Beautiful and beguiling, Romania’s rural landscape remains relatively untouched by the country’s urban evolution. It’s a land of aesthetically stirring hand-ploughed fields, sheep-instigated traffic jams, and lots of homemade plum brandy.
Most visitors focus their attention on Transylvania, with its legacy of fortified Saxon towns like Braşov and Sighişoara, plus tons of stirring natural beauty. Similar in character but even more remote, the region of Maramureş offers authentic folkways and villages marked by memorable wooden churches. Across the Carpathians, the Unesco-listed painted monasteries dot southern Bucovina. The Danube Delta has more than 300 species of birds, including many rare varieties, and is an ideal spot for birdwatching.
Energetic cities like Timişoara, Cluj-Napoca and, especially, Bucharest offer culture -- both high- and low-brow -- and showcase Romania as a rapidly evolving modern European country.
COUNTRY FACTS
Area 237,500 sq km
Capital Bucharest
Country code 40
Currency Romanian leu
Emergency 112
Language Romanian
Money ATMs are abundant
Population 20 million
Visas Not required for citizens of the EU, USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand
ACCOMMODATION
Romania has a wide choice of accommodation to suit most budgets, including hotels, pensions and private rooms, hostels and camping grounds. Prices are generally lower than in Western Europe.
Budget properties include hostels, camping grounds and cheaper guesthouses. Midrange accommodation includes three-star hotels and pensions. Top-end means fancy hotels, corporate chains and boutiques.
MONEY
The currency is the leu (plural: lei), noted in this guide as 'lei'. One leu is divided into 100 bani. Banknotes come in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, 200 and 500 lei. Coins come in 50 and 10 bani.
Romania is a member of the European Union, but the euro is not used here.
ATMs are nearly everywhere and give 24-hour withdrawals in lei on a variety of international bank cards. Romanian ATMs require a four-digit PIN.
The best place to exchange money is at a bank. You can also change money at a private exchange booth (casa de schimb), but be wary of commission charges.
International credit and debit cards are widely accepted at hotels, restaurants and shops in cities. In rural areas, you'll need cash.
ESSENTIAL FOOD & DRINK
Romanian food borrows heavily from its neighbours, including Turkey, Hungary and the Balkans, and is centred on pork and other meats. Farm-fresh, organically grown fruits and vegetables are in abundance, lending flavour and colour to a long list of soups and salads. Condiments typically include sour cream, garlic sauce and grated sheep's cheese, used to flavour everything from soup to the most common side dish: polenta.
Mămăligă Cornmeal mush, sometimes topped with sour cream or cheese.
Ciorbă Sour soup that's a mainstay of the Romanian diet.
Sarmale Spiced meat wrapped in cabbage or grape leaves.
Covrigi Oven-baked pretzels served warm from windows around town.
Ţuică Fiery plum brandy sold in water bottles at roadside rest stops.
AIR
Given the poor state of the roads, flying between cities is feasible if time is a concern. The Romanian national carrier Tarom (%021-204 6464;www.tarom.ro) operates a comprehensive network of domestic routes. The airline flies regularly between Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca, Iaşi, Oradea, and Timişoara.
BUS
A mix of buses and maxitaxis form the backbone of the national transport system. If you understand how the system works, you can move around easily and cheaply, but finding updated information without local help can be tough. The website www.autogari.ro is a helpful online timetable.
CAR & MOTORCYCLE
Roads are crowded and in poor condition. There are only a few stretches of motorway (autostrada), meaning most travel is along two-lane national highways (drum naţional) or secondary roads. When calculating times, figure on 50km per hour.
Western-style petrol stations are plentiful. A litre of unleaded 95 octane costs about 6.20 lei. Most stations accept credit cards.
Train
Romania is integrated into the European rail grid with decent connections to Western Europe and neighbouring countries. Trains arrive at and depart from Bucharest's main station, Gara de Nord.
Budapest is the main rail gateway from Western Europe. There are three daily direct trains between Budapest and Bucharest (13 hours), with regular onward direct connections from Budapest to Prague, Munich and Vienna.
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