Street food is cheaper still: a covrig (a pretzel-like bread ring) is under $1, and a slice of pizza or a shaorma is $3 to $5. Supermarkets are where the real savings are; a self-catered day of bread, cheese, vegetables and fruit can come in under $10.
Romania on a Shoestring
The train from Bucharest to Brașov takes about two and a half hours and costs around $11 in second class. That single figure explains a lot about why Romania works for a tight budget: you can cross half the country for the price of lunch in Western Europe. The country has mountains, medieval towns and a Black Sea coast, and the transport and accommodation costs sit well below what most backpackers expect from Europe. Here is what the numbers actually look like.
Getting In and Around
Most budget travellers arrive at Bucharest’s Henri Coandă airport, about 18 km north of the city centre. The express bus into town costs around $1, and a taxi should run to roughly $10 to $15 — agree the fare or confirm the meter before you get in, because airport taxi touts are common. Trains are the backbone of cheap movement. Bucharest to Brașov is about $11, Bucharest to Sibiu around $17, and the long haul from Bucharest to Cluj-Napoca runs about $25 to $30 for a six-to-eight-hour ride. Buses often undercut the trains on the same routes by a few dollars. For the mountain roads in Transylvania, a shared minibus (maxitaxi) is the local way, and fares usually land between $3 and $8 depending on distance.
If you are moving between several cities, Romania does not have a cheap national rail pass the way some countries do, so buying point-to-point tickets is usually cheaper for a two-week trip. Book seats a day or two ahead on the popular Brașov–Bucharest and Bucharest–Cluj routes in summer, when they fill.
Where to Sleep
Hostel dorm beds in Bucharest and Brașov run about $12 to $18 a night. Cluj-Napoca and Sibiu sit in a similar range, maybe $14 to $20 in high season. Outside the big cities — in the Saxon villages of Transylvania, or along the coast — guesthouses are the better value: a double room with breakfast often costs $30 to $45, which splits to $15 to $22 a head. Camping is cheap and widespread in the Carpathians; a pitch with facilities is typically $6 to $10 per person.
The pattern is that prices climb in July and August, especially on the Black Sea coast around Constanța and Mamaia, where a basic double can jump to $60 or more. Inland mountain towns stay cheaper. Shoulder season — May, June, September — gives you the same routes at roughly 20 to 30 percent less on accommodation.
Food and Drink
A sit-down lunch of the daily menu (meniul zilei) — soup, a main and often bread — costs $5 to $8 in most towns. A proper restaurant dinner with a drink runs $12 to $20. Street food is cheaper still: a covrig (a pretzel-like bread ring) is under $1, and a slice of pizza or a shaorma is $3 to $5. Supermarkets are where the real savings are; a self-catered day of bread, cheese, vegetables and fruit can come in under $10.
Beer at a bar is $1.50 to $3 for a local draft. A bottle of decent Romanian wine in a shop is $4 to $8. Coffee is $1.50 to $2.50. If you eat one restaurant meal a day and self-cater the rest, food lands around $15 to $20 a day without much effort. Add a couple of coffees and a beer and you are still under $25.
What Things Cost
Museum entries are modest: the Peleș Castle near Sinaia is around $10 for the main tour, Bran Castle about $9, and the fortified church at Biertan or Viscri a few dollars. Many city museums in Bucharest run $3 to $6. Hiking in the Carpathians is free — the trails, the national parks and the mountain huts cost nothing to enter, though a bunk in a cabana (mountain hut) is roughly $12 to $18 with a blanket.
A day of sightseeing in Brașov — the Black Church, the old town, the cable car up Tâmpa — can be done for under $15 if you skip the cable car and walk. Renting a car, if you want one for the Transfăgărășan road or the villages, is around $30 to $40 a day before fuel, which makes it a splurge best shared between three or four people.
A Rough Daily Budget
A bare-bones day — hostel dorm, self-catered food, trains and buses, one paid attraction — comes to about $35 to $45. A comfortable day with a private guesthouse room, one restaurant meal and a couple of beers is $60 to $75. That is the whole spread. Two weeks on the ground, not counting the flight in, fits comfortably between $500 and $900 depending on how often you trade the dorm for a guesthouse and the supermarket for a restaurant.
The flight is the wildcard, and it varies enormously by season and origin. Once you are on the ground, Romania is one of the cheapest countries in the European Union, and the figures above are not optimistic edge cases — they are what ordinary travellers pay.
Practical Notes
The currency is the leu, and while some places take euros, you will get a better rate changing money locally or using an ATM; avoid the exchange booths at the airport, which shave several percent off. Cards are widely accepted in cities but cash is still needed in villages and mountain huts. Tipping is around 10 percent in restaurants if service is not already included.
Trains can be slow, and the timetable is worth checking the day before — rural lines run infrequently. In summer, book accommodation in Brașov and the coast ahead; in winter, many mountain guesthouses close. The rewards for the patience are considerable: a country where $11 buys a two-and-a-half-hour train ride through the mountains, and where a bed, three meals and a museum still fit inside $50.
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