About Ruraltours

   Rural Tours & Events is a company founded in 2023 by Dorin Farcaș, with the aim of promoting and developing responsible and sustainable tourism in Transylvania and Maramureș.

   I, Dorin Farcaș, was born in Gherla, Cluj, in 1980! I was fortunate to have a childhood in the 80s-90s (old-school style): playing outside, both in summer and winter, my parents had a cow and a horse, so I would take them grazing, go on bike expeditions for 30-40 km alongside my friends, roast bacon on a stick or corn over embers, chase chickens in the courtyards of my friends` grandparents, build snow forts in winter, and have snowball fights... What can I say, every day was a new adventure! I believe that from my childhood, I`ve kept the spirit of adventure and freedom: As far back as I can remember, I was always the first to go out to play and the last to return home... This continued into my teenage years, always being a rebel, and later as an adult, I`ve always tried to stand out, not to follow the beaten path. Thus, after 30 years, as I started traveling more and more, I realized that my professional path needed to intertwine with travel and tourism. I pursued courses at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, at the Faculty of Geography, specializing in Tourism Geography, from which I graduated in 2017, and later I completed courses in tourism guiding and tourism management, which I finished in 2018. My passion for tourism grew exponentially as I discovered new things in this wonderful world of travel!

   In 2018, I founded the Miez de Natură și Tradiții Association, of which I am the president, with the main goal of developing green, sustainable tourism and supporting communities in Cluj county and the surrounding counties. Through the association, I have organized several activities and events to promote Gherla as a tourist destination on the map of Romania, and I have also promoted outdoor activities and green tourism among children and young people. I manage a website promoting Gherla (Armenopolis - the old name given by its founders, the Armenians) - www.visitarmenopolis.ro, and a site where I promote cycling tourism and biking as an alternative mode of transportation - www.bikeacademy.ro.

   Until 2022, I ran a business in the transportation industry, so my interactions with tourism were only within the limited free time I had. However, in parallel, I began organizing trips, mainly cycling tours, and occasionally guiding some groups of tourists upon request.

   In 2022, I sold my transportation business, so since then, I`ve dedicated most of my time to traveling, exploring, and tourism in general. Because I love authentic local villages and traditions, I initiated two projects to save old, traditional houses, aiming to include them in the tourist circuit, while also contributing to the preservation of traditions in the communities where they are located. I believe that we, as Romanians, can stand out to the world primarily through rural tourism, because in Transylvania and Maramureș, we still have vibrant villages where people maintain traditions and customs that are centuries old in their daily lives. Once these traditions are lost, it will be very difficult to reintroduce them into the daily lives of villagers, and for this reason, I am doing everything in my power to preserve them. I believe that only through tourism can some crafts, customs, and traditions be maintained, which otherwise are not economically viable in this period of industrialization, digitization, and globalization (e.g., manual hay cutting and gathering, hand-embroidering traditional shirts, hand-carving wood, wearing traditional costumes, Christmas caroling, village dancing, communal work, baking bread in wood-fired ovens, raising and using oxen and horses as draft animals). The two projects I mentioned are: Casa Mnerie in Sâmboieni village, Cluj county, and Mniez de Maramureș in Poienile Izei village, Maramureș county. Here, two peasant households are being developed, with several old, traditional houses made of brick and wood. The project is structured so that in the first stage, they will function as activity centers where we will organize day camps for adults and children, thematic trips, village life events, corporate events, and later to finalize the accommodation spaces so that we can host our guests and tourists.

   And because I love the journey just as much as the destination, in 2023, I decided to establish the Rural Tours & Events company, and thus I began organizing trips, guided tours, and events for adults, young people, or children, both in the country and abroad. I specialize in rural tours in Maramureș and Transylvania, by bike (cycling tourism or MTB), by car/van, or with a 4x4 vehicle on off-road trails. Probably starting in 2024, we will introduce sidecar motorcycle tours and, in the future, equestrian tours (horseback riding or with a horse-drawn carriage).

   I believe in slow tourism, in covering shorter distances to spend more time in communities and truly feel the places, people, smells, and tastes. I also believe in and promote the inclusion of locals in the tours I organize, so that part of the money stays within the local community where the tourist experience is consumed. I believe in people and love what I do, so I guide and organize trips with passion!

   Come along with me to slowly discover authentic, natural, and surprising Romania! Enjoy Romania! ✨

Dorin Farcaș