Every sight worth the trip.
Castles, fortified churches, mountain roads, caves, painted monasteries, the Danube Delta — the spots we send guests to, with honest notes about timing and crowds.
Burzenland
→The castle the Dracula myth attached itself to — better visited at 9am than at noon.
A Saxon town centre tucked between forested hills — the Black Church, Council Square, narrow streets.
Europe's largest brown bear sanctuary — 100+ bears rescued from circuses and roadside cages.
A 25-kilometre limestone arête south of Brașov — one of the great ridge walks of Europe.
The largest fortified church in eastern Europe — four metres of wall, 272 family rooms inside.
A peasants' citadel above a Saxon town — quieter than Bran, with a wider view.
Saxon Triangle
→The most photographed Saxon church — three rings of walls, a famous lock with thirteen tumblers.
The highest range in Romania — Moldoveanu (2,544m), bears, the European Wilderness initiative.
The shepherding villages west of Sibiu — UNESCO is considering them as intangible heritage.
A single-room museum of painted glass icons — one of the most surprising small museums in Europe.
Three connected squares, the Liars' Bridge, and houses with "eye" windows in the roofs.
The only inhabited medieval citadel in Europe — the painted houses, the clock tower, the cobbles.
Top Gear called it the best driving road in the world — 90 km of hairpins over the Făgăraș range.
A whitewashed Saxon church on a hill above the village Prince Charles fell in love with.
Apuseni
→The cultural capital of Transylvania — Hungarian baroque, the country's best food scene.
A high karst plateau in the heart of the Apuseni — sinkholes, springs, scattered shepherd huts.
A 13th-century salt mine that looks like a Bond villain's lair — boats, a Ferris wheel, underground.
A 75,000-cubic-metre glacier inside a limestone shaft — Europe's second-largest underground ice block.
The highest paved road in Romania — quieter than Transfăgărășan, more dramatic in places.