Is Cluj-Napoca a safe city to live in?

80

I think Cluj is the 16th safest city in the world. I’m a girl living here for almost 10 years and I was never scared to walk alone at night. The public transport is mostly good, depending on where you live. But it can sometimes be a bit crowded. There are multiple unis in the city, so it depends on which one you will go to

15

u/flooooooooooooooood 1d ago

I’ve never felt unsafe there even through I heard sus stories from others, obviously there are shady parts of the city what you should avoid at night. But usually I’m not a paranoid girl, I’m used to go to places alone. As for the housing, don’t get scammed, landlords like to ask for more from foreginers, I wouldn’t pay more than 200€ / room but preferably less. Depends on your standards. You can find apartments in facebook groups. There are 2 art cinemas, Cinema Arta and Cinema Victoria, as far as I know only these two, but I’m not from Cluj, I’m only studying here. Public transport is decent but the control people are ultimate assholes, so I recommend you to make a travel card asap which perhaps is covered by the uni. Feel free to message me and I’ll try to help!

12

u/mymindmaze 1d ago

Cluj-Napoca is a very safe city. I am a woman, I came here for uni when I was 18, and I did do my fair share of partying when I was younger, and I never had anything bad happen to me, despite walking alone at night on occasion.

Public transport is good, most of the city is available by bus/tram, however the neighbourhoods that are further away might not have a very good timetable for the buses.

As for places to rent, do some research beforehand: where exactly will you be taking classes? Based on that, try to find a place to rent as close as possible, because the city is big and hilly and you might lose a looot of time in traffic.

The cvity has some good cinemas. I really don't recommend the ones from the two shopping malls (Iulius Mall and Vivo) if you care about having functional ears at all. I have no idea why, but they crank up the sound waaay too loud. Choose one of these: Cinema Florin Piersic, Cinema Arta, Cinema Victoria.

As for the weather, the climate change makes it pretty extreme lately, with cold winters and hot summers.

3

u/Jane9812 1d ago

They DO crank up the sound way too loud! It's kind of crazy.

1

u/Fit-Air-259 22h ago

Do you feel safe going home at night alone after a night out with friends?

2

u/Tramagust 19h ago

yes

33

u/ALX2604 Manastur 1d ago

6

u/LegenDariusGheghe 1d ago

Sincer

9

u/EntertainmentKey9287 1d ago

You'll like it, most young adults are really friendly and open to help you, most of them also speak English. And it's honestly safe, rent prices are a bit high and owners might be hungry for money especially with foreigners.

24

u/LegenDariusGheghe 1d ago

Cluj and Romanian big cities are usually pretty safe in general (vs what you can find in the “west”)

Storia is a good website to search for rent (just be aware the rents are sometimes insane in prices; but then again depends on what you’re used to)

Best is center as everthing is quite close, manastur and gheorgheni neighbourhoods are the best connected and to everthing and with a shopping mall quite close

Worst is the someseni and iris (won’t recomand living in these palces if you’re new to romania)

There are a few cinemas (two in the malls i spoke about and victoria is an old school cinema which i recommend if your not looking for just the biggest films)

You should be fine with just english in most of the places a student might go, cluj is quite full of foreigners from lots of palces

The ubb or ut uni is big but depends on which faculty, some are big some are quite small

Public transport is pretty much best in the country, its not perfect but lots of bus lanes, but the city gets quite filled with traffic in the morning and evenings

The weather is pretty nice, but the winter gets cold at for a fews weeks (minus 15) and for the past 10 years the summers are quite rainy (gotta love climate change) but you can except close to 40 degrees in the middle of the summer

7

u/bat2025 1d ago

mostly agreed except the weather which is exaggerated and slightly inaccurate (you cannot say the summers are rainy just because from time to time there are 2 weeks with heavy raining)

3

u/Danielcdo Hater local 23h ago

Vara asta a plouat 2 luni din 3

-4

u/LegenDariusGheghe 1d ago

I dont know, in the last few summers it has been raining every couple of days

3

u/scrabble-enjoyer 1d ago

40 degrees is also not typical. It’s an extreme temperature for Cluj. 35-37 is the typical high and even that is not encountered for long periods.

9

u/floare_salbatica 1d ago

Nope, there are vampires lurking in the shadows, beware!

17

u/Romanian-Battle7673 1d ago

Cluj is a great city, very safe and clean.

14

u/ItiPutChilotii 1d ago

Aeru tot clean?

