What a visitor's money does in Romania: every guide rated from very cheap to very expensive, cheapest first, then the things that cost travellers money without buying anything — the ATM, the taxi, the SIM.
Romanian Leu (RON) · 1 EUR = 5.25 RON · 1 USD = 4.64 RON
Pay in lei. Exchange houses on Strada Republicii and around Council Square are competitive and must post their commission; the ones inside hotels are not. Card payment is normal even in mountain guesthouses, and cable cars and castle tickets all take contactless.
Avoid: Euronet, machines around Council Square and the Black Church
Use: Banca Transilvania, BCR, BRD, ING
Draw what you need in town before heading up to Poiana Brașov or out to the villages.
A short ride in Brașov: 15–30 lei across town — cheap
Cheaper and, more to the point, quoted before you get in.
Border cooking, heavy on Hungarian influence: langoș from a kiosk, goulash on every menu, and pastries that would pass in Budapest. Prices are the lowest of any city in this guide — a full lunch for two with wine rarely passes 150 lei.
Moldavian cooking is the sweetest-toothed in Romania: try alivenci, poale-n brâu and cozonac alongside the standard ciorbe and grills. This is also wine country — Cotnari is an hour away — and a decent bottle in a restaurant starts around 60 lei. Student prices mean a proper dinner for two runs well under 200 lei.
The Banat kitchen is the most mixed in Romania — Hungarian, Serbian, German and Romanian in the same street. Eat paprikash and gulyás as readily as ciorbă. Piața Unirii’s terraces are for the view; the food is better on the side streets and in Fabric, and the Recaș wine on most lists is local and good.
Transylvanian cooking is heavier and more Central European than the south: bulz, ciorbă de burtă, and pork in most forms. The restaurants on Council Square charge for the view; walk two streets out for the same food at two thirds of the price. In autumn, look for anything with mushrooms — foraged, and everywhere.
Eat one meal of ciorbă — the sour soups are the national dish in practice — and order mici with mustard at least once. The Old Town restaurants with menus in six languages are the ones to skip; the food is better and half the price around Piața Amzei and in the residential streets behind Calea Victoriei. A lunch menu of the day (meniul zilei) is around 35-45 lei.
You eat fish here or you eat badly. Borș de pește — the sour fish soup, usually served with the fish separately and with mămăligă and garlic sauce — is the dish the delta is built on, and every guesthouse makes a version. Full board at a pensiune is normal and usually the best value; buying a meal à la carte in Sulina in August is not.
A university town’s eating economy: excellent value at lunch, ambitious at dinner, and a coffee scene that would not embarrass Vienna. Look for varză à la Cluj, and eat at least once in the streets around Piața Muzeului. The students keep prices honest — a good main is 45-60 lei.
The cost rating is this site's own, for a visitor, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in. The general rules — the conversion prompt, shoulder season, the airport taxi — are in budget travel tips.
BrașovRomaniaA Saxon square under a forested mountain, half an hour from Dracula’s castle
BucharestRomaniaBelle Époque boulevards, communist concrete, and Europe’s fastest broadband
Danube DeltaRomaniaEurope’s largest wetland: three hundred bird species, and roads that are water
Cluj-NapocaRomaniaTransylvania’s student and tech capital, with the festival calendar to match
TimișoaraRomaniaHabsburg squares, canal-side cafés, and the city where the revolution started
OradeaRomaniaThe best Art Nouveau in Eastern Europe, restored, above a thermal aquifer
IașiRomaniaMoldavia’s old capital: monasteries, a hundred thousand students, and cheap wine