Romania Travel Tips and Insider Guides

Romania’s mountainous interior, home to the Transylvanian Alps, has some of the most fascinating rural communities in Europe, where the taxis are horse-drawn, the locals dress in traditional attire, and the cemeteries and monasteries are painted with brilliant shades of blue and red. Romania’s Black Sea coast is noted for having the purest white sand in Europe, and the capital of Bucharest is a modern city with some of the most important museums in Romania, including The Museum of the Romanian Peasant and The Village Museum. Romania, the second largest country in Eastern Europe, is slightly smaller than Oregon, but it’s extraordinarily dynamic. Here are tips to help guide you on your trip to Romania.

 Romania borders Bulgaria, Ukraine, Serbia, Hungary, Moldova, and Ukraine, and the Black Sea composes most of the eastern border. The Transylvanian Alps, also known as the Southern Carpathians, run through the center of the country, where there are budget-friendly ski resorts. The Moldavian Plateau composes the northeastern portion of the country, and the Moldavia region of Romania is strongly Russian influenced. The Danube Delta, the second largest delta in Europe, connects the Moldavian Plateau to the Black Sea. To get around the Danube Delta, you’ll need to rent a boat, and accommodations range from campsites to luxury apartments and floating hotels.       

If you travel south to the bustling seaside resort town of Constanta, one of the most important resort towns on the Black sea, the old wooden windmills in the Danube Delta will seem downright archaic. But don’t go in the winter: almost no one lives there year round. Mamaia is a nearby resort town noted for its white sand.      Romania’s large cities include Cluj-Napoca, Bucharest, and Sibiu, which was named the European Capital of Culture in 2007 for its idyllic squares, architecture, and winding streets. Cluj-Napoca is a university city with a great nightlife.      

Hiking is very popular, and sometimes mandatory. Romania’s smallest and most beautiful towns are hard to access, and many locals and travelers hitchhike to get around. The Bucovina and Maramure? regions are very rural, with great B&Bs. Sighetu Marmatiei serves as a good base in Maramure?, and the town of Sapanta, noted for its painted cemeteries, cannot be missed.      

Then, of course, there are the beautiful castles of Transylvania, including the Bran Castle, which is “the Dracula castle.” The castle is creepy, perched at the top of steep cliffs, but it is important to note, as travel writer Avi Davis does in his famous article The Undead Travel, almost no one in Romania has ever heard of Dracula.      

The official language of Romania is Romanian, and English is rare outside of the large cities and touristy locations. The official currency is the New Leu, and ATMs are the best way to get money. Trains are notorious for being slow and late, but they are adequate transportation for long distances. Buses and cars are good methods for touring the country. Cars require a Rovinieta, a road tax sticker, and you will get fined if you do not have one.