Camino de România 1

At a glance

• Start / finish: Iași, Palatul Culturii (marker „4.500 km") / Borș, border crossing to Hungary (Ártánd), Bihor county
• Length: 1,226.8 km (the association's kilometre count from Iași ends around 100 km earlier — different variant routing)
• Duration: 57 stages, avg. 21.5 km (Camino Ninja division; the association recommends 20–30 km/day)
• Elevation: ↗ 12,606 m / ↘ 12,563 m — upland profile with two real mountain crossings
• Highest point: 1,479 m at the Nemira crossing Slănic-Moldova–Brețcu; lowest point 46 m in Moldavia
• Stages: 57 — Camino Ninja system; the association divides by county sections (Camino Iași 90.11 km, Neamț 64.98, Bacău 135.83, Bihor 17.47)
• Landscape: Moldavian Plateau, Trotuș valley, Eastern Carpathians, Székely Land, Burzenland, Olt bend, Transylvanian Plateau, Trascău Mountains, Apuseni, Bihor plain
• Waymarking: golden shell, yellow arrows on dark blue, markers with the distance to Santiago; large parts still unmarked — GPS track essential
• Traces of St James: Capela Sf. Iacob in Sebeș (c. 1420); Cluj-Napoca: St James's Chapel (1316) next to St Michael's Church, enlarged into a church in the 17th century, destroyed by fire in 1720; statue of St James on the Biserica Neagră in Brașov (association's information); also according to the association: fresco of the Calzada miracle in Ghelința (until the late 19th century, copy by József Huszka in Budapest), St James fresco in Hărman (15th c.), martyrdom of St James on the Hălchiu altarpiece (1528), lost St James dedications in Rupea, Șoarș and Pianu de Jos, depictions of St James in Cisnădioara (18th c.), Târgu Ocna and in the Brukenthal Museum in Sibiu (15th c.), St James statue in Cleja (2024), St James altar in Oradea (1808)
• Accommodation: no hostel network — guesthouses, parish houses, local councils; organise in advance
• Connecting routes: Camino de România 2, Camino de România 3, Camino de România 4, Camino de România 5, Camino de România 6, Camino de România 7
• Connection to Santiago: none — in Hungary the route between the border and Budapest is missing
• Best time: May to June and September to October; Carpathian passes June to October; bear country

Overview

This route begins in the city of Eastern Europe's largest Orthodox pilgrimage and walks away from it. In Iași lie the relics of St Parascheva, in the city since 13 June 1641, visited every October by over 350,000 believers — „cel mai mare pelerinaj ortodox din partea de est a Europei". And in the courtyard of the Catholic cathedral stands a marble marker inscribed „4.500 km", which Pope Francis blessed on 1 June 2019: the beginning of a Way of St James that did not exist before. From here you walk west, 1,226.8 kilometres, through the Catholic Csángó villages of Moldavia to Bacău, up the Trotuș past the salt church of Târgu Ocna, over the Nemira ridge at 1,479 metres into the Székely Land, through the Burzenland with the fortified church of Prejmer, besieged more than fifty times and almost never taken, to Brașov, on to Transylvania's only Cistercian abbey at Cârța, to Sibiu, to the St James chapel of Sebeș, into the country's oldest cathedral at Alba Iulia, beneath the Piatra Secuiului to Cluj-Napoca, through the karst of the Crișul Repede to Oradea — and on to Borș, where Romania ends.

Frankly, this is not an old route but a project of a few hands: the association has around a hundred members but only about ten who are really active — lately they have brought in scouts for the waymarking. It started in 2016, „la pas, kilometru cu kilometru", and has waymarked around 14 percent of this axis to date. There is no hostel network, several hundred kilometres of bear country and sections where only GPS tells you where the route wants to go. A person who has walked all 1,226.8 kilometres we have not found — the first registered pilgrim managed 400 kilometres in 2023, a group around 350 in 2025. And at the end, in Borș, nobody has checked the border since 1 January 2025, but on the other side no Way of St James continues: Hungary's Caminos lie 250 kilometres to the west. This route is the main axis of a network that is not yet connected. Whoever walks it walks to the beginning of something — not to the end.

