Is it Safe to Drive in Romania? Our Real Family Driving Experience in Romania
Is driving in Romania safe for UK families? Our practical guide explains road conditions, mountain routes, parking, car hire and what British drivers should know before a road trip.
EUROPEROMANIARESOURCES
12/8/202615 min read
If you're wondering is it safe to drive in Romania as a tourist, our experience was much more straightforward than some of the warnings we'd read before travelling.
We hired a car for our seven-day October road trip, covering 1,173km with our 10-year-old son Joshua. Mark did most of the driving, while Joshua spent a significant proportion of the trip in the back with snacks and a device. We encountered motorways, mountain roads, rural villages, heavy city traffic and more parking challenges than we'd anticipated.
This driving in Romania guide is for UK families considering doing the same. It covers the driving rules, roads, car hire, parking, tolls and the things we'd do differently if we planned the route again.
This article contains links to hotels, car-hire providers and travel products we used or would consider ourselves. Some may be affiliate links, meaning we may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.
What You'll Find in This Driving in Romania Guide
Quick Answer: Is Driving in Romania Safe for Families?
Yes, we found driving in Romania perfectly manageable as experienced UK drivers, but we'd describe it as a destination where you need to drive defensively rather than switch off.
The roads were actually better than we'd expected. Our bigger challenges were longer-than-expected journey times, assertive overtaking and parking in busy cities, particularly Brașov.
Bear in mind that Romania continues to have one of the EU's higher road-fatality rates, so our positive personal experience shouldn't be taken to mean the driving environment is risk-free.
Would we hire a car again? Absolutely. For our route, the freedom was invaluable. We'd simply cover fewer miles next time.
Our quick verdict
Safe for confident UK drivers? We thought so
Road quality? Better than expected
Driving side? Right
Biggest challenge? Traffic, journey times and parking
Need a car for our itinerary? Yes
Good with kids? Yes, if you break up long journeys
Would we hire again? Definitely
→ Planning a similar trip? See our One Week Romania Family Road Trip Itinerary for the exact route we drove.
Picking up car from Bucharest airport
Driving through Romania
Why We Chose to Hire a Car in Romania
Our itinerary made hiring a car the obvious option.
In seven days, we travelled through:
Bucharest
Brașov
Sibiu
Salina Turda
Hațeg
The Iron Gates
Back to Bucharest
We drove 1,173km and spent roughly 15–16 hours behind the wheel.
You can absolutely explore Romania without driving. Trains work well between many major cities, while buses and minibuses fill some gaps. The difficulty comes when building an itinerary around rural attractions and several regions. Public transport journey times and frequencies vary, and additional transfers are often needed for places outside the major cities.
For our route, a car meant we could leave when we wanted, stop when Joshua needed a break and reach attractions early before the main tour groups.
→ See our Romania Family Road Trip Itinerary for the route and driving days.
Navigating parking in Basov
Driving in to Basov Romania
Hiring a Car in Romania: What UK Drivers Need to Know
Can UK Drivers Hire a Car in Romania?
Yes. If you're visiting from the UK, a valid UK photocard driving licence can be used in Romania for a short visit. Holders of older paper licences should check whether an International Driving Permit is required before travelling.
Car-hire companies can impose their own age and licence-holding requirements, so check your rental agreement separately.
A few important driving rules in Romania are worth knowing:
Drive on the right-hand side
Seatbelts and appropriate child restraints are compulsory
Daytime lights are required
Using a handheld mobile phone while driving is prohibited
The alcohol limit is effectively zero
Winter tyres are compulsory when roads are covered by snow or ice
The standard limit for cars is generally 50km/h in built-up areas and up to 130km/h on motorways, although road signs always take priority. We noticed these seemed to change throughout the roads so you needed to stay alert. We also noted a number of traffic police enforcing limits of the Romanian roads.
For families, appropriate child booster seats are compulsory, for children under 1.35m.
Picking Up Our Hire Car at Bucharest Airport
We used Green Motion, a company we'd hired from previously.
The collection point was a short distance from the airport rather than directly inside the terminal, but the process itself was straightforward.
Our decision to pick up the car the morning after landing was deliberate.
We were originally scheduled to arrive around midnight, but our flight was delayed and we eventually reached our hotel at approximately 3am. The last thing we wanted was to complete rental paperwork and start driving on the opposite side of the road while exhausted.
We stayed at Hilton Garden Inn Bucharest Airport, slept, had breakfast and collected the car at around 8am.
I'd absolutely structure it this way again.
→ Arriving into Bucharest late? Read Is Hilton Garden Inn Bucharest Airport Good for Families? for why it worked so well before our road trip.
We also chose:
An automatic, which made the long driving days easier
A slightly larger car for more space and comfort
Full insurance because we didn't want to spend the week worrying about damage
We don't always pay for maximum insurance cover, but with the amount of driving we were planning, this felt worthwhile.
