Recs for Romania, Damatian Coast and ???

We went through some of that territory last Sept.-Oct. Bucuresti (local spelling) is a grand old city when you disregard the communist era concrete buildings. Its a city we would go back to. From there we took a bus out to Constanta and that was good for two or three days. Before getting to Romania we spent four days in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, pop. ca 175,000. Very interesting! It is certainly off the beaten path. I can help with a good hotel there. Bulgaria will certainly be easy on your budget, as will Romania. We went through Brasov on the train. Beautiful! so are some of the other mountain towns. Bradt guides are the best for this area, in my opinion. Let me know if you need details.

I would narrow down to areas ie, maybe start in Belgrade, go to Sarajevo, then down to coast to Split, Dubrovnic, Kotor, OR Romania and Bulgaria (or really only just one with the time you have.) You could go to Northern Romania (Maramures), see the painted monasteries, rural life, etc.and then up into Ukranian Carpathians also maybe to Lviv. I don't think you have enough time to go from say, Romania to Bulgaria to Split, considering you would have to go by bus from there to Split or Dubrovnik but it depends on how much you want to see. I think there is a train from Belgrade to Bar, and also from Belgrade to Sarajevo, but a lot of the Balkans are by bus. I like Bradt Guidebooks (they have individual ones for Serbia and Bosnia, etc.) and I think the Rough Guides for Romania and Bulgaria are good. There is a website called Balkanology.com -it gives you a good idea of what is in each country. Romania's tourist board also has a pretty good website - romaniatourism.com, also viatransylvania.com has customized tours and ideas (have not used them but heard good things) What are your interests? The churches are diff. from western europe, there is more "rural countryside", etc. etc. I have strange tastes so I wouldn't suggest anything lol.

Everyone has their own loves.
Bulgaria and Romania, two of my favorite places in the world (after Budapest). Here you can hire a guide and a car for very little money and then get out and see the country. Bulgaria: Sofia is interesting and worth a couple of days but then you need to take it to the road. Plovdiv, Veliko Turnovo, Varna, Burgas all great destinations. I would suggest you take you on at least a four night road trip ending in Burgas or Varna from which you can get a flight on to Romania or Hungary; or London for that matter. Pavlina Dochevia is a good guide (spelling??) http://www.easytouristguides.com/ or do it on your own. And don't miss the narrow gauge railway http://hum.phrey.net/2009/10/26/narrow-gauge-train-bansko-bulgaria/ Here is some more: http://budapestflat.shutterfly.com/bulgaria (look at the top for the link to BU2 as well). Romania: Bucharest is worth seeing if only to say you were in Bucharest. They have cleaned up one small tourist district and the House of the People is worth seeing at night when all lit up; again, just to say you did. Then get out of Bucharest and see this remarkable country. Again, I would choose a tour guide and do four night road trip. Sighisoara, Brasov, Sibiu, Peles Palace, Brahn, all worth the visit within easy reach of Bucharest. I know a guide that has been known in the past to drive guests on to Budapest. http://www.covinnus.com/index.html at the end of the Romanian tour. http://budapestflat.shutterfly.com/easterneurope (and again look for the link to RO2 at the top of the page for more)

Finally if you haven't been to Hungary, even if you have, Budapest is the perfect place to end a trip and wind down before heading home. But only after seeing Gyor, Eger, Pecs Szentendre, Godollo; or maybe just Budapest. http://budapestflat.shutterfly.com/bp1 An excellent guide in town and in the country is Andrew ILLES http://www.guideinbudapest.com Make sure you purchase the RSteves guide books and the videos are half bad either.

Thanks for the recs, guys! Will consider and do more research. Plane tickets are already purchased, we got such good prices that we figured we'd figure out how to get from one place to another no matter what. Slightly impulsive but seriously less than 100 euro total for my flights including fees, both flights are direct. So we are going from Stuttgart to Bucharest on Oct 4th, and departing Zadar, Croatia on Oct 17th. Aside from the stuff I want to see near Bucharest, I'm open to almost any itinerary as long as it gets me to Zadar. That said, I'd hate to miss Montenegro being so close to it. I see there's a night train from Bucharest to Belgrade. I know a lot of people on this forum aren't huge on the night trains, but we've never taken one and my husband is a train nerd, and it also appears to be the only train connection between those two cities. We have been to Budapest and plan on going back, but will probably combine it with a trip to Bratislava and revisiting Vienna (again, can't ever get enough) or maybe Prague which we still haven't been to. But those are all relatively much closer to me and easier to get to for a shorter trip in the future.