Other names

The route is called Camino de România 1 — number and starting point, just as the six other Romanian Caminos carry their number and their endpoints in the name; this naming is agreed with the operating association, with whom we show these pages in cooperation. On its website the association speaks of the Camino de România or Camino în România and organises its waymarking work by county: Camino Iași (90.11 km), Camino Neamț (64.98 km), Camino Bacău (135.83 km), Camino Bihor (17.47 km) are the GPX sections it publishes on caminodesantiago.ro; the kilometre count on its markers runs continuously from Iași („km 1025–1043" at Șuncuiuș). The association puts the whole Romanian network at around 2,526 kilometres, of which around 402 are waymarked to date.

The number 1 is deserved: this route is the axis on which all the others hang. Camino de România 2 comes from the Danube and ends in Brașov, Camino de România 3 comes from Timișoara and ends in Oradea, Camino de România 4 joins at Tălmaciu, Camino de România 5 at Valea Crișului, and Caminos 6 and 7 are alternative routes between Hălchiu and Șoarș and between Sibiu and Gârbova respectively, which the Camino de România 1 covers differently. What you should not confuse it with is the Mária Út, the Marian way from Mariazell to Șumuleu Ciuc, whose 1,330 kilometres really do link Hungary and Romania — the association waymarks jointly with it in places, but it leads east to a Marian shrine, not west to St James.

Who it's for – and who it's not for

Ideal if you want a Camino that almost nobody has walked before you: 1,226.8 kilometres through landscapes where a pilgrim with a shell still prompts questions, through villages where the mayor arranges your lodging. Ideal for section walkers — the association's county sections are waymarked and documented, and Iași–Roman–Bacău, with a railway station at almost every stage end, is the most sensible way in. Ideal if you want fortified churches, Carpathians and cathedrals on one thread: two UNESCO fortified churches, Transylvania's only Cistercian abbey, Romania's oldest cathedral, the country's largest mechanical organ. And ideal if you speak Romanian, Hungarian or German: the route changes language with the landscapes — Moldavia, Székely Land, Saxon Transylvania.

Frankly, though, it is not for you if you expect infrastructure: no hostel network, no stamp directory, around 86 percent of the route without waymarks — „some sections unsignalized requiring GPS navigation", as the association itself writes. Not for you if you don't factor in bears: according to the first genetic count of 2025 Romania has between 10,419 and 12,770 brown bears, and this route crosses the Nemira, the Eastern Carpathians, the Trascău and the Apuseni. Not for you if you want to continue to Santiago at the end — at Borș the route ends at an open border with no continuation. And not for you if you plan 57 stages in one go without speaking Romanian: you have to organise lodging daily, often by phone. Gaps like these you plan away beforehand, not on the way.

Route & landscape

You start in Iași at the marker in front of the Palatul Culturii and walk west across the Moldavian Plateau: farm tracks, village roads, the route's lowest point at 46 metres, plus the Catholic Csángó villages of Săbăoani with its church of 1902 (the organ a gift of King Carol I) and Gherăești — the reason a Way of St James works precisely here. Via Roman with the cathedral of Petru Rareș (1542–1550) you reach Bacău and follow the Trotuș upstream via Onești to Târgu Ocna, where salt has been mined since 1380 and the church of Sfânta Varvara stands 240 metres underground, and on to Slănic-Moldova. Then the first mountain crossing: over the Nemira ridge at 1,479 metres to Brețcu — the passage from Moldavia into the Székely Land. Hungarian-speaking villages, Ghelința with its coffered ceiling of 1628 and Ladislaus frescoes of the 1330s, Târgu Secuiesc, the Olt basin around Sfântu Gheorghe, then the Burzenland: Prejmer, Hărman, Brașov with the Biserica Neagră.