Driving in the rain through Romania
Driving through Romania in the sunshine
What Are the Roads in Romania Actually Like?
The roads in Romania were better than we'd expected.
Before travelling, we'd read plenty of stories about poor roads and potholes. In reality, we encountered a mixture of modern motorways, main roads, mountain roads and rural routes and had few issues with the actual road surfaces.
Motorways and Main Roads
Motorway driving felt straightforward and familiar.
The bigger difference comes once you leave the motorways. National roads can pass directly through towns and villages and may be shared with trucks, tractors, cyclists and slower agricultural traffic. We also passed a number of horse and carts along the road.
That means a journey that looks relatively short in kilometres can take much longer than expected.
We used Google Maps throughout and found it generally reliable.
A travel eSIM was invaluable. We bought an Airalo 10GB for approximately £13 for the week, which was plenty for navigation and general travel use.
If you're doing the same, switch off:
Automatic photo backups
Music downloads
Video streaming
Unnecessary app updates
Navigation itself uses comparatively little data.
→ See our Romania Packing List for October for the other things we found useful on our road trip.
What Are the Mountain Roads in Transylvania Like?
Driving through Transylvania was one of the most enjoyable parts of the trip.
Around Sinaia, Bran and Brașov, roads become more winding as you travel through forested mountain scenery.
In October, the changing leaves made some of these drives beautiful.
The roads weren't so narrow or difficult that we felt uncomfortable, but average speeds were naturally lower. Trucks can also slow things considerably because overtaking isn't always possible.
If your children suffer from travel sickness, I'd come prepared. Joshua was fine, but there are enough winding sections that sensitive passengers may notice them.
What Is Driving on Rural Roads in Romania Like?
The road surface wasn't what stood out to us. It was everything happening around the roads. Driving through rural Romania gave us glimpses of everyday life we would never have seen from an airport transfer or train.
We passed:
Horse-drawn carts
Farmers selling potatoes and onions beside the road
Distinctive churches
Small villages
Old industrial buildings
Agricultural land
A local horse event that seemed to have attracted the entire town
For me, this became one of the unexpected advantages of having a hire car. The journey itself became part of seeing Romania rather than simply dead time between attractions.
View from the car in Romania
Autumn scenery in Romania
Where To Stay in Romania With Kids?
For a family road trip, we’d choose accommodation based on where you are in the itinerary, rather than trying to use one hotel as a base for the whole trip.
From our visit, our top picks were:
Casa Chitic Brașov – best for exploring Brașov and visiting Bran and Peleș Castle. We chose a family apartment in the Old Town, giving us plenty of space and easy access to restaurants and the main sights on foot.
Havens Treehouse – best for a memorable family stay in Transylvania. The woodland setting gave Joshua something completely different from the castles and city hotels and helped break up our road trip.
Continental Forum Sibiu – best for a convenient overnight stop in Sibiu, particularly if you're continuing west through Romania rather than making Sibiu the focus of your trip.
Orhideea Residence & Spa Bucharest – our pick for Bucharest with kids. The apartment-style accommodation gave us more space, while the pool, spa and parking worked particularly well at the end of our road trip.
Casa 9 Villa & Spa – best for Danube views and relaxation at the Iron Gates, with family accommodation, spa access, free parking and meals available. 7 minutes drive from the Rock Sculpture of Decebalus.
→ Looking for accommodation? See Where to Stay in Transylvania With Kids: The Best Family-Friendly Places to Stay, where we go into more detail on our research and where we actually stayed.
What Surprised Us Most About Driving in Romania?
The Roads Were Better Than Expected
The quality of the roads was one of the pleasant surprises. Of course, road conditions vary across the country, and secondary routes can be less consistent. But on the roads relevant to our itinerary, we simply didn't encounter the major quality problems we'd worried about beforehand.
Is Driving in Transylvania Difficult?
We didn't find driving in Transylvania particularly difficult.
The combination of mountain roads, unfamiliar towns and driving on the right required concentration, but none of it would put us off doing the trip again. The more frustrating parts were traffic and parking, not the driving itself. Around Brașov, in particular, the sheer number of cars became much more challenging than the surrounding mountain roads.
Should You Drive the Transfăgărășan Road With Kids?
The famous Transfăgărășan was tempting because our route passed close enough to make a detour possible. It's one of Romania's best-known scenic roads, but high sections are seasonal and can close according to weather and winter conditions.
We looked at diverting towards Bâlea Cascadă but decided against it. Adding the road would have increased an already long driving day by approximately 2–3 hours, which simply felt like too much with Joshua.
For a longer itinerary, we'd absolutely consider it. For a seven-day family road trip, we prioritised getting to our next stop without turning every day into an endurance event.
