Attractions in Romania

The wild beach where the Sfântu Gheorghe branch meets the Black Sea: 30 km of fine sand, 2 km from a Delta village that can only be reached by water.

Romania's easternmost beach, where the Sulina branch meets the Black Sea: very fine alluvial sand, an unusually wide strip and water that stays shallow for tens of metres.

A wild beach of shell-strewn sand at the village of Vadu, inside the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve: low dunes, not a single building and an earth track down to the sea.

The most complete Renaissance residence left in Transylvania, seat of the Bethlen family: a tower with soldier reliefs, an arcaded loggia and bastioned walls, now under restoration.

A Romanesque basilica from the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries, left almost unaltered, on the rocky top of St Michael's Hill, ringed by a defensive wall and looking out to the Făgăraș Mountains.

A small, easy-to-visit cave on the Rucăr–Bran corridor, in Piatra Craiului National Park: a dry gallery carved by the Dâmbovicioara stream, with about 250 m laid out and lit.

The resort where Romanian spa tourism began, on the highest cliff of the coast: interwar villas, an Art Deco casino and a beach recently widened to over a hundred metres.

The pass where the DN18 climbs in hairpins from Baia Sprie to 987 m between the Igniș and Gutâi Mountains, then drops towards Mara and the Maramureș Land, an hour from Baia Mare.

The DN7A climbs 108 km from Brezoi up the Lotru valley, through Voineasa and past Lake Vidra to Obârșia Lotrului, then crosses the Groapa Seacă Pass and drops through the Jieț Gorge to Petroșani.

The 47 km gorge by which the Olt crosses the Carpathians: on the DN7, between Boița and Călimănești, the road follows the river past Cozia Monastery. A busy through route, not a leisure drive.

A lido with two salt lakes formed where old salt mines caved in, 24 km from Cluj-Napoca, plus an indoor pool of warm salt water that stays open all year.

A Renaissance castle with four round towers, built by the Bethlen family on a hill above the Târnava Mică; today it is the emblem of Jidvei wines and is visited on hourly guided tours.

A salt mine opened by the Austrians in 1791 with miners brought from Galicia: 192 fir steps lead down to a chapel carved in salt, a salt lake and a ballroom 42 m below ground.

The city's own beaches, from the fish market down to the cliff below the old town: three and a half kilometres of replenished sand, with Modern, Trei Papuci and Tataia one after another.

The last wild beach at the southern edge of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve: shell-strewn sand, dunes and a low earth cliff, with no hotels, sunbeds or lifeguards.