Bulgarien Tagesausflug: Private Tour von Bukarest

Lovely day trip visiting Bulgaria from Bucharest. The mountain monasteries were amazing and the visit to Veliko Tarnovo was great. Claudiu was a great guide, friendly and knowledgeable.

The monastery, rock hewn churches and the Veliko Tarnovo Fortress all were amazing in their own unique ways

We would like to acknowledge and send our sincerest gratitude to our private tour guide, Claudiu Sorin. We were originally scheduled for a group tour but Viator cancelled it the day before because there were not enough people joining the tour so they gave us an option to do a private tour which we did. We have traveled all over Europe for many, many years and very often join tour groups, but no one can surpass Claudiu’s kindness, honesty, sincerity, care, respectfulness as well as his vast knowledge of Romania and Bulgaria’s history. He was a very dedicated and hardworking tour guide. He went over and above to make our tour comfortable and safe. There was so much traffic going to Bulgaria but we enjoyed talking to him during the long road trip and learning about Romania and Bulgaria’s cultures. He also told us that even after the tour and we have any questions, to feel free to reach out to him, which we did and he was absolutely very responsive. Claudiu, thank you so very much for making our private tour so memorable and special. We will be recommending to our friends in the U.S to book a private tour with Viator and specifically request for Claudiu Sorin as their tour guide.

The guide was a good driver but a little too fast for us. His knowledge of the local environment and history was very poor. His English was acceptable and a very nice person but he was on the phone for too long and too often with what we believe personal matters

Such an unpleasant experience that I’m not even sure where to begin. As we neared the Bulagarian border, our guide, Valerica, “needed to share something” and said he “is not our guide, only our driver and friend.” This seemed weird but the reasons became obvious through the the day. First, this was a lie he wanted us to all join in on so he didn’t have to pay entrance fees as the sites. Second, he had never been to 2 of the 3 sites we visited, which means he did not know where to park or where to enter/exit. This was most disturbing at Tsarnavets, where he became very frustrated about the parking situation—at one point he very aggressively told me “now I have to find a god$&@% exchange shop,” which means not only did he not know where to park initially, but also came to another country with no local currency. We ended up offering to give ourselves a walking tour while he resolved the parking situation, only to return ready to leave and be told “I need to find some nonalcoholic beer,” and then have to sit and wait for him while he drank them in a park. The rest of the driver back, about 3 hours, were tense and quiet, as his bad mood totally torpedoed the day. Finally, we didn’t really miss him in the last tour because it was already obvious he knew nothing about Bulgaria. All of his information was about Romania. He couldn’t answer any of our questions, about the sites we visited or otherwise. At the airport drop off, which we had prearranged with both the company and with him via text, he demanded another $20, which I refused to pay. He insisted this was the price for the extra dropoff, which I was never told in text or throughout the day, when we talked about airport dropoff numerous times. He tried very hard to pressure me and my friend, both younger women, into paying him. He cussed at me under his breath as I walked away. Stay away from this company. Not worth it.

The rock-hewn churches amazing! The tour is quite long since it begins and ends in Bucharest. Driving to the first monastery took a couple of hours. The tour includes walking up rock steps of uneven heights to track a monastery ands a long climb over rocks and roots up a hill to reach the rock-hewn church. The painted wall icons are really amazing though.

Spent the day seeing the historic castles and churches. Had a great trip with Gabriel. He is incredibly knowledgeable about everything Romanian. He was very informative and easy to understand. Thanks!

I was not going to write a review as I contacted the company directly to express my concerns but got no response. I feel it’s necessary to warn other solo female travelers to do a group tour of Bulgaria if able or choose a different company. The driver talked about things I would consider sexual harassment and made me extremely uncomfortable. Also he drove very fast and unsafely. He knew I was uncomfortable but told me he would fall asleep if he didn’t drive fast.

Diana was an exceptional great guide shared the Romanian history culture cuisine etc She was patient and was a super guide Keep up the good work Also very punctual and to the detailed information provided.

We had one day in Bucharest before our river cruise. Being Orthodox Christians we wanted to see specific churches. Diana planned a wonderful itinerary for our 4 hour tour. She arrived at out hotel with a driver. She was very knowledgable about the churches and history. We appreciated her wit and her thoughtfulness for photos, toilet stop, snacks, and interesting shops along the way. Highly recommended and would use her again.