I visited this WHS using Tulcea as my base for a couple of days. I took a private tour with one of the several companies, with a certified birder/guide on board, for a full day exploring just a few highlights of this vast WHS. When dealing with the company, make sure to opt for the earliest departure time possible, as most bird activity happens around sunrise and again around sunset. I paid a bit extra to make sure to cover both periods of the day, without any lunch stops and it was worth it.

Make sure to turn off your data roaming already from Tulcea as Ukraine is really close by and you'll risk paying high data bills for nothing. I also printed out a zoomed in version of the excellent map provided by UNESCO to be able to follow our trip and know which strict zones we were covering and which we were only passing by. Sometimes, some of the smaller canals/passages were blocked by fallen down trees and vegetation, so we had to find alternative routes. Having a smaller yet quicker boat was an excellent choice for covering more ground and fine birdwatching (my guide would turn off the engines when approaching big flocks of birds or areas known as great habitats for smaller birds.

Some highlights were dozens of kingfishers in the narrow canals with shallow muddy banks, huge flocks of glossy ibis, spoonbills and pelicans (mostly Great White Pelicans but also Dalmatian Pelicans) near the mangroves and the several plankton filled lakes: Raddelnos, Tataru, Lung, Mester, Furtuna, Alb, Nistpos, Martin, Babina, Matita, Merhei, Lumina, Nebunu, Rosca and Raducului, the latter three definitely being within strict zones, which we could not cross, but we could zoom into with our binoculars and zoom lenses. There were several types of herons, sea eagles, orioles in healthy numbers, not necessarily sticking to the strict zones. Some were seen closer to the few Lipovan fisherman or Romanian recreational fishermen, including the famous pelicans so unlike Bulgaria's Srebarna, which requires time and stamina (while hiking and bearing mosquito bites), the Danube Delta in Romania is great for ticking its more famous avifauna from a closer distance. Most of the lakes were also full of frogs. All in all, during our trip we covered mostly areas 1-4 and 17 on the UNESCO WHS map.

The Danube Delta is the second largest delta in Europe after the Volga delta and together with Spain's Donana National Park, is perhaps the best birdwatching paradise left in Europe with such a vast area. Human activity and pollution are major challenges, although the area is really big and after the first 20-30 minutes of navigation away from the main passageways, the smaller canals and lakes have a lot of avifauna to offer. The landscape and scenery can be quite monotonous or boring for non-birdwatchers, especially towards the second part of the day, when you have spotted most if not all of the main species. So the bigger group tours with lunch stops should be considered if you're not so keen on birds. In Tulcea, there is a small run-down World Heritage Office with a couple of information boards, leaflets and a sign mentioning WH status, just by the main jetty. Tulcea wasn't the best of places I visited in Romania but hopefully the numerous construction and "embellishment" projects will help improve the overall situation. If you have more time to spare, by all means avoid Tulcea altogether and venture further inside the Danube Delta proper, although then you're surely more prone to suffer from mosquito activity!