Stunning Few Days in Sibiu

Eastern EuropeEuropeTravel

Feb 23

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Our Transylvania Roadtrip

If you want to read about our excellent roadtrip, here are our other days:

Days 5-8: Sighosiara to Sibiu

Winding through the Transylvanian mountains to Sibiu, we stopped at Biertan and Medias to break up our trip.

Lodging

Because we would be in Sibiu a little bit longer than usual, we wanted a nice hotel that offered amenities and parking for free. Some hotels do not offer parking since the town center is pedestrian only. In the end, we ended with a true gem! Located about 10-15 minutes from the town center by walk (depending on which part of town center!), Vila Bohemia is perfect for a quiet yet enjoyable stay! Firstly, the rooms are huge and we never felt cramped and the bed was incredibly comfortable. Next, location was great as we were able to still walk everywhere whilst having free parking. Lastly, the staff are so nice and accommodating! I highly recommend if you have a car for this great hotel!

Travel Tip: I relied on booking.com because most hotels are listed on this site. Plus, it offers better cancellation and good discounts.

Food & Drinks

In Sibiu, there is a great evolution of tasty food and drinks! By far, Sibiu had our favorite restaurants on our Transylvania trip!

Top Recommendation: Max

Towards the end of our Transylvania trip, we wanted a nice meal, which usually means Italian food! Because we went on a wine tasting, why not cap the day with tasty pasta! Wow, were we impressed! Away from city center, Max is a small Italian restaurant that usually requires reservations in peak times. For a white table cloth meal, we were surprised at how affordable and casual our experience was. For our appetizer, we shared a fresh, tasty caprese salad. Then, for our mains, I had local cheese and pear ravioli while Mary Frances had a huge lasagna. Each bite was delicious and we wanted more even though we were so full! Because we enjoyed our mains, we then ordered a chocolate souffle for dessert and it was yummy goodness with an excellent orange hint.

We enjoyed our meal so much that we went AGAIN the next day for lunch - yes, back to back Italian meals! Whilst we were full from last night's pasta, we equally enjoyed our meal! I ordered the fresh carbonara and Mary Frances ate the ragu. Although Mary Frances enjoyed her lasagna more, she greatly enjoyed the ragu!

Other Great Recommendations:

Sehr Schon Breakfast & Coffee (in Medias): During our awesome roadtrip through the Transylvanian mountains, we stopped at the tiny town of Medias as a good pitstop for lunch. Mary Frances randomly picked Sehr Schon and it was one of the best decisions! Because the cafe primarily serves breakfast food, it was going to be great! I ordered a Romanian potato pie with cheese and eggs, whilst Mary Frances had their version of the croque monseur (a tasty cheesy ham and egg sandwich). To end our meal, I had a great triple chocolate cake! The staff was incredibly kind and nice and spoke terrific English so I cannot recommend enough!

Nature: Admittedly, Nature should probably not be on your list in winter or if you have limited time in Romania. However, I was craving healthy, vegetarian food so we ate breakfast more than once! I enjoyed my freshly made acai bowls in the morning (although it was perhaps too cold) while Mary Frances usually ordered a peanut butter and cacao shake. Either way, it felt good to be a little bit healthy!

Tea and Coffee Archive: Behind one of the main town center buildings is a hidden treasure! With coffee and teas from all over the world, the barista would hand craft your preferred coffee bean or tea in whatever style you preferred. While I intended to try out more coffee shops during our stay, the prices are great and more importantly the coffee was amazing! My go-to drink on the many, many stops was the single origin flat white! If we ended up staying there, which we did multiple times, I usually selected a black coffee from a faraway land.

Weinkeller: Because we love wine and food, we might as well go to the top restaurant for wine! With plenty of Romanian wine offerings including really awesome vineyard descriptions, the owner recommended a great merlot bottle and it was really affordable. For our meal, we went with a Romanian characturie board and it was not our favorite... It was really different than any English or French board so all the meats and cheese were very hardy.. It was not a light appetizer! For our mains, we had beef stroganoff and Mary Frances had goat cheese salad, which was the clear winner! Overall, our experience was nice, but adjust your expectations on a Romanian chacterurie board.

Pardon Cafe & Bistro: Intending for their great breakfast menu, COVID forced Pardon to abandoned it during the weekdays so we ended up here for a very early lunch... While we were not that hungry (again, originally here for lunch), we ordered pasta because we weren't in the mood for the other lunch items. I had the penne amatriciana which was a lighter tomato sauce while Mary Frances had carbonara that ended up much heavier than my dish!

Autumn Roadtrip

Today's roadtrip was very special as the autumn leaves were perfectly orange, brown, red, and yellow hues. Compared to other roadtrips (in the US, UK, and possibly rest of Europe), the Romanian mountains have a certain allure when the autumn arrives. It affirmed our decision to come here during the autumn!

A Saxon Pitstop

Off the beaten track, the Saxon village of Biertan is a great stop compared to their sister Saxon village of Visteri. After parking in the village square, we walked up to the fortified Saxon walls through a beautifully aged wooden staircase. Similar to most old European villages, there is a beautiful church dating back to the medieval times whilst surrounded by the old Saxon walls.

First, we started with the outside and just walked around the village. The scenery is terrific and is just exceptionally quiet. Granted, we could be the only ones due to COVID and we are in the shoulder season!

Inside the church is walking into history. The church reminded us of English churches as the old walls combined with really old inscriptions! We enjoyed it!

