My friend and I booked an all-day private tour of Bucharest with Alina Braşoveanu, requesting a combination of Jewish and general sites. She met us at our hotel at 8:30, and we toured until 4:00, with a lunch stop at a terrific restaurant she recommended. Her English is excellent, and her communication was superb from the first email contact. She was eager to include all of my requests and had her own excellent suggestions to add. Even after our tour ended she sent more emails with links to things we had seen and helped us with our future travel plans including wine recommendations. She was extremely knowledgeable, energetic, flexible, friendly, and a lot of fun. We immediately felt like old friends rather than clients or customers. She managed to fit in all of the sites I had requested including visiting the gorgeous interior of the Romanian Athenaeum while the musicians were warming up. Our tour included the synagogues and Jewish state theater, the Old Town, Stavropoleos Monastery Church, Victory Avenue, the outside of the Palace of Parliament, and buildings around Revolution Square. We only had time for one day in Bucharest, and Alina absolutely helped us make the most of it. There is no way we would have learned so much about the history of Romania and Bucharest, or could have managed to fit in everything we did and with so little stress, had we been on our own. Our Bucharest day with Alina was one of the highlights of our week in Romania. I recommend Alina most highly!
