Everything started on a vacation, of course. On a ski holiday in Italy to be more precise. And here are some of the highlights of our journey to help you connect the dots.
My name is Diana, and I was living in Bucharest, working in an office environment within HR with a secure lifestyle and promising career prospects, but something was missing : the adventure. As time progressed, I started to think more and more about this missing element and ways to fulfil it and this is how I came to experience my first adventure in Spain, as an animator in Port Aventura in Barcelona, one of the biggest amusement Parks in Europe, and since then the kid inside me never stopped exploring.
I then moved to Dublin, Ireland and from there I began my journey working on cruise ships for Royal Caribbean for just over 4 years. After seeing so much of our beautiful blue planet while working at sea, I had a desire to explore more on land so I moved to New York and worked for the “Fresh Air Fund”, an independent, not-for-profit agency which provides thousands of New York City children with unforgettable summer experiences that unlock their limitless potential.
For me personally, the times that I spent on a plane travelling the globe was a good time for a reflection on life to date, and I remembered thinking back to something that made me feel so good : skiing. And I realised right then that I really wanted to work in a ski resort, so I was very lucky to secure a fantastic job in the French Alps working for Scott Dunn.
Having this sort of lifestyle you always ask yourself, what’s next? In my own mind I realised that one of my strengths is that I loved working with children and young adults and I also loved travelling. So in the summer time I would organise summer camps for kids and for the rest of the year I would travel and find work in new and exciting places.
But sometimes the more you travel and the more beauty you see, when you come back home, you see your childhood environment with different eyes. And so it was that I felt an intense desire to explore my homeland in much more detail. After all, I was born Romanian not just to be a Romanian, and I began to fall in love more and more with my own country.
If I was to go into all the details of everything I have done, everything I have seen and all that I have learnt during these experiences, I would probably need to write a book, but sadly I am not a particularly good writer, but I promise I will share more with you when you come over if you are interested in hearing all about it. I can only say it was absolutely life changing, eye opening and beautiful with all the highs and lows and I am grateful for every person whom I met along the way.
But you might wonder, what is the use of my experience of travel and working with kids in this story? Oh well, beside patience (loads of patience), sense of care and responsibility for everyone’s needs, excellent customer service and multicultural interaction…I love stories…real life stories.
And here is another life story, Erich’s story, the other person behind this concept.
” I am not a story teller because I never was. But I love stories with all my heart. I grew up in a country with big fences at the border, so, somehow, I was forced to feed my curiosity with all that I found inside. And step by step I travelled from east to west, from north to south, from mountains to the sea, and I discovered the beauty inside the fences. Every time I come back home I realize how lucky I am – we have something amazing to show. I do not have expertise on travel or hospitality, but I was an extensive traveller during the last 25 years, so I know pretty well what I would like to buy. And because I met Diana, young and restless, full of passion and ideas, I was wondering…why not? And here I am, right by her side, starting a new and different journey. And I hope it will be a very special one.”
As you can see, we both love stories. We have both travelled to over 60 countries and then we stopped counting. We just want to enjoy the present in a more relaxed way, not as a race to do more, instead as a conscious decision to do it better.
We learned a lot during our travels about cultural differences but at the same time about similarities than make us all feel interconnected as humans.
The idea of these “Vacations to Romania” actually started when I was in Alaska with my friend Nina. I used to have lunch at her “Salmon Spot” every time when my ship was docked in Juneau. Nina travelled back to Romania and was so impressed with her time there that she was sure the place that I call home had so much more to say to so many other people suggesting that as a local, I was sure to know some very special and secret spots that people would love to visit.
When I was looking for ideas to build on this concept, trying to transform this from an idea into reality, Erich gave me some secret ingredients that every memorable vacation needs, such as hidden gems of places to visit, exceptional hotels or fantastic restaurants. So this was how it came to be that I asked Erich if he would like to team up with me and our collaborations started naturally, combining different ways of travel, differing needs and our combined visions of what would make an unforgettable holiday experience here in our native land.
So here we are, excited and looking forward to having the privilege of taking you on a wondrous journey, showing you what is home for us, visiting places that we know very well, and sharing with you food that will make you lick your fingers, drinks that will make you lose your worries, music that will make your feet dance, colours of sunsets that will always remain on your retina and overall joy for all of your senses and we would be so happy if we were able to enjoy all of this with you.
And…welcome! We are sure you will love your stay here in Romania so let’s write another story together.
Bine ati venit!
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