Romania Travel Guide: Plan Your Trip, Costs and Customs

Romania is a large, cheap, mountainous country in southeastern Europe that uses the leu rather than the euro, joined the Schengen area in full on 1 January 2025, and takes about ten days to see properly. This guide covers the regions, how to get there and around, what to pack, when to go, what to eat, what things cost, and the customs and rules worth knowing before you land.

Romania sits on the Black Sea between Bulgaria to the south, Serbia to the southwest, Hungary to the west, Ukraine to the north and Moldova to the east. It covers 238,397 km² (92,046 sq mi), which makes it the largest country in southeastern Europe, and the Carpathian Mountains run through it in an arc from the north down to the southwest, dividing Transylvania from the rest. Its resident population was 19.041 million on 1 January 2026. It has been in NATO since 2004 and the European Union since 2007.

Every price here is in lei, converted at 1 euro = 5.25 lei, 1 US dollar = 4.52 lei and 1 pound = 6.11 lei, the rate on 11 September 2026.

Romania quick facts

The facts you need before booking anything are listed below.

• Size. 238,397 km² (92,046 sq mi), the twelfth largest country in Europe.
• People. 19.041 million resident population on 1 January 2026, falling year on year.
• Capital. Bucharest, 1.72 million people at the 2021 census.
• Government. A semi-presidential republic. The president is head of state and the prime minister is head of government.
• National day. 1 December, marking the 1918 union of Transylvania with Romania.
• Time zone. Eastern European Time, UTC+2, and Eastern European Summer Time, UTC+3, from late March to late October. Romania does change its clocks.
• Currency. The Romanian leu, plural lei, code RON. Not the euro, and euros are not generally accepted.
• Power. 230 V, 50 Hz, Type C and Type F sockets, the two round pins used across continental Europe. If your devices do not fit, pack a universal adapter.
• Religion. Freedom of religion. Most Romanians identify as Eastern Orthodox, with Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, Reformed and Muslim minorities, the last concentrated in Dobrogea.
• Language. Romanian, a Romance language. English is widely spoken by younger people and in tourism, less so in villages.
• Driving. On the right. An International Driving Permit is recommended alongside your home license.
• Phone code. +40.
• Vaccinations. None required for entry from the EU, UK, US, Canada or Australia.
• Tap water. Drinkable in cities and towns, so carry a reusable water bottle rather than buying plastic. In remote villages on well water, ask.

Romania’s regions

Romania has six historical regions, which do not match the administrative counties but are how Romanians actually describe where they are from. The 6 regions are listed below.

1. Transylvania

Transylvania is the plateau inside the arc of the Carpathians in central Romania, and it holds the country’s most complete medieval towns. Transylvania was settled from the 12th century by German colonists, the Saxons, who built seven walled towns and hundreds of fortified churches, and it was under Hungarian and then Habsburg rule until 1918, which is why it looks different from the rest of the country.

The towns are the reason to come: Brasov under Mount Tampa, Sibiu with its eyebrow windows, Sighisoara’s inhabited citadel, and Cluj-Napoca, the student city in the north. Bran Castle near Brasov draws the Dracula traffic, particularly in late October when you can celebrate Halloween there. West of the plateau, the Apuseni Mountains hold several thousand caves, including the Scarisoara ice cave and Bear’s Cave.

2. Banat and Crisana

Banat and Crisana make up western Romania along the Hungarian and Serbian borders, and they are the most central-European corner of the country. Banat runs south from the Mures river to the Serbian border and Crisana north of it to the Hungarian one, named for the three Cris rivers that cross it.

Timisoara is the region’s city and was European Capital of Culture in 2023, with three linked squares of Habsburg and Secession architecture and the churches where the 1989 revolution began. Oradea in Crisana has one of the densest collections of Art Nouveau buildings anywhere in Europe, restored over the last decade. The Bihor Mountains behind them hold Bear’s Cave, whose fossil deposits are why it has that name.

3. Bucovina and Moldavia

Bucovina and Moldavia cover the east and northeast of Romania, between the Carpathians and the Prut river on the Moldovan border. Moldavia was an independent principality under Stephen the Great in the 15th century, and southern Bucovina was Habsburg from 1775 to 1918, which left the two halves looking different.

The painted monasteries of Bucovina are the draw and they are on the UNESCO World Heritage list: Voronet, Sucevita, Moldovita, Humor and Arbore, built in the 15th and 16th centuries with their exterior walls frescoed from foundation to roof. Voronet’s blue is the one people travel for. Iasi, the regional capital, has the 365-room Palace of Culture and more churches than any other Romanian city. Do not confuse Romanian Moldavia with the neighboring country of Moldova.

