13 Tips if you are traveling to Bucharest, Romania

Hello again!

I decided to start writing about my traveling experiences in Romania and maybe even share the things most of the foreigners that visit my country would not really give a thought to. So, in an attempt to make your experience here more personal and practical from the very beginning, here you have 13 tips or insights that I could think of. If I missed something I will continue to add things to the list:

Communicate

Making friends should not be that difficult since most of the young people speak English for sure. That is because most of us grew up in front of the TV, watching movies subtitled in Romanian (we never do voiceovers) or in front of our computers playing video games all day long. Still, even if you need to speak to an older person and they don’t speak English, try your best to smile and use gymnastics to explain to them what you want. They will appreciate the effort. Or since ‘ain’t nobody got time for that’, showing them what you want on your phone with Google translate might work too…

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Rules when eating out

In Romania you are expected to tip in restaurants. Even if you won’t find the ‘service’ listed on your bill, leaving tip is a must. It is seen as a basic sign of respect. So, if you leave at least 10-15% of what you consumed you should be fine.

When going out with Romanians to eat in a restaurant everyone pays for what he/she has ordered. I know there are some countries that divide the bill to the number of people at the table, but we are not the case. We pay for what we consumed + the tip I mentioned earlier. Everyone is expected to tip too.

Transportation and Infrastructure

Moving around the country can be quite time consuming. Our roads are not the best and we only have a few high ways built to connect some main cities such as Bucharest and Constanța (our seaside) or Bucharest and Ploiești (towards Brașov). If you’re not stressing about the shaky roads, then you will stress over the traffic because, for some reason, everyone thinks that going to Brașov for the weekend is a ‘great’ idea, and chances are that on Friday and Sunday you will hate yourself for going by car. What we do and what I also advise you to do as well is to take the train. It’s not that fast either sometimes, but you know for sure that the delay won’t be that long. You can check the train schedules here.

Prices, Currency and Money management

Romania doesn’t have euro so be sure you take with you our money which is Leu / Ron (singular) or Lei /Roni (plural). Over the past year 1 euro = 4,5 or 4,6 LEI/RONI so look around the exchange shops or banks that have the exchange rate around these values or otherwise don’t put your trust in them.

Prices in Romania might be quite low for you if you’re coming from Western Europe or USA or basically any other country… Even we think the prices are low. If you go to a market place for fruits or vegetables, you could get a kg of potatoes with only 25 cents; bread for 20 cents; a liter of milk for 75 cents etc. Check the prices of restaurants and markets here.

You can pay by card mostly everywhere. You will be surprised by the number of POS’s shops or pubs or bars have in Romania. I don’t know if there is a card you cannot pay with here. But of course, take cash with you too, just in case. When I was Erasmus in Amsterdam I was actually surprised that my VISA card from Romania would not work in most of the shops I entered. They had their own system and I had to open a bank account at ING, so that’s why I think this tip is golden for some avid travelers like you out there who don’t want to waste money with useless transfers or withdrawals.

Taxis are very tricky with internationals because they will either not start the machine and tell you they prefer negotiating the price (which is illegal) or they will start the machine but take you on a longer route. Yes, they are that sneaky unfortunately. To avoid paying more than what a local would pay, I strongly advise you to use Uber. It’s very popular in big cities here and if there’s no car around, simply use Google Maps to find the closest bus or metro as we all do. If you’re on a budget, definitely give the last two a try. I recommend the metro in Bucharest for sure, although it only works from 5am – 11pm and the capital is the only city in Romania that has it.

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Pickpocketing is something that happens everywhere so I would have to mention this too, although nothing happend to my international friends visiting Bucharest before. Still, it's the capital, so naturally, a city full of tourists and people of all kinds. Even though we got used to sharing the space with 2 milion people, this also means that you should really pay attention to your belongings. Even we, as locals, are extra careful with where we keep our phones and wallets, especially in buses, so be aware and don’t put things in pockets that you can easily reach (because you will help someone else to reach it too). I know the effort of fishing your wallet from the bottom of your bag might not be the most pleasing habit, but at least at the end of the day you have 100% chances to have everything still there.

