Romania: know before you go

Romania sits inside the Schengen area, so the entry rules are the Schengen rules. Most visitors from the EU, UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand arrive visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180-day period, and days already spent elsewhere in Schengen count toward that total, so a Romania trip can use up the clock for the rest of Europe too. Your passport needs to have been issued within the last 10 years and to stay valid for at least three months past your planned departure. Since 12 October 2025 the Entry/Exit System has been recording fingerprints and a facial image from visitors outside the EU, replacing ink stamps as it rolls out, so allow extra time at the border. ETIAS, the online pre-travel authorisation for visa-free visitors, is not open yet; it will cost 20 euros and the EU will announce the start several months ahead. If you do need a visa, expect to show funds of about 50 euros for each day of your stay, with a floor of 500 euros.

Bucharest's Henri Coanda International Airport at Otopeni is Romania's main gateway, 16.5 km north of the city centre, with 67 international and 9 domestic destinations. Cluj-Napoca's airport is the country's second busiest and the natural arrival point for Transylvania, and Romania has 16 international airports in total, including Timisoara, Iasi, Sibiu and Constanta. Arriving overland from Hungary or Bulgaria is now quick, since the land borders joined Schengen on 1 January 2025 and internal checks on people were dropped. From Budapest, the Ister night train runs to Brasov and Bucharest with sleepers and couchettes and no restaurant car, so bring food and water; sleeper and couchette places must be reserved in advance. The journey over the Carpathians into Bucharest is the scenic part, best seen at breakfast.

CFR Calatori is the state passenger rail operator, running three tiers: Regio for slow, cheap local runs, InterRegio for long-distance routes, and InterCity, which was dropped in 2014 and revived in 2023 as the faster option. Tickets sell online at bilete.cfrcalatori.ro, at station machines and at ticket offices. The fare combines a tariff set by train type, class and distance with a seat reservation fee on trains marked R, where booking is often compulsory. Advance purchase is usually cheaper, and sleeper and couchette places always need a reservation. For Bucharest to Brasov, plan on roughly two and a half to three and a half hours and about 40 to 100 lei for a standard seat. Flying makes sense on the longest runs: Bucharest to Cluj-Napoca is about an hour and a quarter in the air, against nine to twelve hours by train.

Driving is how you reach the villages, monasteries and trailheads that trains and buses skip, and it comes with one national ritual: the rovinieta, a road vignette required on national roads and motorways. Buy it online before you arrive or at border points and petrol stations, because the police check it electronically and fines are issued automatically. Roads away from the motorways demand attention. Local driving standards are uneven, and you should expect double-parked cars, sudden braking, potholes, and horse-drawn carts or livestock in rural areas. If you have an accident, stay at the scene and get a damage report from the Romanian police before you leave the country, or you may find the claim follows you home. Inside the cities, Bucharest is the only one with a metro; everywhere else you rely on trams, buses and taxis.

Romania uses the leu, written as RON, divided into 100 bani, with notes from 1 to 500 lei and coins from 1 to 50 bani. The euro is not legal tender even though Romania is in the EU, and some hotels quote in euros for convenience while billing in lei. Cards work almost everywhere in the cities: Visa and Mastercard are accepted at hotels, restaurants and shops, and contactless payment is normal. Carry some cash for village guesthouses, markets and small shops. Change money at a bank or a casa de schimb rather than an airport desk, where rates can run 10 to 20 percent worse than the official rate, and spend or convert leftover lei before you leave, because the currency is hard to exchange outside Romania. Tipping is voluntary: round up or leave 10 to 15 percent in restaurants. Non-EU visitors can reclaim VAT on goods worth at least 175 euros bought in one purchase, with the form stamped by customs on departure. VAT itself is 21 percent, dropping to 11 percent on foods, medicines, accommodation and restaurant meals.

Romania is a low-risk country by European standards, and violent crime against visitors is rare. The real concern is petty theft. Pickpockets work the crowds in Bucharest and other large towns, especially around money exchanges, hotel lobbies, the main railway stations, airport terminals and public transport, so keep bags zipped and phones out of back pockets. A few bars and restaurants clone payment cards, so keep your card in sight when you pay the bill. Drug offences carry severe penalties, including for small amounts and for travellers passing through airports in transit. The emergency number is 112 for police, ambulance and fire, and the government sends RO-Alert texts to phones during extreme weather and other emergencies. Follow what those messages tell you.

