Itinerary · 7 days · 34 places
7 Days in Romania
Seven days in Romania: Bucharest to settle in, the Carpathian castles around Brașov and Bran, the Transfăgărășan high road over the ridge and, to finish, Sibiu and the fortified churches of Transylvania.
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Photo: Adrian Bancu · Pexels
The route on the map
The plan, day by day
Day 1Arriving in Bucharest
Arrival in Bucharest
Hotel check-in
Stay between Piața Universității and the old town: from here Lipscani, Calea Victoriei and metro line M2 are all within walking distance.
Stavropoleos Monastery
The small monastery church of 1724 in the Brâncoveanu style, whose courtyard is assembled from rescued gravestones and columns of demolished Bucharest churches.
Curtea Veche — the Old Princely Court
The excavated foundations of the 15th-century court where Vlad Țepeș resided, beside the small court church in which the princes of Wallachia were crowned.
Evening: Strada Lipscani
The lanes between Lipscani and Șelari with terraces and wine bars, and among them the Cărturești Carusel bookshop in a white-converted merchant's house.
Day 2Palace, Athenaeum and Village Museum
Palace of the Parliament
Ceaușescu's colossus with more than 1,000 rooms, of which the tour shows only a fraction: marble staircases, chandeliers weighing tonnes and the balcony above the empty parade ground.
Cișmigiu Gardens
The city's oldest public park, from 1847, with a rowing lake, chess tables beneath the plane trees and the circle of busts of Romanian writers.
Romanian Athenaeum
The domed building of 1888, home of the George Enescu Philharmonic; a 75-metre fresco of Romanian history runs around the concert hall.
Revolution Square and memorial
From the balcony of the former Central Committee building Ceaușescu gave his last speech on 21 December 1989; opposite stands the marble spire for the dead of the revolution.
Village Museum (Muzeul Satului)
More than 300 farmhouses, windmills and wooden churches from every part of the country, dismantled and rebuilt beside Lake Herăstrău, many with their original furnishings.
Evening: Calea Victoriei
The boulevard between the Athenaeum and the art museum, lit up in the evening, with the bars in the Macca-Vilacrosse Passage beneath its yellow glass roof.
Day 3Royal palaces in Sinaia
Onward to Sinaia
Hotel check-in
Sinaia Monastery
The mountain monastery of 1695 that gave the town its name: two courtyards, soot-darkened frescoes in the old church and, in the large church, Romania's first electric light.
Peleș Castle
King Carol I's summer residence of 1883 with 160 rooms, an armoury, a Moorish salon and a glass roof over the hall that opens electrically.
Pelișor Castle
The smaller house next door, furnished in Art Nouveau style for Queen Marie; the Golden Room with its carved thistle leaves follows her own design.
Dimitrie Ghica Park and Casino
The spa park of 1881 with the casino of 1913, built on the model of Monte Carlo and now a conference centre with a café terrace.
Evening: Bulevardul Carol I
The resort's pedestrian axis between the station steps and the park, with illuminated Belle Époque villas and open coffee houses in the evening.
Day 4Brașov: Black Church and Tâmpa
Onward to Brașov
Hotel check-in
Piața Sfatului and the Council House tower
The market square of Saxon Brașov with the council house of 1420 at its centre, from whose tower the watchmen once sounded their horns every hour in four directions.
Black Church
The largest Gothic hall church between Vienna and Istanbul, blackened by the town fire of 1689; more than a hundred Anatolian carpets from the merchants hang on the galleries.
Strada Sforii
Rope Street, barely a metre wide and thus one of the narrowest streets in Europe, originally left open between two rows of houses as an access passage for firefighters.
Catherine's Gate and Weavers' Bastion
The only surviving town gate, from 1559, with its four corner turrets, and next to it the cloth weavers' bastion, where a wooden model shows the town around 1600.
Cable car up Tâmpa
Three minutes up to 960 metres above the town: at the top, the view over the old town's red roofs to the ridges of the Bârsa Land.
Evening: Strada Republicii
The pedestrian street from the council square to the park, full of terraces, ice-cream parlours and street musicians in the evening.
Day 5Castles at the foot of Piatra Craiului
Râșnov peasant fortress
The refuge fortress of 1335 on the rocky ridge above the town, with the 146-metre well that, according to legend, two Turkish prisoners spent seventeen years digging.
Bran Castle
The customs castle of 1377 above the pass, Queen Marie's residence in the 1920s: narrow spiral staircases, a courtyard with a well and an exhibition on the Dracula myth.
Libearty Bear Sanctuary near Zărnești
More than a hundred brown bears rescued from cages and hotel gardens live in 69 hectares of oak forest; the tour follows walkways along the enclosures.
Poiana Brașov and cable car up Postăvarul
The winter sports resort at 1,030 metres; the gondola takes you up to 1,750 metres, from where the view stretches across the Bârsa Land to the Făgăraș Mountains.
Evening: Strada Michael Weiss
The lane of bars and terraces behind the council square, where in the evening you'll find more locals than tour groups.
Day 6Over the Transfăgărășan to Sibiu
Onward to Sibiu via the Transfăgărășan
Hotel check-in
Bâlea Waterfall
The 60-metre waterfall at the upper edge of the forest, reached from the car park in twenty minutes over rock slabs; next to it the cable car starts up to the lake.
Hairpins of the northern ramp
The famous bends where the road gains seven hundred metres of altitude in just a few kilometres — from the lay-bys the view looks back into the Olt valley.
Bâlea Lake
The glacial lake at 2,034 metres in its rocky cirque, which you can walk around in half an hour; snow often lingers on the north-facing slopes until June.
Transfăgărășan Tunnel and southern ramp
The 887-metre tunnel beneath the main ridge, Romania's longest road tunnel; at the southern portal the view opens over the hairpins towards Vidraru.
Capra Waterfall
The waterfall tumbles in several tiers right beside the road; a short footpath leads to the foot of the lowest cascade.
Evening: Strada Nicolae Bălcescu
The pedestrian street running south from the Large Square, lit up in the evening, with terraces beneath the Baroque façades of Sibiu's merchant houses.
Day 7Sibiu and departure
Piața Mare and the Brukenthal Palace
The Large Square with the Baroque palace of Governor Samuel von Brukenthal, whose painting collection has hung here since 1817 as Romania's first public museum.
Lutheran Cathedral
The Gothic hall church with its 73-metre tower, the largest organ in south-eastern Europe and the tombstone of the Wallachian prince Mihnea cel Rău.
Piața Mică and the Bridge of Lies
The Small Square with the guilds' arcades and the cast-iron Bridge of Lies of 1859, the first bridge of its kind in Romania.
Departure from Sibiu
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