Thank you for your inputs so far. Helped me a lot. My final plan:
Amsterdam 3 nights (2nd time visit)
Brugges/Ghent 3 nights
Krakow/Zelipie/Auschwitz 5 nights
Venice 2 nights (2ndtime visit)
Budapest 3 nights
Bucharest/Brasov 3 nights
Istanbul/Goreme 5 nights
Mainly I request your help around spending my time in Romania (Bucharest/Brasov); Poland (Krakow/Zelipie/Auschwitz); Budapest and Turkey
Background: We want to experience culture; people; food; pretty towns; pretty cities; villages etc.. Not much interested in: Night life (pubs etc.); museums and archaeology sites
Would really appreciate if you suggest some nearby areas which are not exactly the tourist hot spots but really beautiful to explore.
As always Thanks a lot :) Shalini
P.S.: Is Brasov similar to Prague in any sense?
Posted by
Washington DC
27399 posts
Bucharest tends to be a necessary gateway when moving in and out of Romania, but it's far from my favorite city there, for reasons of aesthetics. Ceausescu destroyed so much of the historic architecture. You have to move around the city quite a bit to find interesting buildings.
I only visited Brasov on a (too-rushed) day-trip, but I think it is a good choice. Not too far from Brasov are two other places I liked: Sibiu and Sighisoara, of which Sibiu is larger and Sighisoara has an older historic district. Sighisoara is definitely more intensely touristy, if that bothers you.
Sinaia is a popular tourist destination, primarily (I think) for the very pretty 19th century Peles Castle. But that's certainly a very touristy place. I'm not sure what else there is to see in Sinaia. The other issue there is that there's no public transportation to the castle, so you'd need a taxi. Fortunately, taxis are not terribly expensive in Romania. Be sure you have the telephone number of a taxi so you can call it to pick you up after visiting the castle, should you decide to go there.
You'll find buses and trains rather slow in Romania. Figure maybe 30 mph (50 kph). In some cases Romanian buses require you to call ahead to make a reservation, then you pay the bus driver or other company rep just before you get on the bus. That is an annoying step and not so easily accomplished if you are a foreign tourist. The local tourist office should be able to tell you whether you need to do that for any bus trip you are planning.
I suggest Googling for maps of the Romanian cities/towns and printing them out if you don't plan to use electronic maps on your phone. The tourist office in Sighisoara was closed on Monday in 2015, and I was really uncomfortable without a paper map, since I couldn't afford to miss the last bus back to Sibiu.
Posted by
Tel Aviv
15671 posts
5 nights in Turkey is 4 days. I don't think that's enough time for both Istanbul and Goreme/Cappadocia. You'll use almost 1/2 day just flying to Goreme, and then you probably still have to get back to Istanbul to fly anywhere else. I'd want at least 2 full days in Istanbul, and that's just for the top sights.