Romania by campervan: food and supermarkets

Where to buy food in Romania, which supermarkets to use, opening hours and practical tips for eating on the road. What to know before you go.

Published 18 September 2026Last checked 19 September 2026

Currency
Romanian leu
RON, not the euro. 5.2644 lei to €1 on 18 September 2026
Language
Romanian
A Romance language in the Latin alphabet
Driving
Right
Motorway 130 km/h, 90 km/h from 3.5 to 7.5 tonnes
Power
230V, type F
The round two-pin Schuko socket
Road toll
Rovinietă
9.50 euro for 30 days in a car, September 2026
Emergency
112
Mountain rescue, Salvamont, on 0725 826 668

Food and shops

Stocking a van in Romania is easy in a town and a pleasure in a village. Hypermarkets and discounters are the same chains as the rest of central Europe, with car parks a van fits into, on the edge of every town of any size. The village alternative is the magazin mixt, a small shop that sells a bit of everything, and the piață, the covered market where the vegetables, cheese and honey are.

Heaps of red and dark tomatoes, green chillies and mushrooms on a market stall — The <em>piață</em>. Cash, and the best thing you will eat all week

Where to shop

Best value: Lidl or Penny.
Full range: Kaufland or Carrefour.
Camper access: Kaufland branches outside town centres generally have roomy surface parking.

What eating out costs, reported

Cheap restaurant meal: 50 lei
Draught beer, 0.5 l: 11 lei

Stocking the campervan

Supermarkets sit on the edge of town with proper car parks. The village magazin mixt does not, so park on the road and walk in.
The piață is where the produce is. Vegetables, sheep cheese, honey, smoked plums and eggs, sold by the people who made them.

Food, bears and the van

No food in a tent, ever, and no food left out beside the van overnight in the mountains.
Hang food at least two metres up and away from the trunk if you are away from the vehicle, which is the park administration's own wording.

What is on a Romanian menu

Dish	What it is	Worth knowing
Ciorbă	Sour soup, soured with borș or lemon	Ciorbă de burtă is tripe. Ask if that matters to you
Mămăligă	Maize polenta	Served under or beside almost everything
Sarmale	Cabbage rolls of minced pork and rice	The national dish, and best in winter and at feasts
Mici or mititei	Grilled skinless minced meat rolls	Street and barbecue food, eaten with mustard and bread
Papanași	Fried doughnuts with sour cream and jam	One portion feeds two people

Rounds of polenta with sautéed meat, cherry tomatoes and a small bowl of sour cream — Mămăligă. It turns up beside almost everything on a family table

The two prices in this panel are reported ones. Romania's statistics office was not reachable when the page was written, and no other source it could reach publishes a national figure for a basket of food, a restaurant meal or a campsite night, so the meal and the beer come from what Numbeo's contributors said they paid in September 2026. The prices with a named publisher behind them are in the money and driving panels. There is still no figure here for a campsite night.