Driving (and speeding) in Romania
Some Bucharest architecture
On our 2010 trip to Turkey we had decided to do the overland route and so we crossed the border into Romania from Szeged in Hungary. We bought the obligatory vignette but suspected we got the wrong one – for a car rather than a motorhome, hence the cheap price of €5 for a week. Just have to hope we don’t get checked. The roads were very busy in places and progress around Arad was very slow.
Having been very scrupulous in observing the speed limits – much more so than almost everybody else on the road – it was doubly galling to get caught speeding in a 50km/hour zone. A very pleasant policeman gave me a ticket for 240 Lei (£60), but it is only half if you pay up at once, and he didn’t have any change so it only cost me 100 Lei (£25). People talk about being stopped by the police and paying sums over for alleged offences but to be fair we were speeding and the nice policeman showed us his video to prove it, he also gave us a proper receipt.
We were going to travel to Deva on our first day but the slow traffic, the chat with the fuzz and the fact that the clocks go on another hour here persuaded us to stop short of our planned stopping point. Perhaps this is a piece of valuable advice for anyone going through Romania - you cannot go very fast.
The state of the roads and driving standards usually gets some comment from motorhomers going through Romania. Perhaps things have improved in recent years – the EU has been pumping money into infrastructure – but the E68 can only be described as fair, the section from the Hungarian border to Arad was fairly ropey (deep grooves causing some excitement) and the few kilometres into Deva had some exceptionally deep potholes. The main problems are that it is only two lanes and very busy with big trucks whose overtaking is – to put it mildly – rather bold, and the fact that it goes through endless villages/small towns where the limit is 50km/hour and compliance is heavily policed as we learned to our cost.
On our way to Turkey we travelled from Szeged on the E68 passing Arad and Sibiu and from there we went to Bran. From Bran we headed for the Bulgarian border which meant skirting Bucharest and aiming for the border at Giurgiu. On our return trip we took advice and took a different route from Bulgaria we crossed into Romania at the Danube ferry crossing at Vidin (not far from the Serbian border) and then headed for Timasoura and from Timasoura to Miko in Hungary. This return trip was not too bad but the road at the Iron Gates ( the road running along the Romanian side of the Danube) was bad, it is being improved/repaired and the jams are pretty awful. We were told that the road had been bad in 2009 because of these works and they did not look anywhere near finished in 2010.
Read more about the ferry crossing on the Bulgaria page.
Having been very scrupulous in observing the speed limits – much more so than almost everybody else on the road – it was doubly galling to get caught speeding in a 50km/hour zone. A very pleasant policeman gave me a ticket for 240 Lei (£60), but it is only half if you pay up at once, and he didn’t have any change so it only cost me 100 Lei (£25). People talk about being stopped by the police and paying sums over for alleged offences but to be fair we were speeding and the nice policeman showed us his video to prove it, he also gave us a proper receipt.
We were going to travel to Deva on our first day but the slow traffic, the chat with the fuzz and the fact that the clocks go on another hour here persuaded us to stop short of our planned stopping point. Perhaps this is a piece of valuable advice for anyone going through Romania - you cannot go very fast.
The state of the roads and driving standards usually gets some comment from motorhomers going through Romania. Perhaps things have improved in recent years – the EU has been pumping money into infrastructure – but the E68 can only be described as fair, the section from the Hungarian border to Arad was fairly ropey (deep grooves causing some excitement) and the few kilometres into Deva had some exceptionally deep potholes. The main problems are that it is only two lanes and very busy with big trucks whose overtaking is – to put it mildly – rather bold, and the fact that it goes through endless villages/small towns where the limit is 50km/hour and compliance is heavily policed as we learned to our cost.
On our way to Turkey we travelled from Szeged on the E68 passing Arad and Sibiu and from there we went to Bran. From Bran we headed for the Bulgarian border which meant skirting Bucharest and aiming for the border at Giurgiu. On our return trip we took advice and took a different route from Bulgaria we crossed into Romania at the Danube ferry crossing at Vidin (not far from the Serbian border) and then headed for Timasoura and from Timasoura to Miko in Hungary. This return trip was not too bad but the road at the Iron Gates ( the road running along the Romanian side of the Danube) was bad, it is being improved/repaired and the jams are pretty awful. We were told that the road had been bad in 2009 because of these works and they did not look anywhere near finished in 2010.
Read more about the ferry crossing on the Bulgaria page.
Carta
Oude Wilge camping
We stayed at Camping De Oude Wilge (Old Willow) in Carta, 40km east of Sibiu – a very pleasant Romanian/ Dutch farm-field site in a small village with good facilities and excellent home-cooked meals at €10 per head. As part of the welcome we received a small carafe of home made liqueur, probably plum brandy into which a variety of berries had been soaked, it was delicious. We had intended to visit Sibiu by train but we were not sure about any train service - we have heard no trains at all, and we walked across the rail bridge today and notice that the supports were leaning at a very odd angle due to river erosion – so we spent the day locally, exploring the old Cistercian monastery, now the local church. We had been aware that we were in that part of Romania which had had a large German speaking population and the gravestones at the church confirmed this with many germanic sounding names of young men who had died in WW1.
