Romania is the most underrated retirement destination in the EU right now, and it’s not even close. So today, you will understand why retire in Romania might be an interesting possibility.
Where in Europe can you still rent a good apartment with 140 sqm (1,500 sqft) for $500? See a private doctor for $30? And easily fly home from multiple modern airports?
However… most people look at the WRONG cities there. Because there is also the version of Romania with broken hospitals, and streets full of potholes. So you must choose carefully to go to the right places.
I’ve been in Romania – differently from other channels, I don’t rank cities from a basement in Little Rock, Arkansas. So today I’m counting down the ten Romanian cities where a Western retiree can get the best combination of low living costs and high quality of life.
The capital, Bucharest, doesn’t win. It doesn’t even make the podium. And number one? It’s the city Romanians themselves name when you ask where they would retire.
Let’s count down from number ten, but first… the criteria.
The Criteria
Four factors. Housing cost represents 30% of the total score of each city. Healthcare quality another 30% of the total score.
Infrastructure like good-quality roads, airports, public transport, and so on: 25%. And the size of the English-speaking community: 15%.
By the way, I am considering making a similar article about Bulgaria, so if you are interested, write “Bulgaria” in the comments!
So, time for the ranking.
#10 — Arad
We start with a city that is under the shadow of another larger city, but has made peace with it. That shadow is Timișoara, fifty minutes down the A1 motorway.
That proximity makes Arad a good option for a low-cost strategy. Because rent there is much, much cheaper.
A studio costs about 1,450 lei — that’s $318. A two-room apartment, the classic retiree setup, is around 2,140 lei, $469, and a three-room goes for about $634.
Healthcare is better than most people would expect from a city with 145,000 residents. There is a large public hospital, and on top of that, private hospitals like MedLife Genesys.
And since this is our first stop, the national context: a private GP visit in Romania is about $24 to $60, and a specialist often $50 to $100.
The downside? Arad’s airport exists, but it has very irregular schedules — most likely you will fly to and from Timișoara.
This is what a local told us about the city:
“I was born and raised in Arad. It is a good place to live if you don’t need a job. If you want a quiet life, like a house, a garden and not going to many activities, then Arad is good. Also the houses are cheaper than in Timisoara.”
Arad is a city where the rent of a nice apartment costs way less than the average car payment in the United States — and we are only at our first city.
But the English-speaking scene is small — you’ll socialize with locals, or in Timișoara, unless you learn some Romanian (which I recommend).
Considering all that, it gets 61 points, our 10th place. From here, it gets even better. Number nine takes us into Transylvania.
One quick thing, because it matters for everything that follows. We from The Expat always try to answer the most important question when moving abroad: where to go? But a top-10 list — including this one — can’t answer that exactly, because I don’t know your budget, your health, or if you prefer a beach town or a city centre.
That’s what our matching algorithm does: you answer questions about budget, lifestyle and priorities, and get a personalized shortlist across Europe and South America. It’s available on our Patreon, Tier 1, 5 dollars a month.
Now, back to the list.
#9 — Alba Iulia
This city has the cheapest two-room apartment of the whole countdown: about 1,910 lei a month. $419.
For that, you get the heart of Transylvania, not far from Sibiu, in a mid-sized city with quiet streets, and a town hall that has spent a decade collecting smart-city awards. It is safe, and you can cross the whole place on foot.
So why only number nine? This is the city of our ranking where a serious medical problem most quickly becomes a drive to another city.
The local hospital has an upgraded emergency unit, and there is an ongoing expansion and renovation. But until the expansion is completed, treat it as a county hospital. So for more complicated procedures, locals need to travel either to Cluj or Sibiu.
There’s no passenger airport either — Sibiu and Cluj are your gates. So if you are managing a serious chronic condition, Alba Iulia might not be the best choice.
But for a healthy couple that wants silence, a beautiful old town, and the lowest rent so far, this one works, so the city gets 63 points and the 9th place.
Now we go all the way east.
#8 — Iași
This is eastern Romania’s center of gravity: a student city with a big medical university, and the place you look for healthcare without the price tags of Bucharest.
A two-room apartment is about 2,600 lei — $570 — and three-rooms from $658.
The medical infrastructure is the highlight of this city. The county emergency hospital plus the university clinics give you public tertiary care, including oncology at the Regional Institute of Oncology.
Regina Maria, MedLife, and the other private networks also have clinics and inpatient services, albeit not on the same level as Bucharest. English is more common among the younger doctors than the older administrative staff, so bring patience to the front desk.
The local airport is another positive surprise. Iași has one of the best route lists in the country outside the capital.
On the negative side, Iași is the farthest city of our ranking from Western Europe. You feel it in flights home, in how few native English speakers you meet, and in the roads west — still not a finished motorway toward Transylvania.