From Hălchiu the route follows the Olt north via Feldioara, Racoș and Rupea into the Saxon uplands — Șoarș, Cincu, the Cistercian abbey of Cârța (1206), Avrig, the Olt defile at Tălmaciu — and via Cisnădioara to Sibiu. Further west Miercurea Sibiului, Gârbova, the UNESCO fortified church of Câlnic, Sebeș with the St James chapel and Alba Iulia. The second mountain crossing leads via Aiud into the Trascău Mountains: Rimetea beneath the Piatra Secuiului, Buru, Iara, the foothills of the Muntele Băișorii, then down to Cluj-Napoca. The last 210 kilometres run via Sâncraiu and Săcuieu into the valley of the Crișul Repede — Ciucea, Bratca, the karst of Șuncuiuș, Zece Hotare — and out of the Apuseni into the Bihor plain: Oradea, Sântion, Borș. Surface: farm tracks, gravel, plenty of asphalt on village and minor roads, forest paths in the mountain crossings; water in every village, shade rare in Moldavia and in Bihor.

Stages, terrain & difficulty

We divide the route into 57 stages averaging 21.5 kilometres — that is our Camino Ninja system, because the association publishes no daily stages for the whole route but county sections and the recommendation of „20–30 km per day". Externally attested are only the total length, the county borders (Iugani, Gherăești, Izvoare/Bahna, Racova) and the first stage Iași–Podu Iloaiei at 28 kilometres; all other values are estimated from our waypoint chain and calibrated to the 1,226.8 kilometres of our route data. Stage ends lie at places with a realistic chance of a bed. Difficulty: 10.3 metres of ascent per kilometre on average — uplands with two real mountain days (stage 17 over the Nemira, stages 44–47 through the Trascău).

