1

Hello.I will post here some general informations about your trip.
Arrival in Bucharest: you can take the 783 bus line which will take you to downtown Bucharest, the train goes from the airport directly to Gara de Nord(North Station) which is the biggest train station but i don't recomend you to spend the night nearby.Of course you can take any taxi to your hotel.
Day 2: you will need to go to the Gara de Nord to take your train to Sinaia.Here you can find the trains timetable in english: http://www.mersultrenurilor.ro/. After arrival in Sinaia you can leave your luggage somewhere for example at a bar or police station, something like that and for a small amount the will take your luggage,just take your money and whatever you want just in case.There are no lockers inside the train station.The next days are ok.Brasov is really nice and at Bran is Dracula's castle.From Brasov you can take the train to Targu Mures as ahown above or you can also take a maxi-taxi,(small bus) that will take you to Targu Mures.Here you can find every maxi-taxi in Romania: http://www.autogari.ro/ and usually the stations are in front of the train stations.This web adress will be good also for other trips that you plan.These maxi-taxi are faster,more frequent and cheaper than trains.Sighisoara is going to take a whole day because is very nice. I you want to go to Biertan from Sighisoara i think you have to take a maxi-taxi because i don't think that Biertan has a train station(i've never been there),ask the driver where to get off,(direction is Sighisoara-Medias) and take another one to Biertan.The rest of your itinerary is pretty good.For the rest of your days i have two recomendations:
1.From Sighet you can go to Gura Humorului(Bucovina area) and visit the famous monasteries here you can check this out http://www.romaniatourism.com/painted-monasteries.html this can be done in 3 three days and you have one more day to go to Bucharest.
2. If you really want to go to Targu Jiu you can go from Sighisoara to Cluj and Sighet in the first days and after that you can visit Biertan,Sibiu and then Targu Jiu.
If you have any questions i am glad to help you.Have a nice trip.Bye Bye

2

Thank you very much alex3030 for your reply.

If there isn't a left luggage office at Sinaia then I think that I will just stay the night there and continue first thing next morning to Brasov - more relaxing that way anyway - I was just trying to save a bit of time.
Also thank you for the links to the transport timetable sites.
I had thought of visiting the painted monasteries but since so few are reachable by public transport I decided to give them a miss...I could still go to one or two but it does seem a long way out of my way for just that.
I was really hoping for a way of getting back to Bucharest from Maramures via somewhere lovely on the way... Any other ideas for that please?
Plus I don't know why part of my sentence was deleted when I put the question up - I don't mind an overnight train - it's more about the safety of my luggage during the journey - how does that work?

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I am curious why you think it is necessary to make an itinerary for Romania while you don't do this for other countries?
As for the Maramures-part: there are not more buses in Mara then in Sighet. All the buses that go through Mara will depart or go through Sighet, so it is no use to go to Mara just for the buses.

Leaving Maramures to the south is possible by train. From Sighet there are night trains to Timisoara and to Bucharest, as well as a day- and night train to Cluj. There are also some buses, but you will have more choice for that (and for trains) if you go to Baia Mare first.

And all the villages in Maramures are 'reachable', allthough not always with public transport. Hitch hiking is a good option here, a lot of times even faster than public transport.

Have a good trip,
Matthijs

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I see :)
Tinuta has indeed 2 different routes, the one from Sighet to Cluj you mean right? One is going through the Iza Valley, and the other through the Viseu Valley. The one through Iza Valley is faster, and only this one will go through Barsana.

I am not sure what you want to do in Mara, maybe you only go there because there is a lot of transport? Better choose another village to walk around, there are a lot of minibuses going everywhere, and like said before, hitch hiking is even more easy. Nicer villages are in the Cosau Valley (Breb, Budesti, Sarbi) and Iza Valley (Slatioara and Glod, and also the more known Botiza, Poienele Izei and Ieud).

Bye,
Matthijs

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Thank you Matthijs
Oh I must have mis-read that Mara is worth visiting - now I see that it's not!
So only two buses a day seem to go through Barsana from Cluj and I think that trains don't.
Yes I can hitch-hike but a bit worried that I might get stranded in the middle of nowhere and have to walk back to wherever I'm sleeping in the dark! Are there lots and lots of vehicles on these village roads?

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From Sighet and Cosau- and Mara Valley there are some more buses to Baia Mare, and from there are lots of buses to Cluj. Barsana will be an easy daytrip from where ever you will stay. There are enough cars who take hitch hikers (because it is normal that you pay a few lei for the gas). Just don't do this when it is dark; not because safety (don't worry about that) but because there will not be many cars on the streets after dark.
If you tell me how many days you stay in Maramures and what you want to see, i can propose a good central village with public transport to stay in. Off course almost all the public transport goes to and from Sighet, so that should be the easiest, but maybe you prefer staying in a village instead of a city.

Matthijs

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Hi Matthijs
Thank you.
I thought I would stay a night or two in Sighet because it is easy to get to Sapanta which I especially want to visit from there and the Prison museum.
Mainly in Maramures I would like to see anything that is easily accessible - pretty villages, countryside, people in traditional costume, I can stay 2 to 4 nights there.
A good central village sounds nice - I will need to get back to Bucharest for the 13th September at the very latest.
You think that it is easy to get to Barsana for the day and back with public transport then?

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Mainly in Maramures I would like to see anything that is easily accessible - pretty villages
You want a bit too much now; the prettiest villages and easy accessible :) Off course, the pretty villages are more difficult to get to. The 'easy' ones in terms of transport will be all on the main roads, and they are by far not as pretty as the more remote ones which are a bit harder to reach. So you have to choose, are you going for easy ones like Vadu Izei or much nicer ones like Glod for which you have to do more effort....

You think that it is easy to get to Barsana for the day and back with public transport then?
Yes, very easy, enough buses there and back from Sighet.

I will need to get back to Bucharest for the 13th September at the very latest.
From Sighet there is a daily night train to Bucharest.

Matthijs

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Well if possible could you give me some ideas about both options - then I can decide on each day as it comes, see how I feel on a daily basis? Or is that too last minute? :)

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The most easy ones are all on the main roads, so for example Vadu Izei, Sapanta, Barsana, Desesti, Harnicesti, Oncesti. All of these are easy reachable with public transport from Sighet. Less easy, but more beautiful, are villages like Budesti, Breb, Sarbi, Botiza, Glod, Slatioara. For these, it is best to base somewhere around there. But with some effort, you can reach a few of them from Sighet.

This is a nice website on the region: http://www.visitmaramures.ro/

Have a good trip,
Matthijs

11

Unfortunately Biertan isn't as easy to get to as it should be. Yes you can train to medias then bus to Biertan, but buses are only every couple of hours and trains every hour or so. It could conceivably take two or more hours to get there, then you'll see e town, wait around for the next bus, then two or three hours back.

Virtually no hotels can organise taxis to take you there and wait for you, then bring you back. Unlike what lonely planet Romania book says.

If you have one night in sighisoara and leave e next day, either give yourself a full day to get to, see, and come back from Biertan, or just chill in the nice town of sighisoara for the day.

Other than that it's all pretty rushed, but to each their own.

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Let us know what you do and how feasible it is/was.

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Nice work lunes, glad you got to Biertan and enjoyed yourself!

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Thanks for getting back with this information, Iunes. Did you wind up spending the night at the Tzigania homestay? If so, how was it? In general, would you say Transylvania or Maramures gave you a better glimpse of rural culture?