4. Dobrogea

Dobrogea is the region between the lower Danube and the Black Sea, and it is the oldest inhabited and most ethnically mixed part of Romania. Ottoman rule lasted here until 1878, four centuries longer than anywhere else, and Turkish, Tatar, Lipovan Russian, Greek and Aromanian communities still live in it.

The Danube Delta at its northern end is a UNESCO biosphere reserve of about 580,000 hectares of reed islands and channels, reached from Tulcea and seen properly only by boat. Constanta is the port city and the country’s oldest, founded as Greek Tomis, with Roman mosaics, a restored Belle Epoque casino and the beaches at Mamaia running north from it. Inland are the Roman monument at Adamclisi and the Murfatlar vineyards.

5. Maramures

Maramures is the far north of Romania, on the Ukrainian border, and it is where rural life has changed least. The valleys hold wooden churches with shingled spires, eight of them UNESCO-listed, built without nails and standing 50 m or more, alongside carved gates and haystacks that are still made by hand.

The Merry Cemetery at Sapanta is the sight the region is known for: painted blue grave markers carved with a verse about each person’s life, often wryly, started by the woodcarver Stan Ioan Patras in the 1930s. The Mocanita, a narrow-gauge steam railway up the Vaser valley, still runs. Come for a few days and stay in a village guesthouse rather than treating it as a day trip.

6. Wallachia

Wallachia is the southern plain between the Carpathians and the Danube, and it holds Bucharest. The principality was founded in the 14th century and ruled by, among others, Vlad III, whose seat was at Targoviste and whose real fortress was Poenari, above the Arges valley.

Bucharest is the country’s capital and largest city, with the Palace of the Parliament, the Athenaeum, the Village Museum and an Old Town of churches and inns. North of it the Prahova valley runs up into the mountains past Sinaia and the royal castle at Peles, and west of that the Transfagarasan road climbs over the Fagaras range. A few activities in and from Bucharest are worth booking ahead: Day trip to Brasov and Dracula’s Castle, Skip-the-line entrance to the Bucharest parliament and A private walking tour of Bucharest’s Old Town.

For a longer list of cities and how they connect, start from our guide to Romania’s destinations.

How to travel to Romania

Entry requirements

You need a passport valid for at least three months beyond your intended departure to enter Romania, and citizens of the US, Canada, Australia, the UK and the EU do not need a visa for stays of up to 90 days in any 180-day period. Romania is a full member of the Schengen area: air and sea border checks were lifted on 31 March 2024 and land border checks on 1 January 2025.

That change matters more than it sounds. Arriving from another Schengen country there is now no passport control at all, and the 90-day allowance counts against the whole Schengen area rather than Romania alone, so time already spent in France or Germany comes off it. The EU’s Entry/Exit System affects non-EU nationals crossing external Schengen borders, so check the current rules for your nationality before you fly.

Getting to Romania by train and bus

Romania is reachable by rail and coach from across central Europe, and the Budapest route is the practical one. Trains run from Budapest to Arad and Oradea in around four hours and on to Cluj-Napoca, Brasov and Bucharest, with night trains and couchettes on the longer legs. Coaches run from Hungary, Austria, Germany, Italy and Ukraine, are cheaper and slower, and reach towns the trains do not.

Domestic rail is run by CFR and is cheap, scenic and slow, with InterRegio the fastest class. Long-distance coaches are often faster than the train between the same two cities. Check train and coach routes and fares into Romania on Omio before assuming which one wins on your route.

Getting to Romania by ferry and river

There is no passenger ferry service to Romania across the Black Sea, and the ferries that exist are local Danube crossings between Romania and Bulgaria, such as Bechet to Oriahovo. River cruises are the real option: Danube itineraries from Germany, Austria and Hungary run downstream to the Iron Gates, the Romanian bank and in some cases as far as the Delta.

Flying to Romania

Bucharest Henri Coanda (OTP) is the main airport and takes most long-haul and European traffic, 16 km (9.9 miles) north of the city. Cluj-Napoca Avram Iancu (CLJ) is the second busiest and the practical gateway to Transylvania; Timisoara Traian Vuia (TSR) serves the west; Iasi (IAS) the northeast; and Brasov-Ghimbav (GHV), which opened in June 2024, puts you 30 minutes from Bran Castle.

Low-cost airlines fly to all of them from western Europe, and fares are lowest outside July and August. Check flight options and prices to Romania across carriers before fixing your dates, because a flight into Cluj or Brasov can save a day of ground travel over flying into Bucharest.

