Customer Reviews

Romania & Moldova (Lonely Planet Travel Guides)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is great.

Last summer I took my first overseas trip in my life. Being a lazy American, I did no real research and I landed in Bucharest Romania with nothing to fall back on but the 3rd Edition of Lonely Planet's "Romania & Moldova."

I was supposed to meet a friend who was traveling from Russia, but long story short... I was not able to meet up with him until 5 days later. I did not have any travel itinerary but this book allowed me to make the most of those 5 days by myself.
After those first days on my own, I finally met my buddy in Budapest Hungary, but then we traveled back to Romania for another 5 days or so.

The information in this book made it possible for me to have the trip of a lifetime. The only thing wish I did differently was take a Romanian language book with me.
That said, this book was hands down an invaluable asset to me.
I used this book to visit Bucharest, Deva, Hunedoara, Sighisoara, Sibiu and Poienari. (Except for Bucharest
I did not know anything about these towns and cities but this book helped me find them)

Traveling in a country where I could not speak the language and very few people could speak English was a tough experience for me, but this book helped make my trip an awesome adventure.
If I every make it back to Romania, I will be taking this book with me!

I bought this book in 2007 for my 2008 trip to Romania. I was impressed. I was on this trip with my girlfriend who is a native Romanian and live in Romania. Still, the book showed us stuff she wasn't aware of. And in the cities outside Bucharest the book was really specific and perfect. If you follow what is written in this book, you will enjoy this trip 100% and will be using your time effciently.
I have to admit, this book saved us when we were stuck in Sibiu trying to figure out how to go to the next city. Also is has very accurate maps..

To be upfront with people I'm originally from Romania and thus know a lot about the culture and places. I bought the book to see what somebody else has to say about my home country and I loved it. If you are new to Romania, maybe you don't know where it is, maybe you just heard about it, or something than definately buy the book to see what it's all about. Romania as described here is an "exotic" country with many traditions and fantastic places but not enough visitors.

Some of the reviewers here are focusing on tiny problems with what is a changing, tricky country to visit. And missing what is overall a great asset to a trip there. I mean, if you really want to go all the way to Romania to see an excluded copy of a 70s/80s American TV show set, then maybe you really don't need to be traveling all the way to Europe anyway!

I had a great time using this guide through Bucharest, Wallachia and Transylvania. It was all I needed to gauge where to go, where to stay and how to get around. Sure I found a few great restaurants not included here, and disagreed with a review or two, but isn't that the point of traveling on your own?

I've historically been very disappointed with Lonely Planet. I always go for Rough Guide or Frommers over LP which I find to be bland, non-opinionated and very P.C. My travel partner had already purchased Rough Guide Romania, so I figured a second reference source was needed. I was very surprised with this edition of LP. It was informative, interesting, opinionated, and had a flare that LP never had. I actually liked it better than the Rough Guide.
Highly recommend it.

There is not much to find about Moldova.
If you go there first time, like me, then its the best book you could wish for.
Lots of good tips and all you need to know..

I've always like Lonely Planet guides. The format of putting the country into reigions so that you can see what is near were you are going is very helpful. This particular guide is becoming dated as Romania has joined the European Union and the country is on the quick path to change. Many of the quaint traditions are giving way to western traditions. I stayed in country for 2 weeks and this was an excellent reference. My Romanian friends were using it to find out about other parts of the country as we traveld there. I also bought the frommers guide and this one is much better in my opinion

This book was useful information-wise in visiting Bucuresti and Transylvania. However, I found the overall language of the book shallow and subtly pejorative and insulting to the local people of Romania, and I am surprised that Lonely Planet, a respected publisher of worldwide guides, has published this book as is. A big part of traveling is to show respect for the other culture and learn from it (especially spiritually). Obviously a guide also needs to be realistic and show the negative sides as well, but I disagree with the author's subtly suggested attitudes. I realize that there are two authors, I am only referring to the section I used, the one on Bucuresti and Transylvania.

I want to stress that I am NOT Romanian. Suffice it to say that I showed the book to a very educated and well-traveled Romanian friend who was very unhappy with the first random sentence they saw.

In conclusion, Romania is a great place that one should visit, but I wouldn't take this guide...

I bought this book for my recent trip to Romania. I should have passed on it and used the internet--the information would have been more useful. I especially found the information on the area around Bania Mare to be not only wrong--but useless. Sadly, I based a large part of my trip on the book. I also found the information on Brasov to be insufficient and in some cases just plain bad. I will say that the section on Bucharest was well done.

I am planninga trip to Romania and I bought this book to help. It is very good, vivid, easy to understand and it makes me wish I was already there!