Tulcea Things to Do

Placed on a hill, in the middle of a park, and offering a very nice view of Tulcea and surrounding area the monument was errected to remember the moment when Dobrogea (the region Tulcea belongs) joined Romania after the 1877 war with the Otoman Empire.
Apart from the beautiful view over the city and Danube, it also has an archaeological site and museum.

Suggested itineraries in the Danube Delta:

1 Tulcea - channel Mila 35 - brooks Sireasa, Sontea - Channel Olguta - Dunarea Veche - village Mila 23 - Crisan - maliuc - Tulcea

2 Tulcea - Victoria - channels Litcov, Crisan - Caraorman - Crisan - Maliuc - Tulcea

3 Tulcea - Maliuc - Crisan - Channel Crisan - Caraorman - Channel Caraorman - lakes Puiu, Rosu, Rosulet - Channel Rosu - Imputita - channel Bursuca - Sulina - Tulcea

4 Murighiol - channels Dunavat, Dranov - gulf Holbina - lake Razim - Gura Portitei

5 Jurilovca - Gura Portitei

6 Crisan - Dunarea Veche - channel Eracle - brook Lopatna - channel Lopatna - Trei Iezere

7 Crisan - Dunarea Veche - channel Magearu - Dunarea Veche - arm Sulina - Crisan

The extremely rich vegetation of the Danube Delta can be divided into floating plants (with their roots in water and their leaves above the surface), i.e. white water lilies, yellow water lilies, frog bits, marsh thistles, épis d'eau etc; riverine and floating reed islets i.e. reed - 80% of Phyragmites genus and 20% of mace reed: water fern, sorrel, forget-me-nots, water hemlock etc; plants growing on land, i.e. white willows, poplars, alders, ash trees; the particular vegetation of the Danube Delta's two main reserves, namely the Letea & the Caraorman equatorial forests made up of creeping plants, grey oak trees (of which some are over 150 years old and 25 m high), elms, alder trees, white and black poplars, willows, fluffy ash trees (quite rare) etc.

Besides its main cities, the Delta is merely inhabitated (arround 15.000 people).

Tulcea, harbour on the Danube from ancient times, is mentioned by Herodot under the name of Castrum Aegyssus is the "main gateway" to the Danube Delta.

Situated at 334 km from Bucuresti and 123 km from Constanta, Tulcea has about 110.000 people. Almost as old as Rome, Tulcea was built on seven dunes.

Here you can visit the History Museum of the Delta , the Ethnography Museum, the Art Museum, the History ans Archaeology Museum, Orthodox Cathedral and the Azizie Mosque.

Each year, Tulcea hosts tow prestigious events: The International Popular Music (august) and The Winter Canraval (december).

From here you can make either few hours (5-8) trough the Delta or you can take a one or two days tour to visit almost the entire Delta and enjoy the local cuisine (fish, fish and fish..and you'll not taste this anywhere else..I guarantee you that)

In August 1990, the Danube Delta was declared by UNESCO reservation of the biosphere. It is made up of the delta, the complex of lagoons Razim-Sinoe and Valea Dunarii upstream until it gets to Cotul Pisicii, measuring a surface of 591.200 ha. This represents 2.5% of Romania's territory. In this area, the vegetal associations comprise of over 1.150 species of plants grouped as it follows:
aquatic plants - hydrophilic submersibles or natante, nenuphars, yellow water lilies, club mosses, sword flags, etc.
* the floating reed islet, 19.5 km² - floating island, thick of 0.60-2 m, made up of roots and reed rhizomes.
* the riverside coppices of willow trees, poplar trees, red and white sea buckthorns
* exotic forests on Letea and Caraorman narrow reefs made up of autumnal and pedunculate thick oak trees, black and white poplar, alder trees, elm trees etc., shrubs like the hawthorn, the cornel tree, the privet, Mediterranean vegetation, ivy and Virginia creeper, and also lianas, clematis vitalba, humulus rupulus, periploca graeca
* 60% of the world's population of cormorants
* the largest cormorant population in Europe
* almost half of the world's population with red neck (they spend the winter here)
* besides these ones, we can also notice the winter and summer swan, wild ducks and geese, white, gray, yellow and red herons, cranes, egrets, spoon bills, eastern flossy ibis, bald coots, white tailed eagle, Dobrudjan hawks, storks, flamingo birds.
* Ichthyofauna comprises over 1.500 fish species, among which we can mention: the sturgeons- the beluga, the Black Sea sturgeon, the sterlet and the sevruga
* the bearers of black roes: the mackerels, the anchovies, the carp, the sheat fish, the pike perch, the pike etc.

The Danube Delta also offers the favorable living environment for mammals - the wild boar, the fox, the otter, the mink, the ermine, the muskrat, etc. The reptiles are not missing, either: the sand snake, the small steppe viper and more rarely the land turtle.

"There is an old citty by the Danube or Ister, / With strong walls: it is not easy to get in; / Aëgyssus built it and it is named Aëgyssus" - confirmed Publius Ovidius Naso.

The oldest map that shows Dacia (Tabula Peutingeriana, 2nd-3rd centuries) places between Noviodunum (Isaccea) and Histria oonlu the town Ad Stoma, approcimately on the site of the above-mentioned fortification; as there is no other evidence, we take for granted the metaphor of the poet, generally well informed, adding that by "the Delta's gate" the Romans had a base of the Lower Danube fleet.

Most of the Delta adventures start today in Tulcea. Attached you can see the Harbour, from you can take boats to the great adventure on the Danube Delta's canals.

Tulcea 277 km (172 mi) northeast of Bucharest. The main town of the Danube Delta, Tulcea is the gateway to the splendors of the region. Built on seven hills and influenced by Turkish styles, this former market town is now an important sea and river port, as well as the center of the Romanian fish industry. The Muzeul Deltei Dunarii (Danube Delta Museum) provides a good introduction to the flora, fauna, and way of life of the communities in the area.

An exotic landscape with over 1,200 species of trees and plants, with the richest ornithological fauna on the continent (more than 300 species, among which unique colonies of pelicans) and ichthyological fauna (with around 100 species, from the Danube herrings to the sturgeons which produce the precious caviar).

More than 80% of the delta area is water. Over 300 bird species visit the area, 70 of them from as from as far away as China and India. The delta is a natural stopover for migratory birds, but the most characteristic bird is the common pelican, the featured star of this bird-watchers' paradise. Fishing provides most of the area's inhabitants, many of whom are of Ukrainian origin, with a livelihood. One of the most common sights is a long line of fishing boats strung together to be towed by motorboat to remote fishing grounds. Smaller communities, such as Independenta of the southern arm and Crisan on the middle arm, rent out the services of a fisherman and his boat to foreigners. The waters here are particularly rich in catfish, perch, carp, and daviar- bearing sturgeon.

Tourism, which boasts original attractions specific to the season, is greatly favoured by the picturesque landscape. In 1990 UNESCO included the Danube Delta, Romania(s youngest form of relief, threatened by "the progress of industrialisatiuon", amongst the biosphere reserves.