Elsewhere: Oradea, Romania, Oradea, Romania

This humble city on the Hungarian border boasts a treasure trove of Baroque architecture and makes for an ideal first step when exploring Romania.

For an emerging travel destination, there are still quite a few places in Romania that have yet to fully pop up on tourist’s radars. Most certainly one of these is the understated city of Oradea by the country’s border with Hungary. Tourists are literally bypassing Oradea on their way to the heart of Transylvania and missing out on the varied architecture that livens up this unassuming city.

In truth, the city makes for a natural first stop when entering Romania from Western and Central Europe, breaking up what can be a long journey. From Budapest in Hungary, the train trip lasts roughly 4.5 hours with several more for those heading to the larger city of Cluj Napoca in Transylvania proper. Coming from Vienna which is itself several hours from Budapest, Oradea seemed like the perfect place to begin exploring Romania.

Oradea seems like a city that could see a transformation into a bigger tourist draw and is the kind of place you’d be curious to see how it has changed in a few years. While it currently has pretty light tourism infrastructure, the vast number of civil works going on could transform it into the standard starting point for tourists travelling to Romania from Western and Central Europe. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).