What is this all about?
The Budapest-Chernobyl Run is created by the same adventurous team of traveling organizers that brought you the Rickshaw Challenge, the Caucasian Challenge, and the Trans Sahara Run. This rally is an adventure of your own making. Though all participants will start as a group and finish as a group, the journeys of each day are unwritten in any rule book, guide book, or on any map. You are free to explore. Across the bridges of Budapest, up to the doors of Romanian castles, over the Carpathian Mountains, across the Gagauzia region of Moldova, into the breakaway republic of Transnistria, through the Ukrainian countryside and onto the scene of the most devastating accident of the 20th century, you will discover the mysterious spirit of Eastern Europe, build your own stories, and expand your own horizons.
Parts of your journey will be easy. Other parts will be quite challenging. The wonderfully fascinating people you meet in the cities and towns may be quite the opposite of the unpleasant border guards you will have to encounter. The beautiful valleys, scenic mountaintops, and breathtaking valleys will require driving on icy, snowy back roads to see. The remnants and displays of Soviet architecture will be fascinating, while the precautious you will need to take at Chernobyl will be serious.
Your greatest assets on this journey are yourself, your team member, and your combined knowledge, skills, talents, and ideas. This is a true adventure, greatly separated from the ideals of a tour. Your freedom to explore is also your liability to succeed. By day’s end, after completing your own unique journey, we guarantee that the stories that will be told among teammates and each of the teams over the hard drinks of Eastern Europe will be unforgettable.
What is the concept?
Despite the nature of minimal assistance in the Budapest-Chernobyl Run, we understand that the unfamiliar, though exciting, can also be tricky. For that reason, event organizers will create daily and previously-scouted routes as well as information you will find important towards preparing for your adventure. We will organize your sleeping arrangements in guesthouses and hotels, assist you with determining costs, and make sure that all necessary information is available to you. In fact, the Budapest-Chernobyl Run will have its own unique Road Book that will detail important information about possible dangers, useful hints, border crossing suggestions, and recommendations about places to see. Together, we can visit wineries, vodka and Kalashnikov factories, and even see the last hospital for leprosy in Europe. Of course, just before the Closing Party, we will take an official tour of Chernobyl and Pripyat. However, the organization and arrangement of your journey is entirely up to you. If you’re an independent traveler with a sense of adventure, discovery, and the desire to see something different, the Budapest-Chernobyl Run is for you. This is an incredible opportunity to experience the unknown, the extraordinary, and the true definition of escape.
Why are we doing this?
We go outside the usual vacation spots and leave the safety of our normal lives behind to do what all great explorers have done: discover. It doesn’t particularly matter what we’re discovering, whether it’s a new culture, cuisine, personal revelation or just what the toilets look like in a new country. But discovering new things, meeting new people and being alive in completely unexpected ways is the thing that drives us to make it through long work weeks (or months) with a sparkle in our eye. We know how liberating and intense a journey like this can be. Perhaps, like us you’ve already caught the bug.