1. Iași – Podu Iloaiei (28.0 km) — marker, Palatul Culturii, Valea Lupului, Lețcani, Holm, Scobâlțeni.
2. Podu Iloaiei – Târgu Frumos (25.6 km) — Sârca, Cotârgaci, Bălțați, Războieni.
3. Târgu Frumos – Strunga (17.0 km) — Buznea.
4. Strunga – Oțeleni (24.0 km) — Hăbășești, Brătulești, Fedeleșeni, Hândrești.
5. Oțeleni – Miclăușeni (18.0 km) — Buhonca, Butea; Miclăușeni castle.
6. Miclăușeni – Săbăoani (25.0 km) — Mircești, Iugani (county border), Gherăești; Csángó villages.
7. Săbăoani – Roman (12.0 km) — Simionești; cathedral of Sfânta Parascheva.
8. Roman – Secuieni (23.6 km) — Cotu Vameș, Horia, Trifești, Giulești, Butnărești, Uncești.
9. Secuieni – Bahna (22.0 km) — Moldoveni, Hociungi, Broșteni.
10. Bahna – Racova (20.0 km) — Izvoare; crossing into Bacău county.
11. Racova – Bacău (22.0 km) — Lespezi, Trebeș, Mărgineni; junction with Camino de România 5.
12. Bacău – Cleja (21.0 km) — Sărata, Faraoani; Catholic Csángó villages.
13. Cleja – Dumbrava (20.0 km) — Somușca, Ciucani, Capăta.
14. Dumbrava – Onești (22.0 km) — Temelia, Gura Văii; Trotuș valley.
15. Onești – Târgu Ocna (21.0 km) — Tuta, Pârâu Boghii; salt mine, salt church 240 m underground.
16. Târgu Ocna – Slănic-Moldova (14.0 km) — Cerdac; spa town.
17. Slănic-Moldova – Brețcu (28.0 km) — Nemira crossing, 1,479 m, highest point; hardest day.
18. Brețcu – Ghelința (25.0 km) — Mărtănuș, Ojdula, Hilib; Szent Imre church with coffered ceiling of 1628. Until the late 19th century the church had a fresco of the Calzada miracle — preserved only in the copy by the painter József Huszka (album in Budapest).
19. Ghelința – Târgu Secuiesc (17.0 km) — Catalina.
20. Târgu Secuiesc – Dalnic (23.6 km) — Turia, Alungeni, Icafalău, Albiș.
21. Dalnic – Valea Crișului (20.0 km) — Pădureni, Angheluș, Fotoș, Ghidfalău; end of Camino de România 5.
22. Valea Crișului – Sfântu Gheorghe (12.0 km) — Arcuș.
23. Sfântu Gheorghe – Prejmer (24.0 km) — Ilieni, Dobolii de Jos, Lunca Câlnicului; UNESCO fortified church.
24. Prejmer – Brașov (18.0 km) — Hărman, Sânpetru; Biserica Neagră; end of Camino de România 2.
25. Brașov – Feldioara (20.0 km) — Hălchiu (junction with Camino de România 6). In Hălchiu the largest altarpiece in Transylvania (1528) also shows the martyrdom of St James.
26. Feldioara – Măieruș (22.0 km) — Hăghig, Arini.
27. Măieruș – Aita Mare (18.0 km) — Apața.
28. Aita Mare – Augustin (20.0 km) — Micloșoara, Căpeni.
29. Augustin – Rupea (22.6 km) — Racoș, Mercheașa; Rupea castle. Until the Reformation the church of Rupea was dedicated to St James.
30. Rupea – Jibert (18.0 km) — Dacia.
31. Jibert – Șoarș (22.0 km) — Lovnic, Văleni; end of Camino de România 6.
32. Șoarș – Cincu (15.0 km) — Rodbav. The Lutheran church of Șoarș, too, was a St James's church before the Reformation.
33. Cincu – Cârța (25.0 km) — Bruiu, Șomartin; Cistercian abbey.
34. Cârța – Avrig (20.0 km) — Scoreiu, Porumbacu de Jos, Porumbacu de Sus.
35. Avrig – Tălmaciu (20.0 km) — Mârșa, Racovița; end of Camino de România 4.
36. Tălmaciu – Cisnădie (22.0 km) — Sadu, Tocile.
37. Cisnădie – Sibiu (16.0 km) — Cisnădioara; start of Camino de România 7. In the village church of Cisnădioara (St Mary, not the hill church) an 18th-century depiction of St James.
38. Sibiu – Amnaș (22.0 km) — Rusciori, Mag.
39. Amnaș – Gârbova (24.0 km) — Apoldu de Jos, Miercurea Sibiului; end of Camino de România 7. At Apoldu de Jos an 80 m stretch of Roman road, popularly known as „Drumul lui Traian“.
40. Gârbova – Sebeș (25.0 km) — Câlnic (UNESCO), Dumbrava, Sebeșel, Petrești; Capela Sf. Iacob.
41. Sebeș – Alba Iulia (26.6 km) — Pianu de Jos, Vințu de Jos, Vurpăr, Pârău lui Mihai; cathedral. The Lutheran church of Pianu de Jos (15th c.) was dedicated to St James before the Reformation.
42. Alba Iulia – Teiuș (22.0 km) — Micești, Șard, Oiejdea, Galda de Jos.
43. Teiuș – Aiud (25.0 km) — Stremț, Geomal, Gârbovița, Gârbova de Sus.
44. Aiud – Vălișoara (22.0 km) — Aiudul de Sus, Măgina, Livezile, Poiana Aiudului; Trascău.
45. Vălișoara – Rimetea (12.0 km) — Colțești; Piatra Secuiului.
46. Rimetea – Iara (24.0 km) — Buru, Surduc.
47. Iara – Săvădisla (25.0 km) — Băișoara, Săcel, Liteni.
48. Săvădisla – Cluj-Napoca (25.6 km) — Vlaha, Luna de Sus, Florești; St Michael's.
49. Cluj-Napoca – Aghireșu (27.6 km) — Breaza, Baciu, Viștea, Gârbău, Băgara, Aghireșu-Fabrici.
50. Aghireșu – Mânăstireni (22.0 km) — Leghia, Dretea, Ardeova.
51. Mânăstireni – Săcuieu (24.0 km) — Văleni, Călata, Sâncraiu, Alunișu.
52. Săcuieu – Ciucea (24.6 km) — Bologa, Cerbești, Poieni, Valea Drăganului.
53. Ciucea – Bratca (22.0 km) — Negreni, Bucea; Crișul Repede.
54. Bratca – Zece Hotare (24.0 km) — Bălnaca, Șuncuiuș (association's Bihor section), Măguran, Bătrânu; karst.
55. Zece Hotare – Vârciorog (20.0 km) — Gugu, Brejești, Cornet.
56. Vârciorog – Oșorhei (24.0 km) — Șerghiș, Surduc, Copăcel, Chijic.
57. Oșorhei – Borș (22.0 km) — Alparea, Oradea (end of Camino de România 3), Sântion; border.

