Cycling Hungary and Romania With Wire Donkey Tours

In this episode of Cycling Over Sixty, host Tom Butler shares how a busy schedule and travel are throwing his cycling routine off track. Despite the challenges he is looking at this as an opportunity to learn how busy people can fit in rides. Tom also has exciting news—he reveals a new Cycling Over Sixty project that's currently in development.

Tom is joined by Peter Illés from Wired Donkey Tours, who shares the unique cycling tours he organizes. Peter's approach is all about creating authentic, small group experiences that give tour guests a genuine connection to the places they visit. His passion for intimate, meaningful travel shines through as he discusses what sets his tours apart from typical cycling vacations.

If you're interested in discovering unique ways to see the world on two wheels and want to hear from someone who's redefining the cycling tour experience, this episode is for you.

Links

Wire Donkey Website: wiredonkeytours.com

Wire Donkey Instagram: instagram.com/wiredonkeytours/

Here is your invitation to join a great launch party for the summer cycling season.  Join the Cycling Over Sixty Tour de Cure PNW team.  Whether you are local or come out to experience cycling in the great Northwest, I would love to have you help make this a ride with a purpose.  And to send a message that the joy of cycling is here for everyone, regardless of age. Go to tour.diabetes.org/teams/CO60

I know it is early but we are looking to get the Cycling Over Sixty Tour de Cure team together as soon as possible. You can find all the info at tour.diabetes.org/teams/CO60

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NOTE: I share information about my journey. From time to time that means sharing what I do to stay healthy.  None of what I share is meant to be medical advice. Always consult with your physician or other health professionals before making changes. 

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Show music is "Come On Out" by Dan Lebowitz.  Find him here : lebomusic.com

Transcript

Update

Introducing Wired Donkey Tours

Tom Butler 0:04

Cycle 554 out of 69. Cycling Hungary and Romania with required off these cards. 2026 is shaping up to be a big year for cycling over 60. I have a bunch of projects I'm working on currently. And that means I've been really busy. So my podcast recording schedule has gotten interrupted. The worst issue is that as I've gotten more busy, I'm finding it harder to find time to ride. Last week I spent four days in bed sick, and that didn't help either. But it isn't all bad. I'm definitely going to have to find ways of fitting cycling around a schedule that is getting more and more crowded. But the truth is that most people have to do that. So if I can find strategies to help me get out and ride, maybe that can help others as well. As I move further in the 2026, the truth is that I'm not going to be able to do everything I have planned on my own. That means hiring people to help, which also means having the money to hire people to help. I spent five days at a conference talking to a bunch of people about how to generate some funds to expand what I'm doing with cycling over 60. I'm very excited to be working on some funding channels, including writing some grants that will help me do more in addition to the podcast. As things progress, I'll certainly be doing updates on the podcast. A good example of expanding cycling over 60 is the Tour to Cure. I'm working to build a strong relationship with the American Diabetes Association here in the Pacific Northwest. That relationship can only help get the message out that exercise is medicine and therefore the bike is a medical device. And this is, of course, near and dear to my heart because my own journey with diabetes. Now please consider joining us on May 2nd here for the Tour de Cure. Even if it means traveling from another state. I would love to see you, and it's going to be a gorgeous ride here in the Pacific Northwest. Speaking of the bike as a medical device, we're doing a special project. It is a film called Bike RX. It will follow the story of a couple of people dealing with diabetes and culminates with our participation in the Tour de Cure. I cannot wait to get the film out there. We won't have all the filming and post-production done until July, but I hope to have a preview of the film available sometime in March. I mentioned the conference I went to. It was in Orlando. I did a ton of walking, but no cycling for the whole time I was there. That is something that I want to change. I need to work out how to rent a bike when I'm at a conference. One thing about this trip to Orlando was it was cold. Now no colder than in the Seattle area, but I anticipated that it was going to be warm there. If I'd planned on cycling when I was in Orlando, I'm afraid I wouldn't have packed the right gear. My next trip is going to be in Oklahoma City in March, so I have some time to work out the details about how to find a bike there. Or how to ship my bike. I'm a little nervous about renting a bike and getting it to fit. Bike fit has been an important deal for me. So I'll have to learn a little about that. Now, if you have any thoughts on dropping into a city and finding a bike to use, let me know. We got an email from Wired Donkey Tours come into the Tacoma Washington Bicycle Club. The email promoted cycling in Romanian, Hungary. That sounded so cool, and I felt like I had to record a conversation with them. So here's my discussion with Peter Ealish. Welcome, Peter Ealish, to the podcast. You're here from Wired Donkey Tours, and I really thank you for joining me.

