Letea Forest

Letea Forest represents a special tourist attraction, where you cannot say you have visited the Danube Delta without visiting this unique wonder in the world.

What do we see on the Boat Excursion to Letea Forest?

Letea Village is a village with many traditional houses made of wood, adobe, and reed, painted in the specific colors of the Danube Delta: green, blue, and white. Once we arrive in this locality, we leave the boat and continue the Adventure with a specially equipped off-road vehicle for the excursion to the Forest, this being the northernmost subtropical forest in Europe. Once we reach the forest, we will become acquainted with the world's only oak forest grown on a maritime ridge (salty), lianas, and a subtropical flora that cannot be found anywhere else in Romania.

The wild horses of Letea are certainly the special attraction of the animal world in this place, being the first nature reserve in Romania. In all our tours, we strive to find the herds that graze freely on these pastures or in the forest. On site, the guides will tell you many other interesting things about this place.

Our program for visiting Letea Forest begins in Letea village, being the most traditional village in the Danube Delta. Here we can still find many houses built in the local architectural style, made of clay, wood, and reed, painted and decorated in the "Lipovan" and "Hahol" styles.

Once we arrive at Letea village, we will take specially equipped cars for the harsh road conditions and head towards the forest. Out of respect for nature, we will not drive the cars into prohibited zones, but will leave them at a point from which we can easily reach the sand dunes that we will admire ON FOOT. We will see the old oaks of the forest, where we will tell you how they manage to grow in an environment incompatible with this type of tree and what caused their strange shapes. After we finish the forest objective, we will return to the cars on another path, where we will show you several more rarities from the local flora. Depending on the season, the walking tour can vary in time and distance. In the height of summer, it is quite difficult to walk on the hot sand for too long. Obviously, in spring and autumn, the tours can be longer, the temperatures allowing this and the spectacle of nature deserving every extra step.

Points of Interest

Țarla Popii – Here we can see two of the old oaks of the forest. Although there are stories about the age of over 1000 years of these oaks, scientific studies have shown that they are 300–600 years old. On the oak inside the forest, lianas (Periploca graeca) and bindweed have survived for a long time, giving the place a very special appearance.

Large Dunes - from Hasmacul Mare are the highest in the area, measuring 13 meters. Beyond these stretch spectacular landscapes of strips (hasmacs) of forest and strips of desert, which give uniqueness to this place.

Small Dunes – Closer to the road, they can be accessed easily, having to walk a maximum of 10 minutes from the road to them, from where a spectacular landscape stretches behind the dunes.

Omer's Well – Once a Turk with this name lived here, and the traces of his house (hut) can still be seen near the well.

Where to have meals in Letea Village

Meals can be served at a local household in Letea village. Here, fresh fish is cooked daily in the traditional Hahol (Ukrainian) style. If you do not want a fish menu, please let us know before we embark so we can give the locals time to prepare something other than fish.

The boat you will travel with in the Delta is equipped with benches/chairs with backrests and cushions made of ecological leather for maximum comfort, having very good stability and safety. This boat does NOT transport fish, it is very clean and is used only for tourism. Each person in the boat will receive a life jacket immediately after boarding.

The time required from Murighiol to Letea is approximately 3 hours; this can be influenced by traffic and weather conditions.

On the way to Letea, we will deviate from the main route and enter narrow canals and lakes where we will admire the flora and fauna of the delta.

A fairy-tale landscape, a forest like in fairy legends, but also the traditional village the place where time and the clock stopped a few hundred years ago.