Travel Prices in Romania
Romania vies with Bulgaria as the cheapest destination in Europe. The latter has an edge in most respects, but Romania is still a terrific value at all budget levels, from backpacker to luxe.
If you’re looking for the European cafe culture in summer or want to stay in a nice historic village after a day of skiing in the winter, this is where you can do both on a fraction of what you would spend further west.
Overall, Romania is a good deal for backpackers, a fantastic deal for mid-range travelers on vacation. A backpacking couple could get by on $40 or $50 a day, but a couple spending $100 to $200 a day in Romania will really be living large. Keep in mind though that Romania’s currency fluctuates quite a bit, sometimes moving from 2.8 to the dollar to 3.5 (and maybe back again) within the space of a year. Hotels are often priced in dollars or euros, but anything else you spend money on is not.
The following Romania traveler prices were converted to dollars at 3.4 lei.
Hotel and Hostel Prices in Romania
A place to lay your head won’t hit you too hard here except maybe summer on the Black Sea coast. There you might have to pay more than what’s below.
Hostel beds: as low as $5 in some spots, but $7 to $14 is the average. Hostel and traveler hotel owners will usually throw in breakfast and a few freebies to give them a leg up: beer, filtered water, Internet access, and maybe a welcome shot of Romanian moonshine.
Private home rooms: as little as $12 double in the countryside, but $20 to $35 is more common.
Monastery rooms: $18 – $24 double.
Mountain hiking trail huts: $3 to $12 per person
Mid-range hotels: 2-star room $30 to $60, 3-star room under $70, only 5-star ones in Bucharest are more than $100.
Check hostel prices for your destination with Hostelbookers and find the best Romania hotel deals with Trivago.
Food & Drink in Romania
You see lots of stuffed cabbage rolls, sausages, bland chicken and pork dishes, stews, salads made with mayonnaise, whole fish breaded and tossed in a pan, and soups seemingly made with whatever is lying around. It’s tough eating Romanian and being a vegetarian, though it gets better in the summer when more fresh veggies are available. On the plus side, it’s easy to find something filling for cheap. Many popular restaurants offer specials to lure you in. Set lunch menus with multiple courses are a good deal and many spots have special deals for students and the elderly. Some will toss in a free glass of house wine.
The best part of your meal is often dessert, like this specialty pictured below.
Street snacks and pastries: 30 cents to $1.25
Budget sit-down meal: $3 to $5
Nice restaurant meal in tourist area: $5 to $15 (It’s hard to spend much more than $30 each anywhere without being a glutton.)
Beer: $1.50 to $2.50 at a bar, much less in a store or at happy hour.
Wine: $3-$5 at a store and not much more in a restaurant (markups are usually less than double). You can get the very best local wines, which are surprisingly good, for less than $15 in a store.
Palinca or Tuica distilled fruit liquor: 75 cents to $2 a glass in a bar/restaurant, $3 a liter for dubious home brew sold in the markets, $4 – $8 for a commercial bottle.
Coffee or soda: 70 cents to $1.50
Transportation in Romania
You can generally get around pretty cheaply in Romania. The train system hits most anywhere you want to go and you can get to most spots in the country from Bucharest the same day. If you travel with the locals, you’ll pay what they do, which is reasonable in second class. Buses are in the same ballpark, but can be more frequent.
Trains: $10 from Bucharest to Bra?ov. A 100km train trip is generally $5 – $9. Internationally, the 14-hour ride from Bucharest to Budapest is around $75 in a reclining seat. I splurged $90 for a sleeper berth from Budapest to Sighisoara and ended up having the entire compartment to myself.
Buses: from the capital to towns in the Transylvania region will come in under $15. Shorter rides between towns are just a few dollars.
Bucharest airport to the center: the taxi fare should be around $15, but can balloon to $30 or $45 from the scammers if not arranged in advance. The shuttle bus is only $2.
Taxis: when they use the meter like they’re supposed to, less than 50 cents per kilometer.
Local buses, trolleys, and trams: 30 to 70 cents per ride depending on whether you purchase a pass. A 10-trip subway pass in the capital is less than $3.
