Routes

Ready-made road trips around Romania: a day-by-day plan, a budget guideline, key stops, and a map. The country is large and mountainous - a car opens up what’s hard to reach by public transport: the Transfăgărășan and Transalpina mountain roads, the Saxon villages of Transylvania, the painted monasteries of Bucovina, and the villages of Maramureș.

How to choose a direction. Transylvania - Brașov and Bran Castle, Sibiu, Sighișoara and Cluj-Napoca, with the Transfăgărășan crossing the Făgăraș mountains; Wallachia - Bucharest, Peleș Castle at Sinaia and the Prahova Valley; the north - the painted monasteries of Bucovina and the wooden churches of Maramureș; the southeast - the Danube Delta and the Black Sea coast around Constanța and Tulcea. And to see it all in one trip, there’s a grand tour of Romania, roughly two weeks long.

Season and preparation. The best time for most routes is from late spring to autumn. In winter the high mountain roads (the Transfăgărășan and Transalpina, the Carpathian passes) are closed or hard going, and snow can shut them for months - check road conditions before setting off. For the high mountains and narrow serpentines, take a smaller, manoeuvrable car or an SUV. The mileage, days, and budget in the cards are guidelines, not exact measurements: it all depends on the number of stops, the season, and accommodation.