How to travel around Romania

Romania has a dense rail and bus network between towns and very little of it in the mountains and villages, which is the whole of the transport problem in one sentence. Trains connect every major city and are cheap, but they are slow: Bucharest to Cluj takes around eight hours for 450 km. Maxi-taxis, privately run minibuses that look like small buses, cover the routes between towns and villages that the railway misses.

In cities, buses, trams, trolleybuses and, in Bucharest, the metro all run on stored-value transport cards rather than paper tickets, and a single trip in Bucharest costs 3 lei (about €0.60, $0.65, £0.50) on the surface network or 7 lei (about €1.35, $1.55, £1.15) including the metro. Bolt and Uber work in the larger cities and are the sane alternative to street taxis.

For Maramures, Bucovina’s monasteries, the Apuseni caves and the Transfagarasan, a car is close to essential. Roads in the mountains are narrow and slow, secondary roads are uneven, and horse carts and stray dogs both still appear on them, so build in more time than the map suggests. Compare rental car prices with DiscoverCars rather than booking at the airport desk, and take an automatic only if you book it well ahead, because manuals are the default.

What to pack for Romania

Romania has a temperate continental climate with four distinct seasons, hot summers and cold winters, and what you pack depends entirely on which one you get. Southern and eastern Romania run to 30-35°C (86-95°F) in July and August and around 0 to -5°C (32 to 23°F) in January, while the mountains are cooler in summer and considerably colder in winter, with snow from December into mid-March. Rain falls year round and spring is usually the driest stretch.

What to pack for Romania in summer

• sunglasses and a hat
• light clothing, plus one layer for mountain evenings
• sunscreen
• a light raincoat
• comfortable walking or hiking shoes
• something to cover your shoulders and knees for monasteries and churches, like this pashmina
• a re-usable water bottle
• good walking sandals

What to pack for Romania in winter

• merino wool base layers
• merino wool socks
• merino wool leggings
• a warm, windproof and waterproof coat, because Carpathian wind matters more than the temperature reading
• snow boots
• gloves and a hat
• a warm scarf
• a re-usable water bottle

What to pack for Romania in autumn and spring

• sneakers or light walking boots
• a lightweight, warm, water-resistant jacket
• layers, because a 20°C day and a 5°C evening are normal in the same week
• a re-usable water bottle

The best time to visit Romania

The best time to visit Romania is May, June, September or early October, when the weather is mild, the country is green or turning, and prices and crowds are lower than in high summer. May and June suit Transylvania, the monasteries and the mountains; September suits the Black Sea, when the water is still warm and Mamaia has emptied.

July and August are for the coast and the festivals, and they are hot, busy and dearer. Ski season in the Carpathians runs from roughly December to March, centered on Poiana Brasov, Sinaia and Predeal. Late October is worth a look for the Halloween program at Bran, and December for the Christmas markets in Sibiu, Brasov, Bucharest, Oradea and Craiova.

What to eat in Romania

Romanian food is built on pork, cornmeal, sour soups, sheep’s cheese and preserved vegetables, and it is heavy, cheap and good. The 10 dishes to order are listed below.

• Sarmale. Minced pork and rice rolled in pickled cabbage or vine leaves and slow-cooked, served with mamaliga and sour cream. The national dish.
• Ciorba. Sour soups, soured with bors, a fermented wheat bran liquid. Ciorba de burta with tripe and garlic, ciorba radauteana with chicken, ciorba de fasole served in a bread loaf.
• Mici or mititei. Skinless grilled sausages of beef, pork and lamb with garlic, ordered by the piece with mustard and bread.
• Mamaliga. Cornmeal polenta, soft under stews or firm in slices, and the base of half of Romanian cooking.
• Bulz. Mamaliga baked with sheep’s cheese and topped with bacon or a fried egg, which is what shepherds eat and what mountain guesthouses cook.
• Salata de vinete. Roasted eggplant mashed with oil and onion, eaten cold on bread, almost always on the table.
• Sorici. Pork rind, boiled or raw with garlic and salt. An acquired taste that Romanians will enjoy watching you acquire.
• Varza a la Cluj. Layered cabbage, minced meat and rice baked with sour cream, the Transylvanian answer to sarmale.
• Papanasi. Fried cheese doughnuts topped with sour cream and sour cherry jam, two to a plate. The default dessert and enough for two people.
• Cozonac. Sweet yeasted bread rolled with walnuts, cocoa or Turkish delight, baked for Christmas and Easter and sold year round.

