Timișoara for Digital Nomads

Timișoara is Romania's third largest city. It's so far in the west of the country that it's closer to Belgrade, Budapest, Sarajevo, Pristina and Sofia than it is to Bucharest.

It has a beautiful city centre. I'm not a big architecture guy so I'm not sure about all the fancy words, but there are some cool as fuck buildings here. Yet for reasons uncertain, it just doesn't attract tourists. The city centre almost feels like a return to Covid it's so empty, but I mean that in a good way. I hate tourists.

It's not like the city centre is completely dead. There are lots of restaurants, it just seems that getting delivery has taken over from going out to eat, so you see more delivery drivers on electric bikes in the city centre than you do people.

I quite like that to be honest, and another benefit is how clean the city centre is, because with no people, there are no people throwing litter on the ground.

All of this is great, but none of it really affects if you should come here or not. What is Timișoara actually like for a digital nomad?

The city centre is absolutely gorgeous with some beautiful architecture. Yet there are very few other people here that you have to share it with.

Getting in and out of Timișoara

If arriving by plane as I did, you'll be arriving at the Timișoara International Airport, north-east of the city centre. Getting to the city centre by public transport from here, your only option is the public bus - either the E4 or the E4b.

The bus stop is right outside the arrivals terminal, but it's a little inconspicuous - it's just a couple of timetable signs attached to a pole. The first E4 of the day leaves at 4:55am (or 6:15am on holidays), and they run until 10:59pm (or 10:07pm on holidays), with 1-2 every hour. The E4b is less frequent, but runs until 11:25pm (except on holidays).

I just missed an E4b when I arrived, so took the next E4 to its terminal stop, Bastion. The fare was 5 lei, I was able to pay on board with contactless, there were only two other passengers for the entire ride, and it took 15-20 minutes.

The E4b goes a slightly longer route and ends up near the Gara Timișoara Nord train station.

When I left Timișoara it was on a Flixbus. That departed from Autogara Normandia, which is basically just a car park with a couple of ticket offices made out of shipping containers. Getting here is easy as there's a tram stop right outside.

The bus stop at Timișoara Airport is a little inconspicuous if you don't know what you're looking for as it's just a couple of timetable signs attached to a pole. It's right outside the arrivals terminal.

Getting around Timișoara

Taking public transport in Timișoara is easy. Apart from on my final day here where the onboard POS machines were bugging out and not accepting contactless payments (which was catching a lot of people out), I was always able to pay on board with Apple Pay. And even if you can't, I didn't see a ticket inspector through my whole stay.

The easiest way to figure out which buses/trams to get is with Google Maps, which I found to be 99% reliable - the one exception being when it told me to take a bus from a stop that didn't exist. You can also check out Transport Public Timișoara which has information about all the lines, including a frustratingly well-hidden travel planner.

Every journey I took cost 5 lei.

You'll often be faced with three different ticket machines on board. The one for contactless here is the top one, on the left of the picture.

How affordable is Timișoara?

My comfortable apartment in Timișoara cost me the equivalent of about 233 lei per night, a plate of food in a restaurant will cost around 40 lei, one trip on public transport is 5 lei, and I spent around 350 lei per week on groceries, although you could easily spend less.

It's a little cheaper than Bucharest, but not by much.

Paying for things in Timișoara

I didn't buy a single thing in Timișoara that I didn't pay for with Apple Pay. Contactless is basically universal.

What language is spoken in Timișoara?

Romanian.

Is it easy to get by with English in Timișoara?

Relatively, yes. Most people that I interacted with spoke some basic English, but certainly don't expect it from everyone.

How is the Internet in Timișoara?

I had no issues. The wifi in my room was 100% reliable, scoring 583mbps download and 486mbps upload speeds on the speed test that I did. I had no connection issues with mobile data throughout town.

Is Timișoara safe?

I'd say so, yes.

There is a lot of evidence of homelessness, and the expected number of crazies that usually brings. But I didn't experience anything remotely threatening during my stay.

Who is Timișoara suitable for?

I had zero social life while I was here.

I'm pretty introverted, and don't do well at meeting people outside of organised events such as Meetups, of which there are none here, so my time in Timișoara was very isolated.

I enjoy that, but if you do not, then beware that meeting new people here isn't easy.

