Advice on Romania Itinerary
 

Hello! I’m planning a trip to Romania in July with my husband and 10 year old daughter, and am looking for advice on our itinerary. We have about 2 weeks. We plan on renting a car, and generally prefer basing ourselves in one place for a few days and taking day trips, when possible.

Day 1-4: Arrive Budapest, get to Brasov. 4 nights in Brasov. Day trips to Sinaia/Peles, Bran Castle/Rasnov, bear sighting trip

Day 5 – drive to Sighisoara, spend night

Day 6 – drive to Sibiu, 3 nights. Viscri/Biertan, Astra museum, villages like Sibiel, Transfagarasan Highway

Day 9 – drive toward Maramures – spend night near Turda, visit salt mine.

Day 10 – arrive Maramures, base ourselves in Breb for 3 nights or 4 nights. Visit Sighet, Sapanta, maybe cross into Ukraine to say we did it, small villages, wooden churches.

Day 13 maybe stay in Breb, or push on to Viseu de Sus

Day 14 – back to Bucharest, fly home

- What do you think of this general itinerary?
- Should we shorten time somewhere to give us more time in Maramures?
- We are thinking about flying back to Bucharest at the end to maximize our time. From Breb/ Viseu de Sus, what airport would you recommend? Baia Mare? Or perhaps rearrange timing and spend a day or two in Moldavia and fly back to Bucharest from Suceava or Iasi?
- We’re a little wary of renting the car at the Bucharest airport and driving to Brasov after a long international flight. Would it be feasible to arrange a driver or other easy transport from the airport to Brasov and then rent the car in Brasov with a drop off at some other airport?
- And finally, would you try to fit the Delta Danube/Black Sea coast into this trip as well? That seems like too much to me although my husband thinks it is a shame to go all the way to Romania and miss that.

Thanks for any and all advice!

Either you trip along the southern Carpathians is doubling back, or you are not starting in Budapest but in Bucharest.

I wrote a trip report of our travels in that region and Maramures and Bucovina. You might find it interesting; click on my name to find it.

Goodness, I meant Bucharest not Budapest. Apologies.
Thank you - I will go look at your trip report right now.

Suggest you get a map of the country....it's big ...so check out distances..some Romanian roads are very slow driving so take that into account. In your short visit, I'd advise you to forget the delta and Constant(s)a. Investigate staying in Sighet(ul) for the entire Maramures(h) portion. By not visiting the fresco'ed monasteries in the Bukovina region and its churches you'll be missing one of the highlights.

Again, it's a matter of time you'll have without living in your rental car....and get a guide book pronto. Rough Guide is good mainly for the good city and town maps. Hope you have an illuminating trip, I've traveled to Romania and Bulgaria many times, mainly on "business"..I'm a writer and have researched Romania in depth. It's fascinating.

I suppose you know why you spend 8 days in Transsilvania and none at Bucuresti or Suceava (painted churches). Forget Ukraina unless you proceed up to Ivano Frankivsk and Lviv, but you will have no time for that. If you want to tell your friends at home that you have been in the geographical center of Europe, you may drive to Berlebashi, but I cannot see what it should be good for.

You probably can limit your stay in Brasov to three nights.

Thank you all very much!

1) Good idea to stay in Bucharest after a long flight. Use tripadvisor to choose a good hotel, right in the centre is sensible but not by the train station or by the Parliament.
2) The idea of sensible bases is good. I'd recommend spending more time in Transylania than anywhere else, the organisation is basically better.
3) Do not get tricked into thinking you get better rooms and service because you pay more. The hotels fall into three types

a) Old communist era hotels (mainly gone now) best avoided
b) Large hotels aimed at ripping you off, so $150 and above for the night with no redeeming features as far as I could see
c) Smaller modern hotels run by the locals who have seen Western hotels and brought the idea home. We stayed in a few and got used to the idea of paying $55 for the penthouse suite with great food in the restaurant.

Obviously you cannot do this everytime, but since you have a car you can go where you want to.

In the capital take care in the 'burbs of packs of dogs. Still not solved after 25 years.

Thank you all again for your advice. We've decided to not try to fit the Danube Delta or Bucovina in this trip to cut down on driving and allow us to stay a little longer in each place. We incorporated much of the other advice from this and other travel forums. Here is my current revised itinerary if you have any additional thoughts (if you had to cut out a day or two where would you cut?). Your help is very much appreciated!

DAY 1: Depart DC

Day 2: Arrive Bucharest, drive to Sinaia
Sleep: Sinaia, 111 km

DAY 3: Peles Castle, cable car, drive to Brasov
Sleep: Brasov, 50km

Day 4: Bran, Rasnov
Sleep: Brasov

Day 5: Brasov town, Bear Sanctuary or hike
Sleep: Brasov

Day 6: Drive to Sighisoara; visit Viscri on the way (Harman - Prejmer- Viscri – Saschiz)
Sleep: Sighisoara, 117km

Day 7: Drive from Sighisoara to Viseu de Sus (ALTERNATE: DRIVE STRAIGHT TO BREB, 282 km)
Sleep: Viseu de Sus, 242km

Day 8: Forest steam train (9am-3:30); drive to Breb
Sleep: Breb (Village Hotel), 63km

Day 9: Sighet, Sapanta
Sleep: Breb

Day 10: Villages
Sleep: Breb

Day 11: Drive to Turda, hike Turda Gorge
Sleep: Turda or Torockó, 196 km

Day 12: Turda salt mines; drive to Alba Iulia (fortress), drive to Sibiu
Sleep: Sibiu
Turda-Alba – 70km
Alba – Sibiu 77km

Day 13: Sibiu town, Astra open air museum
Sleep: Sibiu

Day 14: Transfagarasean- Vidraru Dam- Curtea de Arges Monastery- Ramnicu Valcea - Cozia Monastery - - Olt Valley road - Sibiu .
Sleep: Sibiu
Sibiu to Curtea (161 km but 4 -5 hours)
Curtea to Sibiu (133 km)

Day 15: Sibiu; drive to airport late in day
Sleep: Near airport
Sibiu to airport 282 km

Day 16: Depart Bucharest for DC

I'm still working on my plan for 18 days in May, but your itenary looks very similar.
I planed Turda salt mine and a hike in one Day, they told me they hike is only one hour. ry