Romania

A trip to Romania is usually planned around a handful of well-known spots. You already have the interest: the castles of Transylvania, the Carpathians, a few days in Bucharest. What is left is to turn that into a plan, work out how much time each place needs and how to get from one to the next. That is the task people bring to this section.

The backbone of the section is an overview of what to see in the country. It puts castles, the Carpathians and the mud volcanoes into one picture so that you can see which regions are on offer in the first place. The overview does not give detailed instructions for each place. Its job is different: to show the country as a whole. It is a good starting point if your route is not yet settled.

Two articles are devoted to Bucharest. The first is a long list of places for a route of several days. The second is a ready-made plan for a short trip, from the Palace of the Parliament to St. Joseph's Cathedral. They work well read together: the first helps you choose, the second arranges your choices by day. Brașov is covered separately, with tickets, the cable car and prices. There is also a piece on Sinaia and Râșnov: Peleș Castle, the monastery and the fortress.

Bran Castle gets two articles, and each has a different purpose. One explains what awaits a visitor inside and outside. The other looks at where the Dracula legend ends and documented history begins. Together they help you decide whether the castle belongs in your plan. For those who drive, there is a one-week route through Transylvania with castles and a section on car rental.

Every article opens with a short verdict: what kind of place it is and how much time to set aside for it. Then come the practical blocks: tickets, transport, the order of the visit. Next to a price or a timetable we give the source and the date it was checked. That way you can verify any figure yourself. We name the downsides plainly. If a place is awkward to reach, or the legend is louder than what you will see inside, we say so.

The section is meant for independent travelers who put their own route together and want to know the details in advance. It suits both a short city trip and a week by car. If you are after a beach vacation on the coast, ski resorts or hotel roundups, the section does not have such articles yet. Mobile service, money and documents are not covered separately here either. We do not want to promise more than we have.

Start with the country overview to choose your regions. Then open the article on the city that will be your base: Bucharest or Brașov. After that, read the pieces on individual sights: Bran, Sinaia, Râșnov. The Transylvania driving route is best read last, once you know what you want to see. It helps you combine the places you picked into one trip and judge whether you need a rental car.

Romania belongs to the "Europe" part of the "Destinations" section. It has no subsections, and all articles sit in a single list. If you are comparing countries for one trip, look at the neighboring sections. The closest geographically is "Bulgaria". On the same level are "Germany", "France", "Belgium", "Denmark", "Finland", "England" and "Andorra". The articles there follow the same principle, which makes destinations easier to compare.

We update the articles in this section. Ticket prices, visiting conditions and timetables are checked against the official websites of castles, museums and transport operators. When the data changes, we edit the text and set a new check date. Before your trip, still open the official website of the place: conditions can change faster than we manage to update an article. New pieces on Romania will appear in this same section. Choose a region, read the articles on your stops and build your plan day by day.