Transylvania o our own

Go! It may be chilly in April, but Romania is fascinating. I used buses and trains and averaged about 30 mph when moving from city to city. On the plus side, transportation is cheap (as is just about everything in Romania).

I especially enjoy wandering around areas with picturesque architecture. There don't have to be "sights" I pay to go inside. So my itineraries tend to differ from what guidebooks recommend. I especially appreciated the placards Romanian cities place on the (very numerous) historic buildings, some showing the century of construction. The country has a good bit of art nouveau architecture as well as older half-timbered buildings.

This was my time allocation for Romania:

• Timisoara (not Transylvania but near it, and important as the starting point of the revolution. More western and developed for tourism than many other Romanian cities; better restaurants; lots of restored buildings. 2-1/2 days.

• Sibiu. Nearby there's a large outdoor folk museum with buildings from all over the country. Pretty well done but a bit time-consuming to reach by public bus. 4-1/2 days include two day-trips.

• Sighisoara. Visited on a day-trip from Sibiu. Small, with a more intensely "picturesque" feeling than you'll encounter in larger cities; also a greater density of tourists, though not a problem if you don't insist on off-the-beaten-path destinations. Go prepared with a map. The tourist office was closed the day I went there and I had to get a map from a nice hotel desk clerk.

• Sinaia. Visited (with Brasov) on a day-trip from Sibiu. This is a skiing area and the ride in is very pretty. I didn't have time to walk around the town; I just went to Peles Castle. Since I was trying to cram too much into one day, I ended up taking a taxi from the Sinaia RR station to the castle and, later, from the castle to Brasov. I don't doubt that Sinaia deserves a day by itself.

• Brasov. Very handsome old town, visited the same day as Sinaia. I really wished for more time in Brasov. I love cities like that--not very touristy, but historic.

Cluj-Napoca. Another city with a very handsome old quarter. It's a good jumping-off point for the very traditional area of Maramures (see below). 2-1/2 days including a day-trip to Oradea.

Oradea. West of Transylvania, near Hungary. Visited on a day-trip from Cluj-Napoca. One of the Romanian cities know for its art nouveau buildings. Not as fully restored as some other cities.

Maramures. North of Transylvania, on the Hungarian border. I took a 2-day tour. Really wonderful area; rural, agricultural, with folk traditions living on. We saw some women on their way to church in what we would call "folk costumes", but it was really just their "go-to-church" clothes. A lot of houses have huge carved wooden gates over their driveways. And the wooden churches... It wouldn't be terribly expensive to arrange a private tour of this area. I lucked into a van trip put together by a hostel in Cluj-Napoca, which was very affordable for a solo traveler. We stopped (not quite long enough for me, political-history junkie that I am) at a prison that housed enemies of the Ceausescu regime and at the "Merry Cemetery".

Suceava. East of Transylvania and a good departure point for trips into Bukovina. I spent just two full days in Suceava and used one for a van-tour of the painted monasteries in Bukovina and the other for a day-trip to Iasi. The latter turned out to underwhelming, though I didn't get to the botanical garden, which is supposed to be nice. I didn't have a chance to see Suceava itself.

Bucharest. Ceausescu did a number on the local architecture. Unlike the other cities I've mentioned, you have to range far and wide to find the best of what remains in Bucharest. I did a sort of forced-march over the course of about 6 hours and would have liked an extra day. I'm sure there are worthwhile museums. 1 day.

Ran out of room in previous post. I wanted to suggest that, since your time is so limited, you at least explore the possibility of a private tour. You don't necessarily need to look for an exceptionally qualified, licensed guide if you're prepared to use a good guidebook along the way. Any safe driver with a comfortable vehicle could work. Rome2Rio.com suggests that the actual time in transit by car may not be much faster than in a bus, but you wouldn't be constrained by bus schedules. On a private tour there should be no unwanted stops for shopping.

The driver on my Maramures tour spoke very good English, and we all really enjoyed his take on life in present-day Romania, in addition to what he told us about the things we were seeing in Maramures. Especially since your visit is off-season, you might be very pleasantly surprised at what you'd pay for a private tour.

Thanks for you post. It was very helpful. I am particularly interested in historic Maramures. Do you have contact information for the dirver/guide you used there? We are also interested in a home stay/B&B with meals etc. and how many dyas would you sugest there?

In 2015 I stumbled on a brief online reference to Maramures trips put together by the Retro Hostel in Cluj-Napoca. I had already decided to visit that city, so I just wandered over to the hostel and spoke to the woman at the front desk. She spoke excellent English (may have been from an English-speaking country; I don't remember), and I think you'd do OK if you wanted to telephone. Or you could email.

This web page lists a lot of tours booked by the hostel. Some may be regular commercial offerings the hostel sells (as a hotel would), but the 2-day Maramures trip (scroll way down) was organized by the hostel itself and doesn't run on any fixed schedule. It can operate with just two people, but the price per person will drop if there are more. As a solo traveler I had to cross my fingers, but it all worked out.

On my trip the driver/guide was Florin ("Flor EEN"). We saw a lot because we were on the go for considerably more than 8 hours a day. He worked really hard to give us a great trip. I now remember that there were just three of us, plus Florin, in a regular sedan. (My Bucovina trip from Suceava was with a larger group in a van.) Guiding was a second job for Florin, who I believe is a history teacher, so he might not be available in April (perhaps on a weekend?), but I was really impressed with the language skills and work ethic of the Romanians I met. The economy's not good, and people have to work long hours to get by. I'm sure you will have a good trip even if you have a different guide.

I think I've identified Florin via Google. Age and languages spoken look right.

We stayed in a delightful rural guesthouse. There were three bedrooms and two (shared) bathrooms on the second floor. The cost of the guesthouse was not included in the tour price, but I think it came to about US $25 for me (possibly the same rate per person even if two people shared a room). That covered dinner, bed, breakfast and a casual lunch the second day. Food mostly right off their land, cheese made from the milk of their goats and sheep. There was even Wi-Fi. Unbelievable. That particular lodging is small, so they may not always use it. Like a fool I didn't write down the name of the place or the little village it was in, but I think the guesthouse name included "Donna". I haven't found anything by Googling. Can't get much more authentic than that!

The hostel might be willing to provide contact info for the B&B. It's worth asking. But the Maramures tour is so reasonably priced, I don't see a reason (since there are two of you) not to arrange something through the hostel or Florin directly.

Since all I saw of Maramures was on the tour, I don't know how much additional time would be good in that area. Looking at all the tour options on the hostel web page (which cover not just Maramures, of course), it appears that you could spend a lot of time in that part of Romania without running out of things to do. The Romania section of a good guidebook to the Balkans would probably help with apportioning the time you have available. Remember what I said in my first post about covering just about 30 mph.

The hostel also lists a 2-day trip to Bucovina and a 5-day combination Maramures/Bucovina trip. I'd strongly prefer the latter if you want to see both areas; Bucovina's a good distance from Cluj-Napoca and doing that round trip would cut into the time for seeing Bucovina itself. Alternatively, you could just go to Suceava, as I did, and hook up with a tour from that city.

One thing I forgot to mention initially about Romanian buses: Many have a really weird requirement that you telephone to make a reservation; that cannot be done in person at the bus station. A couple of kind Romanians made that phone call for me.