Romania and Bulgaria Itinerary

That's a lot of stops. 10 stops in 25 days - 10 days of travel in your 3.5 week trip. Every travel day is pretty much a wasted day. I would consider reducing your stops to 7 or so, and making most stops 3 nights. That being said, Brasov is a pretty small town, and 2 full days there would be a lot. You could do a side trip to Bram Castle. Bucharest can easily do 3 nights. Sibiu, to see Castelul Peles, can be done in an afternoon - Sibiu is a very small town. We stopped there on the train from Bucharest to Brasov, and a 6 hour stop was more than enough to see the castelul and get back to the train - we checked our luggage at the train station. There is an extra charge to take photos in the castle, which i regret not paying. We haven't been to other places on your list.

Have you looked at some sample itineraries here? You may also get some additional ideas...
http://romaniatourism.com/sample-itineraries.html

That's going to be a great trip. I did a train and bus trip through those two countries in 2015 but have zero experience driving there.

What is your source for the driving-time estimate between Gura Humorului and Sighisoara? ViaMichelin is giving 7 hr. 21 min. for its fastest suggested route. Although there's a separate thread running right now about the feeling that VM isn't updating its database these days and is probably not a good source for driving directions, I haven't seen any suggestions that its driving times are over-pessimistic. I'd hate for your guesses to be 1/3 short overall. But then again, if you're mostly taking buses, you'll be looking at the official schedules for those.

In any case, Sighisoara is rather small and I think in a pinch 1-1/2 days would probably work there, so if you need to, you could probably drive (or bus, if available) on to Sibiu by mid-afternoon on the third day. Incidentally, the Sighisoara tourist office was closed the day I was there, which was a Monday. I suggest traveling with a map printed off the internet, just in case--not for driving, but for walking around the somewhat tricky historic district.

Two places I saw in Romania that you're going to miss are Timisoara (where the revolution began) and Maramures, the folkloric regions with wooden churches that's north of Cluj-Napoca. I will concede that Timisoara isn't absolutely essential, though I liked it a lot, but to spend as much time as you plan to in Romania and miss Maramures is a real shame. Although I'm usually telling people on the forum that I think they should slow down--and I do not like 2-night stops myself--I'm going to suggest that you try to find a way to get Maramures into your itinerary.

The Retro Hostel in Cluj-Napoca organizes van trips to a number of destinations in Romania. I took its 2-day trip to Maramures and thought it was a great, low-stress way to see the area. I don't think it can be done by public transportation, and I'm pretty sure a self-drive trip would miss quite a lot that we saw. You don't have to be staying at the hostel to take its tours, but the trips only run when there's enough demand, so that can be tricky. Also, my group was in a charming rural B&B-style place with very good, home-grown food, but there were no rooms with en-suite baths: 3 rooms and 2 baths, as I recall. It was absolutely worth it to me.

Where would the time come from? Perhaps by cutting one day each from some combination of Brasov, Sofia and Nessebar--depending on what side-trips you might be planning in each of those places. With a car, I think you can just about squeeze Nessebar and Sozopol into 1-1/2 days. Another possibility is to do what I did and only spend one night in Bucharest. The thing about Bucharest is that there's not a concentrated area of historic architecture--or at least I didn't find one. I did a lot of walking to find some individual buildings of interest, though I'm certain there are museums there that I would have enjoyed if I could have spared the time.

I note, however, that you say you plan a 24-26 day trip, but you have allocated 27 nights. Still, I would do just about anything to get to Maramures.

In case you haven't encountered this information in your reading: As of 2015, some inter-city buses in Romania required reservations, and they had to be made by telephone, not at the bus station counter. Be alert to that when you look at schedules or talk to someone (who may well not be English-speaking) at a bus station. That happened to me twice, but I was able to find folks who would make the telephone call for me.

Be wary of a skilled pair of young male pickpockets who lifted my wallet in Veliko Tarnovo.

If you're into crafts, you'll probably find your best opportunities in Veliko Tarnovo and Plovdiv.

Not enough space left in the above post to add that I disagree with Paul about Sibiu and would not call it a small town. It has a population of nearly 150,000 and a good-sized historic district. I had a great time just wandering the streets, admiring the many very old buildings, many of which have been restored. But then I have a nearly insatiable appetite for pretty buildings.

