Car rental @ Bucharest airport. Which rental company??

You know that the prices in Romania are such that a car/driver-guide/hotel room will cost you about the same per day as just a car rental in England? You should be able to find a flight to Vienna out of Tigru M. or Cluj N. for under $300 a ticket. You could also make the drive to Budapest and then take the train for about the same price. We have done this and it's a great drive. You also might be able to convince Daniel to take you to Krakow instead of Budapest. That would be worth the effort because Krakow is one of those tough places to get to from most everywhere else. In Bucharest contact Daniel http://covinnus.com/ He's pretty first class and you might get more out of it than renting a car and reading guide books. Romania is worth the visit. If you have 12 full days you might think about: 1 Arrive Sofia 2 Bulgaria road trip 3 Bulgaria road trip 4 Bulgaria road trip 5 Cross the border into Romania 6 Romania road trip 7 Romania road trip 8 Romania road trip 9 Cross the border into Hungary (alternate to Krakow) 10 Budpaest 11 Budapest 12 Depart for home
Car, driver/guide, hotel rooms would run something in the neighborhood of $350 a day every moment from the instant you land in Sofia to the moment you depart Budapest would be sightseeing and no in-Europe air fare cost.

I would simply dismiss any such type of advertising for guides that know it all and are good for all countries. There is James, just about all over the place when it comes to Romania with one single answer: his tour guide and the guide's web site. The guide from Romania guiding in Bulgaria and Hungary? Is this legit? Is it legal? Is it fair? James: you make us all wonder, do you get any kickbacks from your guide? Isn't it strange the way you publicize the services of the same person? Isn't it strange how you watch all Romania related topics to endorse the services of the same tour guide? James: these people above were looking to rent a car and now your guide is taking them to Krakow?

I do not remember which rental company I used (I just went with the cheapest) but it was one of the major names. I drove all over Romania and it was very easy to find our way around. It was a beautiful country to visit and we loved Transylvania as well. I would not consider spending a bunch of money on a driver...one reason I went to Romania is because it was so cheap. We picked up our car in Bucharest and then dropped it in Timosara (sp) and simply took the train from there to Budapest. It was really easy (and I was not that great with trains at the time) The people were extremely warm and friendly and I would go back in a minute. We did not have any hotel reservations and made them as we went, never had any trouble. The only one I did check out ahead was in Timosara as I wanted to be sure of taxi, etc. to get to train station so I think that one might have been a Holiday Inn as I did not want a language barrier as we were getting rid of the car. As far as $350 a day... we were not even close to that amount and we stayed in nice (not elaborate) hotels and had great meals. I know that all of our rooms were well under $100 per nite.

I can't get the numbers in the first response to make sense. In three trips I've spent just under two months in Romania. Two weeks were with my wife, which is the only thing that would approximate the OP's situation. We drove in and out, so I'll neglect the car situation for a now. Romania was the cheapest country on that trip. The whole trip averaged at or less than two hundred dollars or I'd still have alarms going off, so Romania had to be less than the average. As for the car, I'm picking one up in either Manchester or Edinburg in a couple of weeks and figure on less than twenty bucks a day for it. Checking, Heathrow has the same price, Bucharest is a couple of dollars more, but not a bank-breaker. If I had to go tomorrow, two hundred dollars a day for a couple would be more than an adequate planning number, car, gas, hair, and feathers. Krakow doesn't fit into the original question, but the only stumbling block getting in there is if you run up against the mass of rail yards on the southeast side and have to wiggle around them. It's just one more city. If the first response was talking about flying to Krakow, beats me, never done it. I don't know anything about drivers and guides anywhere, but seem to do okay by my own dumb self.