• specially created for smallgroups – starting with 2 guests

• five days / four nights, guided tour

• one lunch at the peasants and aboat trip on the mostspectacular part of the IronGates of the Danube (DanubeGorge)

Perfect combination of  

urban experience

and  beautiful landscapes

Timi oara, main city of the Banat region, is a trueș  

European historical landscape – its wide pedestrianised

squares are filled with Baroque and Art Nouveau

monuments, speaking of the time when the Habsburgs

ruled the area. Contemporary history may even be more

dramatic: this is the place where the Romanian

Revolution against dictator Ceau escu took its start.ș

We then cross the mountains to meet the Danube: in

southern Banat, the big river meets the Carpathian

Mountains, cutting itself a spectacular gorge, the so-called

“Iron Gates of the Danube”. We'll spend two nights on a

small pension lying directly on Danube's shore, and take

a short boat trip to the most stunning place of the gorge.

There is also time to visit Herculane, once “Herkulesbad”,

the beloved spa resort of the famous Sissi, Empress of 

Austria. The small town Oravi a hides another (almostț  

unknown) treasure: the oldest theatre in Romania, copy

of Vienna's former Burgtheater. The sightseeing round

trip is complete with a visit to a valuable wooden

church, as well as to an old Serbian-orthodox monastery.

Last but not least: this trip can be easily customised 

into a longer one, of 7 to 10 days.

tymes tours

Timișoara & The Iron Gates of the Danube

five days of sightseeing / round trip

tymes tours  city breaks & short trips

 

Day 1. The guide is expecting you at theairport and ready to transfer you into thecity. The hotel is centrally located, so, after the check-in, we can walk through thecentre of Timi oara – the so-called “Inner ș  City”. The historical urban landscapeunfolds between Victory Square (or OperaSq.) and the former “Domplatz”, nowUnion Square. Already explaining how thenames changed in time means anintroduction into Timisoara's past, but alsoin the history of the entire Banat region.The majestic Orthodox cathedral isconnected to the dramatic events of theRevolution in December 1989, bulletmarks are still visible on a few buildings.We take the dinner at a good restaurant,right in the heart of the city and close tothe hotel.

Day 2. Today we'll drive east, and thensouth towards the Danube. First we visit awooden church, in the area of mildmountains bordering the Banat toTransylvania. This is an orthodox church(most Romanians are orthodox) with

interesting inner paintings dating back tothe XVIII-th century. In the same area we'llvisit a family to have a simple, traditionallunch meal – the small villages here havepreserved many old features, the small-scaled agriculture is done almost exclusivelyby man and horse power. Our journeytowards south brings us via the small townof Caransebe through a hilly areaș  covered by countless plum orchards, thehome-made brandy is still a major incomesource for the peasants. We then reachthe Danube, fresh-caught fish is the mainingredient of our dinner today.

Day 3. In the morning we visit by boat thearea of the “Cauldrons”, the narrowestpoint of the Danube's Gorge; this tour isdepending on weather (which is normallygood, during the warm season; the boatsare small, of. aprox. 10 passengers).Limestone walls, up to 250 meters high,seem to be emerging directly from thewater. Several cave entrances are visible,we even enter by boat the huge PonicovaCave. We are now right in the middle of amajor nature park, so, around midday,

having a short hike on the karst plateausabove the Danube can be very rewarding:stunning views, rare plants including wildorchids (this hike is optional). In theafternoon we visit Herculane, a spa resortwith rich hot springs. Herculane wasestablished by the Romans but knew itsglory under the Habsurgs, in the XVIII-thand XIX-th century, becoming the favouriteresort of Austrian noblemen. The old spais half-ruined (slow restoration worksunderway) but very worth a guided visit.We can also have here a lunch, a la carte(not included). In the evening we return tothe pension on Danube's shore, for another tasty dinner.

Day 4. We drive west along the Danube.The landscape is very beautiful, we makea few short stops to see some medievalruins (the romantic Golubac fortress onthe Serbian shore, the Trikule towers) andfossils of ammonites embedded in the red

limestone, then leave the Danube andhead north. Oravi a is today a small andț  rather dusty town, but it was once theheadquarters of the Austrianadministration of the Banat mining region.