Wine is the drink to pay attention to. Romania is one of Europe’s larger wine producers and its own grapes, Feteasca Neagra, Feteasca Alba, Tamaioasa and Grasa de Cotnari, are worth ordering over the international varieties. Tuica and palinca, plum and fruit spirits, are what you will be handed in a village, usually before breakfast.

Famous events in Romania

Romania’s festival calendar peaks between May and September. The 8 to plan around are listed below, with the months rather than dates, because dates move every year and the organizer’s own site is the one to check.

• Untold, Cluj-Napoca, early August. Romania’s largest music festival, four days across multiple stages in and around Cluj Arena and Central Park.
• Electric Castle, near Cluj, July. Four days of mixed genres in the grounds of the Banffy castle at Bontida.
• Sibiu International Theatre Festival, June. One of the largest performing arts festivals in Europe, filling the city for a week and a half.
• Sighisoara Medieval Festival, late July. Reenactment, crafts, music and street performance in the UNESCO citadel, running since 1992.
• George Enescu International Festival, Bucharest, September of odd-numbered years. Three weeks of orchestras, recitals and competitions centered on the Athenaeum, and the reason Bucharest hotels fill that month.
• Art Safari, Bucharest, spring and autumn editions. The country’s largest art event, in a different landmark building each time.
• Romanian Design Week, Bucharest, May. Architecture, product design, graphics and fashion across the creative quarters.
• The Christmas markets, late November to early January. Sibiu’s is the oldest and largest, with Bucharest, Brasov, Oradea, Timisoara and Craiova all running their own.

Public holidays in Romania

Romania has 16 public holidays in 2026, and banks, offices and many small shops close on all of them. The dates are listed below.

Two of these catch visitors out. Orthodox Easter usually falls on a different Sunday from Western Easter, so check the year you are traveling. And 6 and 7 January became public holidays only recently, so older guides list 14 rather than 16.

Cultural customs to know in Romania

Romanians are direct, hospitable and quick to feed you, and the customs worth knowing are mostly about what not to assume. The 5 are listed below.

• Do not mix up Bucharest and Budapest. It is the single most reliable way to annoy a Romanian, and it happens constantly.
• Do not assume anyone believes in vampires. Dracula tourism is a business Romanians run with their eyes open, not a folk belief. Mentioning that you know Bran Castle was never Vlad’s home will get you further than the opposite.
• Do not assume Romanians speak Russian. Romanian is a Romance language and the usual school foreign languages are English, French and German.
• Cover up in churches and monasteries. Shoulders and knees covered for both men and women, and in some monasteries women are asked to wear a skirt, which the monastery will lend you at the gate.
• Take the drink and the food. Refusing tuica or a second helping in a village house reads as a rebuff. Accept a small amount rather than declining.

Politics, the Roma minority and the 1989 revolution are all topics Romanians discuss among themselves with some heat, so follow rather than lead on them.

Where to stay in Romania

Accommodation in Romania is cheap by western European standards and the range is wider than the hotel category suggests. Cities have everything from hostels to international five-star hotels. The countryside runs on pensiuni, family-run guesthouses, which are often the better experience in Maramures, Bucovina and the Carpathians, and frequently include a home-cooked dinner.

Filter for what you actually need rather than the star rating: location, breakfast, parking if you are driving, and heating if you are traveling between November and March. Check availability and prices across Romania on Booking.com, and when you want more space or a kitchen, look for an apartment on Vrbo. In the mountains, book ahead for weekends: Romanians travel domestically and the good guesthouses go first.

Travel insurance for Romania

Travel insurance matters in Romania because the public health system is uneven outside the big cities and private clinics expect payment up front. EU and UK visitors should carry an EHIC or GHIC, which covers state-provided emergency care, but it does not cover repatriation, private treatment or a cancelled trip.

Anyone hiking, skiing or driving in the Carpathians should check that mountain rescue and winter sports are included rather than excluded, because they usually sit outside a basic policy. Cover for stolen electronics is worth having in Bucharest and on the coast in summer.

Basic Romanian phrases

Romanian is a Romance language, so if you have any Italian, Spanish or French you will recognize more than you expect. The phrases worth learning are listed below.

Is Romania safe to travel to?

Yes, Romania is a safe country to travel in, with low rates of violent crime and no unusual risk to visitors. The problems are the ordinary ones: pickpocketing in crowded places in Bucharest and on the coast in summer, and overcharging by unregistered taxis, which Bolt and Uber solve.

Three things are genuinely worth planning around. Driving is the main hazard, because secondary roads are uneven, overtaking on two-lane roads is aggressive and mountain roads ice over. Stray dogs remain a presence outside the cities, so give them distance and do not feed them. And the Carpathians hold Europe’s largest brown bear population outside Russia, so keep to marked trails at dawn and dusk, store food properly and never approach one for a photograph.

