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Eforie Nord
Think "St. Tropez" in the 1950s
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In
County Constanţa
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Relax, It's Eforie Nord!
Quiet little back streets meld effortlessly with a
charming promenade and beautiful sea views from the hotels and
restaurants along the low cliff which protects the golden sands of
Eforie Nord.
Indeed there are quite a few reasons that relaxing
little Eforie Nord made our number one pick for your beach holiday.
The sea and beaches are cleaner than at Mamaia, it's close to the
shopping centres on the south side of Contanţa,
and close enough to rail, air and bus services.
The one possibly saving grace of the Communist era was
the lack of heavy tourist development which ravaged many a quite seaside
town in other spots throughout Europe during the 1960s and 1970s.
As we all know, some development is a good thing, too much an eyesore.
Eforie successfully maintains it's village feel.
Although Eforie Nord is number two after Mamaia in
terms of popularity, the little town offers a real Romanian seaside
village feel, with year-round residents adding to the town's
amenities like easy-to-access grocery stores, chemists and other
services not as available in Mamaia's hyper-commercial atmosphere.
The bulk of the holiday accommodation at Eforie (Eforie
Nord is often "the" Eforie, with it's southern cousin a smaller centre)
is made up of the guesthouses (pensions or "pensiune"), smaller bed and
breakfast type accommodation in people's homes, and smaller hotels with
less than 20 rooms. See our
Romanian
Accommodation section for explanations of these types of
properties).
Yes, there are a few of the lower 3 and 4 storey blocks intended for
working class holiday-makers on a budget, but equally there are some
four-star hotels and truly world-class restaurants.
There are a few hotel towers here, on the fringes, and
they really haven't robbed the main cliffside walk or the beach areas of
their smaller feel. Finding things to do and things to buy is easy
in Eforie, as the main shopping streets are all connected to the beach
areas.
Eforie's beaches run for 3 kilometres along the coast,
with nine breakwalls going out into the water with the signature
Y-shaped ends which so ably protect the golden sands and encourage
routine deposits as well.
Eating out is a joy in Eforie, with options for all ages
and wallets. Any traveller will delight in a lunchtime
bottle of wine, a linen table cloth, good table service, great food, and
a stunning view out over the cliff to the golden sands below and the
vibrant deep aqua of the Black Sea to the horizon. What's better,
is that you can enjoy liveried wait staff and get out without tipping
for about $10 per head!
Despite all the good offerings from the various pensions,
it's hard for a Westerner to miss the towering ANA Hotel Europa in the
town centre, with a roomy reception area, ample pool and spa facilities
and surrounding green lawns.
Just to the north of Eforie Nord, and situated on the
main road going south from Constanţa about 10km from the
Constanţa city centre, Agigea is about 3km inland from the
seashore.
Known through it's Bone and Joint hospital functioning in
the years between the great wars, Agigea is likewise known for it's
unique reservations of marine dunes, the largest in
România. With the Danube-Black Sea canal opening at
last in 1984, Agigea is the commercial gateway to the sea with the
canarrl opening to the Port of South Constanţa, making up 2,500 hectares
with over 10,000 metres of breakwalls and wing structures.
Agigea offers a great place for viewing the sea traffic through the
canal and into the port area as well.
Eforie Sud is about 2km to the south of the main Eforie
Nord township, and offers a bit more quiet, although certainly fewer
facilities. A recent injection of cash from EU funding has seen
things change a bit, with building underway and a few new accommodation
blocks now finished.
Eforie Sud is a great place to avoid the crowds and yet
still be close-in enough to Mamaia and Constanţa
if the need for shopping, malls, or some fun rides happens to strike
you. You'll find the same leafy streets, the great little
quiet squares, and some seriously cheap eats throughout Eforie Sud.
Enjoy the wonderful views from the steep hills and cliff tops down to
the beaches too, it's really quite lovely.
If you're beach-walking, you can still make your way
around the headlands and cliffs to the Eforie Sud beaches from the south
end of the Eforie Nord strip, and you'll find a quieter, more
working-class sort of feel at Eforie Sud, well away from the throbbing
pulse of the summer time crowd at Eforie Nord.
Ten years ago you'd be hard-pressed to hear anything but
Romanian and a bit of English spoken at Eforie Sud, but now German,
Russian, and French is heard more often. Economy discount charter
flights from Dortmund and Hamburg during the summer months to the
airport near Constanţa have meant a bit of
overflow from the other resorts, and word-of-mouth has Eforie Sud on the
rise.
But, despite the slight increase in foreigners, Eforie
Sud is still a great little getaway place, especially if you have
transportation like a hire car or don't mind the Personal trains.