The expat scene is mostly tied to the academic and healthcare environment. A person from Iași told us that:
“Iasi is a pretty safe city especially during day time. Sometimes you have to watch out for bad/drunk drivers so gotta pay extra attention to the road. Most people in Romania do speak English pretty fluently. Most neighborhoods are pretty good, but you might avoid the city center because of the nightlife. For renting, be careful for scams, on olx there are a lot of scammers.”
One trap: this is a student city, so never arrive in September without a short-term backup rental. The students take everything.
Overall, a lively city that gets 67 points and the 8th place.
The next city takes us to the Black Sea.
#7 — Constanța
Retire by the sea. It sounds like the dream, and this is the only city of our ranking offering a full urban life on the Black Sea: proper hospitals, supermarkets, and beaches right there.
But… Constanța is two cities. June to August: packed terraces, inflated rents, crawling traffic. November to March, the version you’ll actually live in, can feel… empty.
A two-room apartment costs on average 2,890 lei ($634) per month, and studios around $445.
Mamaia, the famous resort strip, is empty in January. Tomis and the newer northern districts are where you want to look.
So that is why Constanța is one of those seasonal cities that require a winter test: before moving there, visit the city during winter to see if you would still like it.
Constanța airport is not a reliable year-round bridge home either — thin schedule in winter, charters in summer — so often residents drive to Bucharest to fly.
Healthcare is quite decent. There is the county emergency hospital, which is the main regional institution. There is also a large private hospital, the Ovidius Clinical Hospital, just outside the city. For the rare and complicated, Bucharest is three hours away on a good day.
One resident told us that:
“Constanta is not a quiet city during 3 months per year, but outside this time, you can hear even a mouse.”
So all in all, Constanța gets 69 points.
Back into Transylvania for our next name — one that often foreigners can’t pronounce.
#6 — Târgu Mureș
This is a mid-sized Transylvanian city, bilingual (Romanian and Hungarian are lingua franca), that not many people outside Romania know. But despite not being famous, it is one of the biggest showcases of how fast certain parts of Romania are developing.
In 2025 and 2026 the city gained a hospital cluster that cities twice its size don’t have: a brand-new cardiovascular surgical center at the Institute for Cardiovascular Diseases and Transplant, a severe-burns center at the county hospital, and the private Puls Hospital, part of the Regina Maria group.
For planned heart treatments and other medical procedures — thanks to the medical university — this city might be a good option.
Rent prices match the low profile. A two-room goes for about 2,200 lei, $482, and a studio $329. The rental market is thinner than in the big cities, which means fewer polished listings and more room to negotiate.
But… there are two trade-offs you must accept in Târgu Mureș. First, the airport barely exists, just a handful of routes, so most locals drive two hours to Cluj and fly from there. The city itself is compact and internet is fast there.
The second con is that the community of English-speaking expats is small. You’ll build a local life instead of joining a ready-made one.
So Târgu Mureș is an underrated town with strong medical infrastructure, low cost of living, but not much of an “expat hotspot”. It gets 71 points and the 6th place.
#5 — Cluj-Napoca
Tech workers, doctors, students — if this country has a magnet city, Cluj is it. It has maybe the highest share of English-speaking residents outside the capital, strong private healthcare, and Romania’s second largest airport.
One resident praised the city for how safe it is.
“Cluj-Napoca is a very safe city. I am a woman, 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.”
About healthcare, Regina Maria facilities can perform complex and robotic surgery, MedLife’s Humanitas hospital has advanced surgical robotics, and there is also a public county hospital plus the whole medical university system.
So why is one of the country’s poster-cities only 5th place? One word: prices.
A two-room apartment is about 3,360 lei — $737 — and a three-room pushes $952. Central districts command a premium, and even the cheaper neighborhoods aren’t cheap by Romanian standards, because you’re competing with IT salaries.
And while the expat scene is the biggest so far, it skews young: tech, university, under forty. The ring road is congested, and public transport is packed at rush hour — the student-city tax.
A retired couple can live very well there, because Cluj is, overall, one of the best cities in Romania. But the prices are higher. So, 75 points for Cluj.
#4 — Bucharest
It might be a surprise for many that Bucharest doesn’t make it to the top 3. There is a good reason for that, and the strange part, this same reason might be why you choose it anyway.
Bucharest produces the most regret among foreigners who came looking for “charming Romania” and got traffic, dust, and 35°C in a city made of concrete.
But it has its perks, like the fact that this is Romania’s healthcare capital. Fundeni Clinical Institute handles transplants and complex oncology, Floreasca and the University Emergency Hospital handle trauma and acute care, and there are international-class private hospitals with English-speaking coordinators as standard.
If you’re managing a known cardiac, oncological or orthopedic condition, Bucharest is the rational base in this country.
To be fair, the public system does strain. In September 2026, hospital managers were again warning about funding gaps, down to even ambulance fuel. That is why the two-tier rule exists — public ER for the emergency, private for everything else.
The airport, Henri Coandă, is the largest in the country by far, and your best long-haul choice. Bucharest is also the only city in this list that has a metro system. Pick the right neighborhood and a car becomes optional.