No shoes in the house

If you happen to visit a local in their home, even if they don’t have carpets on the floor, you are expected to take your shoes off (and sometimes even hat). It is simply a gesture to show respect for the hosts since the shoes bring a lot of dirt around the house. (I sometimes see in American movies people who put their feet on the sofas and beds with shoes on… If I had done that in Romania, I would have received a slap from my mother for sure since keeping the house clean is a great value of this country).

Climate

We have 4 seasons that behave accordingly so if you decide to visit Bucharest in September or October, these are the first 2 months of autumn so the weather will most surely be very unpredictable too. Bring both light and warm clothessince there can be days with 7 degrees in the morning and 18 in the afternoon. Definitely check the weather before coming and if there’s more sun, you might still want to take a jumper just in case.

Inhabitants of Bucharest and Romania

Bucharest and most of the people in the South and East are quite quick with everything! Walking, cooking, cleaning, talking and even in the people working in shops. You will see how fast the cashiers scan your products without even looking at you XD. So, please make us all a favor and avoid walking slowly in busy areas if you see people around you. Don’t stop in the middle of the sidewalk, choose the right side and leave the left one free for others to pass you. You will make our busy lives brighter!

We complain a lot about our politics and basically how the whole country is ruled because there are a lot of things that need improvement (see, I already complained). You might even find them asking you: ‘Why did you come to Bucharest when there are so many other capitals to see?’… This is where you find out that people here don’t travel that much abroad so they only have the idea that everyone else is the best, but not this small country far in East of Europe that holds a bad reputation from the media. So, there are some things that we still need to work on and some others – good ones - that the average and busy Romanian doesn’t see anymore because of all that. Thus, if you happen to see people talking about how bad this country is and how much they want to go live somewhere in Europe in the future years, you can either change the subject, but what I would advice you to do is please try to remind them why you came to visit Romania in the first place. Most probably you will see some eyebrows raised in and a very positively surprised ‘Really?’ Maybe the everyday struggles simply made us forgot the magic of this country.

Thinking about some side notes to leave you with, of course, people in general are very polite and hospitable if you have questions about our country and why we do certain things.

Then, sometimes, you will even see from miles and miles away the conservative way of living that we remained with from the communist times, so there is still a lot of elegance in the way people behave and dress nicely for simple gatherings.

Rural Romania

Still, if I could give one last tip about my country that is to remember that most of Romania is a rural paradise and most of the unspoiled regions, although hard to reach with good quality roads, will be worth a thousand words. Transylvania is a world away from Bucharest and after a train journey (and maybe a lot of sleep too sometimes) you will reach some of the loveliest and most peaceful places you will see around Europe, only because our traditions are so well preserved here.

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Life in Romania was born in the countryside and you will still find its heart beating strong there.

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In comparison to Bucharest, here you will find no traffic or noise. Enjoy the fresh grass, the wildflowers, the birds singing and the humming bees, talk with the villagers or even choose to stay in their homes (look for ‘Pensiuni în Maramureș’ online and choose a traditional house to stay in. You can thank me later!). Almost every villager has a garden so you will see fruits and vegetables everywhere, chickens and sheep, cows, pigs and even carriages with horses with people carrying wood for fire. Simply magical!

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You won’t find internet signal here sometimes and not even shops, pubs or restaurants because time here stood still and everything is mostly home-made. Keep in mind though that this doesn’t necessarily mean that people are poor.

Their way of making money is around the village, selling their crops and animals and doing work for each others or sometimes even go to the cities with their goods to sell them. That’s where their money comes from. (This is also why our foods are so good. The ingredients come from here!)

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These having been said, I hope that I helped you with some important rules to consider if Romania is on your travelling list and also that I might have convinced you why the countryside will be such an eye-opener in the globalised world we unfortunately live in.

In a brutally honest attempt, I strongly advise you to give this last one a chance because disconnecting from the fuzziness of Bucharest might give you with better insights about my country, about the atmosphere of the virgin forests that we still preserve, the wolves, the friendly Romanian shepherd dogs, the patches of snow you will see up on the peeks of the mountains in the distance and if you are lucky enough even the running deer on the hills!

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