What makes the route strenuous is not individual climbs but length, logistics and wilderness. The 57 stages take eight to nine weeks; most pilgrims walk blocks — Iași–Bacău (eleven stages, 237 km, trains at every second stage end), Bacău–Brașov (13 stages, 266 km, with the Nemira), Brașov–Sibiu (13 stages, 261 km), Sibiu–Cluj (eleven stages, 253 km), Cluj–Borș (nine stages, 210 km). In the mountains you carry food for the day, avoid dusk and talk loudly — bears here are the norm, not an anecdote. And where there is no waymarking, the association's GPS track or your own planning guides you; without an offline map you don't start.

A route that ends at an open border

On 1 June 2019 Pope Francis stood in the courtyard of the Roman Catholic cathedral of Iași before a marble marker made by the sculptor Constantin Crengănis, and blessed it. The inscription: „4.500 km" — the distance to Santiago de Compostela. Nine days earlier volunteers had fixed the first shells in Strada Ștefan cel Mare; on 8 November of the same year the county councils of Iași, Neamț and Bacău signed the agreement with the association. That is how the Camino de România began: not with a 12th-century charter but with a blessing, an association and a number. The association is called Asociația prietenilor „Camino de Santiago", founded in București in 2016, around a hundred members, its president the geography professor Ion Nicolae, who has himself been to Santiago sixteen times. He describes its way of working like this: „început să marcheze traseele Camino, la pas, kilometru cu kilometru" — kilometre by kilometre, on foot. To date 402 of the network's 2,526 kilometres are waymarked; on this axis 172 of 1,226.8. In October 2023 the Council of Europe admitted the Romanian route to its Cultural Route, in November 2023 the Xunta de Galicia transferred €4,845 (approx. 25,000 RON) in funding, on 17 June 2024 the association was admitted to the federation Camino Europa Compostela — Romania is one of 13 member countries.

What is missing, the association does not say out loud, but neither does it hide it: a named medieval Santiago pilgrim from Moldavia, Wallachia or Transylvania we have not found, no St James hospice, no pilgrim badge from Romanian soil. What there is lies on the route and is real: the Capela Sf. Iacob in Sebeș, around 1420, with its own entry in the monuments list; the St James's Chapel of Cluj-Napoca, attested in 1316 next to St Michael's Church, enlarged into a church in the 17th century and destroyed by fire in 1720 — today a record, not a stone; the statue of St James in pilgrim's habit on the Biserica Neagră, which the association calls a „statuie minunată a Sfântului Iacob pelerin", one of the twelve 15th-century figures moved inside in 1937–1944. The association laid its axis where these images hang — Brașov, Hălchiu, Hărman, Sebeș, Ghelința, Alba Iulia all lie on Camino de România 1. And it laid it where pilgrims still live today: the Catholic Csángó villages of Moldavia are the reason the first waymarked kilometres lie between Iași and Bacău and not elsewhere. The first registered pilgrim, Florentin Bosse, 69, living in Germany for thirty years, walked 400 kilometres from Iași to Sfântu Gheorghe in 19 days in June 2023, met a she-bear with three cubs near Micfalău and said afterwards: „Pelerinajul nu este un drum sportiv, e un drum de penitență, de umilință."

And then the border. The route ends in Borș, a municipality of 4,267 inhabitants, 80 percent Hungarian, 103 metres above sea level, border crossing to Ártánd. Since 1 January 2025 Romania has been a full member of the Schengen area — the EU Council lifted the checks at the land borders on 12 December 2024. So you can walk on from here without a passport. Only nothing on the other side takes you further: Hungary's Ways of St James, the Camino Húngaro from Budapest to Lébény and the Camino Benedictus from Tihany to Lébény, lie in the far west of the country; between Debrecen and the border there is no waymarked Way of St James. What really crosses the border is the Mária Út — 1,330 kilometres from Mariazell to Șumuleu Ciuc, a Marian road that the association waymarked jointly with its Camino near Tușnad. The Camino de România 1 is therefore what the association frankly admits: „o pată albă", a blank spot in the east of the map that a hundred people have begun to fill in. Whoever arrives in Borș today stands at an open door behind which no road has yet been built. That is not a weakness of this route. It is its date.

