🚌 Essentials
Buses, trams and whether you need them
Mostly you do not. The centre is flat, pedestrianised through the middle and crossed in fifteen minutes. RAT Craiova runs buses and trams for the longer hops.
The honest answer first
A first day in Craiova needs no ticket at all. The centre is flat — no hill, no cobbled climb, no old town on a slope — and everything a visitor came for is inside a fifteen-minute walk of Piața Mihai Viteazul.
That is unusual for a city of this size and it is the most useful thing on this page.
When you do need transport
- Romanescu Park — south of the centre, far enough that walking both ways costs you an hour in the park.
- The railway station — twenty-five minutes east on foot.
- The airport — eight kilometres east on Calea București.
- Ion Oblemenco — two kilometres west, though on a matchday walking beats driving.
RAT Craiova
The city operator runs both buses and trams, which is unusual for a Romanian city this size. The tram line runs east to west along the main axis, which happens to cover the trips a visitor actually makes.
Paying. Buy on board or at a kiosk. Contactless validators have spread across Romanian networks but coverage varies by vehicle, so carry small change as a fallback.
We do not print a fare here. RAT Craiova does not publish a tariff in a form we can cite and date, and a wrong ticket price is worse than none. Check with the operator or simply buy on board — the sums involved are small.
Taxis and apps
Both work well and both are cheap by Bucharest standards. Apps show the price before you accept, which removes the usual friction. The one time to walk instead is the last few hundred metres into the centre on a December evening.
More in getting around.
