This new, 4th edition of Bradt's Romania: Transylvania remains the only standalone English language guide to this legendary and enchanting region. It attracts a diverse range of travellers to the region, from city breaks to rural escapes, ski enthusiasts to charity volunteers. The region has continued to develop its tourism offer, with improvements to the transport infrastructure, in particular to the regional airports within Transylvania, which offer more direct flights to the UK and other western European destinations, limited modernisation of the railway system, and the completion of some new motorway routes, such as that between Sibiu and Deva. A number of really striking new accommodation options have appeared since the last edition: for example the sustainable guesthouse in Valea Zalanului owned by Charles III, and the mountaintop retreat of Raven's Nest in the Apuseni Mountains. More attractions have opened up, such as Baroque palaces formerly owned by Hungarian aristocrats, seized under the Communist regime and now being restored by the descendants of their original owners. And the region is developing its offer for new types of tourism, such as summer rock festivals, notably the Untold Festival at Cluj and Electric Castle Festival at Bontida. Transylvania, literally the 'land beyond the forest', is a wild, wooded, intensely romantic region, filled with mountains, gorges and valleys, myths and legends, dragons, bears, wolves - and vampires. Bram Stoker called it 'one of the wildest and least-known parts of Europe' a description which remains true today. One of the most beautiful regions in central Europe and home to three UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Transylvania preserves its cultural and artistic treasures in a unique landscape, bordered on three sides by the Carpathian Mountains. The hay meadows of the lower Carpathians form a man-made, high nature-value grassland ecosystem of extraordinary diversity, offering a beautiful display of wild flowers. The Carpathians are home too to lynx, wild boar, and one of Europe's largest populations of brown bear. Other natural phenomena include the Scarisoara ice cave in the Apuseni Mountains and the Sfanta Ana volcanic crater lake in Harghita. Whatever your interests, with Bradt's Romania: Transylvania, you can discover all of the region's many and varied attractions. AUTHORS: Born and educated in the UK, Lucy Mallows worked for 12 years in Budapest as a reporter. She first visited Transylvania in 1997, but her links with Romania went back to the late 1980s when she worked as a volunteer for Operation Romanian Villages, and to an early childhood fairytale The Lost Princess, written in 1924 by Queen Marie of Romania. Lucy Mallows was also the author of the Bradt guides to Bratislava and Slovakia. She died in 2018. Paul Brummell was previously the British Ambassador to Romania. A career diplomat, he joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1987. He has served as British Ambassador to Turkmenistan and to Kazakhstan (as well as non-resident Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan) and High Commissioner to the countries of the eastern Caribbean, based in Barbados. He is the author of Bradt Travel Guides to Turkmenistan and to Kazakhstan, and in 2016 was awarded the CMG for services to British foreign policy. 16pp colour photos, 32 maps