Highlights along the way

• Iași — marker „4.500 km" in front of the Palatul Culturii and the marker blessed by Pope Francis on 1 June 2019 in the courtyard of the Catholic cathedral; monastery of Sfinții Trei Ierarhi and Metropolitan cathedral with the relics of St Parascheva (since 1641), pilgrimage around 14 October with over 350,000 believers.
• Săbăoani and Roman — Csángó village with the church of Sfântul Mihail (1894–1902, organ from King Carol I, diocesan museum since 1902); Roman with the cathedral of Sfânta Parascheva (1542–1550, Petru Rareș) and an episcopal library of 20,000 volumes.
• Târgu Ocna — salt mine, documented since 1380, Romania's first funicular (1885–1896, Anghel Saligny); 240 metres underground the salt church of Sfânta Varvara, consecrated 4 December 1992, 3.1 km from the entrance. In the Roman Catholic Church of the Transfiguration, the sculptural group of Mount Tabor: Christ with Peter, James and John.
• Nemira crossing — stage 17 from Slănic-Moldova to Brețcu over the route's highest point (1,479 m); border between Moldavia and the Székely Land, bear country.
• Ghelința (Gelence) — Szent Imre church of around 1245, Ladislaus frescoes of the 1330s, sacrament house of 1503 with runic inscription, coffered ceiling of 1628 with 103 panels.
• Prejmer (Tartlau) — UNESCO fortified church since 1999; begun by the Teutonic Order in 1218, completed by Cistercians by 1240, ground plan „the only one of its kind in Transylvania"; walls up to 5 m thick, over 270 chambers for 1,600 people, besieged over 50 times, almost never taken.
• Brașov, Biserica Neagră — building begun 1383–1385, 89 m long, Buchholz organ of 1839 with 4,000 pipes; twelve 15th-century statues, among them the St James in pilgrim's habit the association cites as evidence.
• Cârța (Kerz) — Transylvania's only Cistercian abbey, founded 1202–1206, dissolved on 27 February 1474 by Matthias Corvinus; brought French Gothic to the country, today a Lutheran parish church.
• Sibiu (Hermannstadt) — Huet Square with the medieval cemetery excavated in 2005 (1,833 graves, 1250–1550), starting point of the Camino de România 7. In the Brukenthal Museum a life-size statue of St James from the 15th century.
• Câlnic (Kelling) and Sebeș (Mühlbach) — UNESCO fortified church of Câlnic, first mentioned 1269, bought by the village community in 1430; in Sebeș the Capela Sf. Iacob, c. 1420 — the only dated St James chapel on the route.
• Alba Iulia — Catedrala Sfântul Mihail, bishopric 1009, „the oldest and longest cathedral in the country"; burial place of John Hunyadi († 1456).
• Rimetea (Torockó) and Trascău — village beneath the Piatra Secuiului, stages 44–47 through the Trascău Mountains, second mountain crossing.
• Cluj-Napoca — Biserica Sfântul Mihail, begun 1316, main structure 1442–1447, tower 76 m, Maulbertsch altarpiece; beside it stood the St James's Chapel attested in 1316, enlarged into a church in the 17th century and destroyed by fire in 1720.
• Oradea — the „Hungarian Compostela" of the Middle Ages with the tomb of King Ladislaus († 1095), equestrian statue of 1390, Romania's largest Baroque cathedral, Art Nouveau city; end of the Camino de România 3.
• Borș — border crossing to Ártánd, no checks since 1 January 2025; end of the route, beginning of nothing — yet.
• Cleja — Csángó village with a statue of St James brought from Spain, erected in 2024 (stages 12/13).
• Ghelința, Calzada fresco — until the late 19th century a fresco in the Szent Imre church showed the miracle of Santo Domingo de la Calzada, the hen miracle of the Camino Francés; it survives only in the copy by the painter József Huszka, whose album is now in Budapest — the oldest Santiago reference on the Romanian route (association's information).
• Hărman (Honigberg) — fortified church between Prejmer and Brașov with a 15th-century fresco of St James (association source).
• Cluj-Napoca, St James chapel and St Roch — statue of St Roch, patron of pilgrims, at St Peter's Church (Biserica Sfântul Petru); the St James's Chapel itself has been gone since the fire of 1720 (association's information).
• Oradea, St James altar — in the monastery of the Grieving Mother (Mănăstirea „Maica Îndurerată", 1741) an altar dedicated to St James, 1808 (association source).