Admission and Activity Charges in Romania
Skiing: one-day lift tickets $20-$45 (on a point system determined by which lifts and how many rides you take). Rentals are around $15 a day.
Museums and churches/monasteries: free or $2 – $4, only a few more than $6. The King’s Pele? Castle outside Sinaia costs much, much more.
Ice skating: in the winter, you can go ice skating at outdoor facilities for $4 – $7
Biking: rentals start at $4 an hour or $12 for a day for a good quality bike.
Romania looks really nice, and you will not spend lots of money to enjoy the country. Thanks for the informative post.
How have you found the people of Romania? Have you found it difficult to travel around? I have a friend who went recently and found it to be a struggle, that it wasn’t very well set up for tourism yet. I am going to Eastern Europe next year and can’t decide on Romania.
Jeff, depends on where you are. Transylvania is teeming with tourists at all budget levels, so it’s a piece of cake there. English menus even. Same with the Black Sea coast and much of the capital. If you’re going somewhere few travelers venture, however, you’ll need a good phrase book or translation app.
Thank you for this well researched article about Romania, a wonderful country. I didn’t expect the accommodation prices to be so low. Great Blog.
Hi, I am from Romania and the article is pretty accurate. There are a lot of great and mostly unknown places to see here, the prices are pretty low for foreigners but compared to the medium or low wages is affordable for us – just like you gather some money for a vacation, we do the same. You wrote Palinca or Tuica distilled fruit liquor: 75 cents to $2 a glass in a bar/restaurant, $3 a liter for dubious home brew sold in the markets, $4 – $8 for a commercial bottle. That dubious Home Brew it’s actually Tuica or Palinca – it has a better quality then the one you buy at the bars and restaurants, just like any other home made thing. I also recommend that you buy fruits and vegetables from the same markets because most of them are organic and grown by romanian peasants – they taste better even if their look is imperfect – or even dubious. They look like that because chemicals were not used and because they are not genetically modified or anything sort of the matter. So yes, you will see a lot of home made dubious goodies. :)
Bilete, I understand what you’re saying, but often the home-made stuff is only distilled once and not run through again, so it can have a lot more impurities. That can lead to bigger hangovers and worse. If made well, of course, all good.
I agree that it might be a little hard to gave great meals for vegetarians, but I think there are more than a couple of options in this aspect (Romanians are meat eaters for sure), but indeed the desserts are heavenly. Actually the ones in the picture are my favorite :) (for anyone wanting to try it out they are called “papanasi”). And for more adventurous and sporty people mountain biking and hiking are a great way to spend your holidays in Romania :)
My girlfriend is Romanian and we pass several months a year there. You can definitly travel on the cheap there, I would say even less that that. We are extreme travellers (hitchhiking, couchsurfing, etc.) but even a “normal” traveller I guess can easily stay under 30$ per day. A full meal with 3 dishes is 3$ at the restaurant, 10$ for sleeping + 10$ extra for transportation, or beers, or monuments
Thanks for the Great articles , would u know what the ski range is in kilos and how much for an apartment for 1 month in the winter ?
Anyone know if there are packages we can purchase before hand?
Rich, you can rent an apartment for about $300-500 during the winter in a mountain resort, the most popular being Predeal, Busteni, Sinaia and Poiana Brasov. It would be a lot easier if you would find a romanian speaker to negotiate the price for you since the landlords usually ask a little more from foreigners. You can try turistinfo[dot]ro to see some prices. If you can’t manage with the language just go to their fb page and ask for help with translation. Good luck.
Discover the most beautiful and amazing part of my country.
http://discover-amazing-romania.blogspot.ro/
Really it is great to read the article. I he learnt many things about Romania.
Can some one tell me about the total budget to be planned for a 10 days trip with family of 4 in Romania?
Debashis Chakraborty, from India.
Hello Debashis , my name is Tiberiu and I am from Romania , …. I saw that you need help to know many things and some prices about Romania , if nobody let you know that untill now , you can email me and I will let you know everything you need…my email is [email protected]….my best regards !
Hi iwant to visit romania with myfamily( 6 member’s) We will traver with our car from greece . Can you tell me if is it safe to traver with my family; Thanks