Peter Illés 4:00

Thank you, Tom. Thank you for having me.

Tom Butler 4:03

Yeah, one thing about the podcast is that I have this long list now of places that I want to go bike. And I'm positive that this conversation is going to add to that list. And I'm really excited to hear about your tour company and what you do. I I want to start out with having you talk about. Have you always been interested in cycling?

Peter Illés 4:25

I could say yes. It comes from the family. So I remember even when I was a smoke at, I don't know, five, six years old, I was already going on on you know a couple hours long bike tours with mom and dad. My mom is 70, I don't know, 74 this year, and she's still commuting by bike a lot. So uh so we're a biking family. And when I was a bit older, I think in in elementary school, I remember my brother going on mountain bike trips all the time. So it kind of stuck with me. Yeah.

Why Hungary And Romania

Tom Butler 5:02

So I think that's nice. I love it, you know, when families are cycling together. I love seeing families on bike trails and stuff. I think that's awesome. Tell us how Wired Donkey Donkey cycling tours came to be. What inspired you to start uh doing cycling tour tours? And uh and then of course, yeah. Talk about that name. Where's the the name come from?

Peter Illés 5:29

Right. I I'll get to the name, but I'm gonna try to answer the first part of the uh of the question first. So it's basically so on the one hand, I already mentioned my my passion for cycling and how it comes from the family, and on the other hand, whenever we went on holidays, we we went on holidays with uh a group of friends quite often, and it is always me who did all the planning and where what we have to see, where we have to sleep, all the logistics and everything behind it. It it was always done by me. And I at at one point I realized that okay, why not just combine these two things and do psychotours? And that's how it came to be. Actually, it's not my primary job, so it's it's sort of like uh another business. I have I run another business as well, so this is like um uh a side business, I could say, but a serious business. So but yeah, that's how it came to be. And about the name, it's actually wired donkey, is like a a playful term for for the bicycle here in in this area of Europe, because basically it's like a donkey, you sit on it and it's made of wire. So that's how a wire donkey came to be. It's it's it's translated name. We we killed in in Hungarian, you say drootsamar, which is the wire donkey. So and I think that kind of playfulness and witness also characterizes me in a way, so it felt fitting.

Tom Butler 6:55

Yeah, I love it. I I I think that's awesome, and I think it's also a cool picture of the bicycle, you know. There like donkey to me is kind of a working term, you know, the bicycle as a hardy device and as something that uh can carry you, and I I think wired donkey is wonderful.

Peter Illés 7:19

Well, if you think about it, yeah, we're talking about bike touring, but initially the bike was a working tool. So it's fitting, yeah.

Tom Butler 7:28

Yeah. Your tours focus on regions of Hungary and Romania, and we're talking to you from that region now. Tell me what makes these areas special for cycling.

