Romania
Cluj-Napoca
Away-day guide
unverified draftCluj-Napoca is Transylvania's capital in all but name — a university city of 100,000 students, a walkable baroque centre and prices well below Bucharest's. Two clubs from here are in Europe this season, playing at two different grounds, so check which one your tie is at before you book.
🚺 To Cluj Arena
The arena sits in the Central Park beside the Someș, a ten-minute walk west of Piața Unirii — cross the park and it is in front of you. No transport needed from anywhere central.
- Nearest stop
- Cluj Arena / Parcul Central stops on Splaiul Independenței
- Lines
- CTP buses along Splaiul Independenței and Calea Moților
- Walk from centre
- 10 min
- Parking
- Park-and-walk from the centre; the streets around the arena are controlled on event days and Untold closes them entirely.
🚺 To Stadionul Dr. Constantin Rădulescu
The Gruia ground is north-east of the centre, about 30 minutes on foot up through the old town and Strada Alexandru Vaida-Voevod, or ten minutes by Bolt for 15–20 lei. CTP buses run out that way from the centre.
- Nearest stop
- Gruia stops on Strada Aurel Vlaicu / Bulevardul 21 Decembrie 1989
- Lines
- CTP buses towards Gruia
- Walk from centre
- 30 min
- Parking
- Residential streets around the ground fill early and are policed on matchday.
Public transport
CTP Cluj runs buses, trolleybuses and a tram line, and the whole centre is walkable in twenty minutes anyway. A single is about 3 lei; tap a contactless bank card on the validator or use the 24pay app, and validate as you board. Bolt and Uber are cheap — 15–25 lei across town — and are the easy option for the run out to Gruia. The airport is close enough that public transport into town is genuinely quicker than a taxi at rush hour.
Typical prices
- Beer (0.5L)
- RON 14
- Coffee
- RON 13
- Meal, mid-range
- RON 60
- Taxi from airport
- RON 40
- Single transit ticket
- RON 3
✈ Airports & cheaper alternatives
- Cluj-Napoca International Airport (Avram Iancu) CLJ primary 8 km City bus into the centre for a standard 3-lei ticket in about 25 minutes; a Bolt is 30–45 lei and takes 15 minutes. Wizz Air's second Romanian base with UK routes; small, close and quick.
- Târgu Mureș / Oradea airports alternative 150 km Trains and coaches to Cluj take two to three hours from either. Occasionally cheaper on a Wizz route, but the transfer rarely justifies the saving for a weekend.
🍺 Supporters' pubs
Universitatea Cluj
Home fans: U Cluj's support drinks in the centre and the student streets before games — Piața Unirii, Piezișă and the bars along Eroilor — and walks down to Cluj Arena through the Central Park.
Away fans: The centre is neutral and busy enough that a visiting group is unremarkable; Piața Unirii and Piața Muzeului are the obvious meeting points, both ten minutes from the arena.
The city's student club, with the larger and louder following. Home European ties are at Cluj Arena.
CFR Cluj
Home fans: CFR are the railway club and their heartland is Gruia, out to the north-east; the bars along the approach to the Dr. Constantin Rădulescu ground fill up before kick-off, and their support in the centre is thinner.
Away fans: Drink in the centre and take a Bolt out to Gruia rather than settling near the ground. Colours are fine in town.
Romania's most successful club of the past two decades, playing at the Dr. Constantin Rădulescu Stadium in Gruia rather than Cluj Arena.
Sourced from supporters' forums — always follow your club's and police advice for the fixture.
Nightlife
This is a student city and it drinks like one. Strada Piezișă, up by the university halls, is the cheapest and most chaotic street in Romania on a Friday; Piața Unirii and the streets around it are the mainstream option with terraces on every corner. Form Space and Flying Circus cover live music and club nights, and the summer rooftop and garden bars along the river are where the city goes when it is warm. Note that Untold, one of Europe's biggest festivals, takes over Cluj Arena and the whole city in early August — if your tie falls in that window, book accommodation immediately and expect to pay several times the normal rate.
Food & drink
Transylvanian cooking is Romanian with Hungarian and Saxon edges: ciorbă (sour soup), varză à la Cluj — the local layered cabbage and mince dish — sarmale, and papanași with jam and sour cream for pudding. Roata and the konoba-style places off Piața Muzeului do it well without being touristy. Drink Romanian beer, Ursus is brewed in the region, and the wine from Transylvania and Moldova is a genuinely good buy at restaurant prices.
Cheap eats & beer
Student prices are the whole point here. Shaorma and covrigi from the stands on Piezișă and around the university cost 15–25 lei and 4 lei respectively; lunch menus in the centre run 30–40 lei. Beer is 12–16 lei in the centre and closer to 8–10 lei in the student bars, and a supermarket can is 4–5 lei. The market at Piața Mihai Viteazul is the cheapest place to assemble a breakfast.
Staying safe
Cluj is a safe, prosperous and young city with very little street crime. The usual practical points: order taxis through Bolt rather than flagging them, watch drinks and pockets in the busiest student bars, and be aware that Romanian police take public drinking and drunken disorder seriously. Pavements and cycle lanes are shared and drivers are quick — look twice at crossings. In August the city can be extremely hot and the festival crowds make everything slower.
On matchday
The two grounds are different trips. Cluj Arena, where Universitatea Cluj play, is a modern 30,000-seater in the Central Park by the river, ten minutes' walk from Piața Unirii. CFR Cluj play at the Dr. Constantin Rădulescu Stadium in Gruia, north-east of the centre, which is a 30-minute walk or a short Bolt. Both run standard Romanian segregation: an away sector with its own gate, ID checks at the turnstiles and no full-strength alcohol inside. U Cluj's support is the bigger and noisier of the two — the city derby is one of Romania's fiercest, so avoid picking a side in a bar.
This city guide is still being fact-checked — some details may be inaccurate.