Driving from Vidin to Craiova by European route E79

by JK · October 3, 2018

One day drive from Vidin, Bulgaria to Craiova, Romania by E79

Pictures from the Craiova food festival

We visited Craiova last weekend and to see their food festival. We arrived there by car from Northern Bulgaria so we had to cross the Danube bridge connecting Bulgarian city Vidin and Romanian town Calafat.

The road from Vidin (or Sofia – the capital) to Craiova is the European route E79, part of the international E-road network. The whole route begins in Hungary and ends in Greece, so it connects the capital Sofia with the north-western part of the country and with Romania.

The Bulgarian part of E79 from Sofia to Vidin is not a very comfortable drive and it could take you 3.5 – 4 hours on average. There is often road maintenance (currently the part between Vratsa and Montana is being worked on). It’s not unusual to get stuck in traffic caused by lots of heavyweight trucks or road accidents.

The Bulgarian part of E79, highlighted

The drive from Vidin to Craiova is around 1 hour 30 minutes if you don’t get stuck in traffic delays on the border after the bridge. The distance is around 90 km driving on country roads, no highway. The state of the road is good, although there are renovations ongoing currently in the part closest to the border.

Our trip took longer than that as we got stuck in a delay on the border. There was a queue of cars and TIR trucks and we waited more than an hour to cross the border.

How to make your trip easier:

make sure to schedule your trip to avoid lunchtime – the queues are big and there are delays
choosing early morning time is best and will give you more time to explore and return home early
have your ID card or passport ready along with your car license and registration
do not bring too much luggage if not needed – they will check it which will delay you and other passengers
do not carry any meat or byproducts – they are forbidden

What we saw in Craiova

Craiova is a beautiful city with classic European architecture. The Hungarian influence is noticeable in the buildings and streets, as in most of Romania. There are lots of places to see if you have more time to look around. We had only a couple of hours but I managed to take some amazing pictures as shown in my gallery below.