Travel Advice

No vaccinations whatsoever are compulsory for travelers to Romania

Summer can be very hot, especially in the South and East of the country, with temperatures raising as high as +35 - +40C at daytime. Winters can be harsh, with regular temperatures of -10C at daytime. Eastern Transylvania and Northern Romania (Bukovina and Maramures) have the lowest temperatures in winter.

The main roads are generally in good conditions, but some side roads, as well as local roads can be bad at times. Therefore plan the driving time generously, for some sections could take longer time than expected.

While in Bucharest, always only take taxis belonging to one of the trustworthy companies, such as: Perozzi, ProfTaxi, Cobalcescu, XXL, Nova, Valentino, Meridian, Leone, Taxi 2000, CrisTaxi a.o.

Romania is covered quite well by 2 main GSM mobile phone networks: VODAFONE and ORANGE; even in the mountains there is a good covering, on the ridges, on a clear day.

There are many internet cafes in the country, especially in bigger cities, and the rates vary from USD 0.5 to USD 1 / hour

There are many exchange offices and also most banks will change your money into Romanian currency; look for an exchange office which charges 0% commission, as some of them charge a 6-10 % commission.

ATMs are wider and wider spread, you can find them in most cities and towns; in smaller towns look for the BCR, Raiffeisen or BRD logo, these banks have the biggest number of offices all across Romania and generally they have ATMs which accept Cirrus, MasterCard, Visa, AmEx, Diners' etc.

Travel Checks are accepted by most banks and the commission varies; the best deals are done in BRD (Société Générale), Banca Ion Tiriac, Raiffeisen and BCR (1%-1.5% commission, but not less than USD 2 per transaction)

WesternUnion and MoneyGram are represented in Romania; for WesternUnion look for Banca Romaneasca, BRD or Raiffeisen, while for MoneyGram, look for BCR ("Banca Comerciala Romana") or BCIT ("Banca Comerciala Ion Tiriac"); WesternUnion is cheaper than the MoneyGram for smaller amounts of money (around 10%)

If invited somewhere and you want to bring the host some flowers, be extremely careful, as this is taboo: an odd number of flowers is OK, while an even number of flowers is only taken to funerals; one usually only gives a single flower to the girl he loves

The Romanian food is generally of Turkish influence, quite similar to other countries in the neighborhood (e.g. Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia), however it also joins other various influences (e.g. Greek, Russian, French); the greatest thing about it is the way Romanians put together all these influences in their cuisine; vegetarian dishes are rare, while most main traditional courses contain pork