A Month in Romania August-September 2026

Tours and guides

Other than day tours, we had never taken an organized tour before this trip. We hired a private guide, Teo Ivanciuc, of Maramures Tours for a 16-day tour. Teo was recommended by Mardee, CWSocial and TexasTravelMom, as they had travelled with him in 2025. He gave us insights and access that we never could have uncovered on our own.

Planning the trip with him was such a pleasant change for me. We started by combining several of his itineraries, and then fine-tuned it until we had a sensible, interesting program that largely avoided long drives, repetitive sites (how many fortified and painted churches can you do?), and focused on our interests. Instead of gathering information from books and websites and booking day tours, excursions and restaurants, I could focus more time on reading history and politics and memorizing enough Romanian to make it through a month.

It was a wonderful experience to travel with someone who could answer every question without hesitation, introduce you to real everyday people (including, memorably, two charming 65+ year old ladies harvesting potatoes by hand), and arrange visits with craftsmen like woodcarvers, a mask maker, weavers and potters. Teo made program changes on the spur of the moment, and offered insights into communism, journalism, and education based not only on personal but also professional experiences. He was able to weave the places we saw into the history of the Ottomans, Saxons, Germans, Hungarians and communists that form Romania’s history, which made the places really come alive. We highly recommend him.

That said, however, there were several websites that were particularly useful as part of our orientation. Among these were romaniatraveltips.com; visitromania.ro; and travelromania.net. I used both the Rough Guide and Lonely Planet guides in addition to websites to help fine-tune the itinerary.

I booked several tours in Bucharest and Brasov to take before we joined Teo in Brasov. The first was a 5-hour food tour in Bucharest booked through Get Your Guide. Designed for up to 15 people, we lucked out as the only two participants. Our guide was young, enthusiastic and creative in adapting his itinerary on the fly to meet our requests for reduced walking and breaks for short rests that we did not expect to have. In addition to food, he was happy to talk about modern Romania, especially university life and employment prospects for graduates (and, being limited, he was learning how to be a tattoo artist) and the differences in life now as opposed to life when his parents were his age. It was our first morning in country, and a good way to get started.

The second tour from Bucharest was a full-day drive on the Transfagarasan Highway. I booked this one directly with the company I Travel in Romania, largely based on forum and website/Trip Advisor reviews. I selected a one-day version of their “The Best Road in the World: Transfagarasan Private Tour in 2 Days” by dropping the second day in Sibiu since we planned to visit there later. The project got off to a slow start due to confusing emails with slow turnaround times. I persisted and booked, but when we arrived in Bucharest, we were passed through the hands of no fewer than 4 guides until one stuck. I was later told that guides on this route work for several companies, and until the morning of the tour, they aren’t sure who would be running it. Since it was a private tour for which I paid a substantial sum, I expected better service. In the end, it turned out OK as our guide was an interesting young woman who voluntarily shared her personal trials and tribulations with raising her child and in dealing with the Romanian medical system bureaucracy. Entirely TMI, but interesting nevertheless.

She was also able to provide a pretty good history of the road and some gory details about the demise of 2 people last year who tried to feed the famous bears from inside their cars. There are plenty of signs and frequent visits by gendarmerie officers when bears are sighted, though, so, she said, it was totally on them. She stopped upon request for photos (including for those of a young adult literally posing on the side of the road and one of a mother bear and her triplet cubs (all taken very quickly through a crack in the car window, of course) and recommended a nice roadside restaurant for lunch.

Unfortunately, she assumed that we would want to do the cable car, stopped and dropped us off without asking. It was an awkward moment as she appeared to have other plans and expected us to be amused by the cable car until her return. The result was a time-consuming and insanely expensive ride in a gondola with windows so scratched we really couldn’t see much at all. I don’t recommend it. On the upside, the scenery of the entire drive was gorgeous, and we had time to enjoy it as the upward drive was quite congested. It was a long day – we left at 0730 and didn’t get back until 1930.

The third was the “General Bucharest Tour” with Walkative’s partner Bucharest Walkabout. It was a smaller group of about 15, and the guide was knowledgeable and entertaining. It was a solid, pleasant, inexpensive (tips only) experience.

