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Ploiesti Travel Guide, Romania

Ploiesti, Travel guide – Location

The beautiful Ploiesti is one of the largest Romanian cities located in the southern part of the country close to Bucharest and Constanta. This Ploiesti travel guide will help you create a better image of the city and will provide important general information.

Ploiesti, Travel guide – Geography

Ploiesti is located in a plain area with an average altitude of 150m and has a direct access to Prahova Valley, one of the main access routes for the ones travelling to Bucharest and to other areas in the south. The landscape is very attractive for tourists due to the abundance of vegetation and diverse topography as well as for the numerous vineyards surrounding the city.

The local climate is temperate continental with the highest temperatures in July and the lowest in January. Precipitations are more present during spring, especially in February and scarce in summer, the annual average value being of almost 600 mm.

The local hydrograph network is represented by the Dambu River which crosses the city and the other two rivers, Prahova respectively Teleajen, which surround the city with their valleys.

Ploiesti, Travel guide - Flora and Fauna

Local flora is represented mostly by cultivated species, so characteristic for any urban area, like chestnuts, oaks, poplars and so on. Few species of secular oaks can still be found in some of the local public gardens and parks as a reminder of the former forests that used to cover these places before the city appeared and developed in its nowadays form. From the cultivated species category we must mention the spectacular sequoia giganteum, oaks and figs found in some public institutions’ gardens and parks. Locals also cultivate vegetables, especially for subsistence, vine and fruit trees, especially sweet cherry, apple, nut and cherry trees.

Fauna is characteristic for the steppe, forest steppe and broadleaf forest, with the bustard as endangered specie, but protected in a nearby reservation.

Ploiesti, Travel guide – Transport

The city is one of the most strategic ones in the country, being transited by main road and railroad systems, connecting it to Bucharest and other important Romanian cities. Location has always been an advantage for Ploiesti, contributing heavily to its development throughout the centuries. Transport within the city is made by buses, trolleys and trams, all part of a very efficient and environmental friendly public transport system.

Tourists willing to enjoy a fast and very comfortable transfer to Ploiesti can travel by air, arriving on located only 45 km away from Ploiesti.

Ploiesti, Travel guide - Population and Economy

Ploiesti is one of the Romanian cities with the fastest development and increase in the number of inhabitants in the last two hundred years. In the nineteen century the city housed about 2000 people and today it numbers 228.000 people. Numerous ethnic groups live in harmony here with the Romanians dominating and followed by Rroma, Hungarians, Germans, Greeks and Jews. The main religions here are the Christian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Adventist, Pentecostal, Baptist and Greek Catholic.

Due to the presence of the oil exploitations nearby Ploiesti, the city became an industrial one, some time ago being even the greatest oil producer in Europe. Nowadays the oil industry and its connected branches dominate the local economy and play an important role in the city’s development. Other relevant economic activities in the city are commerce, transport and tourism, but at smaller scales.

Ploiesti, Travel guide – Cuisine

The local cuisine identifies itself with the Vallachian one, the historic region in which Ploiesti is located. The main influences are generated by the approach to Bucharest, the Romanian capital, but also by the French and Turk cuisine, creating a refined and subtle impression. The most popular dishes here are the ciorba, a delicious soup made of beef meat and numerous local vegetables, sour cream or yoghurt, bors, another type of soup with a unique sour taste given by borsch, barbeques and mici which are a meat based composition cooked on the grill.

Among the favorite desserts of the Vallachians we must mention the donuts, puddings and pancakes served with delicious fruit gems.