No vaccinations are required to enter Romania, though it is worth being current on routine shots and, for trips into remote areas, on hepatitis A, polio and typhoid. Rabies exists here in dogs and bats, so avoid stray animals and any animal behaving strangely; if you are bitten or scratched, wash the wound thoroughly and get medical care the same day, and consider pre-exposure vaccination if your trip involves caves, animal work or a long stay. Tap water is safe to drink almost everywhere, and bottled mineral water is sold in every shop and cafe. Pharmacies, marked farmacie, sit on most high streets, and every city keeps at least one open around the clock. Travellers from the EU, EEA and Switzerland can use an EHIC or GHIC for state healthcare at local rates. Everyone else should carry travel insurance, because treatment is not free for most visitors from outside the EU.

Romania is inside the EU's roam like at home zone, so a SIM from any EU or EEA country gives you calls, texts and data at your home rates while you are here, with fair use limits and a welcome text from your operator when you land. The same rules cover Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Moldova and Ukraine. Prepaid SIM cards are sold at the airports if you would rather have a local number, and roaming outside the EU zone gets expensive quickly. Coverage is solid in the cities and along the main roads, and thins out in the Carpathians and parts of the Danube Delta. Romania runs on Eastern European Time, two hours ahead of GMT and three in summer, so check that flights, trains and restaurant reservations line up with the local clock.

Tipping is customary in Romania and generous by regional standards. Restaurants expect 10 to 15 percent, service charge or not; taxi fares get rounded up; hotel housekeeping usually gets about 5 lei a day. Cash in lei is the simplest way to leave a tip, and a word of thanks goes a long way with staff who deal with a lot of visitors. Smoking is banned in indoor public spaces, including restaurants, cafes and bars, a rule in force since March 2016, so ask for a terrace table if you smoke. Greetings are standard European: a handshake in business settings, and a polite buna ziua covers hello from morning through afternoon. Romanians dress casually day to day, but churches ask for covered shoulders and knees, and women often cover their heads in Orthodox monasteries.

Romanian is the official language and the one you hear everywhere. It is a Romance language, closer to Italian and French than to the Slavic languages around it, which surprises a lot of first-time visitors. In Transylvania, Hungarian is a first language for many people in Harghita and Covasna counties, and Roma communities speak Romani at home, but Romanian is the working language of shops, stations and offices. English works well in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and the tourist towns, particularly with anyone under about 40, and French, German and Italian are common second languages. In villages and at small stations, a translation app or a few words of Romanian helps. Place names carry diacritics that matter for pronunciation: Brasov, Iasi, Targu Mures.

Romania's public holidays follow the Orthodox calendar and a set of national dates, and they matter because banks, post offices and state offices close. In 2026 there are 17 national holidays: 1 and 2 January, Epiphany on 6 January, St John on 7 January, Union Day on 24 January, Orthodox Good Friday on 10 April, Easter on 12 April and Easter Monday on 13 April, Labour Day on 1 May, Pentecost on 31 May, 1 June for both Pentecost Monday and Children's Day, St Mary on 15 August, St Andrew on 30 November, National Day on 1 December, and Christmas on 25 and 26 December. Orthodox Easter moves each year, so date your trip around it instead of assuming, and expect long weekends to empty the cities into the mountains. National Day and the Christmas days are the ones when even supermarkets run shorter hours.

Book rail travel before you arrive if your trip lands on a holiday weekend or crosses the country. Seats on InterRegio and InterCity trains and places in sleeper and couchette cars sell out, reservations are compulsory on many services, and advance fares are the cheapest. CFR ticket offices also sell Interrail and Eurail passes up to three months before travel, and pass holders still need reservations on the trains that require them, which cost extra and are worth buying before peak dates. For the Black Sea coast in July and August, summer hotels and Danube Delta guesthouses go first, so reserve rooms by spring. Ski resorts around New Year, the Carpathian valleys at Orthodox Easter, and everywhere on National Day on 1 December are the other moments when the whole country travels at once.