Travel to and in Romania
By Air
Although Romania has 16 “international” airports with 5 more under construction, most of them operate only internal flights.
The biggest airports are near Bucharest: Henri Coanda – Otopeni International Airport is situated at about 20 kilometers from Bucharest. From here you have multiple ways to reach the city:
- By bus – RATB (the public transportation company in Bucharest) operates two lines that connect Otopeni Airport with the city center and with the main railway station. The traveling time depends on traffic and can vary from 30 minutes to 1 hour.
o 783 line – from Otopeni Airport to Piata Unirii (Unirii Square) in the center of the city. The first bus leaves at 5.30AM and the last one at 11 PM.. The period of time between 2 buses is 20 minutes. The fare for a ticket with 2 trips is 7 Lei (around 1.6 EUR).
o 780 line – from Otopeni Airport to Gara de Nord (North Station). It has the same program and fare as 783.
- By train – a train connection is established between Gara de Nord railway station and Otopeni Airport. The schedule can be found here: http://www.mersultrenurilor.ro/ . The fare is 6 Lei / trip (around 1.4 EUR)
- By taxi – the fare per km can vary from 1.4 Lei to 3.5 Lei depending on the company.
Otopeni Airport is connected with all the major cities in Europe.
The other major airport near Bucharest is Aurel Vlaicu – Baneasa Airport. It is situated in the northern part of Bucharest much closer to the city center than Otopeni. The main operators are low-cost carriers.
Other airports that operate international flights are Timisoara, Sibiu, Cluj in Transylvania , Bacau and Iasi in Moldova and Constanta near the Black Sea. All of these airports are much smaller with limited number of flights operated mainly by low-cost carriers.
By train
Bucharest is directly linked with several major cities in Central and Eastern Europe including Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Sofia or Moscow. Although, by train, you can get virtually anywhere in Romania, with an average speed of 44 km/h you will get to your destination pretty slowly. On the other hand the prices for traveling by train are very reasonable: for example, traveling 300 km in Romania will cost you between 10 and 15 EUR (2nd class) depending on the kind of train you use.
Additional offers are available : special prices for groups, setting up itineraries, special prices for International Youth Card owners. Also, Romania is part of the InterRail community http://www.interrailnet.com/ .
By car
The Romanian neighbors are Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Ukraine and Republic of Moldova so, obviously, you can come from or go to any of these countries.
To travel on Romanian roads, you must buy a “Vignette”. The options available are: vignettes for 1 day, for 1 week, for 1 month, 3 months and 1 year and can be purchased at points of entry in Romania, in petrol stations and postal offices.
The Romanian infrastructure lacks the highways present in most Western and Central Europe countries. This means that if you want to use your car, the time spent driving will be much longer than in other countries.
The speed limits in Romania are 130 km/hour on highways (300 km – from Bucharest to Pitesti – the way to Fagarasi Mountains and to the well-known and fun-to-drive Transfagarasan road to Transylvania and from Bucharest to Cernavoda – the way to the Black Sea) , 100 km/hour on expressways, 90 km/hour on national roads and 50 km/hour inside cities.
A map of Romanian roads can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roads_in_Romania
Major points of entry are Giurgiu – Ruse bridge from Bulgaria – Greece, Jimbolia – from Serbia, Nadlac, Curtici or Bors from Hungary – Central Europe; Vicsani from Ukraine and Albita from Republic of Moldova.
By bus
Taking into consideration the relatively slow speed of the trains, transportation by buses is a pretty good option both for shorter and for medium and longer trips. The main site where you can find information about bus transportation in Romania is http://www.autogari.ro (provided just in Romanian) but, because of the myriad of companies offering this service, the best information can be obtained from locals.
Travelling in Romania 