It’s the guides

The other day, we got this beautiful feedback from a couple who did a cruise extension with us in Transylvania.

“Our favorite part of the trip was the post-cruise time in Romania. It is such a diverse, welcoming, thriving and fascinating country. Our guide, Alex, served as our driver as well as guide the entire time and he was superb (actually, I would say overqualified). If we return to Romania, we would include a nature visit to the Danube delta to be with the wildlife there. Another reason that it was the favorite part of our trip is that we were on our own and not in a larger group.”

This warms my heart.

The words about Romania, the possibility of a return, the joy of giving people time to explore on their own terms. This is why I do what I do.

It also reminded of a special group of people without whom our work is equal to nothing.

Guides. Our amazing Guides.

Alex is one of the wonderful guides we work with. He also does ancestry work mostly for Jewish families, but he really loves to guide, so it’s no surprise that he got this praise.

The same applies to Andrei, who is an architect by training, Anita with a PhD in the History of Olympics, Tavi who’s a total nature lover, Anne, Ana, Ioana, Bogdan, Mihai, George, Peter, Ilona, Luis…and so on.

This month’s gratitude email is about them.

The people who take our itineraries and make them better.

The people who host our travelers as they discover Romania. 

They are always anticipating the travelers’ needs and are always excited to find yet another way to surprise and bring joy.

It’s such a powerful mix of skills that excellent guides have to possess, especially when working with individual travelers. 

They have to be extremely knowledgeable but also empathetic, patient but also able to take the lead and take decisions with incomplete information, intuitive and creative, smart and funny, great at storytelling but also wonderful listeners, and on and on it goes.

Ultimately, I think, guiding is about love. Love for the others, for what you do, for yourself.

If we’re still around after 10 years, it’s because we got lucky to find wonderful humans who enjoy being guides to our guests. 

Can you share one of your favorite guide stories?​
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PS: A new exciting episode from our Transylvania series is out; if nature, plants, spices, local experiences and traditional meals are your thing, watch this one.