How pilgrims reach this route

The Camino de România 1 is the axis all the other Romanian routes converge on — you can join it at any node. From the Danube comes the Camino de România 2 via București and the Rucăr-Bran corridor to Brașov (stage 24); from Wallachia the Camino de România 4 through the Olt defile to Tălmaciu (stage 35); from the Banat the Camino de România 3 to Oradea (stage 57). The Camino de România 5 is the Carpathian alternative between Bacău and the Székely Land via Miercurea-Ciuc and Șumuleu Ciuc; the Camino de România 6 cuts across south of the Olt via Făgăraș, the Camino de România 7 through the Mărginimea Sibiului.

To reach the start you fly to Iași (around 30 direct connections) or come by train — CFR Călători runs Iași–București and, along the whole axis, Iași–Oradea. If you only walk sections, use the railway stations at the stage ends: Podu Iloaiei, Târgu Frumos, Roman, Bacău, Onești, Târgu Ocna, Sfântu Gheorghe, Brașov, Feldioara, Rupea, Avrig, Sibiu, Sebeș, Alba Iulia, Teiuș, Aiud, Cluj-Napoca, Ciucea, Bratca, Oradea. Without a CMS page, but as context: the Mária Út crosses the route in the Székely Land and, as a Marian way, links Hungary with Romania.

Continuing on?

Frankly: to Santiago, not yet. At Borș the route ends at a border without checks and without continuation — between the border and Budapest there is no waymarked Way of St James, Hungary's Camino Húngaro (Budapest–Lébény, around 200 km) and Camino Benedictus (Tihany–Lébény, around 170 km) lie in the west of the country, and only there does the Central European network connect to the Austrian routes and, via Germany, Switzerland or France, to the Camino Francés. The marker in Iași says „4.500 km", but the first 250 of them beyond the border you have to find for yourself — on country roads, cycle paths or by train to Budapest. The association is working on the connection; until it exists, the Camino de România 1 is a self-contained route.

Within Romania, by contrast, the choice is wide: if you are in Brașov and want to see the Carpathians differently, walk the Camino de România 2 backwards to the Danube; if you arrive in Oradea, you can continue on the Camino de România 3 through the Banat to Timișoara — as the group „Pelerinii speranței" did in 2025. And if you walk the axis a second time, take the alternatives: Camino de România 5 instead of the Nemira, Camino de România 6 instead of Rupea, Camino de România 7 instead of Miercurea Sibiului. The Romanian network measures 2,526 kilometres — enough for a pilgrim's lifetime, even without Santiago.

Preparation & practical matters

Best time: May to June and September to October; the two mountain crossings (Nemira, Trascău) are safely walkable from June to October, in Moldavia and Bihor high summer is hot and shadeless. Waymarking and navigation: golden shell and yellow arrows on dark blue, markers with the distance to Santiago, information boards — but only on around 14 percent of the axis. Download the association's GPX sections (Camino Iași, Neamț, Bacău, Bihor) from caminodesantiago.ro and plan the rest offline; most easily right in the Camino Ninja app together with your stages and accommodation. Credencial: „un fel de pașaport de pelerin", issued by the association since 2018, 10 RON (approx. €2), order by e-mail (office@caminoromania.org); there is no stamp directory — you get stamps in parish houses, town halls and monasteries if you ask. Language: Romanian; Hungarian in the Székely Land, some German in the Saxon villages; English among younger people. Bears: Romania counts 10,419 to 12,770 brown bears (2025 estimate). In the mountains start early, make noise, no food in the tent, avoid dusk; shepherd dogs are the more frequent problem — poles help. The association confirms: you can ask for a stamp wherever you stop — but there are no custom pilgrim stamps like on the Camino in Spain or Portugal; the only stamp made specially for pilgrims is at the hostel Casa Genoveva in Câmpulung Muscel (Camino de România 2). Contact: if you want to walk the route, write to the association at office@caminoromania.org — it puts you in touch with its local representatives, who can tell you about accommodation, the route and everything else; their contacts are also listed at caminodesantiago.ro/contact/.

