Romania a Historic Adventure

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Bucharest, Brasov, Transylvania, Sibiu

Great choices. I loved Brasov and Sibiu, and enjoyed Bucharest despite its bad rap. It's a bit pricier than most of the places I stay, but I do recommend this place for Sibiu. It's out of town, but is absolutely fabulous. And they serve great food.

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Originally posted by Cristina Dima:

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Originally posted by wslow:


Bucharest, Brasov, Transylvania, Sibiu then depart to Budapest from there.

Transylvania is a REGION which comprises the towns of Brasov and Sibiu, btw you'll be happy to see snow. it snowed heavily in Transylvania lately and the forecast says MORE snow this weekend!

You made some great choices btw!

Ahhh, right..I thought it was a town on its own..

we've got snow here too!! it was heavy but everything cleared out now.. Is it possible to do a farmhouse stay at this time of the year in these places??

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Originally posted by wslow:

Ahhh, right..I thought it was a town on its own..

we've got snow here too!! it was heavy but everything cleared out now.. Is it possible to do a farmhouse stay at this time of the year in these places??

possible yes...easy to find one...not exactly

generally speaking around the Holidays and during the Holidays everything is booked up close to 100% and especially the agrotourism places...

the best bet is to ask at one of the tourist offices in either Brasov or Sibiu.

Word of advice though: Brasov and Poiana Brasov (the famous ski area) are super expensive right now...bummer, I know

the entire Transylvania is amazingly beautiful. I've visited close to 80% of it

I don't think i'll do skiing because it's expensive. i'll do alot of sight seeing though.

Is Euro currency accepted throughout romania? Or is Lei a must to change?

Is the water from the taps drinkable there?

The water is good in most places there is tap water, or so I found. Drinks are cheap enough you don't need to worry about it.

People like Leis. Otherwise you get involved in often dis-advantageous currency exchanges. Still, you can get away with it in the cities. In the country, it may be hard for people to make change, or change the Euros easily.

Sometimes they want Euros, but... its just easier to get leis from ATM's, except in villages.

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Originally posted by Tortuga_traveller:
The water is good in most places there is tap water, or so I found. Drinks are cheap enough you don't need to worry about it.

People like Leis. Otherwise you get involved in often dis-advantageous currency exchanges. Still, you can get away with it in the cities. In the country, it may be hard for people to make change, or change the Euros easily.

Sometimes they want Euros, but... its just easier to get leis from ATM's, except in villages.

You can buy bottled water for any restaurant, fast food joint or store (big or small). I NEVER drink anything but bottled water.

LEI (singular: LEU) is our national currency (give or take 1 US$ = 2.8 lei); ALWAYS exchange money in banks (might favor the bank but you won't have problems wt the commission); ATMs give ONLY LEI of course. There *might* be some ATMs in some bigger villages but the rule is to get money before you leave for a smallish place. In big cities ATMs pop up everywhere. Again, use one within a bank or even use the POS at the bank

Don't expect to pay wt your card too much. I've got a US card and I cannot use it in Romania but I can get Lei from any ATM.

Christina,

I will be touching down in Romania on the 25th of December. I am aware that most shops etc will be closed but will the bus service from the airport to centre of town be on?

I will be living at The Midland Youth Hostel 2 which is from what I read, in the centre of town. What are the other cheap options to get there?

Cheers,

Regards.

wsLow

Yup, public transport works on Christmas but with special weekends Schedule. In short, you'd have to wait quite a lot for a bus. Besides the bus/tram/trolley I will not recommend other means of transport in Bucharest. I don't use taxi myself.

Yes, everything will be closed on 25th but on 26th at least the big stores and malls WILL be open.

Oh yeah, looks like it's right smack in the town center. Which means you can take any means of transport to Piata Romana and then ask for directions. Did the hostel give you hints on how to easily find them? [when i was in Vienna , the lady working at the hostel where i stayed told me exactly how to get to them and it was SO EASY!]

I found directions to the place on the bookhostels.com website. From the instructions, it seems pretty easy. Guess if i get lost, i'll just ask for directions. Or ring them up from a public phone.