The city is architecturally beautiful, and feels quite big and open, so it's a pleasant place to be outdoors, but I'd say there's not too much here to get excited about.

So if you like nice buildings, and you like being outside, and you don't like people, then Timișoara might be for you.

Is the tap water drinkable in Timișoara?

I hope so.

Things I don't like about Timișoara

Apart from the things already mentioned, my only other frustration here was the same as in every Eastern European city: Smoking. People smoke here. A lot.

And while it is limited to outdoor areas thankfully, I'm convinced that smokers intentionally seek out places to smoke that will cause the maximum annoyance to others.

Oh, there's a nice park where people are exercising and children are playing? That's the perfect place for me to sit and smoke cigarettes all day.

Where to run in Timișoara

Honestly, anywhere.

It's such a big, open, peaceful city that you can run, even in the city centre without issue, so long as you don't mind waiting to cross the road sometimes.

Throughout my stay I was only doing two kinds of runs - zone 2 runs and timed fast runs, neither of which are conducive to pedestrian crossings, so all of my runs in Timișoara came in the Botanic Park, for the sole reason that it was a two-minute walk from my room.

What makes it a botanic park, and not a normal park I'm not sure, because it looked just like a normal park to me.

It's fairly small, with one lap being 800-900m depending on your exact route.

Being so close to my room, I came here almost every day, whether to run or to walk or to just get outside, and it's quite fascinating how different it gets at various times of day. Earlier in the day it can attract a lot of drugged-up hobos, so can feel like a real-life version of Zombies, Run! By the evening it basically turns into a dirt track for kids and teens on bicycles and electric scooters.

For running, it's pretty unexciting, but if you need a place to do loops without crossing any roads, then it is that.

The Botanic Park has various paths snaking through it, although in the middle of the park these are a little hilly - not ideal for zone 2 runs or fast runs.

Vegan-friendly restaurants in Timișoara

I mostly cooked in Timișoara so didn't get around to too many restaurants here, but it's a pretty easy place to be vegan if you do want to eat out.

One thing I learned while here, which is slightly concerning seeing as this is my third time in Romania, is that 'de post' essentially means vegan - it means food that contains no meat, dairy or eggs. So look out for eateries that advertise 'de post'. Once you know that, you realise that a lot of places are vegan-friendly.

By far my favourite restaurant of the places that I did go was Biofresh in the city centre. It's listed as a vegetarian restaurant, but everything I asked about on the menu was confirmed vegan. It's freshly cooked, healthy food.

Another place that I went to multiple times was Falafel King in the Iulius Town food court. It's a falafel-based restaurant surprisingly, and they have an entire 'de post' menu. The food is decent - it's vegan at least, but the people making it do like to be a bit over-enthusiastic with the sauce, so temper your expectations.

The wrap with hummus, salsa and spinach at Biofresh is 39 lei.

Getting vegan groceries in Timișoara

All roughly an equal distance from my room were a branch of Lidl, a smallish Carrefour, and a big Mega Image. Between the three of them I was able to get everything I needed in Timișoara.

Lidl was the best for fruit and for mixed nuts, but not much else. Carrefour had the best quality and best value soy milk, the biggest range of tofu and of rice, and was the best place for more specific nuts and seeds. Everything else I needed I got at Mega Image, which is always very vegan-friendly.

Vegan grocery shopping in Timișoara is pretty easy.

I was on a bit of a protein kick in Timișoara, so was cooking high protein meals like this red lentil and tofu dal with brown rice. The onion, brown rice and tofu all came from Carrefour, the lentils and spices from Mega Image.

Getting vegan supplements in Timișoara

Coming here from Bucharest where I'd stocked up, I didn't have to buy too many supplements in Timișoara.

The one thing that I did need was vegan protein powder, and the best that I found was in Vitabolic, which is a local brand with corresponding prices. 750g of really good vegan protein powder only costs 80 lei. They had a tonne of other stuff on their shelves, so worth coming here for a look. The staff speak English.

The only other supplement I bought was an opportune purchase of creatine in Decathlon. They also sell vegan protein powder, but it's almost twice the price of that at Vitabolic, costing 150 lei for 750g.

Very frustratingly I stumbled across a shop called Enigma Plant in Iulius Town opposite Primark, on my final day in Timișoara. I had a quick look round and it looked like a shop that, had I not been leaving the next morning, I would have shopped at a lot.

