Brașov

Currency

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.

ATMs & cards

Bank machines — Banca Transilvania, BCR, BRD, ING — are all over the old town and charge nothing beyond your own bank’s fee. Avoid the Euronet machines clustered around Council Square and the Black Church, and always decline conversion at the screen.

Draw what you need in town before heading up to Poiana Brașov or out to the villages.

Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.

Safety

One of the safest towns of its size in Europe, and the old town is calm even late. The genuine risks are outside it: bears are real in the hills around Brașov and around Bran, so do not walk mountain trails at dusk, never leave food out, and do not stop the car for the ones begging on the Transfăgărășan.

Our own assessment, not a sourced index.

Entry & visa

Health & emergencies

Required to enter

No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.

Worth having

• Routine vaccinations up to date
• Tick-borne encephalitis if you will be walking in Carpathian forest between spring and autumn
• Rabies if you plan to work with animals or spend long periods in remote countryside

Getting treated

EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment. State hospitals are free at the point of use with an EHIC or GHIC, but under-resourced; the private networks — Regina Maria, MedLife, Sanador — are quick, English-speaking and cheap by Western standards, and are what most visitors end up using.

Ticks in forest and long grass from April to October — check yourself after walks. Bears are genuinely present in the Carpathians around Brașov: keep food sealed, never approach one, and do not walk mountain trails at dusk. In the Danube Delta the mosquitoes from May to August are relentless and need proper repellent rather than a supermarket spray.

Orientation, not medical advice. Entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history and where you have been — check with a travel clinic or your national health service four to six weeks before you go.

Food tip

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.

Getting around

• Walking — the old town is small enough that you will not need anything else within it
• Bus (RATBV) — a few lei a ride, contactless on board; line 20 runs up to Poiana Brașov
• Bolt — cheap and quick, and the practical way to reach the train station or the bear sanctuary
• Tâmpa cable car — two minutes up the mountain that hangs over the square, for the view down onto the roofs
• Airport: Brașov-Ghimbav opened in 2023 with a handful of European routes; most visitors still fly to Bucharest and take the train, which is 2.5 to 3 hours and genuinely scenic

Internet speed

Broadband here runs at 2.2× the global median of 128 Mbps. Mobile runs at 76% of the global median of 110 Mbps.

Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured May 2026

Must-see

Things to do

• Climb or ride up Tâmpa for the view over the square
• See the Black Church and its Anatolian carpet collection
• Walk the old town walls and the Weavers’ Bastion
• Take the day trip to Bran and Râșnov castles
• Ski or walk at Poiana Brașov
• Visit the Libearty bear sanctuary at Zărnești

Nearby day trips

Say a few words

Romanian

• HelloBună ziuaBOO-nuh ZEE-wa
• Hi (informal)Salutsa-LOOT
• PleaseVă rogvuh ROG
• Thank youMulțumescmool-tsoo-MESK
• Yes / NoDa / Nuda / noo
• Excuse meScuzați-măskoo-ZATS-muh
• How much is it?Cât costă?kuht KOS-tuh
• The bill, pleaseNota, vă rogNO-ta vuh ROG
• Do you speak English?Vorbiți engleză?vor-BEETS en-GLEH-zuh
• CheersNorocno-ROK
• GoodbyeLa revederela reh-veh-DEH-reh

A Romance language in a Slavic neighbourhood — with Italian or Spanish you will read the signs long before you can hear the speech. English is widely spoken by anyone under forty and in every hotel; French is more common with older people. The letters ș and ț are "sh" and "ts", and î and â are a sound English does not have, somewhere behind the vowel in "roses".

Religion

Romanian Orthodox

About four in five Romanians are Orthodox, and it is practised rather than nominal — churches are busy on ordinary weekday mornings and people cross themselves passing one from a bus. Visitors are welcome at services: stand, keep quiet, do not walk in front of the icons, and cover shoulders and knees. Easter, not Christmas, is the great feast, and the whole country slows down for it. Transylvania is the exception to all of this, with Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed churches in the same square as the Orthodox one — a legacy of Hungarian and Saxon settlement that the fortified churches still record.

Do's and don'ts

Do

• Take your shoes off when you enter someone’s home — slippers will be offered, and refusing them is the odd move
• Say bună ziua on entering a small shop, and la revedere on the way out
• Accept the țuică poured on arrival, or at least touch the glass to your lips
• Cover shoulders and knees in Orthodox churches, and stand rather than sit if the congregation is standing
• Bring an odd number of flowers if you are invited to dinner — even numbers are for graves

Don't

• Do not use "gypsy" as a synonym for Romanian. Roma are one of the country’s minorities and the conflation is the single fastest way to sour a conversation
• Do not open with Dracula and expect delight — Vlad Țepeș is a national figure here and the vampire is a Victorian novelist’s invention
• Do not photograph during an Orthodox service, or icons where a sign asks you not to
• Do not haggle in shops; markets are the only place where it is normal, and even there gently
• Do not expect the bill to be split to the last leu in company — one person tends to pay and it evens out over a trip