Romania

[Pauro 76]

Heading to Cluj for my friend's wedding in August. Any recommendations on how to get there? WizzAir fly there i know, but checking for alternatives.

[HarpoJoyce]

Malév Hungarian fly to Cluj Napoca (CLJ) (pronunced Clooj). But they have curtailed some other services in W. Romania (Rumania).
They still fly to Bucharest (BUH) and Tirgu Mures (TGM) aswell. But Black Sea and Timisoara are out for the moment.

You might as well price TAROM.

It may be an idea to leave a day earlier (or three) and land at Budapest (BUD) and make your way over to Transyvannia from there. Non stop travel on train should only be about ten or twelve hours. But you could break that journey up.

Cluj is a University town and the Romanian oriented municipality have tagged on the older Roman 'Napoca' onto the towns name.
It's a busy student place during term. It's a frontline for Magyar/Romanian culture battles. Litter bins are painted with the Unirea (Unification) colours Red, yellow, blue - like the National flag. A local mayor tried to dig up a very prominent statue of a Hungarian nationalist in the middle of the town because he suspected Roman artifects underneath it. But that was halted.

Other towns worth visiting, Sighisoara has Vlad Dracul's townhouse and is a tidy medieval place - there's a wooden walk-way up to the upper town dating back several centuries.
There is at least three good sites of Vlad Dracul's castles, Bran is the most accessible and probably most renovated. There is a more delapadated castle in a the next town over, but they were doing it up in 2003.
In the Fageras range of mountains there is an isolated castle that should be accessible by private car or tour bus in August. I understand this is the most authentic, but I'm sure he was in all of them.
Brasov town, is outside Transyvania, but again has some old stuff and centre for skiing during winter so many some walking on bald mountains in August.
Timisoara is south in the Banat, I love the place. It has a couple of run down painted squares. Another busy student town (more with drinking.).

Romania is bigger than Hungary and Bulgaria put together so there are plenty of places to spend alot of time. BUcovina is up in the corner with Ukraine and MOldova, either Bucovina or the next province has painted graveyards. never been.

Trains are the way to get about. The problem is there are four speeds, obviously if you're in good company the type of train is less important. BUt the slower ones stop at every station and pull in for the faster ones. There is a north south route I took on a slow one (only available) through the Fageras mountains. BUt that leaves you on a coal field plain and you'll want to get a fast train out of Craiova. Possible back to a flight.

Unless you get a good airline price or have alot of time Bucharest isn't worth a special journey on this trip.

[harpstilidie]

Romania is a beautiful country.

Been out twice on mission trips in the Trannsylvanian region and going out again this summer. Your best bet is flying Dublin to Budapest, spend a day there or so and then head on to Cluj. Budapest is a beautiful city with lots to see and do. From Budapest to Trannsylvania your only talking a 6/7/8 hour journey depending on where you are going. Cluj is probably an 8 hour journey or so. Customs can be quite strict at the border so make sure you have your passport anyway if you decide that route.

[Pauro 76]

Cheers lads! I'll be heading to Cluj for my mate's wedding to his Romanian girlfriend, scenery meant to be stunning there. Read somewhere that first class is always a good option for travelling by train from Budapest, trouble can happen on the regular carriages... not sure how true that is.

[thischarmingman]

Heading to Cluj for my friend's wedding in August. Any recommendations on how to get there? WizzAir fly there i know, but checking for alternatives.

Try Kayak.co and Ebookers.com to book flights. I just did a quick search there now on Kayak (from London, 9th-16th August return), and the cheapest price was E302. Ebookers was GBP250 (I don't have monetary symbols on this keyboard!). As HJ suggested, those prices were with TAROM and Marev respectively.

[brianw82]

Hottest girls ever.

[Closed Account 2]

Agree with the above post. also you could get a train from Budapest to Cluj, it's about 7hr, but there should be a lot more budget flights to Budapest, so it might be worth considering, pity you're not going nearer the coast as places around Constanta like Mamaia (but not really Constanta itself) are superb you could look at an internal flight it might be cheap if you book now... Tulcea and the Danube delta is good for wildlife, and there are some nice monastaries in the Bucovina (north region).

Romanians are friendly people but do keep an eye on your pockets in the big cities - I would imagine Cluj itself would be fine though.

[DeLorean]

Don't listen to them Pauro, they don't have a cluj :D


Sorry!