Attractions in Romania

A strip of sand between the Black Sea and Lake Golovița, in the Danube Delta, reached only by boat from Jurilovca: a wide beach with reed sunshades and a single resort.

A 13th-century Romanesque basilica enclosed by 12 m walls with seven towers, with the tallest bell tower in the Burzenland and a chapel of 15th-century Gothic frescoes.

An active cave in the Trascău Mountains, with a portal almost 40 m high in the limestone wall and an underground river of lakes and waterfalls, visited only on guided tours in a wetsuit.

A multi-tiered waterfall on the Iad Valley, tumbling between huge boulders right beside the road from Stâna de Vale to Lake Leșu; you see it from a metal viewing platform or from below, by the water.

A cave cut into the wall of the Ialomița Gorge, in the heart of the Bucegi Mountains at 1,660 m, with a monastery built against its mouth and 480 m of lit galleries leading to the Bears' Hall and the Altar.

The 33 km gorge by which the Jiu crosses the Carpathians between Bumbești-Jiu and Livezeni: the DN66 follows the river through Defileul Jiului National Park, past Lainici Monastery.

Two neighbouring resorts north of Mangalia: Jupiter, its beach split by groynes into small bays, and Cap Aurora, with stepped hotels named after precious stones.

A Renaissance hunting manor of the Counts Kálnoky, begun in 1648, with bastions and rare stucco work, restored and opened in 2017 as the Museum of Transylvanian Life, with guided tours.

A reservoir about 13 km long on the Someșul Cald in the Apuseni Mountains, at almost 1,000 m; in dry summers the ruined church of the drowned village of Giurcuța de Jos rises from the water.

A reservoir on the Ialomița at 1,438 m, in the heart of the Bucegi Mountains, held back by a 55 m stone dam and ringed by spruce forest, between the Tătaru and Zănoaga gorges.

Romania's largest natural dam lake, formed by landslides between 1978 and 1991 in the Stânișoarei Mountains, with bare spruce trunks rising out of the water; reached on foot through the forest.

A 4-hectare reservoir at 731 m in the forests of the Gutâi Mountains above the town of Baia Sprie, with a lakeside path, terrace, beach and kayaks for hire in summer, 18 km from Baia Mare.

Romania's largest lake, a lagoon of about 415 km² south of the Danube Delta, with Lipovan fishing villages on its shores, protected islands and the ruins of Enisala and Argamum above the water.

A reservoir over 10 km long in the Buzău valley, between the Siriu and Podu Calului mountains; the DN10 winds along its shore over viaducts, with views of the water and the 122 m rockfill dam.

The freshwater lake behind Mamaia, 7.5 km long, with water sports bases on the resort side and little Ovidiu Island, tied to the legend of the Roman poet, off the town of Ovidiu.