Danube Delta
Tulcea County · Dobruja
About Danube Delta
At the end of the Danube's 2,860 km journey the river splits into three arms, Chilia, Sulina and Sfântu Gheorghe, and leaves behind a maze of channels, backwaters, lakes and floating reed islands. The Danube Delta is Romania's youngest region, built over the last ten thousand years from the river's silt, and it still grows a few metres a year towards the sea. The Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, created in 1990, covers about 580,000 ha, and its core has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991 and a Ramsar wetland of international importance.
The delta holds the largest compact reed beds in the world and over 320 bird species, of which around 170 breed here: great white and Dalmatian pelicans, cormorants, egrets, herons, swans, glossy ibises, white-tailed eagles. It is also home to around 130 fish species, from the carp and pike of the lakes to the sturgeon that still come up from the sea. On the Letea and Caraorman sand banks grow oak forests draped in lianas; Letea forest was Romania's first nature reserve, in 1938.
Only a few thousand people live in the delta, in fishing villages of Lipovans, Ukrainians and Romanians such as Mila 23, Crișan, Sfântu Gheorghe and Letea, and in Sulina, a small port town on the arm of the same name, once the seat of the European Commission of the Danube, which still cannot be reached by road.
What you can see
The simplest way in is the Navrom Delta ship from Tulcea harbour, down the Sulina arm to Crișan, Mila 23 or Sulina, or a boat belonging to a guesthouse or a local boatman, which can get into the narrow channels where the big ships cannot. On the classic routes, Tulcea – Mila 35 channel – Lake Furtuna – Mila 23, or Crișan – Caraorman channel – lakes Puiu and Roșu, you see the reed beds, the water lilies, cormorants drying their wings on the willows and, with luck, pelican colonies.
From Sulina you can walk or take a cart to the wild beach where the Sulina arm meets the Black Sea, and visit the old lighthouse and the maritime cemetery in town. At Sfântu Gheorghe, at the end of the southern arm, is the widest beach, with dunes and Sacalin island offshore. In the north, Letea forest is visited only on foot, along the marked trail, with feral horses among the oaks. The reserve has 15 approved boat routes and 9 land routes, starting from Tulcea, Murighiol, Jurilovca and the delta villages.
Good to know
Every visitor needs an access permit from the Reserve Administration: 5 lei a day or 15 lei a week, free for children, pupils, students and pensioners; it is bought online or by SMS and checked on the channels. The strictly protected zones (Roșca-Buhaiova, Sacalin-Zătoane, Periteasca-Leahova and others) are closed to tourists. The best time is May–June, with high water, nesting birds and none of the heat and mosquitoes of July–August; autumn is quiet and beautiful. In dry summers, as in 2026, the water drops and some channels become impassable.
- Great white and Dalmatian pelicans on lakes Furtuna, Merhei or Roșu, the largest colonies in Europe.
- The narrow channels roofed with willows and carpeted with water lilies between Mila 23 and Crișan, travelled in a Lipovan boat.
- The wild beach at Sulina, where the Sulina arm enters the Black Sea, and the old lighthouse in town.
- Letea forest, with ancient oaks, lianas and feral horses, on the sand bank in the north of the delta.
- The Lipovan fishing villages, with blue-painted houses and fish soup at the guesthouse, and sunset from the pontoon.
Good to know before you go
- Getting there
By car: the gateway to the delta is Tulcea, ~290 km from Bucharest (A2 motorway to Cernavodă, then DN22 via Hârșova, ~4 hours), ~125 km from Constanța (DN22, ~2 hours) and ~90 km from Brăila/Galați with the ferry across the Danube at Smârdan. The car stays in Tulcea; you enter the delta only by water. Other gateways: Murighiol (40 km from Tulcea, for the southern lakes and Sfântu Gheorghe), Jurilovca (for Gura Portiței, across Lake Razim) and Chilia Veche, the only delta village with a road. Sulina and Sfântu Gheorghe have no road at all.
Public transport: train to Tulcea (from Bucharest with a change at Medgidia, ~5–6 hours) or coach (~4 hours from Bucharest's Militari bus station, several a day). From Tulcea harbour, the Navrom Delta ships (tickets at the river station or online) and, from Port Tulcea Aval, the fast boats of guesthouses and private operators, which pick up passengers by name.
- Where to park
At Port Tulcea Aval, where the private boats leave, the guarded car park cost ~40 lei a day in 2025. At the river station and along the Ivan Patzaichin embankment there are paid public car parks during the day, crowded in summer; some delta guesthouses have arrangements with car parks in town for longer stays (~15–20 lei a day). Do not leave the car on the riverbank or next to the reeds; it is forbidden and fined.
- Fees & discounts
ARBDD tourist access permit: 5 lei per person per day, 15 lei a week, 30 lei a year; free for children, pupils, students, pensioners, people with disabilities and locals. Buy it at permise.ddbra.ro, by SMS to 7494 (code TUR1 or TUR7, ~6 lei with VAT), at the machine at the ARBDD headquarters in Tulcea or at the centres in Crișan, Sulina and Chilia Veche. Own boat: 20 lei per stay or 100 lei a year. Navrom Delta 2026, unsubsidised adult fares, one way: Sulina 66 lei (semi-fast 76), Sfântu Gheorghe 70 (80), Crișan 50 (56), Periprava 76 (86). A day by private boat from Tulcea or Murighiol costs ~100–150 lei per person in a group, more for a boat hired on your own.
- Rules
Carry your ARBDD permit and ID; they are checked on the water. Keep to the approved routes; the strictly protected zones and bird colonies are off limits, do not approach nests and do not shout. Motorboat speed on the inner channels and lakes is limited (5 km/h in sensitive areas). Camp and light fires only in designated places; all rubbish leaves the delta with you. Do not pick plants or cut wood; recreational fishing needs a separate, free permit, with a 5 kg daily limit. The Letea and Caraorman forests are visited only on foot, on the marked path, no smoking. Drones and commercial filming need ARBDD authorisation. Life jackets are compulsory in boats.
- Facilities
Guesthouses and fish restaurants in all the larger villages and in Sulina · ARBDD information centres in Tulcea, Crișan, Sulina and Chilia Veche · small shops in the villages, no cash machines in most of them (bring cash) · weak mobile signal on the channels and in the small villages · pharmacy and hospital only in Tulcea and Sulina · no step-free access on boats and pontoons · the Danube Delta Museum (Ecotourism Museum Centre) in Tulcea, with aquariums, good on a rainy day
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