Carol, I'm pondering my own trip in April-May probably just to Bulgaria for about 14 nights, by train/bus. I've already got an award ticket booked to/from Paris during that time, and I've found there are good open-jaw flight connections between Paris and Bucharest / Sofia and Paris and vice versa. I may even try to connect from my Paris flights on the same days (some would call that risky but I've done it before; flight out of Paris leaves at 12:15 and I think I can arrive in by about 9AM; I get into Paris early to start, and there are plenty of direct flights on to Sofia during the day so I can probably time that one for an optimal layover).

Veliko Tarnovo, Nessebar/Burgas, Plovdiv, and Sofia seem to pop up on everyone's itineraries for Bulgaria. One other spot I don't see on many itineraries is Ruse, a Bulgarian city just south of Bucharest right on the river. It sounds like a nice city with Viennese architecture and I'm intrigued for some reason; it would also be on the way to Bucharest to fly out at the end (I may not visit Bucharest at all). I'm looking maybe to add a few national parks to my itinerary as day trips and maybe get to some rock monasteries. So far, I have only the Lonely Planet Romania/Bulgaria book - didn't even realize Rick Steves covered these countries in his books at all. I'll have to check out the latest RS Eastern Europe book.

The other thing I'm wondering about is whether I should visit the Black Sea coast at all. I tend to like seaside towns and instinctively add them to itineraries whenever I am planning to visit a new country, but I've also found a few seaside towns I didn't care for at at all - e.g. on the Baltic Sea (Sopot in Poland and Jurmala in Latvia come to mind). These Black Sea tourist towns in Bulgaria sound like they aren't loaded with charm and may be tacky-touristy in spots, and I'm not sure it's worth the trouble (would also save a lot of time not visiting)

We really liked Sibu- lots to see and many places to explore. I would spend more nights there than Sighisoara. Timisoara is also very interesting. We rented a car from Sixt and found them to be great.

I've been trying to figure out why my experience with Siniu is so at variant with others. It appears I was thinking of Sinaia, Romania, and not Sibiu. So, ignore my comment about Sibiu. Sorry to mislead. Sinaia is a very small town. I've never been to Sibiu.

That's easy to do, Paul, when it's a place you had probably never heard of until you started planning your trip. I keep my little trip notebooks (used primarily to jot down expenses) right beside my computer; otherwise, I don't remember all the places I went, what month I visited them, or how long I stayed.

I went through Sinaia on the way to Peles Castle. It's ski county, hilly and green. The bit of the town I saw didn't look too exciting.

I think Ruse, Bulgaria, is worth checking out. I read about it after I bought my train ticket from Bucharest to Veliko Trnovo, else I would probably have squeezed in a visit. This is the hazard of taking long vacations to eight countries: You may not do such a great job of pre-trip planning, especially for the later stops.

I chose to stay in Burgas (which I found unexciting, yet large enough that moving around took time--not a great combination) for visits to both Sozopol and Nessebar. As coastal towns near Varna and Sunny Beach (neither of which I visited) Sozopol and Nessebar do get a lot of tourists; Sozopol seemed less swamped, probably for geographic reasons. Both have lots of tourist shops, without a doubt. And there are holiday lodgings right there, not just day-trippers. But I thought the two towns were worth visiting. They remain atmospheric if you get off the main shopping streets and have some lovely old ruined churches scattered about. Some of the churches had signs indicating that non-Bulgarian organizations were sponsoring restoration work, so they probably look better now than they did in 2015.

Wow, you have all given me a lot to think about!

Paul: We know each travel day is pretty much a day lost but since most of the towns are small and the scenery is one of the attractions that it would not be a bad thing. We usually stay 3 - 4 nights in a town but since these towns are small we thought 2 - 3 might be enough. We have 2 nights in Cluj as we land in the evening (assuming our current plans) and wanted a day to rest otherwise we would not have visited Cluj.

Agnes, will look into those itineraries with more time.

Acraven, you've convinced me to squeeze in Maramures, probably stay in Ieud with visits to other villages. Mr. does not want to be gone too long but it seems we need to add a couple more days. Also, it would break up the drive to Gura Humorului. But it is a long drive from Gura Humorului to Sighisoara, hence the 3 nights there as it would really be 2 days.

