Oradea

Currency

Pay in lei even though Hungary is twenty minutes away and some places will take forints at a poor rate. Exchange houses in the centre are fine and post their commission; the border ones are not worth the stop.

ATMs & cards

Bank machines from Banca Transilvania, BCR, BRD and Raiffeisen sit around Piața Unirii and along Strada Republicii. Avoid Euronet, and decline the conversion offer. Cards are taken everywhere, including at the baths.

Hungarian forints are taken at some border shops at a poor rate; pay in lei.

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

A quiet, prosperous provincial city with very little crime, and a restored centre that is pleasant to walk at night. The usual Romanian advice applies and nothing more: book taxis in an app, and keep an eye on your things in the crowded aquapark changing rooms.

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

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.

Getting around

• Tram — the useful line runs through the centre and out toward the station; a single ride is about 3 lei
• Walking — the restored centre is compact and the two river banks are joined by short bridges
• Bus to Băile Felix — OTL runs out to the thermal resort in about twenty minutes, and the trains stop there too
• Bolt — cheap, and the simple way to the aquapark or the airport
• Airport: Oradea has a small terminal with domestic and a few European flights, fifteen minutes from the centre

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

• Walk Piața Unirii and the Art Nouveau streets off it
• Tour the Black Eagle Palace and its stained-glass arcade
• Swim outdoors in winter at Nymphaea or Băile Felix
• Climb the fortress bastions
• Cross the river for the Vulturul Negru passage and the market
• Take the thermal water cure the way locals actually do — for a week, not an afternoon

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