The name is misleading as it's not all plant supplements - they sell whey protein, for example, but it seemed to be mainly plant-based supplements and health foods.

The best vegan protein powder I found in Timișoara was this Vitabolic vegan protein powder for 80 lei.

Where I stayed in Timișoara

Luke Apartment

Aleea Ionel Perlea 11

This is a great place - I really enjoyed my stay here.

It's slightly north of the city centre, but it's an easy walk. Instead this room is across the street from Iulius Town shopping mall, which includes Starbucks, Primark and a food court. You're also a very short walk away from the Botanic Park, giving you an open green space on your doorstep for whenever you want to get outside. A big branch of Mega Image, a smallish branch of Carrefour and a normal-sized Lidl are all within a fifteen-minute walk.

As for the room itself, it has everything you need, including fast and stable wifi. The living room includes a desk that's good for video calls, and a sofa that's comfortable to work from the rest of the time, as well as a big enough floor space to workout in.

The bedroom faces northeastish, so gets plenty of daylight in the mornings, but not directly onto the bed, which is perfect. My circadian rhythm loved being here. Outside the bedroom is a "balcony", as it's called by the host, but I'm not sure if I'd call it that when it's indoors. Regardless, I found it of little use other than to set up the clothes drying rack on.

The kitchen, I'll be honest, felt a little lacking. It had all the utensils I needed, but it didn't have a tea towel, or any especially impressive knives. I have my own, so it's not a problem, but if I'd arrived here without my own tea towel, I'd have felt a little frustrated. As it was, it has a gas cooker, an electric oven and a microwave, with enough pots and pans that you can comfortably cook, so I was ultimately very happy.

There's a dining table with four chairs in the kitchen, but one thing that's missing is a blind on the kitchen window, because by about 11am each morning, the sun streams in and there's little escape from it if you're sitting at the table. The bathroom was equipped with everything I needed.

One peculiarity about this apartment is that there's only one AC unit, and it's in the hallway. I actually liked that because I didn't have to switch AC units when going into a different room - I just kept the one unit on all day, and it kept the kitchen, the bathroom, the living room and the bedroom equally cool, but it was a little bit odd.

The apartment has very good soundproofing from outside noise if you keep the windows closed. If you have them open at all then beware that the room is on a main road. Timișoara has its share of boy-racer types with their loud engines and small penises, and this room is also near to a hospital, so ambulances go past with their sirens blaring all day.

In the area outside the apartment are some benches that residents will congregate at every day, and one of these has a very yappy dog who will bark at any other dog walking past. So if you are sensitive to noise, be prepared to have the windows closed.

I am not; I've lived in loud places before so basic noise doesn't really bother me. However there were two occasions while staying here that even I was disturbed.

I'm pretty sure that the room downstairs is also an Airbnb, because I would hear voices down there, then it'd be quiet for a few days, then I'd hear different voices. On two occasions I got woken up by drunken idiots in the room downstairs in the middle of the night.

The first of these was on a Thursday night, when at about 2am a group of lads started loudly and drunkenly singing along to some music they were playing in a language I couldn't identify. This went on until about 4am. The next week on the Friday there was no music, just one guy who was drunk enough that he felt like he needed to shout everything.

Other than this there were no issues, and I actually really enjoyed my stay in this room. It was worth the couple of noisy nights for the 33 other nights here where I slept well and got woken each morning with the sun streaming into the room, and for being so close to a park. I would gladly stay again.

I found the bed to be very comfortable.

Summary of Timișoara

My favourite part of Timișoara

Do I want to come back to Timișoara again?

Timișoara goes onto my ever-growing list of places that aren't very exciting, but that are very pleasant and affordable. And you need such places as a digital nomad.

People often mistake being a digital nomad for being a long holiday, asking you "what do you do there?" whenever you go somewhere. And for me the answer more often than not, is exactly the same things that I do everywhere else I go.

Life cannot be one long holiday - you need places to recharge and focus on yourself, and to do that you need places like Timișoara. So do I want to come back to Timișoara again?

Not especially, but I gladly would.

It's hard to be excited to return to somewhere that's not very exciting, but if I need another month sometime in the future to just get away from everything, Timișoara is as good a place as anywhere else that I've been, so I'd happily come back and not talk to anyone again.