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Since I started adding my reports to the Enduromania Website I have been constantly asked via EMail all kinds of questions to Enduromania topics. I remember very well how I myself had a lot of questions and still have. I started with this FAQ in german, but because it is listed from the Enduromania international Website I was asked to insert an english version. Gabi Sulea, a friend of the webmaster of http://www.enduromania.net was so kind to translate my german FAQs. Thank you very much!
Sergio asked me to put together this list of frequently asked questions and also some answers to them. I hope they are of use to someone.
 Is a GPS needed? Which should I choose?
What travel documents are needed?
Which Route should be taken for the arrival?
What kind of maps are recommended?
What about lodging in Romania?
What about gas supplies?
What about criminality in Romania?
Any Advice on money and foreign currencies?
Can I also paricipate with a very light/heavy motorbike?
Do I need a service vehicle?
What kind of support is there in case of a flat tire or other defect?
Where can I obtain more information in advance?
Here the answers:
Is a GPS needed? Which shoud I choose?
 Well, a GPS in general is not absolutely necessary. But it indeed makes things easier
and it makes fun to have one. I would always recommend to use one. In case you decide to use one, you should keep in mind, that it is important to get used operating it and you
should exercise a little bit navigating with it prior to your visit in romania.
The waypoints provided by the enduromania organization team are in Garmin format, so
a Garmin device with a standard Garmin serial interface connector is strongly recommended. Because Garmin digital maps are not available for romania, a device with
big display is not necessarily needed, but it makes handling a lot of waypoints easier. I use a Garmin Street Pilot III and are very satisfied with it.
The Street Pilot is not capable to track routes over a longer period, so if you want to track the routes you went you should decide to use another device for that. Especially the
GPS12 or the GPS12map are very robust and suitable for offroad use, if packed in a proper mount for the steering bar (available from Touratech). The GPS device of yur
choice should be water proof, so the eTrex types are not suitable. Consider to operate the device with gloves, so I do not recommend devices with very small buttons. Also the
amount of availble money has to be taken into account. ;-) Gerd Wichmann of the Clown Versand Hamburg is a good starting point, he offers fair pricing and supports
competently. His GPS-Shop is to be seen at http://www.gps-shop.com.
What travel documents are needed?
From Germany formely a “Reisepaß”, which is valid at least for 2 months was
mandatory. Since 2003 the “Personalausweis” is sufficient. This has the advantage, that no numberplates from Motorbikes can be stamped into the passport, so you are more
flexible with the assignment driver-bike between arrival and departure in romania. ;-). For the bike and a car you need a “Kraftfahrzeugschein” an a valid (check first!)
international green insurance card (available from your insurance company). A Visa is not needed anymore for EU citizens. If the bike you intend to use does not belong to you,
you will need a written permission of the owner (in romanian language preferrably). If you use a vehicle with a truck permission, which is heavier than 3,5t (this applies also to
pickups and transporters), crossing borders can be more complicated and expensive. In any case you are not allowed to use passenger car lanes or small border crossings, which
are only open for passenger cars. You may have to fill in special forms at the border, ask other truck drivers to assist you. If your vehicles altogether do not exceed certain limits (I
think it is 3.5 tons) you do not need to pay additional fees. Calculate several hours to cross borders. Keep in mind, that while travelling from hungary to romania you loose one
hour due to the different time zone. However, in general it becomes easier each year to cross borders, because hungary has already joined the EU and romania want to join the EU in 2007.
Which route should be taken for the arrival?
Sergio recommends taking the A1 in Austria and then the main motorway in Hungary
south (there is only one). From Austria to Hungary the border crossing at Eisenstadt-Sopron can be recommended, because usually here is lower traffic and no
delays. The main crossing at Nickelsdorf is often overloaded and several hours of waiting need to be calculated. Disadvantage: At Eisenstadt the Highway finishes and from there
you have to ride around 100 km normal road to Györ, which is however in good condition and well signed.
Riding the Highways in Austria and Hungary costs toll fees. The Highway in Hungary can
be dangerous considering the knaveries in the parking places on the motorway. However using the highways is recommended because of the shorter travelling time. If you follow
common known safety guidelines, your trip will be safe: Never leave the car alone or only with a woman and never accept any deals (exchange, sale, anything) and always stay together. Nothing will happen in that case.