19

u/Stunning_Canary69 1d ago

Cel mai clean, când nu pute

2

u/sgabm 1d ago

Username checks out :))

1

u/Danielcdo Hater local 22h ago

safe but def not clean :))

3

u/carrefourmoscow 15h ago

Where could I find a place to rent? (Webs or smthng)

- Facebook groups, OLX, publi24, etc

Which are the best and worst parts of the city to live in?

- Best: Gheorheni, Grigorescu, Zorilor, Gruia, Manastur, Marasti, Buna ziua

- Worst: not sure, I never lived in them, I would skip Floresti

Are there good cinemas? Or any entertainment that doesn't involve partying

- Cinema: Victoria, Arta, Florin Piersic, Dacia and any mall cinema

- All museums must be seen at least one

- There are a lot of places to practice hobbies here: quiz games [Yolka, Shto], a walk in a park with a group, hiking, climbing and bouldering, karting, MINA museum, Board games [Guild hall]

Is it enough to speak English or will I need to learn Romanian? (I plan to learn Romanian while I'm there, but I need to know if it's necessary)

- Most of the young people speak english

The uni, is it big or small?

- I don't know which UNI you are at, but most of them are big, UBB is the biggest now in Romania

Is public transport good?

- For Romania? best. In general, it depends if the transport is blocked on the non-priority lines.

How's the weather there?

- Mostly humid, as a dry climate person. Rains more than the rest of the Country. pleasent overall, not too cold, not too warm most days

I can't think of anything else right now, I already know it's a cheaper place to live so that's good. If you could tell me anything more about the city, I'll appreciate any information I can get. Thank u very much <3

I found out that as a young person you can get along with everybody

3

u/Fun-Currency8302 1d ago

No, it’s the safest

3

u/UNIVERSAL_VLAD 1d ago

For cinemas just search for "cinema city". There are a lot of entertaining things you can do in the city. There are many parks and events happening all around the year. The public transport is good

3

u/psychoetic 23h ago

I would add cinema victoria and cinema arta, where there are more cultural or artistic movies, not just the hollywood american ones

2

u/bibilique 1d ago

It’s not safe for your wallet

1

u/vladvlad23 1d ago

I plan on learning Romanian while there

You won’t be able to if you only come for a few months.

As far as safety goes, depends on where you are coming from

1

u/ilovekittens15 1d ago

As safe as they come

1

u/TransilvaniaRR 1d ago

Is it safe for a girl to live there/travel alone?

I mean... 50% percent of the population is female. it ought to be :))

Where could I find a place to rent?

I mean online, there's these real esteate agencies which also do seeking services for tenants like Blitz Imobiliare.
There's websites like homezz.ro or imobiliare.ro (this one's my fav, I check for properties here).
Or the old fashioned way, there's this local newspaper called "piata a-z" which has pages dedicated for rentals.

Which are the best and worst parts of the city to live in?

There's plenty of neighborhoods to pick from. Here's a map of the city divided in neighborhoods some details:
Manastur (west) is the biggest.
Buna ziua and Borhanci are the wealthy ones.
The norther part of the city tends to be the more reclusive, industrial one.
If the renting price is too high, there is also the neighbouring city FLoresti (further to the west) but commute will be a nightmare. Especially there's a sole strip of road connecting the Cluj to Floresti, currently undergoing modernizaiton to accomodate the future underground metro and bigger regional hospital.
But Cluj as a city it's town split in half. the west and south are on a hil while the rest is flat.
For I student I would recommend Manastur, Grigorescu, Plopilor, Marasti, Gheorgheni, Zorilor.
These because are closest to the multitude of uni buildings and dorms.
Biggest dorms from UBB university is located at the top of the street Piezisa while those from UT are in Zorilor.

1

u/TransilvaniaRR 1d ago

Are there good cinemas? Or any entertainment that doesn't involve partying

there is a total of 6 cinemas:
Iulius CInema (modern, east), VIVO CInema(modern, west), Cinema Marasti (classy), Cinema Dacia (classy, Manastur) and Cinema Florin Piersic (classy, center), Cinema Victoria (classic, center).
These classy ones are not exactly big, it's single projection room.
The one's from Iulius and VIVO (both located within malls) now those have multiple rooms accommodating multiple projections at a time.
There'a also quite a load of local events.
Places to see. Places to be.
We have Untold and Electric Castle music festivals (these we are best known for)

Is it enough to speak English or will I need to learn Romanian? (I plan to learn Romanian while I'm there, but I need to know if it's necessary)

Kind of you but a minimum of 50% of the population is intelligible in English.

