10 Things You Should Know Before Traveling in Romania
by Alina Beck on 08/02/09 at 5:22 am
Romania is a beautiful if challenging country, and well worth making the effort to visit. Here are ten things you should know before you go.
1. The Romanian people are, on the whole, friendly and very hospitable. In the cities, many younger Romanians speak quite good English, so communicating isn’t as hard as you might expect.
2. The Romanian currency is the LEU (plural – LEI, pronounced ‘lay’). It is abbreviated to RON, which stands for Romanian New Lei, as the currency was recently redesigned and four zeros were knocked off so that 10,000 old lei is now one leu – approximately $0.30.
3. You will see many enormous, luxurious-looking homes, and people driving expensive SUVs, but as in every country, alongside wealthy people, there are also poor people. Behind the concrete façade of apartment blocks you can still find large families sharing a tiny single-roomed apartment with no bathroom facilities and no access to hot water. In the cities you will probably see some begging on the streets, especially by street children and Roma people (recognisable by the fluorescent clothing patterns preferred by Roma women).
A Roadside Shrine – the Orthodox faith is widely practised
Image by author.
4. High summer in Romania is gloriously hot – around 30-35 degrees C (85-95F) – but winters can be harsh and icy, with temperatures regularly dropping to -15 degrees C (5F) and below. The cold weather has some advantages though, as the mountain regions become a snowy winter wonderland.
5. The best way to travel around Romania is probably by public transport. Roads, even the major inter-city connections, tend to be crowded and the going can be slow as many highways are not multi-laned. Some guide books recommend using four-wheel drive cars only, but that isn’t really necessary as main roads are properly paved. Just don’t expect 6-lane freeways! Cities have large and well-used bus, trolleybus and tram networks which make getting around a breeze. Trains are slow, but frequent and reliable and with an extensive network all over the country, you really can go wherever you like. You can find online railway timetables at www.mersultrenurilorcfr.ro
6. The capital city has two international airports: Bucureşti (Bucharest) Otopeni and its lesser brother, Bucureşti Baneasa. The Romanian airline Tarom operates regular internal flights from Otopeni to major cities, including Cluj-Napoca, Arad, Timişoara, Braşov and Iaşi. Depending on your plans, it might be worth seeing whether it would be cheaper to fly to Budapest, Hungary, and then travel to Romania by train as Budapest is better served by budget airlines than Bucharest.
Liked it
Debra.
Feb 15th, 2009
Wonderful article and pictures too. It sounds like a wonderful place. Very well written.
AC Hamilton III
Feb 16th, 2009
You did a spectacular job. Really great narration and important detail throughout. What a good balance of pictures. Excellent!
AC
fossa
Feb 17th, 2009
Thanks for the informative article. Especially number 8. I would of assumed that EVERY thing would be cheap.
Gabriel Cotor
Mar 17th, 2009
Dear Alina Beck,
Like a romanian native who nows lives in Canada, all I can say it’s “Thank you”!.I was really impressed about the accuracy and the objectivity of your thoughts regerding my country; I’m very glad that a stranger could see over the misery, poverty and all other social problems which still exist there unfortunatelly,and reveal the true simplicity and the charm of that country.God bless you.
Alina Beck
Mar 17th, 2009
Thanks for your comment Gabriel. I’ve been living in Romania for 18 months now, and it truly is a wonderful country in many ways. Every country has its problems I know, but nothing should put people off visiting here – it’s an experience well worth having.
rutherfranc
Mar 25th, 2009
cool tour and pics! loved the cross overlooking the city..
tina
Mar 31st, 2009
romania is a beautiful and interesting country. it is true that it has some problems ..but everywhere i was ..romania was great ..romanians are very very kind people and they help you in many ways.visit romania!!
Liliana
Apr 1st, 2009
The article is not accurate but only somewhat accurate. Russian Orthodoxy is not at all pupular in Romania which is a Greek Othodox country.
Alina Beck
Apr 2nd, 2009
@ Liliana – strictly speaking it’s the ‘Romanian Orthodox Church’ and so neither Russian nor Greek, but all my Romanian friends tell me it is Russian Orthodoxy that is practised rather than Greek. I’m happy to delete the word ‘Russian’ from the description though if that’s causing anyone a problem!
BunnygotBlog
Apr 9th, 2009
My fiance is a German born,Romanian. His parents defected in 1977.We want to go there this coming year.I have been reading about Romania trying to learn as much as I can.
I am very happy to have found your blog.
Cheers
Vio-right now in China
Apr 10th, 2009
Would like to back Liliana a little. One should check the cross in churches and the dates. Russians have an oblique line on cross which we don’t, they are celebrating everything 2 weeks later.
Vio-right now in China
Apr 10th, 2009
Still, thanks for this Alina.
Why wouldn’t you post it on too?
Will have a lot of gratitude….
Vio-right now in China
Apr 10th, 2009
Still, thanks for this Alina.
Why wouldn\’t you post it on trip advisor too?
Will have a lot of gratitude….
Alina Beck
Apr 10th, 2009
Thanks for your comments – however, I must defend myself a bit. Romania is an Orthodox country, and the Romanian Orthodox church is completely independent with its own leaders and everything. It is definitely NOT Greek Orthodox. All Orthodox churches celebrate Easter at a different time from the Catholic/Protestant Easter. This year eastern Orthodox Easter is one week later.
surekha
May 2nd, 2009
My daughter is travelling to Romania for internship.thanks for this informative article. This will be really helful.