We also did Walkative’s Bellu Cemetery tour in Bucharest. Off the beaten path for sure, so much so that our Uber driver couldn’t find the correct entrance gate. He gave up and dropped us off, and we eventually caught up with the group about 10 minutes into the tour. Our guide was great, sharing the history of the cemetery and stories of some of its famous and infamous residents. Bring mosquito repellent. Luckily, our guide did and we all gratefully partook.

In Brasov, we did a Walkabout free/tips-based walking tour. We were a group of 10, and our enthusiastic guide added 1.5 hours to the scheduled 2-hour tour, and covered all the stops on the Lonely Planet and other walking tour maps I had seen. Rope Street, billed as one of the narrowest streets in Europe (much like one in Cefalu, Sicily and elsewhere) was closed for “renovation”, and had been, said the guide, for months with no sign of movement. Bummer. If you decide to hike the hill up to White Tower be prepared with sturdy shoes and a good sense of balance. It’s a very tough walk up a steep, rutted dirt and stone path. It’s easier to use the huge staircase, which we did on the descent.

BUCHAREST
Comings and goings

Our arrival in Bucharest was delayed by a day. About an hour before our planned connection in Munich, a departing Vietnam Airlines flight clipped its tail on the fence surrounding the airport, causing a full ground stop while it circled Munich dumping fuel before it landed safely. Eventually, we took a taxi to Frankfurt, slept a few hours in an airport hotel and then took the 0600 flight to Bucharest. Travel insurance (Allianz) covered the expenses, including our first night accommodations in Bucharest, that Lufthansa did not. From submission to receipt of our reimbursement, 36 hours. Not bad at all.

It was a very tiring start to the trip, but from our perspective, Lufthansa did an admirable job of accommodating the thousands of inconvenienced travelers, and our Airbnb hosts graciously accommodated the change in our schedule, so all was not lost.

Bucharest is a huge city, and not always easily walkable. Its massive boulevards, finished and unfinished megastructures from the Ceausescu era, and a combination of construction and poor sidewalk maintenance mean it can take time to walk in, around, and through some neighborhoods. We quickly found that we had to adjust our expectations of what we could accomplish daily, both due to distance and the unusually hot weather.

Public transportation in Bucharest is plentiful and inexpensive but so was Uber, and when we weren’t walking, we took that route. On the weekend, residents enjoyed the wide boulevard in front of our apartment, Calea Victoriei, that was closed to traffic, making the Italian tradition of the passeggiata look as if it had been invented in Bucharest. Everyone, from kids to the 95 year-olds, used the wonderful walk-through water misters to cool down – temperatures hovered around 100 the entire week we were there. It was interesting that even on our passaggiate, we heard very little English; occasional German or Italian, but not much at all. The traffic in Bucharest was noticeable, but generally not horrible, except for the ride to the airport. We needed more than 1.5 hours to get to the airport by Uber in the weekday morning gridlock. Google maps had estimated 45 minutes.

We took the train from Bucharest to Brasov. It was an inexpensive and comfortable 3-hour direct ride from Bucharest. On our trip home, Coanda Airport and Lufthansa staff deserve a shout out for graciously expediting our check-in and handicap assist through security to the gate after that long Uber ride from downtown.

Accommodations
I am aware of the conflicting views expressed here and elsewhere of using Airbnbs and VRBOs, but for us, staying a week or two in one room of a hotel isn’t pleasant or practical. We like to be able to eat in occasionally, sit on actual furniture, and do laundry without taking time out from our sightseeing. Our Airbnb hosts met us on arrival, shared stories of the apartment (her 1970s childhood home) and offered sightseeing and restaurant recommendations.

The building itself was a history lesson in communist-era architecture. It is a massive building of concrete block that fills an entire city square block, with entrances A, B, C and D on each side of the building on the roads surrounding it. Every day’s ride in what I would guess to be the original 1970 two-person elevator was a creaky adventure. Even our accommodations in Bucharest were part of the learning experience in Romania.