For more info on our campsite click here www.campingdeoudewilg.nl It is in Dutch but you can always use Google translate if your Dutch isn't up to scratch.
For more info on our campsite click here www.campingdeoudewilg.nl It is in Dutch but you can always use Google translate if your Dutch isn't up to scratch.
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This campsite was a lovely place to stop for a few days, not only are the hosts very nice and the home cooked meal really really good (enjoyed in the family dining room) but the area is peaceful especially after the fraught Romanian roads and a wonderful spot for walking and bird watching.
Around Carta we were into Roma country – we saw lots of horse-drawn carts – and ploughs – and our camping field comes complete with a horse and Roma attendant (above).
Bran
Bran castle
We spent a couple of days at the wonderfully named Vampire Camping in Bran where we visited the excellent castle which is the mythical home of Count Dracula. Vlad the Impaler – on which Dracula is (very) loosely based – didn’t live anywhere near here, but there is a whole tourism industry based on the connection, the local population must be very grateful to Bram Stoker.It is a rather nice castle, beautifully restored and reminded us of Bled Castle.
Brasov
While staying at Camping Vampire we took the 45-minute bus trip into Brasov (8 Ron each return - £2) which has a very attractive old centre with some fine ramparts and a famous ‘black’ church which isn’t. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos of the hundreds of Turkish prayer mats (donated by returning merchants) with which the interior is decorated. The concrete exterior of the very ugly TV building was decorated more recently with bullet-holes from the 1989 revolution.
 Brasov |
 Brasov |
Timisoura
On our way home from Turkey we travelled through Romania again although this time we travelled a different route and we were able to spend a couple of nights in Timisoara we took the trolleybus (No. 11 and 3 Lei return each). Lovely Orthodox Church beautifully located at the end of an early 20th century boulevard with some fine buildings which had not been completely ruined by 45 years of communism (except the use of a nasty green which seems to be regrettably common in the old soviet bloc). There was a great deal of earnest genuflecting and bible kissing going on in the church – and not just old people either.
We wandered around for several hours through some attractive squares (complete with bullet marks from the 1989 revolution which started here) and had the set lunch at a pavement restaurant called Loyds (soup, main course, pud and water, all for 31 Lei, i.e. less than £8) with a very fine art deco interior. We also visited the market and bought cherries and honey – and saw a sparrow stealing fresh peas from the top of a jar.
We stayed at Camping International - €20 with 5% discount for CCI card. It was rather overpriced for what was but the owner had a brand new Land Rover Discovery to support. However it was convenient for the town. It had rained pretty heavily recently so we parked in the car park itself, the pitches were very soggy and there are lots of trees so they are unlikely to dry out quickly.
We wandered around for several hours through some attractive squares (complete with bullet marks from the 1989 revolution which started here) and had the set lunch at a pavement restaurant called Loyds (soup, main course, pud and water, all for 31 Lei, i.e. less than £8) with a very fine art deco interior. We also visited the market and bought cherries and honey – and saw a sparrow stealing fresh peas from the top of a jar.
We stayed at Camping International - €20 with 5% discount for CCI card. It was rather overpriced for what was but the owner had a brand new Land Rover Discovery to support. However it was convenient for the town. It had rained pretty heavily recently so we parked in the car park itself, the pitches were very soggy and there are lots of trees so they are unlikely to dry out quickly.
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Leaving Romania for Bulgaria
The border had clearly been built in the old soviet days when tarred roads, signposts and helpful officials were considered a sign of girliness. It took us ten minutes – and asking some truck drivers – just to find out which set of barriers to go through. Then a feller demands 50 Lei (£12.50) ‘Bridge Tax’ to cross a knackered old bridge which has a big sign on it saying it was built in 1954. These buggers are in the EU now, where it is supposed to be open borders. This is an exit tax by any other name. I shall complain to Jacques Delors.
Getting to the border was not without excitement. The first problem was getting round Bucharest – Tony at Vampire Camping in Bran told us we must avoid the centre at all costs and instead take the ring road – the ‘Centura’. We stayed overnight at Casa Alba just outside Bucharest - another mediocre site but still 20 euro. Unfortunately when we left we never found the Centura – indeed we saw only one sign for it during our 1½ hour trip through and round the huge and hideous capital of Romania. The road signs for Giurgiu led us a merry dance to nowhere, the Garmin was barking contradictory instructions and the map was useless. We eventually asked some people and received some useful guidance, even if it was in Romanian – the hand gestures were enough.
Getting to the border was not without excitement. The first problem was getting round Bucharest – Tony at Vampire Camping in Bran told us we must avoid the centre at all costs and instead take the ring road – the ‘Centura’. We stayed overnight at Casa Alba just outside Bucharest - another mediocre site but still 20 euro. Unfortunately when we left we never found the Centura – indeed we saw only one sign for it during our 1½ hour trip through and round the huge and hideous capital of Romania. The road signs for Giurgiu led us a merry dance to nowhere, the Garmin was barking contradictory instructions and the map was useless. We eventually asked some people and received some useful guidance, even if it was in Romanian – the hand gestures were enough.