We have 3 nights in Sofia to have time to visit Rila Monastery so don't want to cut nights there. Maybe from Nessebar. Will have to think about that as we're up to 31 nights and really don't want more than 29.

Andrew H, checked on tripadvisor and Nessebar old town looks really nice. We also like seaside but maybe we can cut our time there to 2 nights.
Thanks to all for all the great and thoughtful suggestions and advice. We have a trip in February and will just book the plane fare now using our award miles and then look for lodging and specific sights in March or so. Looking at our guide books and pictures, we think this will be a great trip! Thanks again for all the help.

Cluj has a really pretty historic district of some size. You won't be sorry to have a day there, and it (like Timisoara) provides sort of a soft landing in Romania, some areas of which might be quite the culture shock.

The historic part of Nessebar is small, so if you don't plan also to see Sozopol, I think you're OK dropping that stop to two nights.

I'm thrilled you'll get to see Maramures. I liked it even better than Bucovina (though I would certainly recommend both to anyone with as much time as you have). Your spin through Maramures will benefit greatly from advance research. In addition to the lovely churches, there are beautiful carved wooden gateways leading to many ordinary private homes. I couldn't tell where to find a dense concentration of those, but I bet the information is out there somewhere.

There's a very important politico-historical sight up in Maramures that I hadn't heard of, so I was very grateful to our guide for taking us there. It's the former secret-police prison in Sighetu-Marmatiei, a city on the Ukrainian border. I've linked to a TripAdvisor write-up. We had about a one-hour stop there, and I wished for more. Full disclosure: I have a special interest in the Cold War era. There's a packet of detailed information in English that you can borrow; it made it easy to follow along with the displayed material. I recommend this stop if you have any interest in life under Ceausescu, especially since you will not have time for Timisoara. I can't tell you whether there's anything else of interest in the city, because we just blitzed in and out.

In any event, don't forget the Merry Cemetery.

Thanks, acraven. We may visit Merry Cemetery if we do a day trip to see Barsana and Oncesti. Botiza is also on our list but maybe on a different day. Will get to the details after our February trip. Thanks again for all your info!

Carol, I loved Bulgaria in September 2016, have not yet been to Romania. Concerning Nessebar, it does have an outstanding archeological museum, and several old and interesting churches. However, it is very, very touristy, and I wouldn’t choose to spend three nights there. So, if you need to cut some nights, that might be a place. While there, I took a local bus to nearby Sunny Beach just to see what it was all about, and spent the worst 15 minutes of my trip there, before quickly catching the bus back. When asking people where I should catch the bus back, I was told “right up there, under the big Go-Go Girls billboard”. About Rila Monastery, there are various day tours from Sofia, probably Plovdiv too. Certainly you can drive there too, it’s a little isolated, but a beautiful area. I went there with a RS Tour, and we spent the night in basic but certainly adequate monk’s rooms. I imagine you could arrange to stay the night without being part of a group. The late evening and early morning were magical there, especially photogenic, a quiet pre-sunrise religious service, a memorable experience, and there is a restaurant on-site that served a pretty good dinner and breakfast. If you can spend one night at Rila, try to do it.

Larry, thanks for your advice re Nessebar and Rila Monastery. Though we're in the very beginning stages of planning we like to have an idea of how many days we need before booking our plane tickets and since these will be award tickets we need to book early. We'll cut one day from Nessebar. I'm now thinking 29 days total. Have bookmarked info on the monastery and staying overnight. It sounds like something we should really experience. We would then cut one night from Sofia since we were planning to be away for one day anyway.

I stumbled on this NYTimes 2016 article mentioning Nessebar, Sozopol and Burgas as I was searching for information on Ukraine.

Thanks, acraven, that is an interesting article.

Not everybody does, but I loved Sofia. It seemed a very liveable city, with various interesting sites spread around the city, many more than I was able to visit. Few tourists, with friendly helpful people in abundance. Some excellent restaurants. The Alexander Nevski Cathedral is amazing at all times of day or night, when it is illuminated. There is a wonderful icon museum underneath the Cathedral. I happened into the Cathedral during Sunday mass, a mesmerizing experience filled with incense, chanting, choir, icons and more. Carol, I myself would add time to Sofia, not subtract.