There are only a few border crossings in Romania. Please read carefully the Travelling recommencdations in the information material provided from Sergio prior to starting the
journey. In 2005 there are the following advices:
- PKWs (normal cars) with trailers and Trucks up to 3,5t should take the border at
Cenad/Kiszombor, this save 40 km of travel.
- Alternatively you can use Battonya/Turnu, but this is 40km longer and not so easy to
find.
- LKW (bigger trucks) with more than 3,5t must use the main border at Nadlac and it
may happen that they have to wait in the long truck lane as all other trucks and that
drivers have to follow a standard lorry driver customs procedure. Please ask some
lorry drivers to assist you.
Personally I use the Cenad border crossing, south from Szeged. Another advantage: The
M1 Highway will be expanded to Szeged in the near future. Since January 2001 no Visa is required, but still you need an international passport which is still valid for a few months
and green insurance approvals for every Car and bike entering Romania. Since 2005 a general road usage fee (Rovinieta) has to be paid for all vehicles using the phantastic
romanian roads. ;-) The amount is dependent on the pollution classification of the vehicle, e.g. a car with “Euro2” classification has to pay for 30 days 3,60 Euros. (April 2005)
Often there are reports of trouble while crossing the border from romania to hungary with hungary customs, even if you use the hungarian language UEM recommendation letter.
The reason for that is, that there seems to be a hungarian law which says that all motor vehicles transported on trailers need to be brought through customs while crossig the
border. Sometimes it helps to insist politely not to pay anything, sometimes bikes need to be put from the trailer, pusehd or driven across the border and repacked again afterwards.
If someone discovers this kind of trouble caused by an unfriendly customs officer, please write a complaint letter to the hungarian embassy and provide a copy to Sergio. He is
very angry about this behaviour and does not accept, that single persons keep europe from growing together.
In Romania you stay on the European road passing through Timisoara, Caransebes and,
there you are! You should take into consideration that the roads are not so good in Romania, and therefore you will advance slower. Do not forget to calculate the one hour time shift when entering Romania.
Which maps are recommended?
Well, that's difficult. The ADAC and Marco Polo maps are not detailed enough for
Enduroriders, but are perfect for general orientation and for the arrival at the meeting points.
Since 2004 Daerr offers russian Romania Topo Maps on CD 1:200000 which are
reported to work really fine. They run with Fugawi or TTQV version 2.5 or higher, but you can not download them into the GPS handhelds, as they are of bitmap type.
The Daerr TPC Maps have their issues, because many names of locations are missing
and there are also lots of details which you can not use as an Endurorider (power poles, smokestacks...). Still it is very useful as topographical help, especially by indicating coordinates.
I use the self scanned Maps by ADAC and the TPC Maps and the official Maps from Sergio, which you will receive after having registered at the meeting point of the
Enduromania organisation. I do the planning work with TTQV (formerly known as QuoVadis) (gathering and administrating Waypoints). I consider it to be the perfect
mixture. Recently there should be some Garmin Mapsource Maps around for Romania, but I don’t know them and I can’t therefore say something about them.
What about lodging in Romania?
It's good. You can find it anywhere, but you will have to hold down your need of luxury. They are all cheap, and for 25,- Euro/night (including dinner and breakfast) you
get clean rooms and great food from nice and friendly people. They really try hard to make you feel good .You don't need to organize anything, just tell Sergio and he will take
care of it. He needs to know the period of time and the number of people coming, and then he'll distribute them according to the accommodation possibilities. If you know
somebody here, you can book it directly. After the first participation you may have your own local contacts.
What about gas supplies?
The tank should be empty when you enter Romania, because you can get fuel
anywhere along the road, despite the rumors, and it is quite cheap (a little over 0,65 € in Autumn 2004). Diesel is also no problem. I am not so well informed about Unleaded, as
I don't need it myself :) For your bike a 200 km range should be possible to make life easier. If the range is smaller and you want to climb around a lot on the mountains, you
can sometimes buy a few liters at the checkpoints, but you can not relay on it, and it is expensive as it must be brought up by jeeps and tractors. You should ask the organizers
about it before starting your ride. On big filling stations credit cards are accepted, on all others one should pay with romanian money to avoid getting cheated with the exchange rate.
What about the thieves and gangs in Romania, we hear so often about?