Awareness And Expectations For Americans

Slow Cycling For Mature Riders

Peter Illés 7:42

Yes. So, first of all, why we're focusing on Hungary and Romania, I think it's it's it's worth speaking about as well. It's it's basically again, it stems from me, from my from personally from me, because I was born in Romania, but Romania, and especially the Transylvania area of Romania, has a very large Hungarian minority, and I'm one of that minority. So I was I'm a Hungarian born in Romania. I speak both languages, so it sort of stems from me, it comes from me, and these are the two countries that I know really well, so it made sense to focus on these countries, but they're very different. So Hungary and Romania is very different. Hungary, it's a very interesting fact. After the Denmark and the Netherlands, which are the two big, big cycling countries in Europe, Hungary has the biggest percentage of trips made by bike. So it's it's a third place in Europe, but it's not touring, it's it's mostly commuting. So there's a lot of people, especially in the rural areas, that are uh commuting by bike. And the infrastructure, the biking infrastructure in Hungary sort of reflects that. So there's a lot of bike paths from a village into the city to collect these people who are commuting in the morning. But the problem with this is that they're not connected. So all these bike paths are usually not connected between each other, the surfaces are not the best always. So it's not really suitable for you know for cycling without the guide. That set aside, Hungary is fantastic for for biking because it is just made for the relaxing kind of bike touring. It's almost every second or third uh town is a spa town. They have these thermal baths. So we have a lot of different wine regions, red wine regions, white wine regions. So it's just made for you know psyching slowly, taking a doubling, stopping for a bath, arriving at your you know, destination in the evening and grabbing a glass of wine. So that that's how Hungary should be experienced, I think. Romania, on the other hand, is is very different. It's very wild. I mean, it sounds cliche, but Romania is really like one of the last wildernesses of Europe. Especially if you go out on your gravel bike, you can hit the dirt trails and ride on them for hours and hours without seeing another human. So and when you get into a small hamlet or a village, you you're definitely going to be the attraction for the day. So it's it's very remote in some places. It's it's it's natural beauty as well as cultural and historical, so they're quite different, yeah, in that sense.

Tom Butler 10:38

When you bring Americans over, or when you're talking to Americans, do you think there's not much awareness of what Hungary and Romania have to offer for people?

Peter Illés 10:52

So I think they're I I think they're quite aware, to be honest, especially in Romania. Because a lot of people know Transylvania, of course, because from the movies and and from whatever, and they want to visit Transylvania, and they're they do a lot of research in my experience, so they're quite aware of how it's going to be. And I think that's also one of the reasons why they choose a guided tour, because uh they know there's no infrastructure, they they know it's it's going to be probably a bit more difficult to get around handling traffic, doing other logistics without a guide. So I in my experience, they're quite aware, maybe a bit less so about Hungary, because everybody just knows Budapest. And whenever you go outside of Budapest, it's it's it's very different. Uh, they're not always uh ready for that, but but definitely for Transylvania, they're quite aware of what to expect.

Tom Butler 11:47

I I asked that question because I think the Romanian wilderness, I think there would be a lot of people surprised, you know, to find the you know, just how picturesque it is pedaling through the Romanian wilderness. I I I've seen a few videos, and it's just like, wow, that is just amazing.

Peter Illés 12:14

Well, yeah, uh so maybe initially where they start Googling or chat GPTing nowadays about Romania, they might be surprised at first, but but by the time they get uh into discussions with me, I I they're quite prepared.

Tom Butler 12:30

Nice, I like it. Our podcast is focused on getting people active later in life, and I'm wondering if you have a philosophy when it comes to mature cyclists, yeah. How do you like balance challenge with comfort and enjoyment?

Peter Illés 12:50

Right. So, what what we do at Wairanaki Cycling Tours is basically slow cycling, that's how we define ourselves. When we do tours again, I think this comes from my personality as well, but I always like tours when there's a very strong mix of cycling and you know, just being outdoors, being in nature, and also there's a very strong culture and historical element. So, you know, I I love going to places where there's a story to tell, where there you can still observe some traditions being kept alive, where you can visit some artisans who still apply their trade like they did hundreds of years ago, and where there's you know lots of legends and lore that can be told. And Romania, especially the Transylvania region uh region, the Bukovina region, it it lends really well to this. And having so many stories to tell, places to show, means that even if you ride short distances in a day, you get a lot of breaks. So basically you can you know ride 40 kilometers and you know still be out for five or six six hours a day. So it's quite relaxing. There's there's a journey feeling to it, you know, it's just not just riding from point A to B. And mature audiences tend to resonate with that. And and most of my tours are people who are already retired and you know, just traveling to Europe maybe for a month or a month and a half and and doing uh a week-long trip in Transylvania in between.

Tom Butler 14:31

That's awesome. Uh uh to me, that's perfect. So walk us through a typical day. What does it look like from you know when you get up in the morning and and how does the day usually unfold?

