Romania

[Adamski]

Going for a week in November. Definitely visiting Bucharest and Brasov, maybe Sibiu or Sighisoara as well - we'll probably hire a car to get around. Has anyone been? What are the must-sees and must dos?

[tongue_tied_danny]

Bucharest ain't pretty but it's worth a visit for a couple of days. There's plenty of decent pubs in the lipscani area. There's not much in the way of tourist attractions though. The village museum is quite nice. It's a public park full of old wooden peasant structures, like cottages and windmills. You'll likely freeze your nuts off wandering around there in November.

Brasov is nicer, though I was disappointed with Bran castle. I was expecting  vampires and torture chambers but it was about as exciting as Glamis Castle. Beautiful scenery though. It's also pretty "rustic" around there. You still see people travelling around by horse and cart etc.

 

[The_Kincardine]

I've been to Bucharest 3 times and Ploiesti twice for work so flying visits.  Ploiesti has almost no charm, so avoid unless an evening in Grangemouth is your idea of a holiday.

Bucharest is a good city to walk round if you like architecture.  On my second trip there I had a free afternoon and hired a local guide for about £40 to walk me round some of the main sites and it was well worth it.  Mind you, Ceaușescu certainly outdid us on the Big Hoose front.

Most of the food is 'big blokes' stuff of meat and tatties/pasta and I never had a bad meal.  Plus many of the women are gorgeous if you like the tall, leggy, sultry types.

Taxi drivers can be c***s.  Twice in Bucharest I asked drivers to take me to specific restaurants and they tried to take me to places where they'd get commission. On both of my trips to Ploiesti Petrom (the oil company I was visiting) organised cars for me to and from the airport as they didn't trust the local cabs, so BE AWEAR.

Everyman's favourite Tory, Michael Portillo, has just done a programme on his Romanian railway journey and it's still in iPlayer.  Good (if slightly twee) watch and I'd certainly go to Brasov given the chance:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07xz1v7/great-continental-railway-journeys-series-5-1-transylvania-to-the-black-sea

[tongue_tied_danny]

The "big hoose" is pretty impressive. I couldn't get near it though as Maroon Five were playing a gig right outside it that night and the polis had the whole area closed off.

Kincardine is right about the food though. There's a great wee bistro in Villacrosse Passage that does the best goulash I've ever tasted. 

ETA - you could also check out Hanul Manuc. There's a load of restaurants in the courtyard of a beautiful old building serving up hearty meals.

 

Edited September 30, 2016 by tongue_tied_danny

[vikingTON]

On 9/30/2016 at 21:29, The_Kincardine said:

 Mind you, Ceaușescu certainly outdid us on the Big Hoose front.

Not to worry; you both met the same outcome anyway. 

Spoiler

Bucharest is a decent capital city: it's worth a visit but doesn't merit more than two days at most IMO. Only passed through Brașov (which incidentally has a ridiculous, Hollywood Hills sign above the town) but it seemed decent. I've heard good things about Cluj, which is in the centre of Transylvania and a big university city: meaning that the dominant influence isn't the local bumpkin population.Travelling between places will be fine regardless but the highland (or even lowland) weather conditions may be too crap to do much in November, simply depending on your luck. 

 

 

 

[Cardinal Richelieu]

If you're travelling to Cluj, try and visit the Salina Turda salt mines nearby (don't worry, you'll be able to leave again). They've converted it into a theme park, complete with ferris wheel, boat lake and 10 pin bowling alley. Quite impressive and something a bit different. There's traditional museum-y stuff about the salt mine as well. 

 

 

 

 

[KnightswoodBear]

Visited Bucharest for our CL game there a few years ago, so my experience of it is various pubs (one of which we only realised after a few hours drinking had Nazi and Red Army uniforms on the wall and pictures of Hitler), only eating a bag of Skittles over a 48 hour period and a tour round The Big Hoose whilst massively hungover.

