Unexpected Romanian opportunity...Help!
 

Hi all -- Just learned that I have an opportunity to travel to Romania in June with my mom and a close friend of hers. She is from Romania (the friend) so we have a unique opportunity to stay and travel with a local. We're on a tight budget, so I'm looking for creative ideas, since we haven't been planning this. Would it be more economical to fly into somewhere other than Bucharest, then take a train or flight there? Any help or suggestions will be much appreciated! Natalie

Hi Natalie
Have you read the great trip report on Romania called "Romania, Budapest and NE Hungary. Curses, blessings and cabbage". Click on Romania on the upper right corner to see all (well, not so many) posts on Romania.

I have not been, but it seems that Romania is a great budget destination. Lots of rural homestays available for well under 10Euro per night!

That's wonderful news

What is your home city? What part of Romania will you be visiting?

You won't really save that much by flying into other areas. From DC for example: Flights to Istanbul are only $100 less than Bucharest. Flights to Vienna are about $150 less. Then you have to figure the cost of the train and all the extra travellng time.

Here's that famous Romanian trip report:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34543931

Famous? goodness, lol.

Anyway, Natalie, when we were researchimg, we found at the time that taking American Airlines, and then connecting through London Heathrow on a British Air flight was only about $100 cheaper to Budapest than it was to Bucharest. BA seems to have the most convenient routes when coming from the US that we saw. That may have changed now.

The main reason that we chose Budapest as the point of arrival was that we wanted to see some of Hungary as well and the car rental border crossing worked best for us from Hungary. Of course, you wouldn't have that problem.

Outside of the flight, I think you'll find most costs very affordable. The specifics on prices we encountered are in the report that cruisinred and bardo referred to. I hope you have a great time. Romania is a beautiful place, challenging compared to much of Europe but very worth it, I thought.

I know there are great travel bargains to be had in Romania. Just dont be expecting anything glittering like Paris or Rome, LOL. This will be a trip back into time, a very interesting and unusual destination.

I went to Bucharest many years ago when it was still Communist. The countryside and mountain regions were quite beautiful and untouched. Bucharest itself was very poor, dark, depressing, it seemed almost primitive to me. Nobody was cheery, it was grim. We visited Lake Snagov where the communist elite kept summer cabins, I remember being aghast at all the giant hairy men parading around in Speedos!

ttt

Forget about what VIVI wrote, it is old and sounds biased. Romania is not at all so cheap as you think. A gallon of gasoline cost 4,25 US dollars. They even had a deflation lately, meaning that everything quoted in Romanian currency became more expensive against the dollar and the euro. Keep an open mind and leave aside all clishees.

Try pricing flights to various European cities and then go to www.tarom.com and price their flights into Romania.

Also you can try calling USI Travel in Mishawaka Indiana. They used to handle all the Tarom flight when Tarom flew from the U.S. They may have some good consolidator fares. You'll have to call information for area code 574 for phone number cause they recently changed.

Most cheap flights from the rest of Europe seem to go to the coast, with the exception of flights from Florence (but I think that Volare died). You can check them out at:

http://www.ewatravel.com/european_discount_airlines.htm