkey drawn carts, and what about Brasov and Sighisoara and Sibiu, and what about the painted churches and wooden churches and the crosses, and what about the castles forts and especially what about the Dacian remains in the dripping green forest.

We’ve told so many people on the cruise and since we’ve been home about the great time we had with you and how great Romania is.

Hello Mr Trestian,

—————————————————————-—Mr. David Hawley, traveled to Romania in 2009 and 2010

Hi there Vlad,
Both my wife and myself were really impressed with the trip. The sights viewed, scenery and architecture were much better than we imagined. A very pleasant surprise indeed. Something we have been recommending to our friends already.

What really made the trip so enjoyable, though, was the guide – Sorin. Very punctual, amenable and easy going we enjoyed his company very much. His command of English was second to none – I think that was one area that we were a little bit apprehensive before going on a trip as in such a small group having a guide with a poor language skills could have spoiled the trip; with all the possible misunderstandings and difficulties with communicating any information. As it happened it was never a problem and my wife, in particular, was enjoying the trip very much. I hope Sorin enjoyed our company as much as we did his )

——————————————————————M/M K., traveled to Romania in July 2009

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Dear Vlad,
The trip exceeded all expectations.  The route you suggested worked well, and our accommodations were quite acceptable.
Given the number of days available to us, I think the itinerary included a wonderful array of things for us to see and experience.  We added Pelisor to the Peles visit, and we were fascinated by the fortified churches of the Fagaras, one of which we visited briefly en route to Sighisoara.  We would also have relished a hike up to one of the hilltop medieval fortresses, but, unfortunately, neither time nor weather cooperated to make that happen during this visit.  Again, on our list for “next time.”

Sorin proved an intrepid guide, full of knowledge about every aspect of the culture and full of energy and enthusiasm for every aspect of introducing visitors to his home.  We learned an incredible amount from him in a way that spliced what we had read with what we were seeing.  He’s a terrific ambassador for your business and the country.  We also thoroughly enjoyed sharing with him a sense of humor about everything from the
sublime to the ridiculous.  Perhaps the best way to sum up our experience is to say that we can hardly wait to start planning another visit, and we’d be thrilled to have Sorin again as our guide.

All in all, your planning enabled a memorable holiday for us. Thank you very much!  We’d certainly like to return to Romania at some point to visit Maramures, Bucovina, and perhaps even the Danube Delta.  We’re also very much interested in the same sort of  introduction to parts of Bulgaria that your provided for Wallachia and Transylvania on this trip.

—————————————————————–Jane Gale, traveled to Romania in June 2009

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If you are looking for a tourist guide in Romania, Vlad is the perfect choice.  Besides his fluent English and his native Romanian language, his wide range of knowledge of Romanian history and culture were outstanding.  But what I think was his greatest asset was his advance preparation and ability to coordinate and individualize our trip and make it be what we wanted it to be and more.  I was looking to visit where my Father was born and grew up and learn more about his family and Vlad took the trouble to find out the hours of Town Hall and his knowledge of the language and culture enabled me to obtain more information than I could ever have gotten myself and in alot less time.  He maximized what we were able to see and do and was willing to go longer days to help us accomplish our goals of the trip within our monetary constraints.  We felt very safe and his arrangements for our accommodations were also very good.  It was a wonderful trip and I will definitely call him again if I visit Romania in the future.  He has even been so kind as to help me with my pictures now that I am home.

——————————————————-Marie – Claude Graef and David Reisz, traveled to Romania in May 2009

Vlad,

My wife and I have appreciated your humor and your insights during our week together.

You have a gift for organization, along with a keen sense of flexibility.

We will definitely recommend you to any of our friends who might want to travel to Eastern Europe.

—————————————————————John and Bonnie Rowland, traveled to Romania in 2007

Dear Zoe,

There was so much to love on this adventure through Bulgaria! Dreams are everything for people – they might anticipate this tour for months or a year – and you delivered those wishes so well.

We walk away from the tour now, but we have you and your country in our hearts.

————————————————————–M/M Edwin Kiely, traveled to Bulgaria in 2008

Vlad,
We want to thank you for arranging our tour of Romania. It was a delight and your advice was excellent. Without it we would have wasted time and missed some wonderful experiences. We hope that we can tour Bulgaria some day as well with the help and guidance of you and Zoe.

————————————————————–M/M Jack Leppla, traveled to Romania in October, 2008

We traveled with Vlad to Romania in the summer of 2008. He had been recommended by friends who had been on a River Cruise with him the previous year. We were not clear about the itinerary that we would take, and he was most helpful with setting up a route for us. Setting up the itinerary lasted a few weeks and many emails were sent between us. Many changes were made to the initial plan, and there was no limit to his flexibility and patience.

Once we made it to Romania, it was clear we were traveling with one of the best guides we ever had. Vlad was extremely knowledgeable, caring and had a good sense of humor. We were able to change a few features as we went, and the highlight of the trip was, without a doubt, the Maramures area. Vlad arranged for us to stay in people’s homes. We got to actually see how people lived, their animals and crops, and ate delicious home cooked food. The animal market we visited and the Merry Cemetery were particularly interesting.

We have fond memories of Vlad and out trip to Romania, and we’d recommend him to anybody who would like to get a real insight of Easter Europe. We already have friends planning a trip with him for the summer of 2009.

————————————————————–Ms. Margaret White, traveled to Romania in June 2008

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