Tourists will be able to reach the Romanian seaside slighlty faster by train this summer, with Romanian passenger railway company CFR Calatori’s Seaside Trains. A trip between Bucharest and Constanta will take just two hours from the May 1 mini-break, CFR promises. The train ride will be speedier as trains will no longer stop in other stations on the way.

Four such trains will connect Romania’s capital to Constanta seaside resort. The IR 1581 train will leave at 7:30 from Bucharest and will reach its destination at 9:30. A second train, IR1587, will depart from the capital at 16:00 and will arrive in Constanta at 18:00. Some of these trains are already running as of April 24, without making any stops on the way.

From Constanta, the IR 1582 train will depart at 13:00 and will be in Bucharest at 15:01. Another train, IR 1588, will leave from the seaside resort at 19:00 and will arrive in the capital at 21:01.

For the May 1 mini-break, CFR Calatori will also increase the number of trains to the seaside between April 29 and May 4, according to a company statement. 20 new trains will connect several cities across the country to the Black Sea resorts.

A train ride between Bucharest and Constanta has different prices, depending on the type of train. A one-way ticket for the Regio and RE trains, class II, costs RON 30.5 while a return ticket is RON 54.9. For the InterRegio trains, class II, a one-way ticket is RON 62, and a return ticket is RON 112.4. Students have discounts.

According to the company statement, some InterRegio and Regio trains will not run on some days between May 1 and May, due to the low passenger traffic. Moreover, on May 1, the CFR travel agencies will be closed, but tickets can still be bought from train stations, with enough time prior to departure.

Train rides to the seaside take anywhere from 6 hours with Regio trains, and between two and two and a half hours with inter-regio trains. The train ride is an alternative to the car ride, as the Sun Highway linking Bucharest to the seaside gets crowded during high season, especially on Friday evenings/Saturday morning to the seaside, and on Sunday evening to Bucharest.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com