Romania is a country of crazy superstitions and fantastic legends. With its dramatic castles and medieval towns where mass tourism means you, a horse and cart and a handful of farmers, Romania is the Wild West of Eastern Europe.

Romania is a country located in South-East Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory. It shares a border with Hungary and Serbia to the west, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova to the northeast, and Bulgaria to the south.
The capital, Bucharest, has its critics, but the blend of grotesque communist monuments and purposefully hidden-away cathedrals makes for fascinating exploring.
Excellent hiking, biking and skiing are found all over the Transylvanian Alps, which curl across central Romania. Farmhouse B&Bs allow guests to soak up some village life, particularly in the bucolic paradises of Maramures and Southern Bucovina, where cemeteries and monasteries are painted as boldly as pop-art paintings.
Most anywhere, you’ll spot horse-drawn buggies crossing the paved roads – up green mountains, past cone-shaped haystacks and herds of sheep – which bounce along as if the roads themselves are aliens to the land.
And then there’s that Dracula thing. Many visitors, lured by bloodcurdling tales, make full trips out of Transylvania’s castles and lovely medieval Saxon towns like Sighisoara, where the ‘real Dracula’ (Vlad Ţepeş) first grew his teeth.
Romania has also many resorts on the Black Sea coast attracting both local and international travellers with its health spas and resort towns. With sandy beaches, ancient monuments, local vineyards, modern hotels and smaller crowds than its Bulgarian counterparts, the resort towns of Mamaia, Eforie, Neptun, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and Mangalia are an interesting European beach alternative.