Our Transylvania Roadtrip Summary
Roaming through the majestic mountains and romantic Romanian villages has to be on everyone's bucket list! Transylvania offers medieval castles in nearly every valley with ancient villages waiting to be explored. While we knew we would enjoy our time in Romania, Transylvania beat all of our expectations!
Logistics:
Similar to all other travel blogs, there are a few different routes depending on your trip length and desired itinerary. Hopefully, our logistics will help your planning.
Getting to Transylvania
Although Romania is quite a large country, getting to Transylvania is very easy because the region is very large. I highly recommend flying in and out of Bucharest to enable you to see the capital. From London, there are many flights either using Wizz Air or a major airline.
If you want to make it a one way trip, the university city of Cluj-Napoca is very popular and there are many flights from London or the rest of Europe using Wizz Air.
Renting a Car
Because Transylvania is a large region, you must have a car. In Bucharest, there are two options: rent at the airport or rent at the Intercontinental Hotel in city center. If the Transylvania trip begins immediately, then rent at the airport. If you're like us and the trip begins in Bucharest, then the Intercontinental Hotel is extremely convenient!
Suggested Routes
Option A - Counter-Clockwise
Heading to the famous Transfagarasan Road first, you then stay in the rural area nearby to avoid long drives before heading to Sibiu the next day. Either add a daytrip to Colvin Castle or continue northward to Sighisoara. From here, you can extend your trip by heading even more north to old Romania! Or, similar to our trip, make your way back south to Brasov and making a daytrip to the famous nearby castles of Peles and Bran before returning to Bucharest.
Option B - Clockwise
This is easy - just read below! (Or follow the exact opposite advice of the above paragraph!)
Other Add-Ons
- Cluj-Napoca: An excellent town to explore more architecture and plenty of great restaurants, cafes, and bars!
- Budesti: In the very north of Romania is a fantastic area called the Maramures. We debated making the drive and honestly we should have as the region and villages are very beautiful!
- Dragasani: Although Romanian wine is not that famous around the world, the red variety is very good!
If you want to read about our excellent roadtrip, here are our other days:
- Transylvania Summary
- Days 1-2: Bucharest to Brasov
- Days 3-4: Brasov to Sighosara
- Days 5-7: Sighosara to Sibiu
- Days 8-9: Sibiu to Cund
- Days 9-10: Cund to Bucharest
- Days 11-12: Bucharest
Food and Drink!
Surprisingly, we really enjoyed the local food and drink scene! In our minds, we had Romania serving nothing but potatoes and meat, but the food was delightful!
Click here for our Google Map pins to find the best food and drink from our trip!
The UnChartered Summary
Transylvania should be a bucket list trip because the history is amazing (and complicated!), scenery is surreal, and the people are terrific. Although we went into our trip with high expectations, Romania and Transylvania easily became one of our favorite destinations of our three month trip across Europe.
- In terms of favorite castles, here are our top three:
- Bran Castle
- Peles Castle
- Corvin Castle
- For our favorite cities, here is a (controversial) top three:
- Sibiu
- Brasov
- Sighiosara
- Make sure you adequately plan your Transfagarasan Road - even if you're not a car junkie! Not only does the drive look fun, but the landscape and scenery views are amazing!
- If you're in Romania and want to get in on the rural experience of stepping back into the 1800s (but with modern comforts), Cund is a great addition to your trip.
- Many hosts told us that Transylvania is getting more popular and worth booking in advance.