Becky, thanks for the info in Sibiu. Maybe 3 nights each for Sibiu and Sighisoara might be too much. We may take a day from one.

acraven, thanks for the interesting link. Now I wonder if we should keep 2 nights in Nessebar or change it to Burgas.

Larry, I see your point about Sofia. I thought 1.5 days would be enough time to see the main sights. Looks like we might have to up our time to 30 nights, make our plane reservations and then work out the details later.

Thanks to everyone for all the interesting conversations!

Push the length of the trip as much as you can. As you can tell, there's no shortage of interesting stops.

It's obvious that I didn't see the best of Burgas, which I chose only because it was between Nessebar and Sozopol, making for two shortish day-trips. I stayed in an apartment in a sort of inconvenient location, which can really affect one's impression of a city. I imagine different people who saw all three cities would make different choices among Burgas, Nessebar and Sozopol. (Did you notice that I keep mentioning Sozopol?) Perhaps there would be some useful information about the surroundings buried in hotel reviews.

I'd prefer Sibiu to Sighisoara for a 3-night (or longer) stay. It's more of a real city. However, Sighisoara has a pure (though touristy) medieval core. If you value that over other factors, you might like it better. The distinction is a bit like Rovinj vs. Porec (Istria) or Bergamo vs. Vicenza (Italy). Just a matter of taste. Googling for photos might help you make your decision.

If you'll be driving, do check on the parking situation in Sighisoara. I think you'll have an uphill walk to the core of the historic district from any parking place. It's definitely uphill from the bus and train stations. Nothing extreme, but doing it day after day might get a bit annoying. On the other hand, it's not a short walk from the Sibiu bus and trains stations to the center of the historic district, either, though it is basically flat. [Edited to add: And there's some nice architecture along most of the way.]

I'm really excited about your trip and look forward to hearing about which places you liked best after you return.

acraven, Guess we can make it 30 days. It still feels like some stops may be too short but we don't want to be away from the house too long. It tentatively looks like 18 nights in Romania taking one night from one of 3 towns: Cluj, 2; Ieud, 3; Gura Humorului, 2 or 3; Sighisoara, 2 or 3; Sibiu, 2 or 3; Brasov, 3; Bucharest, 2. Bulgaria 12 nights: Veliko Tarnovo, 3; Nessebar or Burgas, 2; Plovdiv, 3; Rila Monestary, 1; Sofia, 3.

Thanks for all your help. You also helped us on our February trip to Morocco, which we're also looking forward to. Why is it that it seems there are so many places to experience at the same time that it feels like time is beginning to run out?

Yes, I know I should be going to the more challenging destinations now, but it's hard to break out of the Europe mold when there's still so much I haven't seen on that continent. Darn those limited US vacation allotments (though mine was much more generous than most).

Cluj, 2 nights; Gura Humorului, 3 nights; Sighisoara, 3 nights; Sibiu, 2 nights; Brasov, 3 nights; Bucharest, 2 nights; Veliko Tarnovo, 3 nights; Nessebar, 3 nights, Plovdiv, 3 nights, Sofia, 3 nights.

I've done all but Cluj and Gura Humorului. Everyone's style and taste is different but for my taste and style, I would limit my stay to everyone of those stops to 2 nights and there are a few i would do as day trips. The exception would be the arrival city which i would do in 3 nights max. I say that while loving every inch of Eastern Europe.

James E, I understand what you are saying but we will be 75 and 71 on this trip which I probably should have mentioned in my original post. With the stressful driving and stopping for sights we need the time to rest between the long drives. Also, we're walking slower these days! Too many 2 nighters is just too tiring these days. We used to travel without reservations years ago and we could play it by ear and stay more or fewer days depending on how interesting each town was, but now we make reservations. We plan day trips from each town so if we run out of things to see/do we can drive away for a few hours. We often seem to run out of time to do everything. Of course, each country and town is different and we won't know until we're there how much time is the right amount for us. One thing is sure - it will be an interesting trip!

Thanks again for your thoughts. I feel better about the 2 night stops we have planned.

Point taken. I'm near retirement age and my trips are reflecting that as well. As age brings wisdom, and wisdom recognizes enjoyment in other forms, I think you have a great trip planned.

Thank you!