Why Romania
The country is large, varied and still lightly visited. The Carpathians cross it in an arc and take up a third of the territory; Transylvania, inside that arc, lines up fortified Saxon towns — Sibiu, Brașov, Sighișoara — with no equivalent elsewhere in Europe. The Danube Delta, in the east, is the continent's largest wetland.
Bucharest resembles nothing else in the country: monumental, chaotic, marked by Ceaușescu's town planning and by a dense nightlife.
May–June and September–October are the best windows. Summer is hot and heavy on the plains, pleasant at altitude. Winter is harsh and snowy in the Carpathians.
Entry and stay
Romania has been a full member of the Schengen area since 1 January 2025, the date land border controls were lifted. Air and sea controls had already gone on 31 March 2024. This is a recent change, and many guidebooks have not caught up with it.
An identity card is enough for nationals of the EU, the European Economic Area and Switzerland.
For other nationalities, the European Entry/Exit System (EES) has been in service since 10 April 2026 and digitally records every crossing of a Schengen external border, with or without a visa, against the ninety-days-in-a-hundred-eighty allowance. ETIAS, a twenty-euro authorisation for visa-exempt nationalities, is expected in the final quarter of 2026.
Source: European Commission and Council of the European Union, checked on 22 September 2026.
Getting around
CFR trains cover the country but they are slow: distances are counted in hours rather than kilometres. On secondary routes the minibus — maxitaxi — is faster and more frequent.
A car opens up Transylvania and the mountain roads, including the Transfăgărășan, which is open only in summer, generally June to October depending on snow. Check it is open before building a trip around it.
Bucharest has an efficient and cheap métro.
Money
The Romanian leu, not the euro. The country is in the European Union but has kept its own currency.
Cards work in the cities; rural areas, markets and small transport stay in cash. Cash machines are plentiful.
Before you go
The fortified churches of Transylvania and the painted monasteries of Bukovina are World Heritage listed and open on restricted hours, with frequent midday closures.
The brown bears of the Carpathians are a real and substantial population. The local instructions — do not feed, do not approach, make noise while hiking — are not decorative.
The Danube Delta is travelled only by boat, from Tulcea, and requires a biosphere reserve access permit, included in organised excursions.