The theatre is a tiny jewel, a small-scaledcopy of the former Burgtheater in Vienna,adorned with lofty Rococo stucco. A shortwalk through the old part of the town givesus more insight into Banat's culturalmixture. We visit another example of themulticultural history, further north: theSerbian-orthodox monastery of Sângeorge(St. George), with Baroque architectureand paintings. We reach Timi oara in theș  late afternoon, check-in at the hotel andgo to dinner into another restaurant, alsoclose to the hotel.

Day 5. Depending on flight departure, wemight go directly to the airport, or havesome spare time in the central area of Timi oara. If there is time, how aboutș  making a short walk from the hotel to takepicture of the nice series of graffiti near theriver Bega, in the fresh air of the morning?Then we bring you to the airport for your flight back home.

tour description

tymes tours

 

How to reach Timi oara?ș

You can reach Timi oara easily by plane,ș  there are several companies with directflights to Timi oara:ș Lufthansa (fromMünchen, two flights per day), Carpatair (from München, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, andfrom many cities of Italy), Austrian Airlines(from Vienna) and WizzAir  (the only low-cost flights to Timi oara, from London Luton,ș  Dortmund, Paris Beauvais and many citiesof Spain and Italy). You can also reachTimi oara by train or with the own car ș  (Vienna is only 535 km away).

We are happy to assist you into findingflights to Timi oara at reasonable rates.ș

Prices & booking

Group 2 guests: 482 Euro / pers.

Group 3 – 14 guests: 407 Euro / pers.

SGL-room supplement: 70 Euro / pers.

*****-room (DBL) suppl.: 30 Euro / pers.(at Hotel Timi oara)ș

For booking, please send your enquiries toinfo@tymestours.ro. Please mention: theperiod (or several alternative periods) andthe number of guests. The tour takes placeonly upon request (no fixed dates),depending on availabi lity.

Included services

✔ tour program according todescription above

✔ accommodation 2 nights in DBL-room at Hotel Timi oara**** (alsoș  *****rooms available, uponsupplement), 2 nights in PensiuneaIulia**, E elni a (in Danube's Gorge)ș ț

✔ ideally: check-in on Friday, check-outnext Tuesday

✔ transfers from / to airport

✔ two city tours of Timi oara (differentș  districts of the city)

✔ half-board (all breakfasts andcomplete, 3-course dinners) and asimple, traditional lunch at thepeasants on day 2

✔ modern transportation, depending ongroup size (car, mini-bus or bus)

✔ English speaking guide

✔ all entrance fees

Group size: min. 2, max. 14 guests.

Flexible & customisable

This tour is intended for small groups, inorder to maintain a high flexibility of theprogram. We are happy to assist you alreadyin the planning stage with supplementalhints and recommendations – here belloware some ideas:

• How about a longer tour? We canarrange longer sightseeing trips in thisarea, there are many other interestingplaces to be visited.

• The area is great for hiking! Thesouthern Banat hosts three national

parks and one large nature park, allmake an excellent ground for hiking andnature trips. The hiking tours can rangefrom very easy (and short) tointermediate levels or even difficult –beautiful sceneries are guaranteed, inall cases! The rare plants and animalsof the area are also worth mentioning,but also the local inhabitants, living inisolated villages and hamlets, scatteredthrough the huge mountain range.

• The tour can be changed accordingto the season. By example: in late aprilis the blossom time for the extremelyrare wild tulip (Tulipa hungarica) in theDanube's Gorge.

Then, from may till mid-June, is themain flowering season for the wildorchids. The figs are ripe in August. InOctober there is a nicefestival of the plumbrandy in Herculane (witha lot of free sampling...).

technical details

SC Tymes Globetrotter SRL

| tymes tours

Str. Lisabona 7/1A T i m i s o a r a R O 300603

T/F: +40  256 203015 @: info@tymestours.roContact: Cristian B adoiu, +40 722 525 734

The theatre in Oravi aț 

Timi oaraș

SângeorgeCaransebeș

Zolt

Herculane

E elni aș ț

Oravi aț