Bucharest Highlights

Admission to The National Museum of the Romanian Peasant is timed hourly, and groups are limited in size, but we couldn’t figure out why. The crowd was quite small and could have easily handled an open admission policy. It’s a two-story building, with 40 minutes allotted for each floor. After the short break to direct the group upstairs, we were allotted another 40 minutes for the second floor. After a snack in the pleasant courtyard restaurant, we joined another group and repeated the 80-minute cycle. The $4 entry fee for 2 seniors opened the doors to exhibits of beautiful clothing and textiles, Romanian agricultural life, folk art, and rural, religious, and family life. English signage is scant, but some of the docents spoke enough English to answer questions. There were a few Romanian families present, too, and their English was more than adequate to explain what we were seeing.

Skipping the Dimitrie Gusti National Village Museum was a mistake. We knew we’d be visiting the highly-rated Astra Village Museum near Sibiu, so we chose to use our time in Bucharest elsewhere. We did see Astra, but unfortunately, many of the homes and craftsmen’s shops there were closed. The shepherd was out with his flock but took off in the opposite direction as we approached. Staff told us that on weekday mornings crowds were slim and the risk of vandalism was high, so they were forced to close many of the buildings. It was a real disappointment. Even if you are heading to Sibiu, I think it would be wise to spend a few hours at Gusti if ethnographic parks are of interest to you.

Ceaucescu’s monstrous Palace of the Parliament, an administration building second in size only to The Pentagon, was begun in 1984 and completed in 1997, well after his “death”, as the guide put it. We debated going, but in the end decided it was one of those ‘we really should do this” places. Bookings are required; our Airbnb hosts made ours 24 hours before the visit. Bring your passport, as it is required for admission. This was one of the few places we visited in Romania, along with Peles Castle, where it was clear that most visitors were tourists.

The scale of the building is overwhelming. Everything is described in tons and kilometers, The guide was circumspect in his descriptions of its impact on local neighborhoods’ housing, monasteries, factories and government buildings as well as in discussing construction costs and fatalities. Nothing was said about the austerity program that left Romanians hungry and cold while Ceaucescu’s “masterpiece” was constructed. Wikipedia provided a much better overview of those topics.

Stops along the tour included conference rooms, massive hallways, diplomatic reception rooms and facilities, and a media/conference center with simultaneous translation services in 6 or 8 languages. The guide shared a few interesting factoids about the building, for example, everything used to build it and everything inside it, including the carpets, chandeliers and silk draperies, were made in Romania. It makes sense when you consider that for much of the time it was under construction, the Ceausescu regime was increasingly repressive, in economic decline, and isolated from the rest of Europe and the world due in large part to Ceausescu’s repressive policies.

It was 100 degrees the day we visited, but the building was cool and comfortable, attributable in part to its construction. The guide told us that the annual cost to heat and cool the Palace is approximately six million dollars, some of which must be defrayed by the 21 euro admission charge. (But, combination tickets with the Ceausescu Mansion and/or the Dimitrie Gusti National Village Museum are available.) The tour covers a tiny fraction of the building, and (over 70% of the building is vacant), yet the one-hour tour was about a 1 km walk that included about 150 stairs. It’s a totally inaccessible building (no elevators available, at least to tourists), but there were restrooms available about halfway through the tour.

Also in the “we really should do this” list of places for me was Ceaucescu’s Mansion. But, we were split on the value of a visit, so I did not prebook. No tickets were available once we were there, so that decision was made for us.

Before our dinner at Caru Cu Bere (in the restaurant review section), we visited the 1724 Stavropoleos Monastery, where we had a lengthy conversation with one of the docents and a young, cloistered sister who graciously answered our many questions. We found that the unusual Brancoval style of architecture in which is it built to be the most appealing part of the Monastery. The garden was a cool, peaceful respite after a long walk and crowded visit, although there are no benches.