Giving Back to the Community

Peter Illés 14:45

Yeah, so it's it's it's quite relaxing, to be honest. Uh there's there's never any rush on my tours. You get up, we have a common breakfast, usually everyone sitting together, then we start packing while everyone packs their bags. So me and my my I know what I never know what to call him, my help, who helps the group, the driver of the support vehicle and helps me with uh with all the different stuff. His his name's Robbie, so I just call him Robbie. Right. So when when when the group is still packing, we go head out, we uh look at the bikes, see if everything's in working condition, then we pack the uh the support vehicle, everybody can still have their second coffee by that time. Then we get on the bikes, ride for 40 minutes, an hour, stop at you know, a fortress or whatever, tell a story, ride another half an hour, stop again, and so on. Then we have lunch. Lunch is usually especially in Mitrus, we we tend to avoid restaurants and and you know stuff like that, and we rather do like we have this, there's a chain of of people, locals, who open their basically their their house and let you in and enjoy a meal. So they they cook for you. So it's we we we we like these places where you can actually taste some local, you know, whole cooked meal, warm meal. So you get a really good warm soup, some some nice, you know, second course, and and always a shot of shot of Romanian uh paninka, as they call it, which is a type of burp brandy. So yeah. Then we ride for another hour or two, and then we settle in at our lodging for the evening. We pop up uh, you know, open uh a bottle of wine and tell some more stories about the area. So super relaxing, slow travel.

Tom Butler 16:46

That's delightful. I love the aspect of like connecting with people and you know having people basically, you know, like you said, open their homes or you know, to provide food that they might cook for their family. I mean, that's I think that's a wonderful element.

Peter Illés 17:05

Yeah, definitely. Uh, we we like to so these tours are also giving back to the local communities. So it's a way of we travel rural areas usually, and these whatever we spend on these tours, on lodging, on food, a lot of that goes back to the local communities. So the guest houses we're staying in, we also, so I said we mentioned we we like to avoid restaurants, we also like to avoid big chain hotels or hotels in general, and rather stay at these local little guest houses, especially on our Saxon heritage trail uh tour. We stay in these old Saxon houses that have been renovated. So you can see how they lived. You can still go out in the in the barn in the back and and and and see how they looked. Look around the courtyard, it's still set up the same way, but they're restored. So on the inside, you have all the comforts that you need. And you know, that money spent on those guest houses goes back to local community. There's a foundation that operates these houses and all the proceeds. We go back to local communities and educational projects and restoring the church and stuff like that. So that's where we sleep and where we eat is also going directly into someone local, into their their their back pockets and not in a restaurant. Yeah.

Tom Butler 18:28

I love it. It sounds like people are very well uh people are very welcoming to open up and and be there for people. Is that is that part of it?

Peter Illés 18:41

Both Hungarians and Romanians are very, very famous for their hospitality. So yeah, definitely, most definitely.

Tom Butler 18:48

Nice. Uh let's talk about bikes and equipment. What kind of bikes are you providing?

Peter Illés 18:56

Right. So the kind of bikes we're offering also depends on the tour. So some of our tours are you know, we basically it's only road cycling, so we're on asphalt up to our mac roads. In that case, we can provide uh, you know, a drop handlebar road bike or flat bar touring bike. On some of our other tours, there's a lot more off-road, so gravel. So we don't really do mountain bike, but we do a lot of gravel tours. And on gravel tours, you can of course get a drop bar gravel bike, or you can get a mountain bike if you're more comfortable on that. And on both tours, there's always e-bikes options available. So touring e-bikes or or mountain e-mountain bikes as well, depending on the tour. So there's quite a big variety of bikes that we can provide.

Tom Butler 20:53

Have you thought about it? Maybe you do this? Is it what if somebody wanted a more challenging experience? Is that possible? Do you do you do any tours that are for people that maybe either off-road or or on tarmac want to want to challenge themselves?

