I am a graduate student studying music composition and ethnomusicology. This trip is both for pleasure as well as research-- I am very interested in exploring Romania's culture and history while avoiding major tourist traps. I will be spending 7 nights in Romania, flying into Tirgu Mures from Budapest. I will not be driving so I'm interested in finding about 2 home-bases where I can take day trips by train or bus (perhaps in different regions--I've been focusing on Transylvania and Maramures). Can any one recommend where/how I should spend my time? Any good B&B or tourist farm-like experiences?
Posted by
OP
Long Beach, CA, United States
2 posts
Thanks AOK! That's a big help. Can you suggest some reputable internet sources for finding these B&Bs? Lonely Planet? So far my searches haven't turned up much.
-T
Posted by
Bucharest, Romania
41 posts
There are many sites, but they usually only have versions in Romanian. Here are some that do have English versions:
This one belongs to a sort of national association of guesthouse owners; click on the counties you're interested in (Brasov, Maramures etc.) on the map or list below it to get to the lists of guesthouses.
This one lists all types of accommodations, so after you choose a county and village/town use the filter on the left side of the screen to see just guesthouses.
Posted by
Bucharest, Romania
41 posts
The obvious choices for base cities would be Brasov for (southern) Transylvania (that's generally considered the most interesting part) and respectively Sighetu Marmatiei for Maramures.
One issue with Brasov and the surrounding sites is that they're increasingly popular with tourists (i.e. they're on their way to becoming tourist traps), so it might not fit your needs.
As for Maramures, the problem is that the region is best visited going from village to village rather than staying in one city and doing day trips from there; also, public transportation isn't particularly good there, so if you won't have a car you'll have to rely a lot on hitchhiking (which is nonetheless very common there and safe).
No problems finding good guesthouses/B&B, they're fairly common in villages in southern Transylvania and especially in Maramures; generally they all offer reasonably good services.