In this video, we take a closer look at highlights of Romania, a country of contrasts, located on the Balkan Peninsula.

As part of its rich history, the former Soviet Bloc country has seen rule by the Romans, who gave the country its name, as well as by the Hungarians and the Ottomans. It is filled with quaint towns, enticing mountain resorts, and a burgeoning art community. It’s most famous native, however, may be the vampire Dracula, a fictional character found in Transylvania.

Any visit to Romania’s urban centres should include exploration of its capital, Bucharest, as well as Cluj-Napoca, Braşov, Sighişoara, Timişoara and, most enchantingly, Sibiu.

Yet the country’s true charm, lies, arguably, in its more remote regions.

Romania’s villages reward travellers with sights as diverse as the log houses in Oltenia, Delta villages built of reeds, and the magnificent wooden churches, with their Gothic steeples, of Maramureş. This is not to exclude the country’s more traditional churches, reflecting a history of competing communities and faiths.

Romania also offers some of Europe’s most unspoiled wilderness, from its majestic Carpathian peaks and emerald hills of Bucovina, to the extraordinary wetlands of the Danube Delta.

View the original video here.

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