Most Inspirational Moment
The location of the hotel would be hard to beat. On a holiday such as this, there is rarely a single stand-out inspirational moment: rather, the experience builds, with a variety of being out in the fresh air amid beautiful scenery, combined with trips to interesting destinations. By the end of the week, the stresses and strains of everyday life back home seemed a distant memory.
Thoughts on Group Leader
Cosmin was very pleasant and knowledgable, and was excellent in his role. If there was one criticism, it would have been the failure to adjust the itinerary to circumstances. The advertised trip to look for beavers was a total waste of time, and predictably so: nothing much has been seen of them since June or July, because of low water levels. Standing around in the dark on the bug-ridden bank of a not very pleasant smelling river, with someone shining a torch trying to catch a glimpse of a a distant brown creature in muddy brown water, was not my idea of a good use of time. There were other attractions locally we could have visited instead (such as the bat cave, which other groups visited), but possibly Exodus do not give their guides discretion to change published events, and maybe some people would have been disappointed not even to try to see the beavers, but I felt that much better use of this time would have been possible.
Advice for Potential Travellers
I stayed an extra night in Bucharest: it seemed to me a pity to see nothing of the capital other than the airport. The group flight necessitates an early departure for Bucharest, and I was able to secure an evening return flight a day later, meaning that I had nearly a day and a half to see the city (which was plenty) for the cost of only one night's accomodation (and I would recommend the Rembrandt Hotel, situated in the heart of the old town and ideally located to see everythingworth seeing).
