Visit Romania!

[edyzmedieval]

4 years of Visit Romania, thank you to everyone who visited and appreciated the thread.


Here's a shot of a beautiful morning in the hills.
(taken from here, as always - www.facebook.com/273.ro - photograph by Marius Petric)




I hope that many of you will one day have the chance to visit Romania and enjoy all that it has to offer.

Multumesc.

[edyzmedieval]

Summer morning in the Romanian countryside, in Transylvania near Brasov.





(taken by Adrian Niculescu - https://www.facebook.com/273.ro )

[edyzmedieval]

Calea Victoriei, a main boulevard of Bucharest, at night.

The building is the Grand Hotel Continental - http://continentalhotels.ro/Grand-Ho...-Bucuresti/en/



(https://www.facebook.com/BucurestiOptimist)

[AllenRBryan]

This country look pretty amazing. I will surely pay a visit there in the near future.

[edyzmedieval]

Everyone is welcome to visit Romania.

[edyzmedieval]

Peles Castle during summer. :)

[Gregoshi]

Welcome back edyz. Thanks for reviving your thread.

[edyzmedieval]

Never left, Gregoshi. Always around, at least lurking.

Always going to keep this up and running, I want to show the world how beautiful my country is.

[wooly_mammoth]

Eh, ever since I've been looking over this thread, even before joining the org, I've been under the impression that it is misleading.

I've been living and traveling through Romania for nearly 30 years now and I wouldn't feel alright inviting anyone here. Generally I find its services way overpriced and much too lacking in many basic respects when compared to other European countries. It's way too easy for a foreign tourist to get taffed over in the most horrible ways here. It could be made worthwhile, but it would take some long-term competent management that can actually provide services at civilized standards.

Now, I don't want to hijack your thread, and no place on Earth is perfect after all. I just felt like sharing a second opinion.

[edyzmedieval]

Wooly, that's no surprise. We're very aware that our services are not up to scratch, it's common knowledge, but in the past years this has been improving. Slowly, but it's on the better path.

Don't expect top notch European services unless in some places, and in some unexpected ones as well, but we're improving.

[Gregoshi]

Guess it all depends upon why you would go to Romania. It might not be the place to go for a Five Star Luxury Resort experience (yet ) but to be out and about for the scenery (with my camera), looks pretty good to me. I prefer basic services anyway. I feel like a fish out of water when I have to stay in a high-brow place.

Anyway, back to the gorgeous pictures.

[edyzmedieval]

We have our own five star luxury hotels as well to stay in, and we're quite good at the luxury part ironically, but the middle-way services which appeals to most foreigners (not too expensive, not too basic) is what ails us and it's a known problem.

That being said, it is improving.

More pictures coming!

[wooly_mammoth]

Guess it all depends upon why you would go to Romania. It might not be the place to go for a Five Star Luxury Resort experience (yet ) but to be out and about for the scenery (with my camera), looks pretty good to me. I prefer basic services anyway. I feel like a fish out of water when I have to stay in a high-brow place.

When I said services I was actually thinking about very basic stuff too, like at least half-decent roads, reliable transportation, access to medical services. The kind of stuff that needs to be there in order for you to be able to safely enjoy the wilderness & all the jazz.

I could go into a lot of personal stories about the simplest things not working here as they should, but I'll just mention one situation that really stuck with me. I was once involved with an event in one of the biggest mountain resorts in the country. A foreign guest ended up with a very serious leg injury and we had to drive him with one of our own cars to the hospital in another resort about 10 miles further because the emergency unit back in the first place wasn't staffed with a leg doctor. The doctor in the second medical unit was the only person we found in either hospital that could manage any kind of foreign language, and he couldn't do much either aside from basic patchwork due to lack of staff and supplies.

Anyway, I don't want to be perceived as being negative. The pretty pictures are real, but I wouldn't want anyone to come here unprepared, for their own safety. Romania is still pretty far from having the infrastructure and services that are needed in order for you to have a safe and good time, particularly if you are traveling on your own and you don't have friends here or someone competent to help you sort out the problems you'll run into.

[edyzmedieval]

When I said services I was actually thinking about very basic stuff too, like at least half-decent roads

Definitely improving. 10-15 years ago it was horrendous, I used to do a lot of travelling with my family and our cars would get beaten up pretty seriously on the roads. But it's really improving, leaps and bounds how it was like 15 years ago.

reliable transportation

Slightly improving. Could be way better, and definitely not always up to European standards, but it's not horrendous any more. 15 years ago, just like the roads, crumbling Communist infrastructure but it got replaced. Modern trains, modern buses, all that.

access to medical services.

This... unfortunately... is spot on. The Romanian health system is a disaster unfortunately, and while they're doing some serious work to reshuffle, restore and improve, it's still a looooong way to go. This is a serious problem and while it is being tackled and always in the press, it needs work. We do however have a top notch elite level emergency services unit - the SMURD - those guys are fantastic.

That being said, no country is perfect, but if you do want a good vacation, you should definitely come.

[Fragony]

What fun would it be if it's perfect, that would be pretty boring

[edyzmedieval]

A lot of people have concerns about Romania, some founded, but a lot of them unfounded. What I'm trying to do here is to show both the beauty and the reality, and to make everyone look at Romania in a much better way.

[Fragony]

I like irt when things are both broken and beautiful, both are to be apreciated in perfect sinq

[wooly_mammoth]

I'd be ok with things being broken too if it didn't involve millions of people paying their backs off in taxes & insurances of all kinds. Makes you wonder where all that money goes.

[Fragony]

Someone has to build that beautiful nature no ;)

[edyzmedieval]

Corruption in Romania is endemic, that's very true, unfortunately. But we're on the right path - as evidenced by the European media and New York Times articles highlighting the importance of the NAD - or in Romanian, the DNA.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation...on_Directorate

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...uption-romania

[edyzmedieval]

Wild Carpathia - the north of Romania.

[Fragony]

gorgious

[edyzmedieval]

Wild Carpathia is 4 episodes long, the fourth one has been recently released, but if you get the time, watch the other 2 parts, 1 and 2.

[Fragony]

Will do. Romania is a fascinating country, modern yet really traditional at the same time

[edyzmedieval]

For those of you who use AirBnb, you had the chance this year to spend your Halloween in the famous Bran Castle, the place related (rather wrongly ) to Vlad Tepes.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...d-night-airbnb

[edyzmedieval]

Today is the National Day of Romania - 1st of December - always an anniversary of the unification of Greater Romania.

Happy National Day to all of my fellow Romanians!

[edyzmedieval]

A little heads up - tourism in Romania has increased quite significantly in the past year, leading to some really impressive tourist numbers.

Why don't YOU Visit Romania?

[edyzmedieval]

Romanian Protests light up... literally. This is Romania.

[edyzmedieval]

Gonna leave this here for those who are considering investing and doing business in Romania.

http://investromania.gov.ro/web/business-in-romania/

[Fragony]

page is really slow heh