Satu Mare is a city in Maramureș, Romania.

Understand

Satu Mare is a historic city with roots dating all the way back to the Stone Age. It is probably most famous internationally for being the wellspring of the Satmarer Chasidic Jews.

Get in

By plane

• Satu Mare International Airport (SUJ  ^IATA) (located 14 km (8.7 mi) south of the city). There are domestic flight to and from Bucharest operated by Tarom, departing to Bucharest in the morning and away from in the evening, as well as international flights to London-Luton on Wizz Air. 

By train

Satu Mare is linked with Oradea by six trains daily, with Cluj by four trains (4-5 hours of travelling), with Bucharest by three trains and with Timisoara by one (8 hours of travelling). There are no international trains crossing the town (there are only two local trains daily to/from Hungarian Debrecen).

By car

You can get to Satu Mare from any neighboring county by using road E641 from Oradea (Bihor County), E81 from Zalau (Salaj County) or E58 from Baia Mare (Maramures County). The road conditions are good because there were several modernization projects financed in order to improve the main road connections (but you can still expect some places were roadworks are still in progress - especially in the north/north-eastern part of the county).

It is also very easy to enter the county from Hungary (via Csenger-Petea border crossing). Because Romania is a EU country, you will only need to show your passport or your ID at the border (usually it will take no more than 5 minutes as there is only a single checkpoint).

On the other hand, if you plan to enter the county (and at the same time Romania) from Ukraine the story is a bit different. Expect waiting times for up to 3-4 hours (August 2011) or even more when the shift changes. This is mainly due to the Ukrainian side, where border guards don't seem to be stressed at all, barely speak any other language than Ukrainian or Russian, and let cars to pass one by one every 20 minutes or so.

Get around

Tarom runs a shuttle bus to and from the airport. It is scheduled to leave from Str Maresal Ion Antonescu bus stop (near the Tarom offices) an hour before the plane departs.

See

• Administrative Palace, tallest building in Romania
• Chain Church
• Capitoline Wolf statue
• Decebal Street Synagogue
• Garden of Rome

Eat

• Restaurant Loren's, Strada Grigore Alexandrescu 20, Szatmárnémeti, ☏ +40 374 019 355. Restaurant Loren is a good option in the center. 

Sleep

There are several good hotels in Satu Mare, in the center of the town and at some distance to the center.

In the central area you will find:

• Hotel Astoria
• Hotel Dana 2
• Hotel Poesis
• Hotel Aurora

Good and clean hotels at quite good prices outside of the central area are:

• Hotel Satu Mare City
• Motel Select
• Hotel Dana
• Hotel Coral