We did notice a big fat guy who had quite clearly hired a gas cooker to accompany him on the tour, so you could always do that, I suppose.

[Tight minge]

Would suggest definately got to Sighisoara first and foremost. Plenty of nice spots around Romania, but Bucharest isn't particularly great but worth a visit. 

[Booker-T]

In a beautiful 5th floor apartment in a nice city.... and got woke up by some cocka doodle doing (that's every morning)

and the stray dogs bark along with with the chicken noises. Damn I'm hungover =(((

 

[The Mantis]

Bucharest is like any modern city but very cheap. Was there in 2015 with ICT. Berestroika was a great brewpub if you're into that sort of thing but about half a mile walk from the main Lipscani area. 4 of their own brews which were all excellent and got shown round the brewery by the very milfy hostess and her daughter while the husband toiled behind the bar .

The bakeries are something to behold too.

Didn't get up north due to lack of time but south towards Giurgiu was like going back in time.

Edited October 1, 2017 by The Mantis

[Highland Capital]

Giurgiu was absolutely grim.  The countryside outside Bucharest heading south is as flat as a pancake and fields of sunflowers to the horizon.  Again, Giurgiu was not nice and obviously hadn't changed since the communist days.  I remember a big hotel (Hote Steaua) dominating the skyline.  Looks like it's gone on fire since we were there which would be no surprise.

[GiGi]

Considering a weekend in Bucharest in October, holidays at work permitting. Is the city accommodating of the solo English speaking tourist?

[Paul Kersey]

11 hours ago, GiGi said:

Considering a weekend in Bucharest in October, holidays at work permitting. Is the city accommodating of the solo English speaking tourist?

I've been a few times. English is widely spoken in Bucharest, restaurants have English menus etc.

You'll have no problems on the front. 

[paul-r-cfc]

I'm booked for Bucharest 9th to 12th October with a pal. £35 return flights. Very much looking forward to it.

[GiGi]

13 hours ago, Paul Kersey said:

I've been a few times. English is widely spoken in Bucharest, restaurants have English menus etc.

You'll have no problems on the front. 

Cheers. Aye I've gone ahead and booked it, looks to be plenty to do as well. 

[Lex]

Yeah Bucharest is a modern European city, will be no issues with English or paying by card anywhere.
As is common in this part of Europe, you’ll oft hear Germans/Hungarians/Bulgarians/Romanians speaking to each other in English..
Excellent subway system too, probably my favourite in Europe. Use that to get around. Parliament is a pure massive must see building with an interesting Ceausescu back story, would recommend reading up on it before visit.
Apart from that usual good drinking and culture that you’d expect.

[deegee]

I went to Cluj for Celtic’s game late in 2019. Went via Bucharest but didn’t have time to leave the airport so can’t comment on the capital city. Cluj though was pleasantly nice, had some interesting architecture and churches, central area has a couple of the usual squares (with Christmas market and fairground rides when we were there) and Cluj and surrounding area certainly has enough to fill a couple days. The locals were nice but I’m not naive and they realise tourists will be rich in comparison and able to spend. No doubt in 15 years time, it’ll be overrun by stag and hen parties, now that Prague and Tallin aren’t as cheap as they were a decade ago.
 

Hotel was quite basic but was clean and central. I’d recommend the place for folk maybe looking for something different and it was great value; food nice and beers cheap enough. 

[paul-r-cfc]

My Bucharest flights have been cancelled [emoji24]

[welshbairn]

4 hours ago, paul-r-cfc said:

My Bucharest flights have been cancelled

Was that EasyJet? I had October flights to Italy cancelled months ago, along with a few other. Suspect they're filling their timetables with ghost flights to keep their slots and routes open but never intending to actually fly

[paul-r-cfc]

Was that EasyJet? I had October flights to Italy cancelled months ago, along with a few other. Suspect they're filling their timetables with ghost flights to keep their slots and routes open but never intending to actually fly

Na. Blue Air. A budget Romanian airline.