Sounds like a great trip. Come back and let us know how it went!! We will be in Hungary about the same time you are in Bucharest. I stayed at a pretty decent hotel in Bucharest once. I will see if i can find the name. Oh, and not far from town is an island in a lake with a small chapel on it. You have to call the priest who sends a person in a row boat to get you from the mainland bank. When you get to the chapel they will show you the spot on the floor where underneath lies the remains of Dracula. Actually, supposedly the real guy who is quite a hero in Romania for fighting off the Turks.

in romania you can visit brasov, sighisora, and sibiu as a start for the transilvania region. for bulgaria you should visit plovdiv before going to sofia (day trip to rila). bulgaria is nice, well worth it once you're in the neighborhood. train is the best, but in transilvania you can either get a car or use bus. some of the trains are a little scary where you'll ride with a lot of gypsies around you, but they're harmless and don't let what you see scare you.

If you decide to go to Belgrade. Montenegro Airlines flys direct from Belgrade to Tivat, Montenegro. Which is only about a 15 minute drive to Kotor from the airport. Kotor has a vegetable market every morning, just outside the town walls. A must see if you go, is a drive around the bay of Kotor and maybe a trip up to Mount Lovcen for beautiful views of the bay from the mountain. Near the top is a town called Njegusi, famous for its prsut (ham). There are also beautiful beaches nearby and a blue grotto that you take a boat to. Have a great trip!

Sarah... of all the countries I have driven through (and I tend to drive a lot) Romania was one of the easiest to do a road trip through. Picked up a car in Bucarest and drove to Constanta, then out to the countryside. I don't know exactly which cities or villages the trains go to, but I went to all the places you mentioned and drove all around in Transylvania and it was amazing. We spent time in so many little villages along the way. Finally dropped the car in Timosara (sp) and took the train directly to Budapest. There was very little traffic on the roads... most were 2 lane... and we often times had to share the roads with the horses and carts, but it was an amazing trip and I long to go back. Very few american tourists... they thought I was a German woman, probably because of my Birkenstocks:)) Not been to Bulgaria yet...

Transportation options for Montenegro are a bit limited, so the flight from Belgrade to Tivat sounds like a great idea. You might need to rent a car for a few days in Montenegro, to see Kotor and Budva. The coast of Montenegro is beautiful; we've only seen it from a bus, but I don't remember much traffic at all, so driving should be easy. There is a "suburb" of Budva called Becici, which has lots of hotels lining a gorgeous sandy beach. You might even be able to get some beach time in October! We found a great little hotel near the beach; if you go, let me know and I can look up the name. You could hopefully drop off the car in Budva or Kotor (or maybe back in Tivat) and take a bus back to Dubrovnik. From there, you could bus up to Zadar. Our favorite place to stay in the Dubrovnik area is Cavtat, a beautiful small fishing village south of Dubrovnik. A great little B&B there is Villa Andro. You can take bus or boat into Dubrovnik.

Have a great trip. There are lots of nice places in Romania. Sinaia is a nice touristic town 1-2 h drive from Bucharest (Bucuresti) that you can visit in your way to Brasov See: http://www.welcometoromania.ro/Sinaia/Sinaia_Lista_Obiective_e.htm My favourite is Peles Castle http://www.welcometoromania.ro/Sinaia/Sinaia_Castelul_Peles_e.htm Brasov City is very beautiful, and I am suggesting that you visit Poiana Brasov and eat at Sura Dacilor restaurant. Can find info about Brasov here: http://wikitravel.org/en/Bra?ov See this site for nice places to visit from Bucharest, going North (Sighisoara, Bran's (Dracula's Castle),etc... http://transylvania-discovery-tours.ro/ Maramures county (part of Transylvania) is the most rustic area of Romania. Close to Hungary and Ukrainia My two favorite places to see are: Barsana Monastery http://www.manastireabarsana.ro/album.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bârsana Also S?pân?a Merry Cemetery
http://www.visitmaramures.ro/index.php?task=category&category=sapanta_merry_cemetery_places

Romania is a fascinating country full of whimsical and intelligent people. And many of them know English, and even more know Italian or French. Ignore the dissing of Bucharest, just focus on other towns. My favorites were Timisoara in the west, a university town with a beautiful old small opera house downtown, and Constanta on the Black Sea coast, the town to which Ovid was exiled (elegant and grim statue of the poet facing the sea). A little north is Istria, where you find the ruins of a Greek city, and inland, one finds the extensive Roman ruins of Trajan's capital of the province of Dacia, now called Szarmazegetusa. It is, as others have said, easy to drive in Romania. It is also relatively easy to take a train, and find a driver for the day in a small town for not much money. Enjoy!