Country book · Europe

Romania

Carpathian castles and untamed wilderness

Romania mixes Latin flair with Carpathian wildness — bears still roam its forests, medieval Transylvanian towns sit beneath castle ruins, and Bucharest's grand boulevards hint at its old nickname, Little Paris. It's Eastern Europe's most underrated wild card.

Myths

What's true, what isn't

Actually true

Romanian is a Romance language
It descends from Latin, making it closer to Italian and French than to its Slavic-speaking neighbors.
The Carpathians still hold real wilderness
Romania has Europe's largest population of brown bears, wolves and lynx outside Russia.
Transylvania's castles are real and dramatic
Bran Castle and Peleș Castle draw crowds, sitting amid genuinely medieval Saxon towns like Sighișoara.
Village traditions persist strongly
In Maramureș, wooden churches, hand-painted eggs and horse-drawn carts remain part of daily rural life.

Commonly believed, wrong

"Dracula is a real historical account"
Bram Stoker's novel loosely borrowed the name Vlad the Impaler, a Wallachian prince, but the vampire lore is fiction.
"Romania is part of the former Yugoslavia"
It has a completely separate history, having been under Ottoman and then Soviet-aligned rule, never part of Yugoslavia.
"It's poor and undeveloped everywhere"
Cluj-Napoca is a booming tech hub, and Bucharest has one of Europe's fastest internet speeds.
"Everyone there is Roma"
Roma are one of several minorities in Romania, alongside ethnic Hungarians and Germans, in a majority ethnic-Romanian country.

Highlights

The best of Romania

Transylvania's fortified towns

Sighișoara and Brașov's colorful squares beneath Saxon watchtowers.

The Carpathian wilderness

Bear-watching hides and dense beech forests recognized as UNESCO World Heritage.

The Danube Delta

Europe's largest wetland, a maze of reed channels and pelican colonies.

Painted monasteries of Bucovina

15th-century churches with vivid biblical frescoes covering their exteriors.

Culture

Cultural riches

Village wooden churches

Maramureș's tall spired wooden churches, some UNESCO-listed, built without a single nail.

Merry Cemetery of Săpânța

Brightly painted gravestones with humorous epitaphs, a uniquely Romanian tradition.

Folk costume and dance

Regional embroidered blouses (ie) and circle dances (hora) remain part of festivals nationwide.

Communist-era architecture

Bucharest's Palace of Parliament, the world's heaviest building, looms as Ceaușescu's legacy.

Food

What to eat

Sarmale

Cabbage rolls stuffed with minced meat and rice, simmered slowly and served with polenta and sour cream.

Mici

Grilled minced meat rolls seasoned with garlic and spices, a summer barbecue staple.

Papanași

Fried doughnuts topped with sour cream and jam, a beloved dessert.

Ciorbă de burtă

A sour tripe soup finished with cream, garlic and vinegar.

Mămăligă

Cornmeal polenta served alongside stews, cheese or sour cream as a rustic staple.

Music

World-famous voices

Inna

Dance-pop with billions of streams.

George Enescu

Composer and violinist.

Alexandra Stan

"Mr. Saxobeat".

Gheorghe Zamfir

The pan flute master.

Carla's Dreams

Masked pop-rock project.

History

Important people in history

Vlad III (the Impaler)

1431 — 1476/77

Wallachian prince known for brutal but effective resistance against Ottoman expansion, later fictionalized as Dracula.

Michael the Brave

1558 — 1601

Briefly united Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania in 1600, a symbol of Romanian unity.

King Carol I

1839 — 1914

First king of modern Romania, oversaw independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877.

Cities