Usually we time our Europe driving holidays for late Aug-mid Oct to strike a balance between escaping some of our Southern Hemisphere winter while avoiding all but the last of the August holiday crowds in Europe.Next year we (two of us) hope to self-drive Romania, and this time we could be starting earlier than usual. Our Romanian dates (Maramures, Bucovina and Transylvania) look like 6 -20 August. We’ll probably pre-book our Bucharest accommodation, but for smaller places we usually like to book just a day or two ahead as we go.Does rural Romania get so busy as to make that a problem? We have a little flexibility with dates, but not much. Would changing them to 16-30 Aug make any difference? Thanks..

It'll be probably very hot, but finding accommodation is not a problem. Going a couple of weeks laters makes no difference, the weather can be very hot till the end of summer.

Definitely very hot in August.

The most popular tourist destinations in Romania are the cities in southern Transylvania (Sibiu and Brasov), don't see why you'd be in a hurry to book for Bucharest. Btw many sites in Transylvania aren't in rural areas.
There's not much difference between your two timeframes. During the week you can generally find accommodations without booking far ahead but for Friday-Sunday it's best to book at least 4-5 days ahead, domestic weekend tourism is surprisingly high in all the areas you mentioned.

Will previous posters define what they mean by very hot? Climate info has average highs of 77 farenheit in August, which seems ideal to me.

In most parts of Romania August daytime temperatures go over 30C (86F) and sometimes in low lying areas even over 35C (95F); of course it's cooler in/near the mountains.

And I remembered another thing: August 15th is a major holiday, if you will be in Maramures and especially Bucovina at that time book accommodations long ahead.

Wow! Thanks "aguate" for that tip about August 15th being a major holiday. Unless I opt for the later itinerary I'd be somewhere around Bucovina or Transylvania around then. Is it only Romania that's affected by that holiday? If I do go for the deferred itinerary I'd be in Hungary on August 15th. Cheers...

Assumption Day on 15 August is a nationwide public holiday in Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Georgia, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Republic of North Macedonia, Malta, Republic of Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro (Albanian Catholics), Poland (Polish Army Day), Portugal, Romania Slovenia, Spain. (Just to mention European countries).It is also a public holiday in parts of Germany and Switzerland.

It's not a holiday in Hungary, but 20 August is public holiday.

We were on August. It was hot but especially in the mountains you could feel relief. By the way on 15 August every shops in Romania were open. Who wants please watch my short movie about .

kolaniasty; awesome video. Makes me want to go.
Am planning a similar driving holiday. Will prefer September. Looking for some scenic countryside landscapes and some folk dances as well.
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