Responsible Travel Policy

Policy aims

Transylvania Challenge aims to promote “off the beaten paths” tourism in Southern Transylvania, with and for the locals. Its aim is to promote areas and routes known only to locals and thus support local businesses outside the mainstream attractions. It also aims to include major touristic destinations (Bran Castle, Brasov, Peles Castle, etc.) into more adventurous tours, allowing tourists to discover the diversity of life styles in Transylvania.

Economic responsibility

All Transylvania Challenge staff and partners are from the village of Cristian (Brasov county) and the company works exclusively with local hostel owners and service providers.

The company supports the local Scout group and involves the young people in certain of its activities.

The company supports responsible consuming and we provide our customers with a support for getting their products from local sources; Transylvania Challenge has a number of links with farmers and family businesses in the villages around Brasov.

Environmental responsibility

Almost all the mountain-based routes and packages are based in National Parks. The rules and legislation concerning the Parks are quite clear and all company’s partners are well aware of them. We have a brochure explaining this framework to all our customers and they are part of the contract we signed in advance.

Furthermore, each package comes with an “environmental annex”, where various aspects related to environment along the route are explained (the visible effects of deforestation and intense farming, the water pollution in some of the rivers, the effects of the development of winter resorts, etc.).

We have an internal policy framework regarding the lowest environmental impact that deal with the use of paper, local sourcing, car pooling, etc. – which we explain and try to promote as an example of good practice to all our customers.

Social responsibility

Most of the villages in Tara Barsei were inhabited by a Saxon population for almost a millennium. This constitutes a unique cultural landscape in Romania and one of the most important objectives of Transylvania Challenge is the preservation of the tangible and intangible heritage related to the Saxons. Almost all packages proposed by the company have an element related to the Saxon heritage (visiting a fortified church, taking part in a Saxon festival, overnight in a typical Saxon inn, etc.) so that this extremely rich local culture is known and gets a chance to survive in the future.

The story behind our business

Transylvania Challenge started from the dream of one Scout leader – Sorin Dulgheriu. After many years of providing outdoor adventurous activities for young people on a volunteer basis, Sorin decided to put his experience in the interest of foreign tourists, as well. Aware that over 90% of the organised tourism in Southern Transylvania revolves around Sibiu, Brasov and the Bran Castle, Sorin is setting a goal to promote some of the more hidden treasures of his part of the world, while keeping the most famous destinations in the tours proposed. His vision is to allow as many foreign tourists as possible being able to discover absolutely fantastic routes and places that are, for the moment, known only to locals.