Visiting and/or touring the Romanian Athenaeum, the performance venue of the Enescu Philharmonic and others, was an experience, or perhaps a lack of one would be more accurate. The website says guided tours are available if scheduled in advance, but reservations were not being taken when I was making plans. But, we were told by our Airbnb hosts to go anyway; it might be possible to get in. Be prepared, they said, for what could be considered a vestige of communism. For a “contribution” collected by only some of the staff, one could gain access. It was true – when the employee taking “contributions” went on break, tourist access did too as his replacement did not take “contributions”. It looks like a beautiful concert hall; there’s a virtual tour on their website.

Marked with a single, small plaque on Revolution Square sits the former Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party, from where Nicolae Ceausescu delivered his last speech. He intended it to inspire support for the regime. However, it inspired a revolt that quickly led to the end of the regime and the execution of the dictator and his wife. Near the square on the walls of various buildings are small plaques which remember, in words and photos, some of the people who died in the square during the Revolution.

One thing that really struck me was that on the different days we were in the area, we were the only ones who seemed to know, or care, what happened there. There were no visitors, nobody viewing the monument that is mocked for its design more than recognized for its meaning (Probably understandable -- it looks like a baked potato on a big stick.) Considering the significance of those events, I was a bit surprised. Maybe I shouldn’t have been. The Ceausescu regime is just bad memories of a distant past for most people. Like here and in many other countries I suppose, the young, upwardly mobile, social media-driven population of Bucharest has no recollection of it and, apparently few people who want to discuss it with them. We learned that in 2025, Romanian schools were (finally) required to include the history of the 1989 Revolution in their curricula. Kind of a long time coming.

BRASOV
Brasov Highlights

After Bucharest, Brasov was a compact, easy-going considerably cooler refuge with a huge town square right outside our front door. It was nice just to wander around, see a few worthwhile sites and sit on the square for a couple of meals and afternoon cocktails.

The History Museum of Brasov, located in the main square was a series of well-presented exhibits on the ground floor from the Stone Ages through the Iron Age. Upstairs was an exhibit about 30 November 1989 – the date of demonstrations in Brasov that were the precursor to the fall of communism in December of that year. Sadly, while the explanations on the ground floor were in perfect English, the upstairs exhibit had none at all, save a couple of photo and object captions. We got the impression that they don’t get a lot of visitors. The staff seemed thrilled to have some company.

The synagogue had an unusually stark white interior but lacked any real distinguishing characteristics. More interesting was the apprehension of 4 young men who displayed poor judgment by physically attacking the cops who pulled them over. Lots of blood, some outstanding examples of police brutality, a good dose of pepper spray in the air, and 20 minutes later, it was all over.

Being sports and Olympics fans, we visited the Museum of Romanian Athletes, located in what was the Romanian Ice Skating Federation building. The exhibits are quite detailed, covering World and Olympic champions as well as athletes like Ion Tiriac, who not only played on the Romanian National Hockey Team at the 1964 Winter Olympics (who knew?) but also had a successful professional tennis career both as a player and coach.

Around the corner from our apartment was the Black Church, a huge Lutheran cathedral. Its Gothic architecture dominates the Brasov skyline and its the large collection of Anatolian carpets – over 100 of them – was very well presented by both written descriptions and docents’ explanations.

Tour Highlights

After a few days in Brasov, we met our guide Teo. It’s really hard to narrow 2+ weeks of touring into “highlights”, but I’ll give it a go.

For the first few days, based in Brasov, we headed off for Prejmer village fortress and church, Peles Castle, cruised by Bran Castle, and visited the Bran National Museum where Bran Castle’s contents collected by Queen Marie are displayed. We requested to skip Bran Castle as we had no interest in the Vlad the Impaler stories and really didn’t want to fight the crowds. Even with timed entries, Peles was crazy crowded and hectic, and we barely made it in as the entrance gate literally closed behind us, leaving some very unhappy ticket holders on the other side of the gate.

Viscri was an interesting village both for the involvement of King Charles III through a chance meeting he had with a young Gypsy woman and as a Saxon village founded in the 12th century. The King owns a traditional farmhouse there which has been restored to preserve its historical significance as well as to highlight his views on traditional architecture, sustainable agriculture, and the protection of biodiversity and Romania’s cultural heritage. The King’s involvement, along with the activity of the local Mihai Eminescu Trust has allowed Viscri to transform itself into a much-visited site for local tourism to observe the revival of such historic traditions as blacksmithing.