Travel tip: Bring cash to these stops because credit cards do not exist in the countryside (usually)!

Lunch in Medieval Medias

Between Sibiu and Biertan is the larger town of Medias, which was perfect for a stroll and lunch as it would have more offerings than the normal Romanian village. After parking in the old town center, we immediately had one of our finest brunches on our entire trip at Sehr Schon! Thankfully, we walked it off in the great old town before getting back in the car for the rest of our roadtrip.

An Evening in Sibiu

After arriving at our nice little find of a hotel at Vila Bohemia, I set out to explore our new city ahead of darkness. Famous for a truly massive town square and the Bridge of Lies, Sibiu is truly a picturesque city! There are also wide pedistrian only streets that have loads of restaurants, cafes, dessert shops, and fancy bars. Moreover, there were several of these streets jutting out from the square. One even had medieval walls!

Bridge of Lies

Towering over the main road and walkway is the famous Bridge of Lies. As the name alludes, the bridge has many legends as to why it is called Bridge of Lies. My favorite is this was a great meeting point for couples and when the boys wouldn't show up, the girlfriends would get upset about being lied to. Either way, the bridge provides a pretty entrance into Sibiu Old Town!

Town Square

Sadly, due to COVID, we had to wear masks around outside (which wasn't that bad considering how cold it was!) and that also meant not many people were walking around the city. However, it did mean most of my pictures hardly had any people in them regardless of time! The square is beautiful with a giant bell tower on one end with the impressive city hall on other side. The square also provides a great people watching scene!

Because we stuffed ourselves for lunch at Sehr Schon and I also had a massive slice of chocolate cake, I went super healthy and just had a fruit and veggie shake from Nature. Although the Rib City restaurant next door was equally tempting...

Crazy Corvin Castle

For our day in Sibiu, we opted to see crazy Colvin Castle which lies about 2 hours west of Sibiu! Perfect daytrip!

Travel Tip: Had I really looked at the itinerary, I would have realized that Romania closed the famous Transfagarasan road, one of the best roads to drive. Usually open until the end of October, I stopped monitoring it since we were 1-2 days away from driving it when the authorities actually were closing it!

The Perfect Breakfast

Because we had a long roadtrip planned, we first stopped for a great breakfast. Combining our love of great coffee/tea with a healthy breakfast, we first stopped at Nature to get our shakes and acai bowl before heading to the Coffee Archive for a great brew. We even ordered seconds because our flat white and English breakfast tea was THAT good!

Take the Wheel

For the first time on our roadtrip, we were leaving the traditional Translyvania area and boy did it change! Compared to windy mountain roads surrounded by autumn foliage, we had a concrete Romanian motorway! Out of the whole roadtrip, this drive was incredibly boring... not to mention it was very strange to find a beautiful castle out here!

Corvin Castle

Once we arrived at Corvin Castle, we instantly knew that we would love it! Because the castle sits on a towering hill, it is extremely impressive and makes a powerful first impression. The Gothic exterior is beautiful and slightly haunting - no wonder it is occupied by ghosts!

Built throughout the 1400s, the Gothic castle is truly impressive with a giant Knight's Hall completed with a large chapel. We felt there were so many nooks and crannies here and we wanted to discover each room! The castle did a great job detailing the main use of the room and history.

In fact, one of my favorite history facts was the water well was built by 3 Turkish prisoners who were promised freedom once they reached water. Sadly, they were not given the freedom after 15 years and shortly before they were executed, they inscribed on stone that still is on display.

Our favorite part was the gallery and main tower. We had to climb up creepy staircases to reach the top, but we were rewarded with great views!

Relaxing Meal

After a long roadtrip and great day of sightseeing, we were ready for a relaxing meal! Eating at one of the better wine restaurants in Sibiu, we greatly enjoyed ourselves at Winekeller. Strangely, we were one of the only people in the whole restaurant for the entire meal so it was tough to see for a great place.

Final Sibiu Day

Because we had extra time in Transylvania, we added an extra day in possibly our favorite city. Whilst we had planned on moving on, a last minute closure of the Transfagarasan road caused us to rethink our plans!

Plan and Plan!

After a lazy lie-in, we decided to spend the day in coffee shops whilst I planned our remaining time in Romania and beyond. Not only did we enjoy our coffees, but I enjoyed mapping out our future travels!

Wine tasting! at Wine Not

Located off the beaten path away from town center, Wine Not is a low key wine shop that has a few tables for wine tasting (more in non-COVID times!). We heard great things about Romanian wine so we wanted to do a wine tasting since most of the vineyards are in the south and far away places. MF went with the Reds of Romania tasting while I went with the Top Choices. We were pleasantly surprised with the wine, especially the reds! While I wouldn't put Romania over Croatia or Slovenia, the cheap prices for a great bottle make this a great value buy! We even ended up buying more bottles of our favorite Romanian Syrah in the UK!

Travel Tip: To explore more of Romania's wine country, I would add the days to the end of your Transylvania trip or beginning as most of the vineyards are near Bucharest. If want wine, here is a great link to provide tips!

Immediately following our wine tasting, we went to perhaps our 2nd favorite meal in Transylvania, Max! It was a wonderful Italian meal that capped an excellent day!

https://youtu.be/TdxjMg-Eees

Next Time...

Now that you've read this chapter of our Transylvania Roadtrip, click below to continue onwards, or head back to another day!