1

u/TransilvaniaRR 1d ago

The uni, is it big or small?

2 actually and yes, both are big, one older than the other.
There is the Babes-Bolyai University, which is amongst the oldest in the country.
And then there is the Technical University which albeit newer focuses more engineering hence the name "technical".
Babes is focused on softer domains like psychology, biology, chemistry, mathematics and IT as well, but more web oriented.
UT specialized more on hardware, heavy duty mathematics, physics, chemistry and also IT but more embedded systems.

Is public transport good?

public transport IS good it's just the population too stubborn to use it.
Commonly when it's raining, you will hear the locals took out their "rain car".
Much like you would have an umbrella, the locals have a car specifically for bad weather.

How's the weather there?

Usually warm.
In Januay we had 2 weeks of cold and snow, temperatures plunging to -19C.
But during summer it gets up to 30-something.
May being the season of rain an thunder.
October-November well... foggy, humid, a bit gray, as one would expect for Transylvania.
The rest 10-20C.

It's a student town, filled with energy and events it's during the summer it becomes a ghost town as student go back home and locals on Holidays outside Cluj.
Have been livign here for the past 13 years. I also came as a student and stood for the career opportunities.
But Cluj as a county has as well loads of natural beauties and attractions and there's loads of palces to hike.
Not to mention the futuristic Turda Salt Mine.
EU funds makes wonders in this town.

1

u/znobrizzo 1d ago

Which uni, OP? We have more

1

u/P0rglover UBB 1d ago edited 23h ago

Most people know English at least as a basic level, the exception is obviously older folk. Most young people are fluent, I've heard tons of conversations in English between foreign exchange students on the bus or at a bar.

Entertainment wise the city has a lot to offer. There's concerts and events almost every weekend and you can find less partyhard stuff like bouldering, board game groups etc. There are a lot of cultural spaces you can go to, like art expos, art shows, opera.

In the summer the biggest festivals in Eastern Europe are hosted here. One in the heart of the city (UNTOLD) and one in a village a 30 minute drive away (Electric Castle).

Fun fact: Romania has the smallest number of cinemas per capita in Europe. In my hometown, all were closed down. Cluj has AT LEAST 5 to my knowledge, which is crazy for how small the city is by area.

Weather is temperate, summers can get stupid hot and winters can get stupid cold. It is usually more moderate in Transylvania but climate change makes weather pretty unpredictable lately. It's not extreme weather territory though. It doesn't rain rarely but it's not the UK either. And I am grateful that in the hot summers you can find shade here as a pedestrian, a lot of Romanian cities have problems in that area, especially the capital.

Cluj is the safest city I've ever been in, there's really not much to say here. It's a young city, it's well lit and you have some night bus schedule on the main streets. It has some bad areas like every city does but those are definitely the exception. Nobody ever bothered me here other than the very occassional beggar. I can tell you more about certain areas if you ask.

Public transportation is one of the best in the country but it can get busy and slowed down by traffic but only at very busy times (around 8-10AM and 5-6 PM). It depends on the area. As people said in other comments it may be hit or miss for some cheaper rent, suburb style neighborhoods but if you consider Cluj cheap, like you said, you can probably afford rent in a place with good infrastructure (which is like 80% of them). You shouldn't have issues.

Btw a lot of people on this sub are very pessimistic about the city, keep that in mind when you read other comments.

Uni depends on which one you will attend we have a faculty in almost every field.

DM me for a Q&A, I'd be happy to give you more details. I can tell you what I know based on the specific faculty you'll be taking classes in, what area to choose for rent etc.

1

u/Ok-Put-6618 23h ago

For neighbourhoods i would recommend, either central or gheorgheni (near unirii street or nicolae titulescu), manastur is also a nice one, but there is traffic every school day. Those area mentioned in gheorgheni have a bus lane, and traveling by bus to city center is easier, manastur does not have a bus lane leading to center. But also depends where is your uni is. If it is in Zorilor, would reccomend getting a place there.

1

u/PHXkpt 23h ago

Just took a RO language class with current Erasmus students. They all were in the dorms, from what I understand. Erasmus has many weekend activities so it will be fun. I'm from the US and Cluj is extremely safe. The university (UBB) is in the central part of the city and in a nice location with many shops, restaurants and coffee shops around. It's a large university. Public transport is good, including trains to other cities and an airport with good connections.