Peter Illés 21:11

Yeah. So on our website, there's uh most of our tours are in the touring category. So those are shorter distances uh that everybody can handle. We have a couple more challenging tours. So we have the Epic Mountain Passes tour, which goes on the Transfugar Shana Transalpina, which are the two highest passes in Romania. So they're close to uh 2,000 meters in in height, and you do quite a lot of climbing there. And this is also a week-long tour, and uh daily distances are 80 kilometers plus, usually. So, and and you also have these two big mountain passes that you do during the tour, so that's that's that's a challenging road uh tour, and then we have yeah, we have a couple of gravel tours as well, where the distances might not be big, 40-50 kilometers, but quite a lot of uh technical bits and maybe even a pushbike on it. So, yeah, okay. And yeah, if somebody wants something even harder, there's always some custom tours that we can uh we can talk about. Yeah, we do custom tours as well.

Tom Butler 22:17

Okay. Now you uh I met you or got introduced to you because you sent a message to the Tacoma Washington Bicycle Club, and you just mentioned custom tours. So I'm thinking that if a club said, Hey, we've got X number of people that we'd like to bring over, then you could work with them and and really build something that the club wanted.

Peter Illés 22:41

Yeah, definitely. I'm I'm working on such a tour right now because one of the one of my groups from the past years, they want to come back, but they want to bring a lot more people. So when they were here, they were in a small group and now they want to come by 20 people. And they also want to do a two week long tour, which I don't normally do because most of my tours are six, seven days, and and now they want to come for 13 days. So that's that's a lot more logistics in it. But right now I'm designing a special custom tour for them. Yeah.

Tom Butler 23:08

It sounds like it becomes more difficult for this to just to just be a side thing if you're doing like two-week tours.

Peter Illés 23:19

Yeah. Fortunately, I I have a very flexible primary job, which is also my company, so I can just lean whenever I want.

Tom Butler 23:29

You're able to negotiate with the boss, I guess.

Peter Illés 23:32

Yeah, it's it's quite easy. That makes it easy. Yeah.

Tom Butler 23:38

Yeah, yeah. Some of our listeners might worry about like keeping up with the group or you know, holding the group back, things like that. Do you how how do you approach that question?

Experiencing People Achieving Goals

Peter Illés 23:49

Yeah, as I mentioned, it's all about slow cycling. It's about uh you know staking in the place more so than the you know, just uh pedaling from A to B. We always adjust our speed to the slowest person in the group. And if there's anyone who wants to run ahead, then they just come up to me, roll up to me and tell me, hey, where should I wait for you guys? And then I'm gonna give them the you know a point of interest or something that they can easily identify. And okay, you should go six miles to the cross on the right and wait for us there. And that's how we approach it usually. So it's so they don't have to, you know, if the speed is not enough for them, they can they can head on ahead for a couple of kilometers. Yeah.

Tom Butler 24:37

Someone said, you know, I I'm just not feeling good today. I maybe did it overdid it yesterday or something, and they they wanted to get transportation. Is that possible?

Peter Illés 24:49

Yeah, so we always have a support vehicle with us, which is you know, either a minibus or a van, depending on the size of the group. And if anybody feels sick, they're just out of it, or maybe then they can just opt for the support vehicle. Yeah.

Tom Butler 25:07

Nice. Can you share any stories, any experience you've had? I you know, particularly like older cyclists that come and and kind of surprise themselves. Uh, the have you experienced that?

Peter Illés 25:21

Yeah, uh, just my last tour uh last year. So it was a late September tour, and I had a lady uh from Colorado, and she was 80 years old. So right off the bat, it was it was super nice to have someone that I would on the tour. Uh but the tour they went on had a not really difficult, but it had a couple of off-road sections, gravel sections. And she didn't have any gravel or mountain biking experience before, and she was quite hesitant. So Romanian gravel is very different to US gravel. So US gravel, you have this, like you have on unbound and stuff like that. You have this big wide gravel road. So we call that Gucci gravel because it's it's so flat and asteroid. Yeah, Romanian gravel is more like uh dirt roads, tractor roads. So you have this big, you know, tractor, you know, on what do you call them? The little rots uh on both sides. So so you have need to have a bit of technique to not you know go in the rot and and hold over. And she was quite hesitant the first day. Uh it was a very short, I don't know, five kilometer gravel section, but she was a bit hesitant and and feeling uncomfortable about it. But I mean, by day five, she was absolutely flying through these, and I was yeah, she was an absolute trooper, and I was so proud of her. I mean, it was awesome to see how much she programs.

