Călărași

Călăraşi is a city in Muntenia.

Understand

The seat of Călăraşi County, Călăraşi is a city of about 70,000 people located in southeastern Romania near the Danube river.

Get in

By bus

There are buses every 30-60 minutes from Bucharest (2½ hours travel time) and multiple buses from Constanţa (also 2½ hours away). Most of their schedules are available on autogari.ro.

By train

The city is reached by several local trains from Ciulniţa junction on the nearby Bucharest-Constanţa mainline (a 30 minutes trip). There is also one direct train from Bucharest (3½ hours travel time) and one from Constanta (over 3½ hours away). Timetables can be found on the railway operator CFR's website CFR's website.

By ferry

There are ferries across the Danube to/from the village Ostrov every 15 minutes during the day and every 30 minutes at night; the docking area at Ostrov is on the outskirts of the Bulgarian city Silistra, right next to the border crossing point (a separate, direct ferry to Silistra used to exist, but it's no longer running).

Get around

Several bus lines cover the city.

See

• Muzeul Dunării de Jos (Lower Danube Museum), strada Progresului nr. 4, ☏ +40 242 313161, fax: +40 242 311974, coslogeni@yahoo.com. Daily 10AM-6PM. Has archeology, ethnography and art collections. 

Do

• There are several beaches near the city and the nearby islands/marshes along the Danube are a great fishing area.

Sleep

• Călăraşi, strada 1 Decembrie 1918 nr. 2 (downtown), ☏ +40 242 318 996, hotelcalarasi@yahoo.com. 
• Albatros, şoseaua Călăraşi-Chiciu km.4 (right outside the city on the road to the former ferry crossing to Silistra), ☏ +4 0721 908 413, office@albatrospodul4.ro. Air conditioning, cable TV, Internet. Single 120 lei, double or twin 140 lei (breakfast included). Dorm 70 lei (no breakfast). (updated Apr 2017)