The Best Driving Road on EarthTransfăgărășan.

Sighișoara is the finest surviving medieval fortified town in Transylvania and one of the best-preserved in Europe — a hilltop citadel of coloured houses, nine defensive towers, cobbled lanes and the 64-metre Clock Tower, all within intact 12th–14th century walls. It was founded by Saxon colonists (Siebenbürger Sachsen) brought to Transylvania by Hungarian kings in the 12th century to defend the eastern frontier; the Saxon community maintained their language and customs here until the 1990s emigration that followed Romanian communism's collapse. The house at Piața Cetății 5 has a plaque identifying it as the birthplace of Vlad III (Vlad Dracula, Vlad the Impaler) — now a restaurant, naturally.

The Transfăgărășan (trans-fah-gah-RAH-shahn) is a 90km mountain road crossing the Fagaraș Mountains — the highest range in Romania, part of the Southern Carpathians — via a tunnel at 2,042 metres, the highest paved road in Romania. Built by the Romanian Army between 1970 and 1974 on Ceaușescu's direct order (motivated partly by the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia — he wanted a military supply route across the mountains), using approximately 6,000 soldiers and civilian workers, with dynamite removing an estimated 3 million kg of rock. Forty people died during construction. Jeremy Clarkson drove it in a Ferrari 599 in 2009 and called it "the best road in the world." He drove it north to south — the wrong direction. Drive south to north for the better hairpin sequence.

The first major stop on the southern approach — the Vidraru Dam (1965) creates a reservoir 10km long in the narrow Argeș gorge. The dam itself is an arch dam 166 metres high, one of the largest in Europe at its construction. A statue of Prometheus holding fire stands on the hillside above the dam — placed there by the workers. The road crosses the top of the dam giving a vertiginous view down the rock face to the river below and across the lake to the forested Carpathian walls. The lake is a striking deep blue-green from the mountain water clarity. Electricity from the Vidraru hydroelectric station still powers a significant portion of the Argeș region.

The Bâlea Waterfall (Cascada Bâlea) cascades 60 metres down the rock face at the point where the road begins its most dramatic sequence of switchbacks toward the summit tunnel. A large car park and tourist area surrounds the waterfall base; a cable car (telecabina) ascends from here to the Bâlea Lake at the summit plateau, giving a 10-minute alternative to the final hairpin sequence for those who want the aerial view before driving. The waterfall is fed by snowmelt and is at its most spectacular in June and July; by September it reduces significantly. The sound and spray from the falls is impressive even from the car park.

The summit plateau of the Transfăgărășan is reached after the long sequence of hairpin switchbacks on the southern face — and the emergence from the tunnel at 2,042 metres into the open summit plateau is the most dramatic single moment on the road. Lacul Bâlea (Bâlea Lake) is a glacial cirque lake at 2,034 metres, 4.6 hectares, its cold blue-grey water reflecting the surrounding peaks of the Fagaraș ridge — the highest in Romania, with peaks above 2,500 metres. The air at 2,000 metres is noticeably thin if you have come from Bucharest. In winter the lake freezes and an ice hotel is built on it annually. Stop, get out, stand in the Carpathians, and appreciate what Ceaușescu's engineers achieved.

The Fagaraș Mountains have one of the densest brown bear (Ursus arctos) populations in Europe — approximately 6,000 brown bears in Romania, more than in any other European country outside Russia. Bears cross the Transfăgărășan regularly, attracted by the food waste left by tourists. The correct behaviour if you encounter a bear on the road: slow down, stay in the car, do not sound the horn, do not stop the engine, do not attempt to photograph from outside the vehicle, and proceed slowly when the bear moves off the road. Feeding bears from cars is illegal and has created a population of habituated bears that are the most dangerous animals in the Carpathians. If a bear approaches your car, drive away slowly.

Sibiu is the most beautiful city in Transylvania — a Saxon merchant city (originally Hermannstadt, founded by German colonists in the 12th century) with a perfectly preserved medieval centre of three squares connected by cobbled streets, the Piața Mare (Grand Square) surrounded by Baroque and Gothic facades, and the Liar's Bridge (the first cast-iron bridge in Romania, 1859 — legend says it collapses if you lie on it). The Brukenthal National Museum on the Piața Mare is the oldest museum in Romania (1817) with an exceptional collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings. The distinctive houses with their "eyelid windows" (dormer windows shaped like watchful eyes) are the defining visual symbol of Sibiu.

Cluj-Napoca is the unofficial capital of Transylvania — a university city of 400,000 with the most vibrant cultural scene in Romania outside Bucharest. Founded as the Roman city Napoca in the 2nd century AD, it became a major Saxon and Hungarian city in the medieval period (Hungarians call it Kolozsvár) and is now home to Babeș-Bolyai University, the largest university in Romania. The Piața Unirii (Union Square) with the Gothic St Michael's Church is the finest medieval square in Transylvania; the equestrian statue of King Matthias Corvinus in front of the church is the most important Renaissance monument in Romania. The city has also become Romania's tech hub since 2010, with the best café and restaurant culture outside Bucharest.