ALONG THE DANUBE BY BIKE - SPECIAL 2012 TOUR	price from 635 €
Romania - Leisure cycling - 8 days

This trip is to introduce you to amazing sceneries and follows the most spectacular section of Danube which is part of the project EuroVelo6. We will start your ride in Serbia and finish it in Romania, at the end of the Carpathian Mountains, crossing Banat region. We will find here breath-taking combination of landscapes, sweet hills on which are settled picturesque villages with secular traditions like haymaking, abrupt rocks in the middle of which lively rivers flow and the great Danube which will give you the feeling of pushing the mountains so it can slowly float towards the Black sea, between Serbia and Romania, between Balkans and Carpathian Mountains. Group departure by private van or by train avalaible from Bucharest on Day 1. ~8-9h from Bucharest.Ask us for a quotation.

Program

Day 1 Welcome in Belgrade The trip starts at our 3* hotel in Belgrade, in the city centre, where our bikes will be waiting for us. You can book an extra-night to visit the city. Group departure by private van avalaible from Bucharest on Day 1. ~8-9h from Bucharest.

Day 2 Descending the Danube Today we start the descent on the Danube, the second longest river in Europe that was once the border of the Roman Empire. We will end up our ride in a small town on the Danube where we can see the typical traditional Austro-Hungarian architecture.~70km.BD

Day 3 The majestic Danube We will continue our ride on the Danube, our last day on Serbian ground, admiring this majestic river which ran over so many countries before arriving here, assaulting the mountains. Even if Danube was an agitated, blue and impetuous river, don’t be amazed to see a big and calm river nowadays. Indeed, in the ‘70’s, Romanian and Serbian governments decided to build a dam on the Danube in order to increase the electricity production. This is what we call today The Iron Gates, downstream the Danube gorges. We will see the results of this at the end of the day when we will ride along this reservoir as an effect of the dam. At the end of the day we will arrive at our guesthouse, just on the bank of the river.~75 km.BLD

Day 4 Banat region in Romania We start our ride in Banat region. This region is the most cosmopolitan region in Romania and was long time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Here live peacefully Romanian, German, Hungarian, Serbian and Czech people.~65 km.BLD

Day 5 Between Serbia and Romania Today we ride through the most spectacular scenery from Danube gorges, where the narrowest point between the Romanian and the Serbian border is. Our day will be full of lucky encounters as we will pass through the glorious gorges and rolling hills. We can stop to visit Ponicova Cave.~55 km. BLD

Day 6 The Iron Gates The Danube gorge is also known as The Iron gates that separates Romania and Serbia. As we can not cycle along the narrowest parts of the gorges we explore the region today on foot and probably by boat, depending of the weather. We will walk till a magnificent point of view above the gorge and flow on the river till “Tabula Traian” a Roman memorial plaque of 4m in width commemorating the completion of Trajan's military road. Back in the saddle for a short ride to our guesthouse in Eselnita.~20 km. BLD

Day 7 By train to Bucharest Today you leave the Danube and our bikes and head to Bucharest. Free time to discover the Romanian capital, its old city, the balcony where Ceausescu, the Romanian communist dictator had his last speech, the “House of the People”, the second biggest building in the world after the Pentagon, and so many other treasures.B

Day 8 End of our trip End of the trip after breakfast. Possible extra-days in Romania.