Cash and cards in Romania

Cards are accepted almost everywhere in Romanian cities, towns and motorway services, and contactless is standard, so you do not need much cash. Visa and Mastercard work universally; American Express is patchy outside hotels.

Carry some lei anyway. Village shops, small markets, church donation boxes, some guesthouses and the occasional rural fuel station are cash only, and ATMs thin out quickly away from towns. Withdraw from a bank’s own ATM rather than an independent machine in a tourist area, and always decline the machine’s offer to convert to your home currency, which is where the poor rate hides. Euros are not a second currency here and paying in them costs you money.

Calling, WiFi and data in Romania

Romania is in the EU, so an EU or UK SIM roams here without extra charge under the roam-like-at-home rules, and coverage is good, including in most of the mountains. WiFi is free and fast in cafes, hotels and guesthouses throughout the country.

If you are coming from outside Europe, an eSIM is cheaper and simpler than a local SIM or roaming. Check out Airalo, which sells data plans that install on the phone rather than a physical card, with day passes and monthly plans covering Romania and wider Europe. Use code HARRY5578 for €3 off your first eSIM, or WONDERFULWANDERINGS for 10% off your order. An eSIM suits one phone; a group sharing one connection is better served by a pocket hotspot. Check out Airalo here.

Tipping in Romania

Tipping in Romania is expected but modest, and 10% of the bill in a restaurant is the normal figure for good service. Check the bill before adding it, because some restaurants in tourist areas now add a service charge, sometimes stated only in Romanian, and double-tipping is easy.

For taxis, round the fare up rather than working out a percentage. Small tips suit hotel staff, guides and hairdressers, and nothing is expected in bars, bakeries or shops. Tip in lei rather than euros: a foreign note is a nuisance to change and worth less than it looks. There are fuller guidelines by service type here.

A brief history of Romania

Romania’s history is the story of one Latin-speaking population divided between three principalities and four empires, and reunited only in the 20th century. The Dacian kingdom under Burebista and later Decebalus held this territory until Trajan conquered it in AD 106, and the Roman province of Dacia, abandoned by about AD 271, left the Latin language that makes Romanian what it is.

Wallachia and Moldavia emerged as principalities in the 14th century and spent the next four centuries under Ottoman suzerainty, while Transylvania went to Hungary and then the Habsburgs. Wallachia and Moldavia united in 1859 under Alexandru Ioan Cuza, independence was recognised in 1878 and the kingdom proclaimed in 1881. Transylvania joined in 1918, which is what 1 December marks, and the Treaty of Trianon confirmed it in 1920.

The 20th century was harder. Romania changed sides in 1944, a Soviet-backed government followed, and Nicolae Ceausescu ruled from 1965 until December 1989, when the revolution that began in Timisoara ended with his execution on Christmas Day. The 1977 earthquake killed about 1,500 people, most of them in Bucharest. Romania joined NATO in 2004 and the European Union in 2007, and completed its accession to Schengen on 1 January 2025.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

The 4 tips below come from checking Romania’s current rules and prices in September 2026, and each of them is something older guides to the country still get wrong.

1. Romania is fully in Schengen now, and that changes your 90 days. Land border checks went on 1 January 2025 and air and sea checks on 31 March 2024. Arriving from another Schengen country there is no passport control, but your 90-day allowance is now counted across the whole area, so days already spent in France, Italy or Spain come off the Romanian total.
2. Do not carry euros expecting to spend them. Romania uses the leu and has no euro adoption date. Euros are accepted only by a handful of tourist businesses, at a rate that punishes you. Pay by card, withdraw lei from a bank ATM and decline the machine’s currency conversion offer.
3. Check whether 6 and 7 January fall in your trip. Epiphany and St John became public holidays recently and guides written before that list 14 holidays rather than 16. With 1 and 2 January they make a four-day shutdown in the first week of the year, on top of the Orthodox Easter and Pentecost dates that move annually.
4. Fly into Cluj or Brasov rather than Bucharest for Transylvania. Brasov-Ghimbav opened in June 2024 and puts you 30 minutes from Bran Castle and inside the old town in twenty. Cluj is the gateway to the north. Flying into Bucharest and driving up costs the better part of a day each way on roads that are slower than the distances suggest.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh and covers Romania for independent travelers, from the Saxon towns and painted monasteries to the Black Sea coast, with the guesthouses, hotels, car hire, rail routes and packing gear worth booking for each. The team checks the rules, prices and dates on this page against their own sources and updates it when they change.