Driving in Romania With Children: How We Managed the Long Days
The driving itself wasn't difficult for Joshua. The quantity of it was the bigger issue.
Our survival kit wasn't sophisticated:
Snacks
Drinks
A charged device
Downloaded entertainment
Regular toilet stops
Planned lunch breaks
Attractions positioned between hotels
We occasionally packed snacks from breakfast so we weren't completely dependent on finding somewhere suitable at the right time.
Breaking journeys with attractions worked particularly well. Visiting a castle halfway through a driving day was far easier than asking Joshua to sit in the car for four continuous hours.
Iron bridge in Sibiu
Parking in Sibiu
Parking in Romania: What Families Should Know
Parking was probably the most unexpectedly frustrating part of our Romanian road trip.
Almost everywhere charged:
Hotels
City centres
Tourist attractions
Castle car parks
Town-centre spaces
The individual charges were generally low, but they accumulated. We spent approximately £20 on parking during the week, with the largest costs coming from overnight parking in Brașov and Sibiu.
Parking in Brașov
This was the most difficult parking experience of the trip.
Street parking near Casa Chitic was practically impossible to find when we arrived. Cars were circling looking for spaces, and when one became free, several drivers seemed to want it.
We eventually used a multi-storey/public car park around a 10-minute walk from the hotel.
It cost around 3 lei per hour, with our overnight parking eventually costing approximately 60 lei, around £9.50 at the exchange rate we had.
In hindsight, we should never have spent 40 minutes hunting for a street space.
→ Read our Casa Chitic Brașov Family Review for exactly how we'd handle the parking next time.
Parking in Sibiu
Parking around Continental Forum Sibiu was considerably easier. The hotel had its own paid spaces, but we found city-operated parking nearby at a lower price and used that instead. This was a good example of why it's worth checking both hotel parking and municipal parking before automatically paying the hotel's rate.
Free Hotel Parking
Other accommodation was much easier:
Havens Treehouse had off-street rural parking
Casa 9 Villa & Spa had parking immediately around the property
Orhideea Residence & Spa gave us parking outside central Bucharest
Choosing Orhideea outside the city centre was deliberate. We'd rather park easily and travel into Bucharest than spend another evening trying to find city-centre parking.
→ See Where to Stay in Transylvania With Kids for the areas we considered when travelling with a hire car.
Parking at Romania's Major Attractions
We found the official tourist car parks straightforward, but arriving early mattered as it got very busy.
Peleș Castle Parking
We paid approximately 30 lei for the day, despite only needing around an hour. At 11am, parking was manageable. By midday, the same area was becoming extremely busy.
→ Read Is Peleș Castle Worth Visiting With Kids? for our complete visit.
Bran Castle Parking
There are multiple parking options around Bran. We chose a larger car park around a 10-minute walk from the castle rather than trying to park immediately beside it. That actually worked well because we could walk through the town and experience some of the Halloween atmosphere.
→ Read Is Bran Castle Worth Visiting With Kids? for our Halloween experience.
Salina Turda Parking
Salina Turda has on-site parking, currently charged at 10 lei per hour. This is exactly the type of attraction where a hire car significantly simplifies the journey.
→ Read Is Salina Turda Salt Mine Worth Visiting?
Romania Toll Roads: Do You Need a Vignette?
Yes. Cars using Romania's national road network generally need an electronic road vignette called a rovinieta.
From October 2026, the official electronic road-charging platform is TollRo, operated through the national road authority. Passenger cars and vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes continue to pay for a time-based rovinieta, which can be purchased through the official portal/app or authorised sellers.
For a hire car, check whether the rovinieta is already included before buying another one. Many rental companies arrange it, but don't assume.
The vignette is linked electronically to the vehicle registration rather than being a physical windscreen sticker.
Pele Castle
Parking at Pele castle
Fuel Costs and Petrol Stations in Romania
We had no problems finding fuel.
Petrol stations were plentiful on the routes we drove, and the larger stations felt similar to UK service stations, with:
Toilets
Coffee
Snacks
Hot food
Drinks
Basic travel supplies
Some larger stops also had familiar fast-food restaurants. Filling up worked just as we'd expect at home: fill the car, go inside and pay. We used cards throughout our trip and didn't need to keep cash specifically for fuel.
Fuel wasn't dramatically cheaper than we'd expected. Our large diesel car once cost around £101 to fill, reminding us that the type of hire car matters when you're covering more than 1,000km.
Can You Visit Romania Without Renting a Car?
Absolutely, particularly if your itinerary focuses on major cities.
Romania's rail network connects destinations including Bucharest, Brașov and Sibiu, while buses and minibuses serve additional routes.
For example, a simpler trip covering: Bucharest → Sinaia → Brașov → Sibiu
could be planned largely around trains.
