Things to Do in Romania: City Guides & Audio Tours

Romania is a country where Roman heritage, medieval towns, Carpathian landscapes and twentieth-century history meet. From Transylvania and Moldavia to the Danube and the Black Sea, its regions offer different ways to understand the country. Neywo has free audio guides for 9 cities in Romania, with 564 narrated places in total.

Things to do in Romania

Discover Romania’s layered history

Romania’s history begins with Dacia and the Romanisation of the region. The country’s name comes from the Romanian word român, derived from the Latin romanus, meaning Roman or of Rome.

The modern state began to take shape in 1859, when Moldavia and Wallachia united under Alexandru Ioan Cuza. Romania later became a kingdom under Carol the First and gained independence from the Ottoman Empire. After the First World War, Transylvania, Banat, Bukovina and Bessarabia joined the Old Kingdom, creating Greater Romania.

The twentieth century brought war, Soviet occupation and the forced abdication of King Michael the First. Romania became a socialist republic before the 1989 protest in Timișoara grew into a national revolution and the fall of communism. That long history of union, loss and renewal remains central to the country’s identity.

Explore the Carpathian landscape

The Carpathian Mountains dominate the centre of Romania, surrounded by the Moldavian and Transylvanian plateaus, the Pannonian Plain and the Wallachian plains. Mountains, hills and plains are distributed in roughly equal measure, creating a landscape that changes considerably between regions.

The country also reaches the Black Sea in the southeast and follows the lower course of the Danube. Forests, forest steppe, conifer forests in the Carpathians and Pontic steppe form part of Romania’s natural setting. Natural and semi-natural ecosystems cover almost half of the country’s land, including national parks and biosphere reserves.

Romania has a continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. Conditions vary: Banat is milder and has some Mediterranean influence, Dobruja is affected by the Black Sea, and the east has a more pronounced continental character.

Visit Romania’s historic cities

Romania’s cities are among the best places to see the country’s different historical and cultural influences.

• Bucharest is the capital and has 154 narrated places on Neywo. Its highlights include the Romanian Athenaeum, the Romanian Patriarchal Cathedral, the National Museum of Art of Romania and the Romanian Peasant Museum.
• Brașov has 45 narrated places, including the First Romanian School, the Black Church, the New Dormition of the Theotokos church in Brașov and Postăvari Bastion.
• Cluj-Napoca combines historic religious buildings and museums. Neywo covers 78 narrated places, including Hintz House, St. Michael’s Church, the Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania and the Franciscan Church.
• Sibiu offers 45 narrated places, among them the Brukenthal National Museum, the History Museum, the Holy Trinity Cathedral and the Jesuit Church.
• Sighișoara is represented by 19 narrated places, including its Historic Centre, the Clock Tower, Biserica din Deal and the Monastery Church.
• Sinaia has 11 narrated places. Its main highlights include Peleș Castle, Pelișor Castle, the Orthodox Sinaia Monastery museum collection and Sinaia Casino.
• Timișoara has 97 narrated places. Its selection includes Huniade Castle, the Timișoara Orthodox Cathedral, the Banat Village Museum and the Cetate Synagogue.
• Iași has 88 narrated places, including the Mihail Kogălniceanu Memorial Museum, the Romanian Literature Museum, the Poni–Cernătescu Memorial Museum and the Palace of Culture.
• Oradea has 27 narrated places, including the Ady Endre Museum, the Baroque Palace, Oradea Citadel and the Cathedral Basilica of St. Mary.

Together, these cities show the variety of Romania’s built heritage: churches, museums, palaces, fortifications and places connected with literature, education and political history.

Experience Romanian traditions

Romanian culture combines a Romance language with deeply rooted seasonal customs. Romanian is the country’s official language and shares features with Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan. The connection with Rome is preserved not only in the language but also in the country’s name.

Great Union Day is marked on 1 December and commemorates the 1918 union of Transylvania with Romania. Winter traditions are especially distinctive. Around Christmas and New Year, folklore dances and games include plugușorul, sorcova, ursul and capra.

Traditional dress is no longer commonly worn in everyday life, but it remains an important ceremonial sight during these festivities, particularly in rural areas. Through movement, costume and shared ritual, these celebrations keep older forms of community life visible in modern Romania.

Try Romanian food

Romanian cuisine includes a broad family of sour soups known as ciorbă. The name covers many variations, but the sour note is the defining idea. Common main courses include mititei, mămăligă and sarmale.

Mămăligă is similar to polenta. Pork, chicken and beef are preferred meats, while lamb and fish are also popular. Romanian cooking reflects the country’s historical connections: Austrian and German influences are particularly noticeable in regions once administered by the Habsburg monarchy, while other dishes share similarities with Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian cuisines.

Explore Romania with Neywo’s free audio guides

Download Neywo to explore Romania independently. The app offers free audio guides for 9 Romanian cities, with 35 walking tours and 564 narrated places in total. Narration is available in 11 languages.

The stories play as you reach each place, at your own pace. There is no group and no schedule: simply walk through the city and listen to the history, architecture and culture of the places around you.