Has anyone had a summer holiday in Romania?

[Superoom]

Thinking of some slightly different places to go to next Summer.

Romania came up
Or a nine day trip to Iceland

Yes - 10/10 recommend. So many varied things to do and see! Bucharest for history, beautiful delicacy in architecture (and the opposite of delicacy in Ceaucescu's palace...), some top quality parks, delicious food (also good for vegetarians - there's often a vegetarian "fasting" menu)... Then take the train to Transylvania for a few days - Brasov, or Sibiu perhaps, to enjoy both the beautiful towns and the natural landscape.

It's also a very cheap holiday (or was 10 years ago...) We enjoyed a spa day for a bizarrely low price!

I went to visit friends so had a local tour guide. It's a beautiful country with lots to see and the food is great. It's for noticeably more western in 20 years. You can get a good flat white everywhere and particularly in Transylvania the cities have been redeveloped with EU money. The trains are surprisingly ok and the roads are mostly good. Watch out for bears if you go to the mountains!

There's lots to do and see: mountains, salt caverns, natural hot springs, castles, palaces, mediaeval towns, forests

The Danube delta is also a fascinating place for a couple of nights. So remote so you have to rely on the ferries. But beautiful and teeming with wildlife.

Only thing to bear in mind is that it can get very hot in the summer

Thanks all, it sounds great.

Heat wise - I imagine Bucharest is unpleasant, but assuming it's ok in the mountains and elsehwere?

Both those places are on my list, Romania possibly for May half-term 2026. Looking at potentially flying into Bucharest and out of Cluj Napoca. Interested to hear what you decide and what other people have to say.

We had a great time. There's an underground slat mine with a Ferris wheel in it - totally bizarre but unique. Cluj Napoca has a pretty old town and accommodation is very reasonable.

Absolutely gorgeous. If going to Cluj, I recommend taking a trip to the Carpathian mountains....really stunning area.

Romania is a lovely country - we had a wonderful holiday going by train to Transylvania, staying there for a week walking, chilling and visiting pretty towns (Viscri, Sighisoara, Sibiu, Cluj Naopca) then ending with a few days in Bucharest. Highly recommend.

It's geographically continental, so it gets very hot everywhere unless you go high. By the coast you get a breeze, but Transylvania is behind the mountains so any wind is coming across the continent and will be hot.

Romania is stunning and beautiful. We have Romanian friends so have been lucky to see the tourist areas as well as some more rural areas. Right in the south is still very rural, with older people some not having heating or running water in the house and surviving from their own vegetables and livestock. A hard life for an older person. So welcoming though. It has massively embraced consumerism in the last 20 years, phone contracts were very cheap even 15 years ago but clothes, food, toys etc very expensive compared to wages. The black sea tourist areas were lovely, siblu, Brasov etc lovely. Ceausescu's palace was chilling, definitely worth a visit to understand so we never forget what the people went through. Bucharest is a hymn to reinforced concrete although some older parts survive.

Iceland also stunning but several times more expensive and at least half the temperature! Also have friends there which helps!

We were in Brasov in August as part of an Interrailing trip. It's quite pretty, but it was extremely touristy (with majority Romanian tourists, I guess it's a good day trip destination from Bucharest). I thought it was OK...but by no means my favourite destination. It's a good base for day trips though- Bran Castle, bear watching etc, although we opted for a wildlife tracking tour high in the mountains which I loved. It was hot (Central Europe was basking under a heatwave), but by no means as hot as Bucharest!

I think if I was visiting Transylvania again I'd opt for Sibiu or Sighisoara.

On a previous trip (25 years ago!) we caught the cable car up to Sinaia and walked down to Bran- that was amazing.

I also went to Maramures which I thought was beautiful- at the time an agrarian peasant culture where people still wore traditional clothes to work in the fields and carved elaborate wooden doorways to their homesteads- don't know what it would be like now.

Beautiful country with a very interesting history and lovely unspoiled countryside, mountains/lakes, castles etc. I'd describe the food as simple/rustic rather than sophisticated though so perhaps not really a foodie destination as yet. We based ourselves around brasov and did Bran, the Transfugarian road and a few days up in the mountains. There is also an overnight train to Budapest if that appeals?

It will also be very hot anywhere in that part of the world in July/August, even up in the mountains, to be aware, it doesn't cool down like the Alps do...

I was married to a Romanian for 15 years so spent a lot of time there.
There are beautiful places but there's a lot of poverty still and a lot of places are filthy and everyone smokes. I was there in July last and its an interesting but not particularly nice place to be.
Also, prices are ridiculous now. It used to be so cheap!

Also, it rained in brasov in July and wasn't particularly warm.

It's still pretty cheap relative to Western Europe though!

Re: the night train to Budapest (there are actually 2!)- we took that and loved it. Gara de Nord in Bucharest is never going to make it onto the list of top 10 must visit sights in Europe mind you, but it has a certain scuzzy charm. (Plus, we bumped into the ACTUAL MAN IN SEAT 61 there!!)

I lived in Romania for years. I would suggest a couple of days in Bucharest and then head up to Brasov on the train. Once you are in Brasov, hire a car, and drive around - visit Sibiu and Sighisoara, but also the old Saxon villages with their fortified churches. Or go to the Danube Delta, which is amazing, but very busy in the summer - May/June is a good time to go, warm enough to swim in the sea at Sulina, but not sweltering.

It is cheaper but the hike in the last few years is insane. 10 years ago a bottle of wine in a restaurant in Brasov was 70p. Now its 20+£.

I get the impression that, up to a point at least, Brasov is a particularly expensive town (because it's such a tourist hotspot).

Still, we stayed in a studio very close to the centre for £38 per night, but the supermarket next door was very pricey (and badly stocked), and there was a kind of shopping centre next to it selling fancy cookware, designer clothes, that kind of thing, so it's obviously a place where people with disposable income come to chuck it around.

(We found a Lidl on Google Maps half a mile away and happily went wild on the much cheaper groceries!)

Yes it is. Its being developed all the time, new apartments and shopping centres so I suppose its to be expected! Now it has an international airport too.

Thanks everyone, that's great food for thought

I spent time there working in an orphanage in the wake of the Ceaucescu regime. I’m not sure I could bear to go back there.

So did i @Notmorecrapola ! Was it in Bucharest? I was there in 1992 I think.
I will say Bucharest in summer is unpleasantly hot. Going up to Transylvania will be the only sane thing to do.

No not Bucharest, we were further to the east of the country. We were full of hope but I’m not sure we did any lasting good. I still think about those children to this day and I’m sure you do too x

Romania is amazing. I did a walking holiday in the Carpathian’s a few years ago. One of my best holidays ever