Romania: Sibiu, Brașov, Sighișoara, Maramureș and back to Munich

We spent 7 days travelling around Transylvania before driving back to Munich, with a relaxing stop at a thermal bath in Hungary.

Our itinerary:

Day 1:  Brebu Nou – Cisnădioara

Day 2:  Visit of Sibiu downtown in the morning and ASTRA Museum in the afternoon.

Day 3:  Drive to Zărnești in the morning.  Visit of Brașov in the afternoon, driving by Râșnov.

Day 4:  Visit to the Libearty Bear Sanctuary, Rupea Citadel (Cetatea Rupea in Romanian), Viscri village and the fortified Church, Saschiz fortified church (without entering the site).  Arrival in Sighișoara in the mid afternoon, visit of the town in the late afternoon and early evening.

Day 5: Drive to Viseu de Sus, with stop at Săliștea de Sus to visit the wooden church.

Day 6: Trip with the steam train (Mocăniță) in the morning / early afternoon, visit of Ieud wooden church and Bârsana complex in the afternoon.  Drive to Săpânța.

Day 7: Visit of Happy Cemetery in Săpânța, drive to  Nyírbátor (Hungary) and relaxing afternoon at the thermal bath.

Day 8:  Drive to Austria, overnight in Inning.

Day 9: Drive to Munich

Overnights:

Camping Ananas
Address: Str. Pinului, RO-555301 Cisnãdioara, jud. Sibiu
GPS: N 45° 42‘ 26,0“ E 024° 06‘ 19,2“
Cost: 80 RON per night
My comments:  very nice and quiet campsite situated in a beautiful location (very green and quiet).  You can walk to Cisnãdioara in a few minutes (around 500 m).  There are two blocks of sanitaries (both very clean).  Friendly owner who speaks both English and German.
Taxi to Sibiu: around 35 RON
Taxi to Astra Museum: around 25 RON

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Alpin Ranch
Address:  Pinului Str. No. 13, Zărnești Town, Brașov.
GPS: N 45.57899, E 25.34411
Cost: 14 Euro per night
My comments: nice campsite at the foothills of the Piatra Craiului Mountains.  There seems to be only one bathroom (with toilet + shower) but the owner let us use the facilities of guest rooms, thus I could take a shower in one of the empty guest rooms.  The owners, a Romanian couple, are extremely friendly and speak both English and German.

Vila Franka Camping
Address:  Sighisoara 545400, Dealu garii
GPS: N 46°13’37.48” E 24°47’38.68”
Cost:  100 RON
My comments:  it has a magnificent location on top of the hill.  In Sighisoara it is extremely well indicated, which is a good thing, or you might have difficulties to find it.  Very quiet location (although I can imagine it might be noisy when there are events at the restaurant).  The showers were very disappointing:  the main door to the shower block was broken and could not be  closed.  Moreover, there is no separation between the men’s and women’s showers.   The showers do not have a door but only a curtain and there are no hangers inside the shower for your clothes.  In conclusion: you have to step out of the shower to get dressed, and since there is no seperation between the men’s and women’s units, this is not ideal.  What made it even worst was that, with the main door being broken, you are in full view of those walking past the showers block.  It is ok if you are a nudist, but otherwise not acceptable (at least in my point of view).

Parking of Mocăniță
Address: Str. Cerbului Nr. 5,   RO-435700, Viseu de Sus
Cost:  50 RON
My comments: very convenient if you want to do the trip on the steam train.   The sanitary facilities consist of toilets only (I did not see any showers BUT it was raining when we were there and I did not do much exploring!).

Camping Poieni
Address: Str. Pastravarieriei 638, 437305 Săpânța
GPS: N 47.94795, E 23.69815
Cost: 48 RON
My comments:  very convenient for those who want to visit the Happy Cemetery.  Only one toilet for men and one for women, which, considering the size of the campsite, is not enough.  Same applies to showers.  Otherwise nice location and nice restaurant.

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Sarkany Apartment and Camping
Address:  4300 Nyírbátor, Fürdő u. 1, Hungary
GPS:  N 47.84893, E 22.10775
Cost:  6100 HUF (one night plus use of the thermal bath)
My comments: very nice location in the outskirts of town.  Very green and good sanitary facilities.  Excellent value for money, since the entrance to the thermal bath is included.

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Some comments about campsites:

I had planned to spend one night at Camping Bradova in Barșana.  However, when we arrived there, it was closed.  A local farmer passed by while we were trying to work out what to do next and he told us that the owner was on holiday in Italy.  Since he only spoke Romanian, I am not 100% sure we got it right.

We decided to go to Hostel & Camping Iza in Sighetu Marmației, but it was also closed.  The place looked kind of run down (as if it had not opened yet for the season), but that was only my impression.  There was no one to ask, so we just moved on.

Cost of living in Romania:

I have dedicated a post to this topic, where you can find the cost of grocery, attractions, taxis and more.  Click here to view it.

Some notes about the condition of the roads in Romania:

Generally speaking, we’ve found the condition of the roads better compared to what we had expected.   Having said that, some roads are narrow or with heavy traffic, therefore always allow some extra time to reach your destination.

We had heard that the road to Viscri is extremely bad, however I cannot agree with it.  From Rupea to Dacia it is a normal paved road, after Dacia it is not paved anymore.  However, unless you are driving after heavy rains, it is doable with a normal vehicle.

At the time of writing, the road between Viscri and Bunești is closed due to contruction work.

Sibiu:

Astra Museum (Sibiu):

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Libearty Bear Sanctuary:

Brașov:

Rupea Citadel:

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Viscri:

Sighișoara:

Săliștea de Sus:

Mocăniță:

Bârsana:

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Happy Cemetery in Săpânța:

Curious about the first part of the trip?  Click here.

Planning a trip to Romania and you want to impress the locals?  Then I recommend that you learn a couple of words of Romanian.

If you want to check out the resources I used to plan our trip to Romania, take a look at this post.