Where public transport becomes less convenient is when you start adding:
Rural accommodation
Bran Castle
Salina Turda
Hațeg
The Iron Gates
Multiple attractions on the same day
At that point, the convenience of the car becomes much more significant.
Public Transport vs Hire Car
Public transport works best if:
You're mainly visiting cities
You don't want to drive abroad
You're travelling slowly
You want to avoid parking
Your itinerary follows established rail routes
A hire car works best if:
You're visiting rural attractions
You're doing a family road trip
You want control over departure times
You're staying outside city centres
You want to combine several attractions in one day
For our itinerary, we'd choose the car again every time.
Was Driving Essential for Our Romania Itinerary?
For the itinerary we created, yes.
Having a car meant we could visit Peleș Castle in the morning and Bran Castle that afternoon before continuing to Brașov.
It let us reach Salina Turda at opening, stay in unusual rural accommodation and travel out to the Iron Gates without structuring the week around public transport.
It also opened up more accommodation choices. The trade-off was parking and a lot of time sitting in the car.
→ See Best Things to Do in Romania With Kids for the attractions we thought justified the driving.
October in Romania
Basov centre
What We'd Do Differently on Our Next Romania Road Trip
We'd hire a car again. We'd just drive it less.
Knowing what we know now, I'd make four changes.
Allow More Time Between Stops
Google Maps became our starting point rather than our guaranteed arrival time. Next time I'd leave more margin for traffic, food stops and inevitable delays.
Keep the Iron Gates for a Longer Trip
We loved the Iron Gates, but including them in seven days created too much driving. On an October trip, I'd spend that time exploring Transylvania more slowly and save the Iron Gates for a longer summer itinerary.
Research Parking Before Arriving
I would have: hotel → car park → backup car park
saved into Google Maps before every city. That alone would have prevented our biggest frustration in Brașov.
Bring Sunglasses
This sounds ridiculous for an October trip, but we had far more sunshine than expected.
→ See our Romania Packing List for October for what we'd take again and what we didn't need.
Who Will Enjoy a Romania Family Road Trip Most?
I'd recommend driving through Romania to families who want more than a Bucharest city break.
It works particularly well if you want:
Castles and Transylvania
Halloween experiences
Rural scenery
Unusual accommodation
Flexibility around children
The freedom to stop when something catches your attention
More control over your schedule
The road trip itself added to our understanding of the country.
→ If you're still deciding whether October is the right time, read Is Romania a Good Family Destination? Our Honest Review.
→ For family-friendly accommodation across the trip, see Where to Stay in Transylvania With Kids.
Corvin castle
Bran Castle
Final Verdict: Is It Safe to Drive in Romania as a UK Tourist?
Yes, we'd happily drive in Romania again.
From our perspective as experienced UK drivers, the roads were generally straightforward, the car-hire process was easy and having our own vehicle transformed what we could realistically see in seven days.
The areas that required more attention were driving on the right, assertive overtaking, busy city traffic and planning parking in advance.
It's also important not to confuse “we personally felt comfortable” with “there are no road-safety risks”. Romania continues to face significant road-safety challenges compared with much of the EU, so defensive driving and respecting the rules are important.
For us, the biggest mistake wasn't hiring the car.
It was trying to cover too much distance with it.
Next time, we'd still hire an automatic, still take full insurance and still choose the flexibility of driving. We'd simply build a slower itinerary around Bucharest, Transylvania and fewer long-distance stops.
FAQs About Driving in Romania
Is Driving in Transylvania Difficult?
We didn't find it difficult. Expect winding mountain roads, slower-moving vehicles and occasional assertive overtaking, but the routes we drove were generally straightforward.
Is Romania Suitable for a Family Road Trip?
Yes. Having your own car gives families considerable flexibility around mealtimes, toilet stops, accommodation and sightseeing.
How Long Does It Take to Drive Around Romania?
That depends enormously on the route. We drove 1,173km in seven days and spent approximately 15–16 hours behind the wheel, which in hindsight was more driving than we'd choose next time.
Is Parking Easy in Romania?
At rural hotels and attractions, generally yes. In major tourist centres such as Brașov, parking can be considerably more challenging.
We'd research parking before every overnight city stay.
Can You Visit Bran Castle and Peleș Castle Without a Car?
Yes, through a combination of public transport and organised tours. However, visiting both on the same day is significantly easier by hire car or a tour that includes transport.
plan your TRIP TO Romania
If you’re planning your family trip to the Transylvania region of Romania, these guides will help you pull everything together:
About Plan Family Escapes
We’re a UK-based family sharing real, experience-led travel guides based on trips we’ve taken with our school-age son Joshua across destinations like Lapland, Turkey and India.
Everything we share is based on what we’ve personally experienced — with honest advice on what actually works when travelling with kids, focusing on making family travel easier, more comfortable and genuinely enjoyable.
