Getting around Romania: transport and apps

The road vignette

• The rovinieta is electronic and tied to your number plate. There is no sticker.
• Buy it online, at a petrol station or at the border before you use a national road - it is required on most of the network, not only motorways.
• Rental cars usually include one, but confirm it in writing rather than taking a desk agent's word.
• Cameras check plates automatically.

Trains

• CFR Calatori runs the network. It is cheap, comfortable enough and slow - Bucharest to Brasov takes around three hours for a distance a motorway would cover in two.
• The scenery on the Prahova valley line is the point, not the speed.
• Buy at the station or online. Reservations are included on InterRegio services.

Roads

• The motorway network is incomplete and the gaps are where the accidents are. A journey that looks short on a map can be a long day on a two-lane road behind lorries.
• Horse carts still use rural roads in parts of the country, unlit at night.
• Do not drive tired at night on secondary roads. This is the single most useful piece of Romanian driving advice.

Buses and minibuses

• Maxitaxi minibuses cover what the trains do not, leaving from bus stations rather than to a published timetable you can rely on.
• Autogari.ro is the aggregator Romanians use to find them.