Moving on to Sighisoara, we enjoyed an unexpected folk festival in the Citadel Square, saw the Scholar’s Staircase (built in 1642 to connect the lower and upper parts of the citadel. It allowed people to reach the church and school in winter, when snowfalls made it impossible to move from the lower to upper parts of town.) The astronomical Clock Tower is the main entry point to the walled upper city. Climbing the stairs of the 64 meter tower reveals a museum of its and Sighisoara’s history as well as a close-up look at the clock mechanism.

The Palace of Culture in Iasi is located in what was an administrative building until 1955. It now houses four museums, one dedicated to art, one to Moldavia’s history, the Ethnographic Museum of Moldavia and a science and technology museum. We took time to wander through all four. I’m not much of a science/tech person, but it, along with the others, were all worth our time.

From Iasi, we went to Bucovina, where we visited the famous painted monastery Voronet. We stopped for a couple of hours at the Vama Egg Museum to see some of the 20,000 decorative eggs on display and learn about this folk art tradition. The Moldovita Monastery is a Romanian Orthodox Monastery built in 1532, displays extraordinary frescoes painted on the outside walls. One of my favorite stops of the entire trip was the extraordinary Sucevita Monastery. Both the interior and exterior of the church are covered by frescoes depicting biblical stories from the Old and New Testament. Despite being exposed to the elements for more than 400 years, the colors are vibrant and the images are clear—it is truly a remarkable work of art.

We spent four nights in Breb, using our farm stay as a home base for day trips. The family was more than happy to share their knowledge of the area and their farm, as well as their family. We met 4 generations of family members who circulated in and out of the house over the few days we were there, and we were particularly touched by the owners’ surprise effort of installing a first-class finely-crafted wood railing to help my husband climb the 20 or so stairs from the driveway to the house.

The location of the museum Memorial to the Victims of Communism, inside a former prison, made learning about this horrific time in Romanian history even more impactful. The Merry Cemetery must be on every bus tour and everyone else’s tour route and for good reason. The colorful wooden “headstones”, more like crosses actually, with stories and photos of the occupants made for a great, unique visit to this special region of Romania.

Another fantastic stop was a water-powered mill and whirlpool used for processing wool into wool felt and for washing heavy wool carpets and blankets used in the colder northern region. The ladies, and one of their sons, were fun to speak with both about their traditions and work as well as everyday life. (Can you imagine living without the internet? They seem to be doing just fine!)

We especially enjoyed seeing the wooden church in Desesti. It is a UNESCO world heritage site, like so many other churches, cathedrals and fortified village churches, but this small, dark, 18th century church was surrounded by the most extraordinary cemetery full of monuments that spoke of the lives of the people who worshipped there.

Onward! The Hungarian Rimetea village was a short, but fascinating stop where we learned more about the Hungarian minority society within Romania, its origin and how and why it continues to exist. We found that Teo’s explanations of how and why both the German (in Brasov and elsewhere) and Hungarian communities in Romania continue to thrive to be particularly interesting. They both walk a fine line of maintaining completely separate communities while simultaneously participating in Romanian civic and political life.

For the Hungarian community, this balance is undoubtedly supported by the central government, which allows for separate political representation, educational rights (Hungarian language schools and universities), and financial support to enhance their cultural autonomy. The description we got made it sound like “political correctness” in overdrive. Despite these accommodations, however, many ethnic Hungarians apparently feel that their rights are not fully respected. This is a subject of considerable disagreement in some sectors of the Romanian nation.

We spent a few hours at Corvin Castle, the Gothic-Renaissance fortress in Hunedoara. It was built in the 15th century. While its contents were destroyed in a fire, it contains copies and examples of the original furniture and furnishings.

