Romania

Romania is a country that isn’t talked about as often as other European Nations and when it is it’s in the realm of Dracula and the brutal communist regime during the Cold War Era. Romania is so much more than that with a unique and vibrant culture! The first country we visited on our 2025 journey through Eastern Europe was Romania. We flew from Istanbul to the Capital city of Bucharest. It was the very first time for us to visit the country that is home to Transylvania and the legend of Vlad “The Impaler” who inspired the story of Dracula. The country is a developing nation that has overcome the terror of a brutal Communist regime that ended in a very bloody revolution. Here’s what we found in Romania!

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Getting to Romania and Transportation

There are a few different ways to get to Romania. The main entry point is Bucharest Henri Coandă International Airport that has flights to other European Nations, the Middle East and Asia. There are no direct flights from North America to Bucharest so if you come from there you will need to change planes in Europe or the Middle East. We flew to Istanbul and spent a couple days there and then headed to Bucharest on Turkish Airlines. The airport is relatively small as we parked at a remote gate, and we’re bussed to the airport. Since multiple flights arrived the passport control did have a long line. They are working on enhancing the airport and it’s an easy airport to pass through. A common way of heading to Romania is on a Danube River cruise that starts in Budapest, Hungary and ends in Bucharest. We did the upstream river cruise that started in Bucharest and ended in Budapest. There is rail service from Europe and Istanbul to Bucharest. There are a limited number of Black Sea ferries that go to other Black Sea countries to Romania.

As for transportation around Bucharest, you have public buses, trams/light rail and taxis as they do not have a subway system. You also have the option of guided tours and that is what we opted to do. We arrived during rush hour traffic and it was intense.

Airport and other Transportation Options

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Country Information

Romania is a member of the European Union, the Schengen Zone and NATO. The Schengen Zone is a group of 29 European countries that have abolished border control between the countries. So, once you enter one then you can travel freely between the others. You will get an entry and exit stamp (once you leave the final country in the Schengen zone). Currently as of 2025 you just need your passport as a US, Canada and UK citizen to enter but the ETIAS will come in affect next year possibly that will require you to fill in a form with security questions and pay a fee. Once you get approval you are good to go.

Romanian is the official language of the country, but English is spoken widely from our experiences in the tourist areas. The currency is the Romanian Leu and as of this writing, the exchange rate is 1 Leu = $ .23 USD. As of November 2025, the US State Department rates Romania as a level 1, take normal precautions. We personally felt very safe in Romania and went out in the evening as well. Temperature wise, Bucharest is relatively mild with cold winters.

Where We Stayed in Romania

We stayed at the J.W. Marriott Grand Bucharest that is right across the street from Izvor Park and the largest Eastern Orthodox Church in the world called People’s Salvation Cathedral. The hotel is a 5-star beautiful hotel full of luxury. In the lobby area there is a small shopping center called Grand Avenue, that has a variety of high-end clothing and accessory stores. The hotel has an indoor and outdoor pool and multiple restaurants like a Steakhouse. The breakfast buffet we had was high quality with international food and a Romanian section and a short order cook. The rooms are also very nice and comfortable giving us plenty of space when European hotel rooms are usually smaller than US rooms. Check out the hotel tour below!

Bucharest

Bucharest is the capital and largest city in Romania and most likely the starting point of any trip to Romania. It has a population of a little under 2 million and the metro area is over 2 million making it into the top 10 in size in the European Union. It’s the business and political center of the country and is located North of the Danube River in Southeast Romania. There is a lot to do in this old but also modern city!

Romanian House of Parliament

The first place we visited on both our night and day tour around Bucharest is the largest civilian administration building in the world and one of the largest buildings in the world with around 1,100 rooms and underground bunkers. It’s the heaviest building in the world with an estimated weight of over 4 million tons. It was incredibly expensive to build and was built under the rule of brutal Romanian Communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu. While many people were starving and struggling, he ordered building of this grand capital building. We did not go inside but we saw the Grand structure from the outside. Nicolae Ceaușescu never saw the completion of the building and today they do not use all the rooms. It would be nice to see the inside of the building as well.

Former Romanian Communist HQ and Revolution Square

Also, in both day and night we headed to the former home of the Communist Party of Romania and Dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu’s office. Today its government offices (Ministry of Internal Affairs) still but has a huge role in the fall of the Communists and Nicolae Ceaușescu. In 1989 the communist party had put in place measures on the back of the average people to pay off foreign loans. The communist party then tried to force an Eastern Orthodox Priest out of his church. This caused great uproar and protesting. Nicolae Ceaușescu decided to make a speech to citizens he forced into what is now called Revolution Square (Palace Square then). After firecrackers went off during his speech people started to boo and shout. He couldn’t finish his speech and from then on people rebelled and fought the regime in the Square and in multiple cities. The military switched sides and supported the people which caused the dictator and his wife to try to escape the headquarters by helicopter. He got away by being picked up off the roof but was forced to land and was captured. He and his wife were tried and executed on Christmas day 1989 and the country was now free. Of course, there is a long road to recovery that is still ongoing. You can still see the scars in the building from the battle with bullet holes all over the facade.

