Romania

Romania – general

Romania has majestic castles, medieval towns, great hiking. Romania also offers  wildlife, and the cheap skiing of much of the 'undiscovered' former Eastern Bloc. Romania’s citizens, despite being among Europe's poorest people, generally haven't cottoned on to the scams and ploys so common elsewhere to separate travelers from their money. You'll be floored at how different Romania and the Romanians are. Romania will certainly show you signs that it's chasing the dreams of the rest of the West.

Romania – attractions

The richness and variety of Romania’s tourist attractions, natural but also cultural and historical ones, bring Romanian a leading position in Europe. Romanian's location at a crossroads of many European roads facilitates access by all means of transport. Romania offers you the posibility of travelling by plane, car, train or ship.  

Romania – main tourist spots

The main tourist spots in Romania are: the Capital of Romania (Bucharest), the Black Sea coast with its belt of resorts (Mamaia, Eforie Nord, Neptun  -- Romania’s best seaside spots), the Danube Delta – a place with which Romania ca be proud all over the world, the Carpati Mountains, especially the Prahova Valley and Poiana Brasov (the most frequented mountain zone in Romania), Bucovina (in the north of Moldavia) with the famous monasteries and churches with outer frescoes dating back to the 16th century and declared UNESCO patrimony. Romania has also other tourist spots like: Maramures, the Southern part of Transylvania, including the Hateg land and the surrounding zone (the cradle of the Dacian kingdom, and later on of the Roman province of Dacia) and Nothern Oltenia.

Romania – towns and spas

Romania has, besides these well-defined tourist areas, many other tourist centres, towns and spas.
They include - Iasi (the former capital of Moldavia),
- Cluj-Napoca (the main town of mediaeval Transylvania),
- Timisoara (the multiethnic and multicultural metropolis of the Banat),
- Târgoviste (the princely residence of Wallachia, before Bucharest replaced it),
- Brasov, Sibiu, Sighisoara etc.

Romania amazes its visitors by the matchless beauty of the Danube riverside with the Iron Gates Straits, the Fagaras Massif (with the most spectacular alpine relief in Romania) or the Retezat National Park in the Southern Carpathians.

Romania – tourist accomodation

The tourist lodging network today includes around 3,000 lodging units with a total 290,000 lodging places. Romania holds 900 hotels and motels with around 170,000 places. The privatisation of Romania’s tourism facilities is in progress; only one-sixth of the units and one-tenth of the lodging places have been privatised so far. In Romania, the number of tourists who are given lodging every year is around 6.5 million, the tourist lodging capacity having been used in a degree of 40-45% in the past few years. In 1996 Romania was visited by 5.2 million foreigners, and 5.7 million Romanians travelled abroad, but most of these travels were part of the traffic with the neighbouring countries.