Meet the leu before the first tram validator, mountain guesthouse and restaurant tip line. Romania is wonderfully easy by card in its cities, but the most useful wallet still leaves a little room for lei.
Romania puts transparent windows in every banknote, gives one small coin a second life as a bottle deposit and lets a restaurant guest write the tip into the bill before the fiscal receipt appears.
Use a low-fee contactless card as your main tool, keep a separate backup and carry a modest reserve of smaller lei. Choose RON on payment screens, not euro or your home currency.
Romania's wallet has character. Every current banknote is polymer, older speakers may still make a price sound ten thousand times larger, Bucharest surface transport and metro have distinct payment paths, and every marked drink container carries a refundable 50-bani promise.
Romanian leu notes are colourful polymer portraits of writers, scientists and artists, with transparent windows that make each value feel distinctive.
Romania's polymer notes celebrate writers, artists, musicians, scientists and national memory, surrounding each portrait with flowers, buildings and symbols of their work. Cash by Country artwork is an original, simplified interpretation and is not legal tender.
Choose your currency. RON stays locked to this guide.
Romanian money is full of memorable details: banknotes you can see through, a spoken million that may mean one hundred lei, a bus validator that remembers the exact card and a restaurant bill that asks for the tip before it becomes a receipt. These guides turn those details into a practical travel wallet.
Meet all eight leu banknotes, the people and places behind their artwork, the tiny 1-leu note and Romania's four bani coins.
Meet the leu 02 When one hundred sounds like a millionUnderstand the 2005 redenomination, why an older Romanian may still say “one million” and how to anchor every real purchase to the written RON price.
Find the missing zeros 03 Cards for the centre, cash for the edgesBuild a two-card wallet, use bank ATMs, read exchange-office rates and refuse an expensive home-currency conversion.
Build the Romanian wallet 04 One city, two payment layersSeparate STB surface travel from Metrorex gates, recognize integrated products and use the exact card or phone that bought the ride.
Tap through Bucharest 05 The empty bottle becomes a coinFind the SGR mark, keep the package uncrushed and recover the same half-leu deposit without presenting the purchase receipt.
Return the bottle 06 The tip is a choice on paperUse Romania's pre-receipt tip line calmly, treat roughly 10% as thanks for good table service and keep zero available without apology.
Read the Romanian bill 07 The road sticker with no stickerBuy Romania's electronic road-use vignette from an authorised source, enter the plate carefully and avoid costly unofficial reseller markups.
Plan the road paymentSources include the National Bank of Romania, Romanian legislation, Bucharest transport operators, RetuRO, CNAIR and official European payment guidance.