Revolution Square (Palace Square then). After firecrackers went off during his speech people started to boo and shout. He couldn’t finish his speech and from then on people rebelled and fought the regime in the Square and in multiple cities. The military switched sides and supported the people which caused the dictator and his wife to try to escape the headquarters by helicopter. He got away by being picked up off the roof but was forced to land and was captured. He and his wife were tried and executed on Christmas day 1989 and the country was now free. Of course, there is a long road to recovery that is still ongoing. You can still see the scars in the building from the battle with bullet holes all over the facade.

During our day visit we had the chance to hear a presentation from Egmont Pușcașu, who was a young leader during the revolution. He was shot through the arm. He told us his story as he fought for freedom and showed us a revolution flag that was the communist Romanian flag with the communist seal cut out. He took it from a young man who was killed during the fighting. It was a moving story and afterwards he had a message for all of us that he shared with me below.

Communism in Romania and the Romanian Revolution Tours

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Romanian Secret Police - Securitate Headquarters

During the time of Nicolae Ceaușescu Romania had one of the largest and most brutal secret police in the Eastern Block. They did surveillance of people thought to have be against the regime, arrested, tortured, imprisoned and murdered countless Romanians. They were truly a scary group that demanded compliance for all people. This terrible organization thankfully was taken down and dismantled during the Romanian Revolution but there is at least one place left you can visit that is a reminder of the horrors of the Securitate. Nearby the former Communist Headquarters is the facade of the Secret Police Headquarters. A new modern building is built inside and above that houses companies like Universal Music today. The old facade still has the scars from the Romanian Revolution with bullet holes throughout. Sadly, many citizens entered that building but much fewer came out. Its a grim and important reminder that we need to be vigilant against the extremes in society.

Old Town Bucharest

While in Bucharest we visited the old town twice with one being at night and the other at day. It is like many European Old Towns full of restaurants, shops and beautiful architecture. There are churches, squares with statues and historic buildings throughout. While there during the day we had the chance to step into a historic Orthodox Church and Monastery called Stavropoleos Monastery that was beautifully decorated with frescoes inside. Priests and Nuns were there as well as its an active church. We stopped at a great gift shop that had plenty of great Romanian cultural gifts. We got many things there including the beautifully decorated Romanian eggs that were featured in 2025 as a challenge on “The Amazing Race”. While in Old Town Bucharest we visited two historic restaurants and tried traditional Romanian food!

National Village Museum “Dimitrie Gusti”

We visited what we thought was a spectacular museum in Bucharest, that is the National Village Museum. It’s an open-air museum that reminds me a bit of Greenfield Village at the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit. The museum has 123 historic buildings from the 17th to 20th century that are from all the different regions of Romania. There are simple homes, churches and many other types of buildings. Some you can go inside and see the furniture and decorations and others you see from the outside. We went into a beautifully decorated church, homes that were dugout/inside a hill and people from different regions were selling handicrafts from the regions they were representing. Right behind the park is the Presidential Palace and a group of troops on horseback with traditional military uniforms. This was all due to a NATO Summit that was going on in Bucharest. It’s a very large museum so we didn’t get to see it all, but I would like to come back and see more. We did see buildings from areas like famous Transylvania. We only had about an hour but if you get the chance to go, spend a couple of hours there.

National Village Museum Tours:

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NATO Summit

While we didn’t attend the Summit of course but the registration for it was in our hotel so it was interesting watching the generals and politicians from different European Nations and the security around it all was interesting and a unique experience. We saw many motorcades arrive and depart the hotel. You never know what you might encounter when traveling!

Romanian Cuisine

Romania has a unique and hearty cuisine with influences from the Middle East (Turkey) and other areas of Europe. We had the chance to eat at two wonderful and historic restaurants in Bucharest while we were there and we got to try many different dishes. Also at our hotel, we were able to try different Romanian breakfast dishes. We found the food to be great with a few exceptions. We also found that while a lot of European Cuisines are flavorful and not spicy, Romanian Cuisine at times did have spice to it. Check out below about Romanian Cuisine!

Bucharest Food and Drink Tours

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Leaving Romania and Conclusion

After the wonderful experiences we had in Romania we headed to our ship the Viking Ullur and headed to our next destination of Bulgaria. While Romania is still dealing with the aftermath of its brutal Communist dictator, I found it an incredibly welcoming country with ultra friendly people as we found in all the Eastern European countries. The stories we heard from people like Egmont and how they triumphed after such difficulty were inspiring. We weren’t quite done with Romania as our ship on the Danube River sailed, we were between Bulgaria and Romania and could see small Romanian cities and saw the huge rock carving of Decebalus, who was the last Romanian Dacian King. The carving was completed in 2004 and is the largest in Europe at 180 feet tall and 82 feet wide. We also saw both the Serbian and Romanian sides of the beautiful Iron Gates gorge on the Danube River that are national parks for both countries. It’s a wonderful country to visit with much more to offer than what we saw!