From my research, I found that Brasov has direct trains to Hungary, where else from Sibiu, i'd have to travel back to Brasov to catch a train.

So, would travelling from Sibiu-Sighisoara-Brasov be a better idea or Brasov-Sighisoara-Sibiu be fine?

...or you can catch a train from Sibiu or Sighisoara to Arad (where I live) and then go to Hungary; I know cpl of direct trains myself.

actually there is direct train to Hungary from Sibiu as well BUT not in december ; you can use the CFR (Romanian Railways) website and you need to plug "Curtici" and not Budapest b/c they cannot list any trains outside Romania. But whatever train passes Curtici, goes to Hungary.

There's also a choice of trains from Sighisoara to Hungary; 3 trains spread out during the entire day. Try here

So you basically can catch a train to Hungary from Brasov, Sighisoara or Arad (which is right by the border)

btw: there's a railways' workers strike in Hungary going on these days; you might want to check the news abt that.

I have re-read my synopsis of Romania and I do agree with my original thoughts. However, Cristina I will back off the "dirty" part a bit. It was not my intention to give a bad rap to Romania. In fact I am much more than a traveler here, for 8 years I have been coming 2 times a year and I have recently received my Residence Visa. So I do like enough to move from America to live here :-). I too have seen about 80% of the entire country from the big and small and find there is a variety of life here that is hard to find in most any other country of it's size. This makes for an extremely interesting Vacation. I also agree with you on the Euro-Pass not very functional here in Romania but in other eastern European blocks it's the way to go with much sight seeing involved. I would also like to say thank you Cristina for taking on the questions here and the responses as I have been away for awhile visiting and exploring other parts of Romania and Hungary. for WSLOW, I hope you enjoy your trip and while it does get cold here and prices are up in the Ski areas, The weather has not been bad at all to this point, The next two weeks is forcast to be very chilly though. While I'm not a travel agent or tourist guide and have no interest in being. I am a person who lives in a country that I don't speak the language very well, just enough to get around and I do have a lot of "local" friends here and would offer anyone that might be coming through Alba Iulia (transilvania region Alba Jud.) I would be happy to take you around town for the day or night and hit the church and fort area here, as well as bring you to a local bar for a night of dancing and drinking. However, This is not a real historical town, the bars and life here are struggling to be pretty modern so the music is present day house, dance, retro and 1 or 2 bars here in Alba continue to play the traditional popular and manele style music. In other words this pretty much would only be attractive possibly to people 21 to 45 probably but all are welcome to contact me at cometfire@comcast.net my email if interested. Yes, Free of charge, except for your own costs drinking,eating,entrance fees etc.. LOL I would be happy just to have some english speaking company :-)

I know you didn't mean to give a bad rap to Romania. I do agree wt the variety and even I have found things I don't exactly like here. But I try to avoid them when I can.

Alba Iulia is probably THE MOST important town in Romanian history b/c the Union took place here. Actually all the papers and discussions were made in Arad but b/c Arad is near the western border they had to find a city in the center of the country so that was Alba Iulia. I have visited it before but haven't managed to see the Union Hall and everything linked to December 1.

You are right abt the cold part. Bleah it's been -6C/21 F in Arad for the past 4 days already

Happy New Year!

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Originally posted by Cometfire:
I would also like to say thank you Cristina for taking on the questions here and the responses as I have been away for awhile visiting and exploring other parts of Romania and Hungary.

don't thank me I'm here to help

cometfire,

thanks alot for your offer, i didnt see ur reply before i left otherwise i would have took a detour. I am now back in the UK and i enjoyed my trip alot especially Transylvania.

I stayed in Brasov the longest and i loved it there. The little town between the mountains, i especially loved the post christmas mood with all the decorations still up and everyone in a festive mood.

Skiing in Brasov is cheap too. I would love to see what it would be like in the Summer.

Cristina,

Thank you so much for ur advice and guidance and points. I enjoyed my trip alot and was a waste that we didnt have the chance to meet up. Maybe in the future we will get the chance.

Regards,

WS Low

I am very glad I could be of help. Glad you had fun and enjoyed Romania