As for general advice, you’ve already listed all pro’s and con’s But $19 per day even with all meals seems a lot of money in Brasov for me. I think you can agree with hostel or hotel for a discount for such a long stay, stay there and eat what you want and fit into this budget.

Thanks for replying. I think I will do it on my own. I found a place I could volunteer at on my own already, and the guy that runs it said he’ll help me find accomodation.

If you’ve been to both, do you prefer Brasov or Sighisoara?

Haven’t been to Romania at all Just the quoted price seemd too much for a small town in Eastern Europe.

oh, okay. i think you were right though, i looked around a bit and should be able to spend less than $19 a day on food and accomodation.

where in russia are you? i desperately want to visit there someday. this trip started out as "i’m going to russia, where else should i go?". in the end though, my budget was just too small to be dealing with such visa fees. it’d be like $150 or something with the visa and letter, $150 before i even step out of the airport sucks. why does russia hate me so? sorry, i get off topic a lot.

http://www.russia-ho… – Russian hostels make the invitation letters for ~$30 and then all remains in the consular fee. They can be unreasonably high but actually when we get visas for Europe / USA, we pay that much also

even eastern europe? i’m so glad turkey lowered theirs. it was $100 for us a while back.

For example, Czech visa is $50 plus accommodation booking for the entire stay, Slovakia is 35 euro even for transit – we do get high costs on this also.

Jana,
Indeed, $19/Day seems a little too much to me too. For the accommodation, if you’re going to stay with a family there must be no more than $100/month. Still, this is a big rate. If you negotiate you could reach something like $50/month ($150 for the three month). The rest are for the food + some clothes maybe. So let’s say you rest with $1500 for food for 3 month, that’s a lot. With $500 / month you could eat in a medium class restaurant every day .
Also, take care that many people think that you, coming from a better developed country, have a lot of money, therefore they’ll try to ask you more than the usual price. It won’t happen if you are informed about the prices and all stuff like that. That’s what this forum (and the Internet generally speaking) is for , isn’t it?

Kind regards,
Radu [url=‘http://www.outdoorholiday.com/mountain.php’]Mountaineering in Romania[/url]

Radu,
Thanks so so much for your help. I’m so glad to have some idea of what’s appropriate for accomodation. Everything I’ve been quoted has been quite a bit higher, I’m sure because I’m American. A guy with the group I’m working with said they’d help me find something, he said there are places I could stay with $350-$400 a month. I don’t know if he thinks I want something fancy or he means with food and everything.

I’m definitely leaning towards staying in Sacele or some other town shortly outside Brasov, mostly to save money. As long as there’s a bus that runs fairly often to Brasov, I’ll be fine. Right now they’re trying to figure out transportation for me to work. They want me to help out at an educational center for Gypsy kids. I intend on trying to work in an orphanage after that, probably more towards Sighisoara though possibly not depending on where I can find somewhere needing volunteers. The educational center is in Zizin. I don’t drive, so giving me a car to use would be worthless. I’ll let them try and work it out as they obviously know the area and options better than I do. Do you know anything about Zizin? I can’t find any information on it at all.

Do you know how I would go about staying in Romania for more than 90 days? I read something about it being possible with proof of your exit worth $100 or more. I was hoping to leave my leaving date open. And I’m going to spend a week or so in Poland after Romania, I doubt it will cost me $100 to get from Romania to Poland.

Does your company ever have short trips? Like 2 or 3 days? I couldn’t afford an 8 or 9 day tour. And considering I’ve spent very little time camping or hiking, it may be a bit long for me. Until last year, I really hadn’t been exposed to such things at all. But I definitely want to see some of Romania’s natural beauty while there and don’t have the experience to do that on my own.

I’m sorry for so many questions.

-Jana

quote:

Does your company ever have short trips? Like 2 or 3 days? I couldn’t afford an 8 or 9 day tour. And considering I’ve spent very little time camping or hiking, it may be a bit long for me. Until last year, I really hadn’t been exposed to such things at all. But I definitely want to see some of Romania’s natural beauty while there and don’t have the experience to do that on my own.

I’m sorry for so many questions.

-Jana

hi jana-
my friend and i visited romania last february and
we hired radu to show us around….we had a great
time and we owe it all to him…he is a great guy and
i recommend him to you or whoever else
-otis
indiana, usa

you can see some of the photos of our trip at
www.toddfoxphotograp…

wow $19 a day for accomodation and all meals? im confused that seems like an awesome deal to me. you could easily spend $19 on just accomodation.

luisfc1972, countries in Europe are quite different in terms of costs; Romania is one of the cheapest Eastern Europe countries and half of this amount is good enough for accommodation and food

quote: Thanks so so much for your help. I’m so glad to have some idea of what’s appropriate for accomodation. Everything I’ve been quoted has been quite a bit higher, I’m sure because I’m American. A guy with the group I’m working with said they’d help me find something, he said there are places I could stay with $350-$400 a month. I don’t know if he thinks I want something fancy or he means with food and everything.

