TravelGuides

(TGA) - Travel - Hello,
My brother, my sisther and I will be travelling to Romania next month. We will land at Bucharest Airport, and we have only have 6 days to visit Romania.
We started planning our trip and wanted to hear your advice about what to see and where to go.
At first we thought about travelling through South Transylvania according to the following itinerary (we're renting a car at the airport):
day 1: Sibiu
day 2: Praid salt mine and Sighisoara.
day 3: Sighisoara, Brasov and Rasnov.
day 4: Bran castle and Bucegi Mountain.
day 5: Sinaia
day 6: Bucharest.
Other options that came into our minds are skiiping Sibiu or Bucharest or both, and reaching the northern parts of Transylvania (Maramureş or Cluj, maybe, or other suggestions if you have).
We want our trip to be mainly nature-oriented, with some a few exceptions on the way.
Do you think Bucharest if worth visiting after we have already been to Vienna and Prague? We don't want a trip that will feel like a copy of our last trips, and that's why we thought about focusing mainly on Romania's nature.
I would really appreciate and advise you can give me (Do you have a suggestion to a better itinerary than what I came up with?)
---- Reply -----
Your itinerary is generally ok, but you leave too little time for Brasov (you'll need at least one full day there), respectively too much time for Sinaia and possibly for Sighisoara (these places can be visited in a few hours).
Definitely don't skip Sibiu, on the contrary you could spend more time there )Sibiu and Brasov are the most interesting sites on your itinerary).
As for Bucharest, it's very different that Vienna or Prague, but many people just don't like it Try at least to see the old quarter and the Palace of Parliament, that won't take longer than 3-4 hours.
Maramures would be a good option particularly if you're interested in seeing traditional villages, although the nature is also very nice there. You'll need at least two-three days to visit it, so that will probably leave time just for Brasov and Sibiu.
If you really want to focus on nature, you could just visit Brasov and Sibiu briefly and spend the rest of time hiking in the mountainous area between them (especially in the Fagaras mountains), it's extremely interesting.
Or if you come towards the end of the month (when the weather gets warmer) you could do something very different from you current plan, yet totally nature related and go visit the Danube Delta.
On a different note keep in mind that traveling by car isn't necesariily the best option, especially in cities (traffic is very congested and there are few parking spots) and along major routes (they are very crowded).
---- Reply -----
Thank you.
I'll consider the options you suggeted :)
---- Reply -----
As someone who spent loads of time in Cluj I would recommend it. But I agree totally with alterme: do not skip Sibiu. It is a must see. You can take the train to visit all these locations. I would go from Bucharest to Brasov and visit that area and bran castle. From there to sighisoara and stop in sibiu for the night and maybe the next day. Sibiu to cluj (about 160 km) you can either take the train or drive. Alba Iulia is in the middle. The old fortified city may be worth a quick visit. Just before cluj in a small town called Turda you can visit an amazing salt mine that was in use for almost 2000 years. Now it is a huge thing, very impressive. (you can visit that instead of Praid).
Spend a day in Cluj and then take the train to Maramures.
All is good doing this but the only issue then is the return trip to Bucharest. It will be a long journey. Romania is a very large country and transport is not very fast…
---- Reply -----
Not much left to say after the good advices already given. Second vote not to skip Cluj and definitely same for Sibiu.
Your plan sounds good (a bit tight but not quite ambitious or hard). What you'll see/experience really much depends on the chosen mean of transportation.
I'd suggest combining train and rental car trip (perhaps involving also plane), so that to benefit from both flexibility of car travel and avoiding traffic by train travel.
The major (actually almost entire) part of your route goes through villages, towns and cities; thus increasing the possible delay caused by the anyhow crowded road you're taking.
The weak point of having cities&towns with hard traffic on your route could be compensated by the fact that rental car service is available in each of them.
You could travel by train between the main cities, rent a car on spot (drop on&off at same city), then continue to the next one by train.
If I was to do so (considering reaching Cluj), I'd make the trip in reverse order, i.e.
- Bucharest to Brasov by train
- Sinaia, Bran, Brasov (renting car at Brasov)
- Sighisoara-Sibiu (would be best if you can use the car rented in Brasov for this trip and drop it off at Sibiu)
- Sibiu to Cluj by train (highly recommended due to traffic jams in both Sibiu, Sebes, Alba Iulia and Cluj + the dangerous road turn above Cluj); Cluj, Turda and around by car rented in Cluj; Alba Iulia can be also reached from Cluj but I'd skip it considering the short time;
- Cluj to Bucharest by train or plane (plane schedule at tarom.ro). Sightseeing Bucharest at the last day. Part of this sightseeing can be also done at your arrival day prior departure to Brasov.
For the train travel I only know basic things I've heard from locals or read here in the forum (mainly thanks to alterme&David). So I hope they'd give better opinion whether train schedules and travel times support my idea for combined train-car trip.
I can only be useful for car&plane trip (Tarom)+ accommodation experience in Cluj, Bucharest, Sibiu, Sighisoara, Alba Iulia. Without calculation of timing, at first sign I don't think that accommodation in Sighisoara and Alba Iulia suits your itinerary.
If you rent a car for any part for your route, please make a search under keyword "driving" in this forum- there are few topics regarding driving conditions and habits there. I encourage you to read them not for creating prejudice but only for taking the useful (practical) part of these.
---- Reply -----
Plane schedules Cluj-Bucharest are available at tarom.ro and http://www.blueairweb.com/, respectively the national flight carrier and a low cost flight carrier. There is one airport in Cluj (unless they built up new one in late 2009), and in Bucharest the BUC-CLJ flights of Tarom land at Henri Coanda International Airport (OTP), those of Blue Air- at Baneasa airport (BBU)
If you use car for any part of your trip, it's recommended to buy local map (available for example at fuel stations), even if you rent a GPS along with the car. Not a bad idea to search under "driving" within this forum- there are few topics regarding driving conditions, and I'd advice to go through them, only taking the practical advices but not creating prejudice and not trying to set up your mind on how the driving is.
P.S. I see now that my suggestion for reverse route exactly seconds the one of Vidocq_UK. Sorry. However, I'm really happy to see an other Cluj recommending person around.
---- Reply -----
Have a look on this, as well- it's the trip report of the user "wearb" and covers some of the spots you're interested in
---- Reply -----
no probs, stelaSD. i believe the intended link in your second post is missing))) cheers
---- Reply -----
:) correct, here it is bunclody.net/Romania/romania_july_2008.htm
---- Reply -----