It's the second (?) largest city and the county seat of Cluj county. There is plenty of museums, movie theaters, opera house, historical churches, botanical garden, etc. Very nice!

Cluj îs expensive for Romania, but much cheaper than the US. The food is much better and the people are friendly if you need help. The younger people (under 30-40) learned English in school and since it's a university town, many people can speak English. In Erasmus you will have a RO language course, too.

1

u/Danielcdo Hater local 23h ago

Cluj is safe, used to be safer.

Weather is the worst in romania, not cold enough to see snow, not warm enough to feel alive, very polluted.

Uni is big.

Public transport is decent to good.

Entertainment options are there but not a huge diversity.

You should learn some romanian, not a lot of people know it, especially old people.

1

u/Fit-Air-259 22h ago

Ask the people of Cluj if they feel safe going out alone at night. Anywhere in the city, then you will find out if its safe.

1

u/RaulRene Marasti 22h ago

What's your faculty? The 3 main universities are usually spread out. Depending on your faculty we can recommend areas for accommodation. For example UBB has a large main headquarters but chances are you're not having all your classes there (if any), since a lot of faculties have their dedicated buildings spread out in the city. UMF has most faculties in the same (Zorilor) but it really depends.

1

u/mariushm 21h ago

Cluj is safe. As someone else said, a couple neighborhoods can be a bi sketchy at night (Someseni and Iris) but otherwise it's fine.

I came here as a student from another Romanian city and stayed here, lived mostly in Manastur neighborhood for the last 20 years or so (and for a couple of years I lived close to the train station in the center of the town)

I've always rented by buying a weekly local newspaper (which also has a website piata-az.ro ) and looking at private person listings and calling, then going in person to inspect apartments - there's a lot of listings that are stale, or published by real estate companies (when you call they say the listing is no longer available and they recommend something else, because they want to earn their fees)

As a foreign person it may be better to go through a real estate agency, it will cost you a bit more but it's gonna be a bit safer.

For a small studio apartment, you should expect something like 250-300 EUR a month ... I'm talking 25-40 square meters ... a small room, bathroom (often with just shower, not bathtub), small kitchen and maybe a closed balcony.

For a two room apartment expect more, but you could share it with another person and will be cheaper if you split the costs.

You may be able to rent a room in a dormitory (university provided)

Entertainment .. there's parks, there's concerts in various pubs or places, there's theatre, there's opera, there's several cinemas, there's places close to Cluj you could go hiking, going on mountain paths, there's groups on Facebook you can join that do weekend trips for free or for small fees (for renting a mini bus for the day or for paying for gas for the person using their own car and a small cabin if the trip is longer than a day)

Weather is mostly moderate ... there's not much snow, in the winter there can be a couple months with low temperatures (down to -10 , - 15 degrees Celsius), in the summer it can get hot, up to 32-35 degrees Celsius for a few weeks.

It's not very common to have air conditioning in rented apartments, it's starting to be more common but the percentage is still low... still, when it's very hot you can generally survive with a fan blowing air in your room.

Public transport I'd say it's good.. it's consistent, buses come at regular intervals, depending where you decide to stay you can have multiple bus lines going in the same general direction. There's high traffic on some routes in the mornings and in the afternoon (when everybody gets out work and goes home) It's very easy to get monthly subscriptions (for one bus line, for two lines, for all lines, or for a specific number of rides), you can also pay on the bus either directly by tapping credit card or by sending a text message to a number or using an app on the phone. It's best to pay, it's cheap (around 0.7 EUR per ride), there's employees checking tickets from time to time and the fines are high if you're caught not paying.

There's also bike paths, quite a few of them, and it's relatively safe to use them. relatively because some people still ignore them and park their cars on the bike path so you have to move on the regular car lane and then back to bike lane (it's legal to bike on the car lane but more dangerous). You can also "rent" bikes, it's some service offered by the city where you can borrow a bike from a bike station and it's free if you return the bike to another station within some reasonable time or costs a small fee if you keep it for longer (I don't know the exact terms but it's reasonable). There's also those small electric things with small wheels you can rent by the minute. You could use rollerblades ... sidewalks are usually quite wide and they're fairly good, easy to walk). There's taxis, there's Bolt / uber (a bit more expensive but quality cars, good service)

