2024 Travel Retrospective
Today we invite you to our annual look back at Romania’s 2024 travel destinations which RRI presented in the Traveler’s Guide feature.
Daniel Onea, 09.01.2025, 14:00
We traveled together to various destinations as we wanted to cover as wide a range of tastes as possible. We went to the highest mountains in Romania, we talked about craftsmen and artisans, ancient villages, and we also visited famous castles. We presented options for spa treatment in traditional centers in Romania as well as the resorts on the Romanian Black Sea Coast.
We opened the travel series from 2024 just 161 kilometers from Bucharest, in Brașov, the city at the foot of the Tâmpa mountains. Known for the Black Church, the largest Gothic-style religious edifice in South-Eastern Europe, for its streets with a medieval atmosphere and for its many restaurants and clubs, the city can be the ideal city-break destination. We then headed to Iași, a former capital of the province of Moldavia for almost 300 years. Also in eastern Romania, we discovered the beauties of the Trotuș Valley, among which the Ghika Palace from Comănești, built in 1890 after blueprints by the architect Albert Galleron, who built the Romanian Athenaeum and the building of the National Bank of Romania. We also visited the Peleș and Pelișor castles in a special feature dedicated to the city of Sinaia, the summer residence of the Romanian royal family from 1887 until 1947. We then stopped at the ski and snowboard slopes of the Bușteni mountain resort. We talked about the offers for winter sports lovers, and also about the biggest and most valuable monument of the resort, unique in the country: the Cross of the Heroes of the Nation, built between 1926-1927, under the care of Her Majesty, Queen Marie. We ended the winter season with the cultural-tourist route of open-air museums in Romania, developed at the national level and recognized by the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Tourism, a route launched in Romania given the large number of tourists who showed interest in these objectives.
In the first week of spring, we discovered that Buzău county earned the name “little Romania”, due to the diversity of forms of relief found there. We got to know this picturesque area better which is full of legends. Then, we traveled with the ‘mocănița’, a narrow-gauge steam train, maintained by volunteers, which connects the tourist hub of Sibiu with the rural communities of the Hârtibaciu Valley. From the center of Romania, we headed to one of the oldest spa resorts in Europe, attested around the year 150. Located in southwestern Romania, the Băile Herculane resort offers a varied range of treatment procedures. In addition to the special therapeutic quality of the mineral waters, the strongly ionized air balances the nervous system and ensures a restful sleep. From here, we took you to the fortress of Alba Carolina. In Alba-Iulia, tourists are fascinated by the history of the largest Vauban fortification in Romania. Its aspect of a seven-pointed star also means seven huge bastions, which can still be seen today. We didn’t forget about Harghita, the family-friendly county, where there is an animal petting park. Contact with animals can be therapeutic, and, in this park, you can find deer, Icelandic horses and rabbits. From the center of Romania, we set off on the “Gates of Transylvania” cultural-tourist route. It has a length of 1,141 km, and the more than 100 tourist sites with cultural value, included in this program, can be visited by car within 16 days. Last but not least, the invitation to celebrate Easter was in the north of Romania, in Bukovina and Maramureș. The Corvini Castle, the best-preserved monument of Gothic, civil and military architecture in central and southeastern Europe, was our proposal at the beginning of May. Located in western Romania, the imposing construction is one of the main tourist attractions in the area. Then we returned to Bucharest where we learned about three unique tours: Communism versus monarchy, the Old Town and Dracula, the Old Town and communism.
At the beginning of the summer, we learned that the Romanian Black Sea Coast changes for the better from year to year. We have presented you with some of the newest hotels and investments, which are supposed to ensure a pleasant vacation. We also dedicated a feature to the only seaside resort in Romania with mineral, sulphurous and mesothermal springs: Mangalia. From here, we headed to the Danube Delta, where we presented you with a form of tourism that is friendly to the environment: sustainable or ecological tourism. On the other hand, the Danube Delta is also part of the “Golden Apples” cultural-tourist route, as we learned from another feature. This includes destinations such as Bukovina, Mărginimea Sibiului, Târgu Jiu and Oradea. The destinations are awarded the “Golden Apple” trophy by the International Federation of Travel Journalists and Writers. The Story of Wine and speleological tourism in the Anina Mountains were the next proposals, after which we stopped on the road located at the highest altitude in Romania: Transalpina. Towards the end of the year, we talked about active tourism. This form of tourism attracts more and more visitors to Romania due to the spectacular landscapes and the diversity of outdoor activities. The Carpathian Mountains are a favorite destination for hiking, climbing and bouldering, with routes of all levels of difficulty. Last but not least, we spent the winter holidays, one by one, in the Banat mountains and in Maramureș.
The year 2025 promises to be at least as interesting and full of travels. We are waiting for you to join us again in the new year to get to know holiday destinations, interesting projects, unique places and welcoming people. A Happy New Year! (LS)
