National parks and reserves

Europe's largest wetland, a biosphere reserve and UNESCO site: channels, lakes, reed beds and over 300 bird species, from pelicans to egrets; visited by boat from Tulcea.

A glacial lake at 2,034 m in the Bâlea cirque of the Făgăraș Mountains, at the top of the Transfăgărășan; reachable by car in summer and by cable car all year round.

Romania's most visited cave: 488 m of lit galleries beneath the village of Chișcău, full of stalactites and stalagmites, with the bones of some 140 cave bears left where they were found.

A roughly 90 m waterfall that drops in several tiers down a limestone wall in the Rodna Mountains, above the resort of Borșa; reached by chairlift and a short forest walk.

Romania's largest natural bridge and the only one in the world carrying a public road: a 30 m limestone arch left standing after a cave roof collapsed, in the village of Ponoarele on the Mehedinți Plateau.

The moss-covered tufa waterfall in the Miniș gorge, exactly on the 45th parallel and once famous worldwide; it partly collapsed in 2021 and is regenerating naturally, a few steps from the DN57B road.

A cave in the Apuseni Mountains that holds one of the largest underground glaciers in the world: a block of ice over 10,000 years old, reached by stairs down a shaft 60 m across.

A four-level cave in the Galbenul Gorge at the foot of the Parâng Mountains, with 860 m of lit galleries, cave bear bones and some of the oldest modern human remains in Europe.

The stone mushrooms of the Bucegi plateau, at ~2,200 m: conglomerate rocks worn by wind, frost and rain, a few minutes from the Bușteni cable car and the Sphinx.

A moss-clad tufa waterfall whose water fans out in dozens of threads over green steps, in the beech forest of the Cheile Nerei–Beușnița National Park, an hour's walk beyond Ochiul Beiului Lake.

Romania's largest glacial lake, at 2,040 m in the heart of Retezat National Park; it can only be reached on foot, after a climb of about two hours from Poiana Pelegii.

A karst complex on the Padiș Plateau: three huge sinkholes with walls over 200 m high and a portal over 70 m tall where the Cetăților stream vanishes into the mountain. Seen from a marked hiking loop, not a show cave.

The narrowest stretch of the Danube Gorge, between Dubova and Ogradena: the river squeezes between limestone walls, with Serbia on the far bank, seen by boat or from Ciucaru Mare.

Romania's only volcanic lake: an almost round sheet of water in the Ciomatu crater, ringed by forest, with a Catholic chapel on the shore and the Mohoș peat bog in the neighbouring crater.

A heliothermal salt lake in Sovata, formed in 1875 over a salt massif: beneath a thin layer of fresh water the salt water goes above 40 °C in summer; a lido runs on the shore in season.