Then there’s the cost of living. A two-room averages 3,470 lei — $761 — but averages lie there. The apartment you’d actually accept, with a lift, parking nearby, in a green northern district, costs somewhere closer to $900.
The expat community is the largest in Romania, and cultural and fun options are plenty, so despite the high price, Bucharest gets 77 points.
Now our podium — and the biggest surprise of this top 10.
#3 — Oradea
Two facts, side by side. Fact one: in September 2026, Oradea had the cheapest average rental prices among major cities in Romania: 1,450 lei (US$318) for a studio.
Fact two: the public county hospital installed a da Vinci surgical robot in 2025, robotic surgery that is still uncommon in Romanian public hospitals.
You might expect the cheapest big city in the country to have quite questionable infrastructure. But that is not the case.
Oradea is located just four kilometers — barely two and a half miles — from the Hungarian border. The center was recently rebuilt: Art Nouveau facades and thermal baths you can use all winter.
Romania’s own quality-of-life rankings keep placing it among the best in western Romania, and you see it in the lighting, cleanliness, and local transport, all of which are above the national average.
A two-room apartment is about 2,310 lei, $507, and three-rooms from $570.
Also, between the county hospital and Pelican, one of Romania’s largest private hospital operators, Oradea has better healthcare options than a city that size usually does.
However… the airport is small, having just Bucharest and a handful of other destinations, so locals fly out of Debrecen or connect through the capital.
And the expat scene barely exists: Hungarian is the second language there, English a distant third. But if you can live with translation apps, or learn Romanian or Hungarian, it is an interesting option.
80 points for Oradea, our third place.
#2 — Timișoara
Timișoara, a city with close to 300,000 residents, has for decades been around the top of Romania’s livability rankings, sometimes above Cluj, sometimes above the capital itself, and the reasons are easy to understand.
A flat, walkable center, a milder climate than the rest of Transylvania, an engineering economy that funds city services, and motorway access to Hungary and Serbia.
In terms of housing, a central two-room apartment is about 2,550 lei (US$559) per month. Among Romania’s large university cities, this is the one where a Western pension still rents centrally without strain. A studio rents for $349 on average.
The city does very well in terms of hospitals. MedLife Medici’s Hospital opened in stages between late 2024 and early 2025 — around 125 beds, ten operating rooms, intensive care, robotic surgery.
The airport is a proper regional airport, with dozens of European routes. The city is bicycle-friendly by Romanian standards.
And the expat community is quite considerable, from professionals to university-related foreigners who live there year-round. People often praise how the locals are friendly and speak good English, like one resident told us:
“I’d say that Timișoara is a really good choice of a city. People in this part of Romania are quite comfortable speaking in English (lots of big companies around here and also expats) and you’ll see that even if some of them are not speaking English well, they’d still be willing to help and guide you. People are quite friendly around here and used to internationals :)”
So why isn’t Timișoara the number one? It is not really the fault of Timișoara, which got 83 points in our ranking, but rather the fact that the 1st place is an even nicer city.
Which, if you read my article about “10 European Cities Where $1,900 a Month Makes You Wealthy”, you already know the name.
#1 — Brașov
The first place goes to… Brașov.
Ask Romanians where they would retire, ask foreigners who have already lived all over this country, and the same name keeps coming up.
Brașov has close to 240,000 residents, so big enough to have hospitals, supermarkets and plenty to do, but small enough that a car is optional in the center. The Carpathians start at the edge of town — nature at the end of a bus line.
Summers are cooler than Bucharest or the coast, and winters are cold, with snow, but the city is built for them. And during the winter the city is lively because very close is Poiana, one of the biggest ski resorts in Romania.
The airport is one of the reasons this city climbed to the top. Brașov-Ghimbav barely existed a few years ago; now it has flights to London, Budapest, Italian and German cities, and Wizz Air keeps expanding.
Healthcare is quite good for a city of that size: the county hospital is the public backbone, plus on the private side, there is a Regina Maria hospital and MedLife clinics.
The rent for a two-room apartment costs on average 2,890 lei (US$634), so not high at all.
But one item people ignore until it’s too late: heating. You want a building with its own modern boiler, a centrală termică proprie, because older blocks on district heat can produce a painful January bill.
And one quirk in your favor: because this is a tourist town, some landlords prefer a quiet twelve-month winter tenant. That’s you.
86 points, and the best city among the ten best cities in Romania to retire to.
Why Romania?
However, there is still one question that remains unanswered: why would you want to live in Romania in the first place? What are the main pros and the main cons of this country? I listed them for you in our article on the pros and cons of living in Romania.
And if Romania interests you, the full written report — all ten cities, cost of living, and more — is on our Patreon. More than 1,800 people are there already.
Levi Borba is the founder of expatriateconsultancy.com, creator of the YouTube channel The Expat, and a best-selling author. Some of the links in our articles may be affiliated links, meaning the author earns a small commission if you make a purchase.