Good Times to Tour

Tom Butler 26:51

Yeah, love it, and I love Gucci Gravel. I'm going to use that from time to time, but I would have to say I like Gucci Gravel. So now, for someone who's never done uh multi-day cycling tours before, and this is their first experience. Do you have some recommendations? Do you have some observations about common mistakes that first timers make? Anything like that?

Peter Illés 27:22

You know, before each tour, we do have a video call with the people. So I I prepare them quite well on what to expect. But one common mistake they do is overpacking. So overpacking is is something that happens quite frequently, which usually isn't much of an issue, except for Robbie, who's in the support van and has to carry the bags. So but uh but yeah, you don't have to pack so much. Uh most of our tours uh we can do a laundry day in between, and you know, just we we send out a packing list actually a month before the tour. So if you go by the packing list, you should have no issues packing.

Tom Butler 28:04

And packing has a bit to do with weather and all that. Do you are there some times that are you know particularly good, other times that are particularly rainy or inclement? What's what's the climate like?

Benefits of a Guided Tour

Peter Illés 28:21

It's continental, so I guess it's it's quite similar to to most of the US, you know, not the extremes, so it's definitely not you know like Nevada hot or or I don't know anything in the north, you know, North Dakota code, but uh but yeah, I mean the best time for both countries, for Hungary and Romania as well. I think it's it's it's probably if the fall or Indian summer around that time, so late August to uh mid-October, that's probably the best, best season to go. Yeah, foliage is turning all kinds of colors, you get the sun still shining, temperatures are perfect. So that's the best time to write. Spring as well, temperature-wise, but it can get windy, especially in Hungary. Summers are actually the most popular, so most of my tools are in the summer, but it can get quite hot. So you need a lot of sun cream in the in the summer because it's just beating down on you. Yeah, so rainy, especially rainy, you can get rainy days in the spring. That happens, but yeah, you just have to dress up for it.

Tom Butler 29:35

Now I'm thinking that one of the benefits of going with you on a tour is there are like some hidden gems that you know about. And uh I'm wondering if you could give an example of that. What is what is something that you feel is just really awesome to go visit?

Peter Illés 29:56

So the benefits of going with a guide is we can tailor the tour to the group. So, for example, if I uh on the first day I I see that someone is bringing along their their big ass camera. Uh I I will I immediately know, okay, I have to show him this spot, this spot, this spot, because I know the good photo spots. I can tell him, okay, come with me, let's go up that hill. And that's where you have a gonna have a good photo spot. You know, I uh you know, we guys, we know the trails, so we know the hidden trails that are really good. We, you know, we can show you, for example, especially with mature groups, especially when there's a lot of older ladies, it's so interesting to bring them to see a couple of local artisans. So, for example, we were we often go to a lady who does weaving on a loom, and it's super interesting to see that for them. Other groups, especially there's a lot of uh male guests, we take them to blacksmiths and uh and then they can actually try try their hand at and that's missing. So we we can tailor the tours uh based on the group. We know all the hidden little wine cellars that are so you we don't go to the big commercial wine cellars, we go to the small mom and pop winemakers and stuff like that. So that's that's the advantage of of going on a guided trip, I I think.

Tom Butler 31:22

Are you still discovering places? Are there locals that are coming up to you and saying, hey, you know, you should maybe check this out? Or do you think at this point you you're very familiar with with things?

Peter Illés 31:38

We yes, we are still discovering things. And it's also interesting because uh a lot of things change from year to year. You know, I mean I mentioned Craftsman. There was an an old an old guy who was a brickmaker, and unfortunately two years ago he passed away. So, you know, you have to adapt and find something new uh to to fit in your your program. The roads, I mentioned dirt roads, tractor roads. One year it was here, and the next year it's a kilometer away because they they plow their fields in a different way. So we can get surprises from time to time. And we're also yeah, we're also discovering new things. So last year I found a new road that wasn't paved before. Now it's paved. It's awesome because now we can use it for our tour because we couldn't before. There's a new community of young people who just opened up an old uh mill, and now they're doing community lunches and stuff like that. So it's super interesting to do again.