Accommodation: there is no hostel network. You sleep in guesthouses (pensiune), guest rooms, parish houses, monasteries and — in small villages — through the local council; the association speaks to mayors and hosts on your behalf but has no published list. In the cities (Iași, Roman, Bacău, Brașov, Sibiu, Alba Iulia, Cluj, Oradea) everything is available; between the cities you call the day before — in Romanian or with a translation app. Food: a shop (magazin) in every village, water everywhere; carry the day's food in the mountains. Packing list: broken-in hiking shoes for asphalt and mountain paths, rain gear, poles, power bank, offline maps, headgear, two litres of water capacity, small first-aid kit, cash in lei for villages without card payment. Membership: if you want to support the association: 50 RON (approx. €10) a year, 25 RON (approx. €5) for students and pensioners (as of September 2026).

What the route costs

Frankly, Romania is one of the cheapest Camino countries in Europe — and the route itself costs nothing. All amounts as of September 2026, exchange rate 1 EUR ≈ 5.0 RON. Documented: APCS membership 50 RON (approx. €10), credencial 10 RON (approx. €2, since 2018), national averages for a hostel bed around 91 RON (approx. €18), a three-star hotel around 223 RON (approx. €45), a meal in a simple restaurant around 50 RON (approx. €10), cappuccino 13 RON (approx. €2.60), beer 5.30 RON (approx. €1.05), water 1.5 l 3.90 RON (approx. €0.80), bread 5.60 RON (approx. €1.10), single public-transport fare 3.50 RON (approx. €0.70). Guide values in the countryside: guesthouse or guest room 100–180 RON (approx. €20–36), parish house or monastery lodging by donation, set lunch in a village inn 30–50 RON (approx. €6–10). We do not quote train fares — CFR tariffs change, and booking runs via bilete.cfrcalatori.ro.

Realistic daily budget: frugal with parish house, guest room and self-catering 120–180 RON (approx. €24–36), mid-range with guesthouse and one hot meal 200–300 RON (approx. €40–60), comfortable with hotel in the cities and restaurant 350–500 RON (approx. €70–100). For the whole axis, 57 stages, reckon roughly 7,000–15,000 RON (approx. €1,400–3,000) on the ground; the flight to Iași and the return from Oradea come on top. The most expensive item is time: eight to nine weeks.

Getting there

To the start (Iași): Iași International Airport (IAS) with around 30 direct connections, including German and Austrian destinations; bus or taxi to the centre in 20 minutes. By train: CFR Călători Iași–București (night trains) and the axis Iași–Oradea; from Western Europe via Budapest–Oradea or Vienna–București. The starting point at the Palatul Culturii is ten minutes' walk from the station.

On the way and from the finish (Borș): railway stations at the stage ends from Podu Iloaiei to Oradea (see the feeder chapter), buses in every county. The finish Borș lies 15 kilometres west of Oradea: from there you fly from Oradea (OMR) or take the train — to Budapest in around four hours, to Cluj, Brașov or București on CFR line 300; the border to Ártánd has been check-free since 1 January 2025. If you walk the axis in blocks, use Bacău, Brașov, Sibiu and Cluj-Napoca as entry and exit points — all four have airports.

• Trains Romania: bilete.cfrcalatori.ro — CFR Călători, Iași – Bacău – Brașov – Sibiu – Cluj – Oradea
• Info: caminodesantiago.ro — GPX sections, credencial, chronicle
• Iași airport: aeroport.ro — Iași International Airport
• Oradea airport: aeroportoradea.ro — return from the finish
• Fortified churches of Transylvania: kirchenburgen.org — Prejmer, Câlnic, Sebeș, Cârța