Few know today that between the great wars of last century, Eforie Sud
(or Carmen Sylva as it was known then) was
the top luxury resort on the whole Black Sea coast!
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The Europa Yacht Club
The little harbour at Eforie Nord with a private
beach area. A concrete roadway links the enclosed club area to
the main southern beach and the Hotel Europa.
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 The photo immediately preceding this notice is Copyright (c)2005 - 2008 Rest
Romania SRL, All rights reserved.
Photo:
© REST ROMÂNIA
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 Eforie
Nord and the facilities at Techirghiol make the area a world famous
spa resort in the Eastern European tradition of various mud
treatments, massages, and electro-therapy as well.
If you want a sublime quality of rich black mineral mud, come to
Techirghiol. It's the only coastal resort which is specifically
designed for balneal treatments, and attracts those afflicted with
rheumatism and gynaecological ails, with big players
Gerovital, Boicil and Pell-Amar all having a presence.
Long before the beaches of Eforie became famous as the top
luxury resort on the coast in the 1920s, it was the magical mud of
Techirghiol which were renown throughout the Ottoman empire and
continuing through the first modern spa facilities in the late
1800s.
The faithful still flock today, with woman's and men's
segregated beach facilities for nude mud-bathing on the eastern
shores closer to the rail line and highway, and more community
oriented bathing at the town of Techirghiol on the western shore.
It's far cheaper to slap on the mud here than at your hotel,
costing about $3, with about $5 for a massage. In the town of
Techirghiol, don't miss the statue of the donkey which supposedly
found the miraculous muds one day, and stop by the slightly
out-of-place old wooden church from Maramureş
in front of the the church-run spa complex. The
church (to right) was moved first to Sinaia in the 1920s, and then
moved again to Techirghiol in the early 1950s.
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Cool and Crazy Costineşti
A great beach and a young crowd ensure the fun
and games continue around the clock
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The photo immediately preceding this notice is Copyright (c)2005 - 2008 Rest
Romania SRL, All rights reserved.
Photo:
© REST ROMÂNIA
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Funny little Costineşti
started out as a fishing village and was one of the last current-day
resorts to be developed between
Constanţa (30km south)
and Mangalia.
Costineşti's jewel in the
crown is undoubtedly it's beautifully long and sweeping 2 kilometre
long beach, unfettered by the cliffs found at other Black Sea
resorts. The adjoining town evolved from a small fisherman's
village in the 1960s to become a favoured summer destination for
young people and students. A hotel, as well as several villa
complexes were erected during the Communist era, which targeted
Costineşti for it's first Young Pioneers
Youth Camp in 1948, a way of keeping the kiddies entertained and
indoctrinated, with the first student's international camp in 1956.
After the Revolution of course, much of the facilities
were modernized, and private construction, especially to the north of
the resort, has taken off, and you can now find several 6 - 8 storey
little hotel accommodation towers, offering rather good beach and coast
views.
The resort also has a small inland lake, around which
several lodges are located. The little village of
Schitu, founded in the late 1800s by German colonists, is included
in the Costineşti commune. There’s lots of little hotels,
villas, campgrounds, restaurants, bars and nightclubs, cinemas, and
all the trappings of a modern Romanian Riviera seaside centre.
 The
lowest tariff at the 2-star Forum Hotel is around 18E a day for a
double room, while the most expensive is a suite at 50E, breakfast
and sales tax included.
In addition to youth pursuits, Costineşti
is yet another curative centre for a wide panoply of conditions, with
the spas and resorts catering to the health tourism trade.
Try the Mexican restaurant for a bit of fun, which gives
Costineşti a perversely Baja California feel.
If you have some information for us about Eforie
Nord or County Constanţa, please
Let us know about it now!
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Vibrant Costineşti Downtown
With the looming hulk of the old freighter in the
distance, the main boulevard at Costineşti is
surrounded by tree-lined side streets
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Party On in Eforie!
Your Wedding Night
The famous folklore restaurant, Nunta
Zamfirei is just up from the town centre, offering fixed price
meals, alot of dancing, centred around the nightly little fake wedding
ceremony.
Great fun, don't forget the camera, and you'll have a
fabulous night to tell your friends about back in Melbourne, St. Louis,
Vancouver or Birmingham. You may need to book in advance
during the busy seasons.
Listen Up!
Some rather good concerts and theatre performances come
to Eforie in the summer months, many of them touring up and down the
coast. Eforie is a popular stop after performances at Mamaia, and
a more relaxed and less crowded way of soaking up the vibes.
With it's younger audience, Costineşti
during the summer season hosts the "Sea's Feast", the Young Actors
Reunion("Reuniunea tinerilor actori"), the Film Festival for the Young
("Festivalul de film pentru tineri") and the Jazz Festival.