Tom Butler 32:47

Yeah, that's fun, and I I'm surely appreciate you bringing a group of people to to help.

Peter Illés 32:54

Oh, they're that's why they do it, yeah.

Tom Butler 32:56

Yeah, yeah. Fantastic. How would you talk about experiencing wine country and and how it's different by bike than by car? Do you do you feel like there's some real quality differences there?

Peter Illés 33:15

Well, when when you're going to wine country with a car, there's always someone who's suffering because they can drink. So especially, especially on the bike, both Romania and then Hungary has tolerance for for drinking and cycling. So they have zero tolerance when drinking and driving, but nobody's gonna find you if you uh if you're uh you you had a glass or two of wine and you you ride your bike. So that's you know, the most uh so that's that's a functional reason, if I can say so. Other than that, I would say uh it's just had that feeling, you know, when you ride up the hill, because you know, wine cellars are always uphill, uh, you know, you're tired, you you know, you you lean your bike next uh to the brick wall of the cellar, you go inside, it's cool, it's it's chilly, you can cool down and you order a glass of Chardonnay and then sit outside on the terrace. I there's something about this feeling that you can't really get on the car. I don't know.

Tom Butler 34:17

Maybe it's just I can I totally can understand that. The other thing I think about, I like you have to respond to this, is it seems to me like you have a different relationship to your surroundings when you're going through at the speed of a bicycle. I'm thinking uh sometimes you're actually passing vineyards, and you know, there's like to me this different there's this ability to absorb more of just the whole the whole farming aspect or viticulture aspect of the winery that you're going to.

Peter Illés 34:55

Yeah, it it's I perfect I I absolutely agree with what you just said. I always found that that cycling is like the the ideal way of getting around. You know, walking, you just don't see enough. You you're not progressing fast enough. By car, you're going either going too fast or you're going in in a closed car. So you don't get the wind on your face, you don't get the smells of your surroundings which you get on a bike. So it makes it a lot more immersive. Yeah.

Tom Butler 35:25

So if someone's you know in their 60s, 70s, even 80, that's feeling hesitant about doing a bike tour, what would you say to them? What are what are some things that you would want them to know?

In the Right Hands

Peter Illés 35:40

Well, first of all, go for it. Because it's it's not about the speed. It's it's not about you know, yes, we do cycling tours, but to be honest, this the bike itself is is just a means of getting around. You know, it's we choose the bike because it's what's is connecting us, you know, it's a shared interest we like go uh cycling, but that's not what defines the tours. Think of it as as just a you know uh a European holiday. That you just so happen to do it on a bike. It's it's more about experiencing Europe, experiencing Transylvania, Hungary, rather than going on on a bike trip. Yeah. So if if you're hesitant, yeah, you probably won't go for our epic mountain passes tour because that's about the cycling, but most of our tours aren't necessarily about the cycling. That's just uh an additional bonus, if I can say so.

Tom Butler 36:39

I so I here here's what I'm hearing. You know, that I'm hearing that wild uh wired donkey tours, uh you have you're able to go with someone who is pulling a lot of things together. And so, you know, if you're 60s and 70s, if you've not ever been on a tour before, then you're putting yourself in the hands of somebody that really gets uh you know, having an egg a pleasant experience about you know, someone that understands the bicycle is a tool to experience an environment, to experience different things, to move at the pace of a bicycle, but also, you know, the experience of connecting with people who you know and knowing the right people who are welcoming. And so I just think, you know, as I'm talking to you, I just feel so much trust in you, Peter, you know, in like handing someone off and saying, hey, you're gonna be taken care of, you know, and uh, you know, he's got a Robbie who can take care of things, you know, and so you know, I think that's very important is to choose a tour operator that is really thinking about all the things that you've expressed here, giving back to the local community what people need, going, making it a relaxing experience for people who are seeking that kind of experience. So I I just feel like it'd be it's great to like introduce people to to wild donkey tours and to you.

