Sibiu
Romania
Three Saxon squares on two levels, roofs with eyes, and the Făgăraș mountains an hour south
Photo by Alisa Anton on Unsplash
Photos by Atlas Obscura, Daniel Olah, Lorenzo Castagnone and Mircea Solomiea on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Romania
May to September, and December for the Christmas market
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 105mm in Jun
Where it is
45.80°N, 24.15°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Climb the Council Tower for the roofs and their eye-shaped dormers
- Give the ASTRA open-air museum half a day; it is three hundred buildings in a forest
- Spend an hour in the Brukenthal’s European galleries
- Drive the Transfăgărășan to Bâlea Lake in summer, early
- Eat in a guesthouse in Sibiel or Răşinari
- Come in June for the international theatre festival, or for the Christmas market on the Large Square
Sibiu travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Romania
Good valuePay in lei. The exchange houses on Strada Nicolae Bălcescu post their rates and commission in the window; read the commission line, not just the rate. Contactless works almost everywhere, including the museums and most guesthouses in the villages around.
ATMs & cards
Banca Transilvania, BCR, BRD and ING machines line Bălcescu and the squares. Skip Euronet and decline the conversion the screen offers.
Avoid these
- Euronet
Use these instead
- Banca Transilvania
- BCR
- BRD
- ING
Draw what you need in town before heading into the Saxon villages or up the Transfăgărășan.
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 all of Romania
Very safeOne of the calmest towns in Romania, walked late without a thought. The risks are out of town: bears on the Transfăgărășan and round Bâlea Lake — stay in the car, do not feed them — and shepherds’ dogs on mountain trails, which will come at walkers; give flocks a wide berth. The high road is only open in summer and closes without much warning in bad weather.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (7 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- the Transfăgărășan — bears at the roadside; stay in the car and never feed them
- Sheepdogs guarding flocks on mountain trails, which will come at walkers — keep well clear of the sheep
- Bâlea Lake — weather turns fast at two thousand metres, and the road closes without much warning
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Romania visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Romania
Good and affordableRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
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. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodThe cheese and lamb of Mărginimea Sibiului, the shepherd villages to the west, are on every menu in town — telemea, cașcaval and burduf. Eat once in Răşinari or Sibiel rather than on the Large Square. The Saxon side survives in the bakeries.
Travel tipsNightlife
A modest one: terraces on the squares, a few cellar bars, and a student crowd in term. Pleasant rather than late.
- Piața Mică — bars under the arcades
- Strada Nicolae Bălcescu — the pedestrian street and its terraces
Closing: Around midnight midweek, 02:00 at the weekend.
Getting around
Workable- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- Against a taxi
- Cheaper and, more to the point, quoted before you get in.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Bucharest — 7 hours ahead of you
1 hour of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–10:00 your time, 16:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 02:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 02:00–10:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
eSIM
A data eSIM for Romania, installed before you fly and working the moment you land:
Works here
Works hereRevolutIn the app
Must-see
Travel tipsNearby day trips
Travel tipsSay a few words
Romanian
- HelloBună ziuaBOO-nuh ZEE-wa
- Hi (informal)Salutsa-LOOT
- PleaseVă rogvuh ROG
- Thank youMulțumescmool-tsoo-MESK
7 more phrases
- 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".
Travel tipsReligion
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.
Travel tipsDo'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
Where to stay in Sibiu
No Holistay rentals in Sibiu yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Sibiu on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Sibiu International SBZ
15 minfrom the airport· 5 km as the crow flies
15 min by taxi or city bus.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
