rumania and bulgaria
 

I am travelling to Rumania and Bulgaria for a 10 day vacation in late september. I was thinking of flying to Bucharest and then travelling in a circle rout by car through Bulgaria and ending up back in Bucharest. We would like to visit Sophia and the Black Sea. We have no idea if this is achievable in this time frame. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Ten days is very short for both these countries, it might be better to focus on just one of them. It will also be difficult to find rental companies that would let you take the car across borders (for a reasonable price).

Still, if you really want to see them both do five days in each country. In Romania in those five days the best option would be to do the famous historic cities in southern Transylvania (Brasov, Sighisoara, Sibiu) and a bit of their surroundings, something like this:

Day 1 - Head from the airport straight north towards Brasov. Stop in the mountain resort Sinaia (2 hours from Bucharest) to visit the former royal palace Peles, then go west through the mountains to Bran for the so-called Dracula's castle or better yet to Rasnov for the local fortress. Spend the night in Brasov.

Day 2 - Visit Brasov's old quarter, maybe do a side trip to the medieval fortified churches in Harman and/or Prejmer (both less than half hour from the city)

Day 3 - Drive toward Sighisoara (2 hours from Brasov). On the way stop in Saschiz to see the local fortified church or maybe do small detour to see the more interesting one in Viscri. Visit Sighisoara in the afternoon and spend the night there.

Day 4 - Drive to Sibiu (~1 1/2 hours from Sighisoara), visit it and spend the night there.

Day 5 - If you manage to find a rental car that will let you go across the border, head directly south towards the ferry crossing into Bulgaria at Bechet or Turnu Magurele. Along the road make a stop at Cozia (1 1/2 hours south of Sibiu) to see the 14th century monastery
If you can't take the car over the border, head back from Sibiu to Bucharest (preferably over the high altitude Transfagarasan road), drop off the car, catch a bus to Ruse (nearest Bulgarian city, about 1 1/2 hours away) and rent another car there.

Thanks for the info, very helpful. Do you recommend spending any time in the 2 main cities Bucharest and Sophia if we can extend our vacation time? Also if you had only one country to choose which would it be?

Bucharest and Sofia aren't exactly their respective countries main tourist attraction, if you can extend your vacation spend more time in other more interesting cities (in Romania's case, Brasov or Sibiu).
On the second question, being Romanian I can't be really be too objective but I'd say choose Romania, it's more diverse.

thank you for the advice

Both Romania and Bulgaria are beautiful countries, and 5 days in each are not enough to discover their beauty.

The last cities you should focus on are the 2 capitals that really aren't the main attractions of these countries.

lol silly me.. that was from Feb2011...lol

Fodor's seems to celebrate the day of Romania today :)

I don't know anything about Romania because I still have not been there (unfortunately) but I am Bulgarian so I can suggest you some beautiful places here in Bulgaria.
You are coming in a lovely month because it's getting hot now so I recommend you to visit our Black Sea resorts. In the months of April and May you can find really cheap hotels and restaurants and there are many many places where you should pay a visit. I recommend you to visit Balchik and Sunny Beach. They are some of the biggest Bulgarian resorts with many landmarks. I couldn't find an english version of website for Balchik resort but here is one for Sunny Beach which might be valuable if you go there http://www.sunnybeach-bulgaria.net/hotels/

I will be meeting family in istanbul and thought we could drive up the coast to varna, where we are staying for five days then coming bak to istanbul for three. Prior to doing my research I thought the drive would be easy( thinking now 6.30 hours and not sure i can take the rental car over border)
Thought we could fly but finding they route thru sophia .51/2 hours. Or I van fly one way ino Constanta Romania and try yo take a cab down... Or a bus.... I would prefer to skip bus as I have been reading the border waits are very long .
I Clearly need some guidance. We are arriving its the 13 and going to Bulgaria the 15, coming back to ist
On that thurs (19th?) and leaving ist on 22
Thank you in advance!!!

a week to 10 days goes quickly in Romania alone.. I did it about 3 years ago and drove myself with a rental car from B.

from my reading the seaside is not all that great.