Although my parents trip started in Moldova, I’m going to cover our Romania travels first. Our first stop in Romania was Sinaia, which is a mountain resort town.
We arrived in Sinaia after driving most of the day (we had started the day in Chisinau in Moldova). We checked into our AirBnB, then set out to explore the town. It’s a pretty small town and easily walk-able. It had rained earlier in the day and was still overcast, but the rain held off. The architecture here was really beautiful and rather unique. There seemed to be an influence from other parts of Europe, and distinctly had a mountain resort feel. A lot of the buildings had several stories and most had intricate roofs and chimneys. Although we hadn’t known beforehand, there was a Classical and Jazz Festival occurring when we arrived, though we only caught a bit of music. We ate dinner at an “Irish” restaurant before turning in for the night, playing a few rounds of cards in our room before going to bed.
The following morning, we were hoping to hike and visit Peleş Castle, but didn’t end up doing either. The weather was not cooperating for hiking (though it wasn’t raining hard, my sneakers were old and had no tread, so hiking in the mud wasn’t ideal). We had trouble finding a place for breakfast, but eventually ate at the same restaurant as the night before. We then headed to the information center in town, only to find out that Peleş Castle is extremely crowded on summer weekends (it was a Sunday) and we would most likely have to wait at least 2-3 hours in line to take a tour. It was becoming clear that many of the visitors coming in for the day were coming from the direction of our next destination, Braşov, so we also realized that if we waited, we’d be stuck in traffic for a really long time along with all those visitors. So we decided to just head on our way.
It was a little disappointing to miss Peleş, but as a family, we aren’t fond of crowds or waiting in lines, and it gave us time to do a bit more on the way to Braşov, which we enjoyed.
Where we stayed: Sinaia’s Room (Airbnb)
Notes and tips about visiting Sinaia:
- From what we were told and experienced, I think it’d be better to visit here during the week, rather than the weekend to avoid crowds and long lines, especially if you want to visit Peleş Castle.
- There are plenty of hiking trails, and also many ski trails for during the winter, though we didn’t end up hiking.
- The town is pretty small and quite touristy. You can see quite a bit just walking around and admiring all of the older buildings.
The Oke Den 