Romanian roads, traffic, toll, how to drive and park

If you are traveling to Romania as a tourist then reading this article will help you to understand the traffic, roads, tolls, gas prices and parking situation.

Traffic & Driving

Romanians love cars. There are so many cars in every big city. Traffic in all big cities is chaotic. Drivers always do speeding and never respect speed limit. Use of vehicle horn is massive. No respect for no over taking white line specially outside cities. Right most lane is half full with parked cars. You may feel depression and tension while driving in big cities as a tourist.

I recommend that you park the car in big cities and explore the city via Uber. Yes, Romania has Uber and it is extremely cheap. Uber electric scooters are also available. However, in some cities you may not find much Ubers. For example city of Sibiu.

Roads

Romania did not had many motorways in past but recently many motorways are made which are good in quality. It is highly recommended that you update GPS maps of your vehicle before driving in Romania or consult Google Maps on your phone because not only the road structure is changed a lot in recent year but also there are many under construction roads. Without using updated GPS may lead you to longer route.

It should also be noted that most of the Romanian roads (Other than Motorways) have single lanes. One lane for on going traffic and other for in coming traffic. In case of so much traffic, it becomes hard to over take. It means, if one driver is driving slow then others behind him will have to suffer and wait until there is chance of over take.

There are no much speed cameras. There may be some inside big cities but you will hardly find any speed camera on roads outside cites and motorways.

Video below will give you an idea about driving on Romanian roads.

Toll

You need to buy an electronic vignette online before you enter in Romania. You can also buy vignette on any border crossing but buying online is easy and time saving. Price for 7 days is 3 Euros and 30 days is only 7 Euros. Follow the link below to see complete price list and online purchase options.

https://www.roviniete.ro/en/info/rovinieta-pret

It should also be noted that some regions of Romania have Toll plazas where you need to pay additional toll. For example, on entering and on leaving the the region of Constanta, you need to pay 13 RON (2.63 Euros).

Parking

Finding a parking in every big city of Romania is huge problem. First of all it is hard to find the parking around centre of the city. If you find a parking then paying parking is complicated. For example, in city of Timisoara, there are 4 types of parking, red, green, yellow and blue, each type has different price. There are 2 ways to pay the parking. Via SMS which is only possible if you have Romanian SIM card. Second method is to pay via Romanian TPARK app, but this app has low rating with many issues. Even If TPAK app works, you need to get up early in the morning before 8:00 to pay the parking else you will get a penalty. Other option is to park your car in private parking lots which are a bit expensive

Parking Solution

• It is recommended that you choose your hotel or apartment where free private or paid private parking is available.
• Other solution is to park your car in private parking lots which are secured with CCTV camera and parking agent is available. Price is a bit more as compared to street parking but worth it. For example, in city of Timisoara, I parked my car in private parking lot for 3 days and paid 150 RON which are equal to 30 Euros.

Gas Prices

Cost of living is very cheap if you are a tourist in Romania. Fuel prices are also cheap. In July 2021 when I was there, the price of one litre of diesel was between 5 RON (1 Euro) to 5.5 RON (1.11 Euros)