Cluj (it’s full name is Cluj-Napoca) used to be part of the Austrian-Hungarian empire, and somehow Romania got a hold of it. Its demographics are strange because there are tons of Hungarians along with foreign medical and Erasmus students. You’re just as likely to hear a foreign language walking down the street as you are Romanian.
GIRLS
In Cluj you’ll find more fair-skinned women than in Bucharest and Iasi. Before getting excited at the prospect of getting a Hungarian flag, understand that those girls are technically born in Romania, so it’s possible you can get a Romanian flag via a girl who is genetically Hungarian. You’ll also find Moldavian girls, who are the hottest but have colder attitudes and limited English. You can speak Russian with them.
The worst part of Cluj is that I commonly saw guys dating down. I suspected they could do better in other Romanian cities. There seems to be a surplus of tall handsome men compared to Bucharest, so I was average looking in Cluj while slightly above average in the capital.
Since there’s a surplus of guys, the competition for women is more intense than Bucharest. You’ll find attitudes in women to be less warm, but still warmer than in Anglo countries. If I went to Cluj before Bucharest, I have no doubt that my impression would have been glowingly positive, but compared to Bucharest, it was tougher going with my approaches at night. I felt that I had to rely mostly on day game to get some good interactions going.
You will see a lot of young girls but many are rated 6 and below, and seem to have their pick of attractive guys from Romania, Hungary, Spain, France, and even Germany. It was no surprise that I suffered tough blowouts that was less the case in Bucharest, though it’s possible that many girls thought I was a lowly Erasmus student.
The worst part of Cluj is the huge hipster scene, where women were unkempt and sometimes grossly overweight. Most of the student pubs cater to this demographic. On the other end of the spectrum you have high-end snobby clubs, with no middle ground venues containing cute girls who are open. It became very clear to me early on that Cluj would not be a place I’d want to stay for more than a week. The vibe seemed to say, “You have to work hard here to get laid,” even though the surplus of universities would suggest otherwise. On the bright side, Americans are super rare here.
WHERE TO STAY
Stay in the center at Piati Unirii. Booking.com has a lot of apartment rentals for good prices near this location.
THE BOTTOM LINE
It’s possible that I went to Cluj on an off-week, but I have to say that my experience was negative overall. Also my Romanian friend who lived in Cluj for one year hated it so much that he tried to talk me out of going. My gut instinct is to say that Cluj is fine if you’re coming directly from Anglo pussy hell, but it’s not the best of what Romania has to offer.
P.S. My newest book is called Poosy Paradise. It's about my three month trip to Romania in search of poosy paradise. Click here to learn more about the book.