The Nightlife in Costineşti
Opposite to one of the northern beaches, the shipwreck of
Evangelia, a Greek ship beached there in the late 1960s proves to be
quite popular with the tourists.
Nightlife is centred mainly around the two discos (Ring
and Tineretului). Because Costineşti is mostly frequented by youngsters,
the atmosphere tends to be here livelier than in the other Black Sea
resorts.
The Donkey and The Mud
Proof of the Powers of the Mud!
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Stopped now for way too long on his donkey, the blind and
crippled old man realised his donkey was stuck in the mud on the
shores of a lake.
He got off and pushed and pulled the donkey, fell over a few
times and was covered in mud. But it was hopeless!
The donkey would not move! Just about to give up and call
for help, the man realised he was seeing light! Light, in
his previously blind eyes!
His first vision was his donkey, also covered in mud but now
looking younger than he ever remembered. And both of
their backs were suddenly without pain!
The man returned to his village along the lake and when his
family and friends saw that he could see again and was no longer
cripped with arthritis, they all ran to the lakeshore, covering
themselves in mud.
Today, the legend persists, and people flock to use the mud
to alleviate arthritis, gynocological ails, and more.
Below: Two kids pose for their mother
with a bronze statue of the famous donkey who discovered the mud
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The photo immediately preceding this notice is Copyright (c)2005 - 2008 Rest
Romania SRL, All rights reserved.
Photo:
© REST ROMÂNIA
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Healthy Options
The health resort and health tourism business booms along
the Black Sea Coast, with specialty clinics, resorts and spas for the
treatment of degenerative rheumatic diseases, rachitis, decalcification,
hypothyroidism, certain scaly dermatoses (psoriasis) and many others.
To a Westerner, the claims made may indeed seem a bit
much, but the adherents and testimonials are hard to deny, so giving
these traditional Romanian treatment a go may indeed be at the least
enjoyable.
But, this section of the coast has been known for it's
bathing hotels since the twin hotels of The Park and The Baths went up
in Edwardian times (which were Carolingian times in Romania), when
Eforie Sud was the height of luxury.
The tradition lives on to this day, and you can be
assured of receiving the top therapies, whether it involves hot mud, a
good rub-down, or some other more traditional spa treatments!
Shop Shop Shop
There is a Selgros, Dorally, Metro, and Practiker (and
many other main hypermarket type of stores) all within easy reach of
Eforie Nord in Agigea just to the north over the Danube-Black Sea canal
bridge.
This is another reason that the Eforie Nord area wins our
top pick for your Black Sea holiday -- it really does marry the
convenience of the city with the charm of a seaside village, in some
ways like Carmel and Monterey in California, or Redland Bay near
Brisbane in Queensland.
It is this proximity to "the real world", including the
airport near Constanţa, which give Eforie that extra advantage over
resorts to the south, especially if you're only on the sea shore for a
few days (Romania does after all have some other interesting things,
like Dracula's Castle!)
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Listed below are some local agents who can help you with bookings and organize local tours in the Eforie Nord area.
  +40 (241) 734311 FAX: +40 (241) 734311
+40 (241) 734022 FAX: +40 (241) 734022 FAX: +40 (241) 734531 +40 (241) 632111 FAX: +40 (241) 632111 +40 (241) 734300 +40 (241) 742012 +40 (241) 741444 FAX: +40 (241) 831593 +40 (241) 741200 FAX: +40 (241) 741200 +40 (241) 741049 +40 (241) 742036 +40 (241) 748270 |
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See More Maps of Romania and
Eforie Nord at
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 See
More Street Maps of Eforie Nord at
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Getting to Eforie and Costineşti
You can drive a rental car from Bucharest or the airport, take a
maxi-taxi or bus from the
Constanţa train station, or arrange for a pick-up with your
accommodation if they offer that from the airport or train station.
Since Eforie is so close (15 minutes south of the
Constanţa station), almost any option will be sufficient to
finish your journey to the Romanian Riviera.
Driving
If you do have a car, the new A2 "Freeway of the Sun", linking
Bucharest with the sea coast is a great driver, and you can easily drive
to Eforie Nord or Costineşti in under half a day.
With fully controlled access, overpasses and well graded exit ramps,
the freeway is almost 100% completed through to
Constanţa.
Going south, it's mostly 2-way traffic down to Eforie and Costineşti.
The Train Station at Costineşti
Yes, the young crowd enjoys the cheap trains
at this little station!
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The Constanţa Train Station
Most people on their way to the resort town
beaches go through
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See a Road Map of the Eforie Nord Area
See
an Area Map of County Constanţa