Sibiu is a lovely small town with its trademark “sleepy eye” dormers. The dormers orginiated in the 15th century, but most of those visible today were built in the 19th century. While legend has it that the “eyes” were built to frighten people and make them believe that they were being watched, in reality they acted as a ventilation system for the houses’ attics. In 2017, the eyes were used as a symbol of the anti-corruption fight in Romania, with one organization using them in their slogan “We See You from Sibiu”. Sibiu was a lovely town just to stroll in, and in between obligatory visits to the cathedrals, sit in a small square to have a glass of wine or a dessert and coffee.

I mentioned the Astra Village Museum earlier, and while we were disappointed in how many buildings were closed, we were equally happy to see those that were open. A traditional bakery, barns, a workshop that displayed a variety of musical instruments, a gristmill and a one-room house that allowed us to see up-close how wooden buildings were constructed entirely with hand tools and without using nails.

We had several opportunities during our time with Teo to see and learn about Gypsy/Roma communities in Romania. It was an eye-opener. He had no qualms about taking us to Gypsy communities where the mansions were as outrageously decorated as they were large (even though we stuck out like the proverbial sore thumbs we were). Neither did he shy away from (trying to) engage some of the owners in conversation, which was not entirely successful. We heard a lot about the various types of communities – from the obviously very wealthy to the very poor, and witnessed both as we traversed the country. The Gypsy/Roma communities in Romania, urban and rural, share an extraordinarily complex interplay of socio-economic, cultural, historical, educational, and linguistic factors that influence every aspect of their recognition, rights, and belonging to the Romanian society at large. Undoubtedly, scholars spend their entire careers trying to untangle the web. We barely scratched the surface and were left wanting more.

Conclusion
The 13 days we spent in Bucharest and Brasov, followed by the 2+ weeks with Teo were, in a word, extraordinary. It’s going to take weeks to unpack our time there, as well as in Sighisoara, Iasi, Gura Humorului, Breb, Cluj Napoca, and Sibiu. Luckily, or maybe not, we have about 1000 photos to help us relive it.

I so enjoyed reading this! We will be in Romania next Jun for three weeks also partly with Teo. We will go many of the same places you went but no Transfagarasan Highway for me. I get too car sick!

Wanderlust, I loved reading this trip report! Oh my gosh, it really did bring back so many memories, and I loved hearing your descriptions of all the places. I especially enjoyed hearing about the Transfiguration Highway road trip. You are a braver person than me. Hopefully you didn't have to go up (and down) when it was snowing. Poor TexasTravelMom and CWSocial had to put up with me staring at the floor of the car the entire time because I was too afraid to look out the window. Well, I did occasionally, when I knew there were no severe drop-offs, but it was scary. 😂

And I agree with you about Teo. He had no qualms at all about stopping to talk with people and gathering as much information as possible to share. It really was great reliving it through your words.

I wouldn't feel too bad about missing the Dimitrie Gusti National Village Museum. We saw many similar houses tin Maramures, and while I enjoyed the museum (which I visited at the end of my trip), I wasn't as enthralled with it as I might have been if I hadn't been to Maramures already.

What a wonderful trip report! I really admire how you researched and made the trip your own. Your descriptions are so clear and vivid. It was interesting about the timed entry for the Museum of the Hungarian Peasant - when we went, we walked up and bought a ticket on the spot, with almost no one there. Well actually, we walked up, toured, and finally bought a ticket as we were leaving (their internet was down).

And I have to agree about how knowledgeable Teo is on all things Romania. We decided he knows everything. I tested that once when an ambulance passed us and I asked if it was coming from the hospital or going to the hospital. His first response was, “Well, how would I know that?” and we laughed; but he quickly changed his answer because of how many people were riding in the front (which I had not even noticed) and what the procedures are. LOL.

Excellent trip report; you really captured the essence of a trip to Romania! A country of contrasts, beautiful scenery, friendly people, and so much to learn.

I am sorry we missed you in Sibiu; I think we would have had a great conversation.

Wanderlust, I saw your trip report go by as I was leaving on my own travels, so I'm catching up.

I'm so glad to read that you had an extraordinary time in Romania, including your private guided time with Teo. It's incredible how he can engage so easily with the people in the local communities. It gives such insight into the life and culture.

It was fun to revisit Romania through your descriptions!