Peter Illés 38:17

Yeah, well, thank you. Thank you. You you put it into words perfectly, I think. And what I would add to that is there's one thing that we didn't really touch upon, is that what we do is it's actually we only do small group cycling tours. So that's that's super important because all the things that you said, the way we the our philosophy, our our way of thinking about bike tours, it can only be done in small groups. So we intentionally limit our groups to four to eight people. So that's that's the way our standard tours are are best enjoyed. We can do custom tours that are over eight people, but then it's going to be a bit different. Yeah. But our standard tours to be able to offer this kind of experience, it needs to be limited to very small groups.

Tom Butler 39:04

That's awesome. So how do people get connected with you? What you know what what are some th what are the ways that people do that? Get connected to you.

Peter Illés 39:15

Well, always through my website. So you have to go to my website and from there you can send me a message, you can WhatsApp me directly from the website. So that's the best way to get in touch with me.

Tom Butler 39:31

And that's WiredonkeyTours.com. WireDonkeyTours.com, yeah. Yeah, and I'll put a link in the show notes to to where donkey.tours.com. How about learning more about Romania? Do you have some thoughts about where people can see some, you know, some images, some videos, things like that?

Peter Illés 39:57

Right. So we have an Instagram profile where you can get some images as well. To be perfectly honest, it's uh I should be a lot more active on social, but uh but you can still find a lot of images there. If you want, uh there's also plenty of images on the website, and we have uh a blog on our website which is called the Dunkey blog. You can go on Dunkey blog, and there's plenty of resources about Romania, not necessarily only for people who want to come on one of our guided tours, but also for other people. The way we think about our blog is it being a resource for everyone who wants to enjoy Romanian Hungary by bike. So it can be people who go on a self-guided tour who are bikepacking, who won't even consider going on a commercial tour. They can still find a lot of, I hope, useful information on our website about routes, bike safety, how to avoid bears, stuff like that.

Tom Butler 40:54

Yeah, you just said something there uh about bike packing. Right. And I'm wondering if you have ever considered or if you would consider like not having a Robbie, having a group of people that are self-supporting, going out for a few days of camping. Is that something you've done or thought about doing?

Wrap Up

Peter Illés 41:17

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Uh that's something uh I'm thinking about adding maybe in the future. I I'm saying I'm I I I have a couple of routes already planned without all the logistics, but the routes are there, especially in Hungary. Hungary lends itself maybe a bit better to this than Romania, because Romania is, you know, you can have encounters with bears. So it's it's a bit risky taking a bigger group, maybe. But but definitely in Hungary around Lake Boloton, which is our big lake, uh, you can really go on a go on a really, really nice bikeworking trip. Yeah.

Tom Butler 41:56

Well, I'm excited. I'm I'm excited to follow Wired Donkey. You know, again, it's I knew it would happen. I mean, it that that trip just has to be on my list of things that I I want to do. I need to take that. I I don't know how to have the time to do all the things that I want to do, but yeah, it just sounds wonderful. Thank you, Peter, for taking the time to come on and and talking about your tours and about the area and all those things. I've really appreciated hearing from you.

Peter Illés 42:26

I appreciate you having me. Thank you.

Tom Butler 42:29

Yeah. Take care now.

Peter Illés 42:31

Okay, take care. Bye.

Tom Butler 42:42

I don't think there's anything more appealing to me than the thought of riding around the countryside in Hungary and enjoying the hospitality of the local people. Unfortunately for me, I've got so many trips I want to take, and Wild Donkey Tours is going to have to wait. But that conversation with Peter really sparked my imagination. I hope some of you listening will be able to put together a group of four to eight people and do one of their tours. Now, if you do, be sure to reach out. I would love to have you on the podcast to talk about your experience. I recently did a very memorable ride, joining with the others to honor Alex Brady. I experienced a wonderful sense of community during that ride. I think it is a special element of the bicycle. I hope you are also finding that kind of community with your cyclist. And remember, A test is just a girl.