Bike-friendly Transylvania Tour

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Overview

Nestled inside the Carpathian Mts for the last eight centuries the Saxons, a small germanic rooted community has influenced and enriched the Transylvanian history. We invite you to ride a bicycle on the rolling hills and experience the flavour of their legacy. The Transylvania Tour is a bike-friendly tour designed to display the best trails amongst beautiful hills and forests along the Saxon fortified villages.

A mysterious region in everyone's imagination: full of wild, green forests, nice pastures and fragrant meadows. A visit in Transylvania will give you a genuine feeling of back in time travel: horse-drawn carts are still in use, the shepherds are tending their flocks on the hiills and villagers harvesting hay with scythes and storing it for the winter time. Transylvania is the magical land mixing more cultures. We invite you to discover it directly from the source. Expect to be “totally overwhelmed by its unique beauty and its extraordinarily rich heritage”. You’ll just have to take HRH Prince Charles’s word for it.

Day 1

Sibiu – Bazna

Group pick up from Sibiu Airport.

Bus transfer to the pension in Bazna (Bassen).

In the heart of Transylvania, the beautiful Tarnava Mare Valley, a region famous for its wines “Wineland” (Weinland, in German) is sheltering the heritage of traditional Saxon villages.

18 km far from Medias (Mediasch – a city built by the Saxon settlers, its Old Town first documents dated 1267) lies the village of Bazna (Bassen), in the northern part of Sibiu County, between low hills and large swamp valleys, treasuring in its depths the Bazna salt, mineral springs and sapropelic mud. Those resources (since their discovery in 1749) combined with the favorable local climate conditions and the landscapes attract the tourists to Bazna.

Bazna is a good start-up destination for active tourism enthusiasts who can enjoy cycling on the orchards-covered hills and in the forests surrounding it, being “2011 Romania's most beautiful village”.

Accommodation in Bazna

Day 2

Bazna

Visit of a traditional house in Bazna, a household in which the chores are still performed as they were 100 years ago (chicken raising, cattle raising, vegetables garden activities) and the Bazna Saxon fortified church.

Bazna's fortified church “Bacon’s Tower” – in all the Saxons fortifications in Transylvania a tower was used for a special purpose: in the cool chambers of the bastion's defending towers on father-to-son inherited wooden nails each peasant family hanged its own meat, sausages, bacon & ham in common. Each family owned at least one wooden nail: the more nails, the wealthier the family. On designated occasions a member of each family entered the tower, took what they needed for a week’s period and "sealed" the bacon by placing the family's stamp at its bottom.

Short bike tour in the neighbouring hills (bike trails, unpaved: aprox. 10 km).

Traditional dinner and accommodation in Bazna

Day 3

Bazna – Biertan

Bus transfer from Bazna to Atel + Bike Trails (10 Km, unpaved) from Atel to Biertan. The bus will accompany the bikers.

Visit of the impressive Biertan (Birthälm) Fortified Church, the former see of the Saxon bishops, which consists of the church and the fortifications, built between 1490 and 1520 in late Gothic style.

Its surrounding fortifications are considered to be the strongest in Transylvania (three rows of walls, 6 towers and 3 bastions) for a peasant fortress.

In the afternoon, possible short tour around the Biertan village (4-5 Km).

Accommodation in Biertan

Day 4

Biertan – Stejarisu, SB - Biertan

Bike Trails (aprox. 24 Km, unpaved) from Biertan to Stejarisu (Probstdorf).

Stejarisu is 37 km away from Sighisoara, the village is surrounded by nice landscapes, and the tourists can get a glimpse of the Saxon’s craftsmanship and handwork developed during centuries. Stejarisu Fortified Church is also hosting a bacon tower – see the Bazna description.

Return to Biertan - either on the bike trails, or with the bus that will accompany the bikers.

Accommodation in Biertan.

Day 5

Biertan – Viscri

Bus transfer from Biertan to Viscri.

Option 2: Bus transfer from Biertan to Daia + Bike trails from Daia to Viscri (aprox. 34 km, unpaved). The bus will accompany the bikers.

Apart the fortified church, the village Viscri with its strong Saxon community who resisted to many barbarian attacks along the centuries fight to preserve the rich heritage of their ancestor’s land ("Siebenbürgen, süsse Heimat"). Their efforts have been sustained by Charles, Prince of Wales, who is enraptured with the unspoiled natural beauties of Transylvania. Starting with 2006, the Prince of Wales bought and restored XVIII^th century Saxon houses in Viscri (the "Blue House") and other properties, in order to support and protect this unique way of life and bring sustainable tourism into the region; he visits privately each year the "last corner of Europe where you see true sustainability and complete resilience".

Accommodation in Viscri.

Day 6

Viscri – Saschiz – Prejmer

Bus transfer from Viscri to Daia + Bike trails (aprox. 10 km) from Daia to Saschiz. The bus will accompany the bikers.

Saschiz Fortified Churchis very impressive due to its huge proportions and the way that the fortifying elements have been adapted. But even all the defensive elements are eventually surpassed by the beauty of its Gothic architecture: huge arches, massive buttress and decorations.

Bus transfer from Saschiz to Prejmer.

The Prejmer (German: Tartlau) Saxon Fortified Church is built in Gothic Burgundian style introduced in the region by the Cistercian monks. The church's chancel is regarded to be the oldest from Transylvania.

Prejmer is considered to be the best preserved and most powerful medieval fortified church in Eastern Europe.

Short bike tour from Prejmer to Harman (bike trails: aprox. 14 km, paved).

Optional: visit of the Harman fortified church. Return to Prejmer.

Accommodation in Prejmer