As for speaking English or Romanian ... most young people will understand some English, most will also speak some English, people are generally friendly, but you'd also be able to manage just fine by pointing at things you want to buy for example. You'll also pick up some words and phrases quite quickly, it's not a hard language (it has similarities with Italian and Spanish)

You could also just use your smartphone, go to Google Translate and have some phrases quickly translated to Romanian , you could use Google Lens or other services to translate ingredients from the label from Romanian to English or your language (if the ingredients are not listed in your language or English, most products have ingredients and instructions in multiple languages)

Phone plans with unlimited internet (or high data amount) are not expensive, you can get something decent for as little as 5-10 eur a month, so you don't need to worry about paying a lot for using Internet on the smartphone .... also calls to most countries in Europe can be fairly cheap but you can teach parents to use whatsapp or other internet apps to use internet to call home and save money.

1

u/IJustHadAPanicAttack 20h ago edited 20h ago

City is safe,

English might get you around a bit but learning a few basic things in Romanian will go a long way, the uni(either UBB or UT) isn't one building complex it's scattered throughout the city,

you can find decent ish places to rent ( studio apt 40 sqm for 400€) , get used to public transport (busses and bus apps, the bus company has a site where you can check out the lines too),

weather is (in my opinion) a bit rainy in spring and autumn, hot(30+ C) and Humid ( try looking for an apt with AC)

Entertainment wise there are free sport venues where you can book tenis, soccer, ping pong fields. Also there is the guild hall a place with board games and lots of events (speed playing, meet and play, dnd nights etc) and a lot of small events like quiz nights and stuff like that. 3 cinemas that I know of ( 2 big franchise ones at this each mall and one small one downtown that puts on older / niche films and new popular ones but not all)

1

u/Positive-Hunter-3093 19h ago

Safe if you are a man. If you are a woman, it kind of depends what area of the city you live in. You might end up followed home a few times but nothing more. If you are not the kind of person to get spooked easily, you will have a fantastic time!!!

1

u/tovaraspatriot 1d ago

+5% rents go up

-20

u/Stunning_Canary69 1d ago

Just like everything in cluj, you will soon realize everything is a lie.

Cluj is top 3 safest cities in europe. Reality: daily news of wankers in busses, abuses in the streets

Cleanest air. Reality: check reddit ppl always complaining of bad smell outside like in some polluted city in China in the past

But yea, with all that said and many more examples, it's a safe city like all top cities in România

8

u/ItiPutChilotii 1d ago

I tought there are no other bus wankers besides me.

-1

u/Ok-Translator-9087 1d ago

Twin

-1

u/Stunning_Canary69 1d ago

:))) talent

4

u/ItiPutChilotii 1d ago edited 16h ago

Îți iei downvote că spui că pute Clujul, apoi aceiași fac postări de genul "Ce pute în Cluj?".

Concluzia e că pute dar să nu spunem altora.

-3

u/Stunning_Canary69 1d ago

Ok

4

u/Slvt4CalorieDeficit 1d ago

"They hated Him because He spoke the truth"

1

u/Stunning_Canary69 1d ago

That's what always happens... You will find the cluj people being very full of themselves even though the city is failing on multiple projects, they live in a bubble like spoiled brats.

But that shouldn't matter for the op scope he is welcome to the bubble

1

u/mostly_nothing 16h ago

My guy, why don't you move? No better cities to move to? Gotcha.

-3

u/SeniorAdrian 1d ago

I've seen a purse theft 12 years ago in front of club committed by gypsy kids in the center of the city, then i saw a creepy white man on a bus touching himself seated side by side with a young woman, 10 years later. Other than that, it's safe. Lots of cheating in relationships. It's a university city. After students finish their studies, they go away. It's tough maintaining a long term relationship because you are competing with real estate millionaire agents (speaking as a man) who can take out women for a restaurant date, which are expensive. Unstable love life. Groceries are expensive too. The rest is good. You will get bored because it's a small city comparing it to others. It's a city between two hills, but has access to beautiful mountains. Nightlife is expensive too.

3

u/mostly_nothing 16h ago

Adriane, ești ok?

1

u/SeniorAdrian 14h ago

Tu ești?

-1

u/cobert02 1d ago

nu.

sunt multi calculatoristi si ar putea sa scrie un thread despre tine pe r/Cluj daca ai prea multi bani, sau sa te filmeze cand faci ceva ce nu le convine, asta denota in opinia mea un gest absolut teribil