I don't want to neglect the problem, but nothing ever happened to me, nothing was
robbed or anything like it. You should stick to the basic rules (no unofficial money exchange, never leave you stuff unguarded and never drive around alone). I think that
these problems rather effect the larger cities (Caransebes isn't one yet). In the country the people are very peaceful, open-minded and interested and if you are friendly to them,
they offer you their help, as far as you can communicate with them.
Any advice on money and foreign currencies?
Foreign currencies are welcome in this country. Some people told me I should take
dollars with me. You can use dollars, but Euro are generally accepted, so I consider you needn't take dollars. Some Romanians though have used the inexperience of the tourist in
the past and the prices in Euro are sometimes much higher. Follow my advice and always have Romanian Lei on you. We do it like this: we calculate how much we need (gas,
food, lodging) when we enter the country, and exchange it all at the beginning of the holiday. As the biggest Romanian bank note is 50000 lei (around 2 €) you end up being
a millionaire with a volume problem (it doesn't fit in any portemonnaie :-))
You should have used it all up in the end, as changing back is not advantageous and
importing and exporting Lei is forbidden. It would be of no use anyway, as inflation is incredibly high and foreign banks usually do not accept them. If you need some more
money at the end of the holiday you can use € for once. Just in case, I keep 100-150 € in small bills on the bike and in my clothes. You can not rely on banks, as four banks in
Caransebes had no Lei cash to exchange our €. Sometimes there are special Currency Change offices, which may be able to help.
Sergio recommends to use Bankomat machines to get Cash. The Exchange office at the border usually offers a bad rate, he says. In Timisoara, Arad, Resita or Caransebes there
are Exchange offices with better rates. Avoid to exchange money “black” on the street, as you could get cheated there.
So this is my advice: give it a good thought before the arrival, and exchange it all at the border. We usually consider 10,- €/day for daytime food and 10 € for the gas. Lodging
and breakfust/diner can be paid in Euros. You will get around with that.
Can you also participate with very heavy/light machines?
Of course. As you can choose the routes and therefore the difficulty degree, you can
simply take an exploring tour along the normal rode or, take a Hard-Enduro-Tour through the riverbeds. There's something for everyone. Merely keep in mind that if the
area you are riding with an operating range lesse then 200km you should plan your refueling, especially if you ride around the mountains or in unexplored territory. The
advantages of team-work are shown here, as you can help each other. This is also very important, especially if you ride heavy off-road Enduros, because it is often very difficult
to rescue a bike fallen in a deep river bed on your own. In case you plan for extreme tours you need to prepare for it properly.
Do I need vehicles to accompany me?.
Of course not :-). Depending on how much you are used to carry around, you travel more or less comfortable (bike, car and passenger car trailer). On your off-road tours
you then take small baggage because you get back to your starting point every night. Of course you can plan for longer tours, but you won't need anything more than your
sleeping bag. Getting supplies (do not drink water from the faucet, only from mineral water bottles) is possible anywhere. You should be able to solve small problems on your own, especially flat tires.
What kind of support do I get in case of a flat tire or defect?
None ;-). Seriously, you should make sure you have everything you need to fix
problems yourself. A complete tool kit is minimum requirement, Japanese bikes need more. You should have everything you need to fix a flat tire, it happens often in Romania.
I have had one in my team every day of the first three times I've been to Romania (at the fourth time in 2001 we had no flat tire, a wonder!), we had enough work to do. You can
get collapsible levers from Polo, and a repair kit from a bike shop. Extra valves and a valve cap with a tool to unscrew valves are important. Who likes it perfect can get the flat tire repair kit from Touratech or BMW. You should also get extra clutch-, brake- and gear levers (you can get them cheap from Louis) and, if you want to do it even
better, get all the stuff you need especially for your bike. Cutouts and bulbs and some wire as well as thin and thick insulating tape are also necessary. Straps for your baggage,
to tie down something loose, are welcome too. On some trips a 30m rope was the most important equipment ;-)
Otherwise it is all about improvising in Romania, and I was often amazed by how much
can be fixed, if you really want it and you also find a somewhat experienced mechanic. It is understood that all the bikes you bring with you should be functional, and breaks,
steering, tires, and chain should be in good condition. You need to consider that organic brake lining can easily dismantle in the mud. Better bring some extra with you!
Where can I obtain more information in advance?
Look for the relevant reports of former participants. You can find a selection on the link-site for Enduromaniacs' reports. According to the feedback it seems my own reports are not that bad either ;-))
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