Arrival
We flew from Lyon to Bucharest arriving at 8 pm. Based on a past RS trip report, we used “We Love Cars” for the rental car. It started off poorly when nobody showed up at the airport to get us to the off-site rental location (which email stated would happen). After repeated calls, WhatsApp messages, emails, etc., someone finally contacted us. For some odd reason they told us to go to the departure area which meant hauling our luggage upstairs and then wandering around to that location. When the van arrived the reason given for the delay/confusion was I had given them the wrong phone number (I think they did not use the country code?).
The other odd thing was during the paperwork the rep said we had to clean the car before returning - inside AND outside. I had never heard of this requirement for a rental car before! If we did not, it would cost 12 euros. Aside from that, it was a brand new VW wagon which was very good. We drove about a half hour to for a night near the airport in what seemed a bit sketchy area (or just industrial). Room was cheap but clean so ok. Side note - at the end of the trip we drove through a nasty thunderstorm with flooded streets so the rental car rep waived the cleaning fee.
Lesson learned - reach out to the company to clearly understand the pick-up means. WhatsApp is indispensable in Europe for communication…ensure you have it on your phone.
Sibiu - 3 nights
It took awhile to get out of Bucharest even though we were basically on a ring road. After that there was low traffic on 2-lane roads to Sibiu. We booked a hotel on the square as we drove to the town with plenty of availability. Parking is rather cheap - and definitely use the parking app which makes it easy to add time (parking meter has a QR code to download it). We used the parking app throughout Romania - it knows where you are when you open it which really simplifies paying, it's easy to add more time, etc..
Sibiu was one of our favorite towns in our central europe tour. Not too large of a historic center which is enjoyable to walk, very economical hotels right on the square (but prices appear to spike during some festivals), and overall a chill vibe. Nighttime can be somewhat sleepy in the historic area (at least in June), but that made it enjoyable strolling around almost by ourselves finding some very atmospheric night photos. Our weather was a mixture of sun and 70’s with some thunderstorms mixed in.
The room we initially booked at a hotel was back from the edge with windows opening to the inside covered courtyard…so we smelled the restaurant cooking. After a night we upgraded for a few euros more to a room overlooking the square which was smaller but still very nice.
We enjoyed the 10 euro walking tour offered by the city tourist office which offered good insight into the area. We also spent an afternoon at the Astra Open Air museum which left me with mixed feelings. On one hand it is one of the biggest in Europe with many structures that can take 2-3 hours to see. On the other hand, the majority of structures lacked any information whatsoever so you tend to just roam around. It seemed there was an audio guide for your phone, but as soon as we left the entrance building we lost wifi and cell coverage.
One of the many festivals, “Sunbreak Festival,” a mixture of electronic music, food, and other things was happening near the football stadium, an inexpensive Uber ride away. While there we befriended some members of a local Brazilian percussion group, who as it turned out convinced us to extend our 2-night trip for a total of 3 nights. No regrets as the town is great, but we had to scratch Cluj-Napoca from our itinerary.