Indeed, if you want something "fancy" you could pay about $350 for a 3 rooms apt in the centre of Bv, or in a guest-house maybe. So, as you don’t need this, as far as I understood you need just a room, even staying with the guest. So it shouldn’t be over $100. Especially that you / your friend have time enough to search for. Just let them know what you need for accommodation, I’m sure they’ll find something for you. Look, just to have an idea, look at some of this sites www.neogen.ro(I found http://neogen.ro/?1=… and http://neogen.ro/?1=… ), www.anunturiimobilia… (
1=sitedate&amp2=desc” title=“http://www.anunturiimobiliare.ro/search.php?searchword=&kid=24&judet=Brasov&amp1=sitedate&amp2=desc”>http://www.anunturii…) and there are many more. So there as far as there is about $150 for a studio/2rooms in Brasov City, it should be much cheaper in a village in close nearby of Bv.
IMHO the best way to go is asking your friends (or the one at the orphanage or at the educational center)to go into one of this villages and ask for a room, the price (for 2-3 months) and even see it for you.

quote:
The educational center is in Zizin. I don’t drive, so giving me a car to use would be worthless. I’ll let them try and work it out as they obviously know the area and options better than I do. Do you know anything about Zizin? I can’t find any information on it at all.

Zizin is a village in the Nothern part of Ciucas Mts., in the Brasov Depression 15 kms away from Bv. In fact it was a resort / spa because of it’s mineral waters, but I don’t know if it works as a resort anymore. The hills around it are very relaxing and they give a great feeling of peace and calm. Also, Ciucas Mts, in the nearby are just great for hiking.

quote: Do you know how I would go about staying in Romania for more than 90 days? I read something about it being possible with proof of your exit worth $100 or more. I was hoping to leave my leaving date open. And I’m going to spend a week or so in Poland after Romania, I doubt it will cost me $100 to get from Romania to Poland.

I really don’t know for sure, but I can try to find out for you. It’ll cost more to go from Romania to Poland, expect about $200.

quote: Does your company ever have short trips? Like 2 or 3 days? I couldn’t afford an 8 or 9 day tour. And considering I’ve spent very little time camping or hiking, it may be a bit long for me.

Yes, Outdoor Holidays also offers short trips. They are not listed as
1° they are not the main purpose of us and 2° tourist won’t come all the way from US just for a 2 or 3 days holidays. But, as you’ll already be here in Romania, it’d be such a pity not to see the country. You shouldn’t worry about camping, if you are not used to you could choose a trip that uses guest-houses/mountain huts as accommodation. You just have to have good boots and a waterproof/windstopper coat for hiking. See the[url=‘http://www.outdoorholiday.com/mountain/what2take.php’]what to take [/url]page although this has been conceived for the full trekking holidays.

quote:Until last year, I really hadn’t been exposed to such things at all. But I definitely want to see some of Romania’s natural beauty while there and don’t have the experience to do that on my own.

Of course, if you want to take advantage of the week-ends / free time, we’ll be glad to help you. Romania has a lot to offer to visitors and it’s because few people know this country and it’s still unspoilt [url=‘http://www.outdoorholiday.com/mountain.php’]Carpathian Mountains [/url](Romania not being known in US as a tourist destination) that we consider it as Europe’s best kept secret

quote: I’m sorry for so many questions.

Hey, don’t have to be sorry, I’m glad to help whenever I can.
So, if you have more questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

All the best,
Radu
[url=‘http://www.outdoorholiday.com’]Mountaineering in Romania[/url]

Thank you so much.

I start a language course in Jan. So i’ll probably try and set up accomodation then. then I can read advertisements for places and if one seems good then I can ask the guy who runs the educational center if he’d be willing to check it out for me. I may just go with a studio as I can afford $150 or so, as opposed to renting a room in someones house. I guess it depends on the price difference.

I wont be in Romania until about May, I’ll definitely be in touch though about doing some sort of tour. Do you think it would be a better idea to get things like hiking boots once already in Romania as i’m sure they’re quite big to lug around and they may be chaper there?

I want to go to Timisoara for a couple of days so I’m thinking I may be able to just cross the border into Hungary after and then re-enter the country. I’d need to contact the consulate and make sure my 90 days would start again.

I guess I was thinking Poland was closer to Romania than that or something. I’ll still try and do the whole Hungary thing so I don’t have to have a date ready.

Thank you so much again. I really appreciate all your help.

-Jana

Jana,

I think you’d be able to rent a one bedroom apt there for similar money. As to your eating habits with a family, the Romanians won’t acocmodate your fussiness… most of the food is meat pork and sausage nearly all romanians eat simple but healthy and there isn’t much in the way of junk shit in the shops (maybe in Brasov)

Sounds like you’d better get your own place sorted out, buying your own food in would be very cheap but eating processed crap would also raise the cost.

Suggest you use the trip to change your eating habits.. I’m picky too but the veg and stuff tastes great over there, natural with no pesticides. I even had a few glasses of unpasteurized cows milk while there (lumps and all)