Intro

The Danube Delta has been declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1991. It is the largest and best preserved European delta in Europe, after the Volga delta. The region is renowned worlwide for the saline-marine ecosystems it hosts.

The largest town closest to the Danube Delta and serving as a hub and entry point for it is Tulcea. Tulcea is the capital of the Tulcea county and is home to almost 100000 people.

Location

Tulcea and the Danube Delta are located in Tulcea county, Dobrogea, Romania, in the easternmost part of the country, 120 km north of the biggest city in Dobrogea, Constanta and 270 km northeast of Bucharest, just south of the border with Ukraine.

Getting to & around

Getting to Tulcea and the Danube Delta isn’t too hard. The easiest way to reach the city is by train either via Bucharest or Constanta. Both of these routes pass through Medgidia in Constanta county.

Another way of reaching the city and thus the Delta is by road, Tulcea being well connected through national and European roads with both Bucharest and Constanta.

You can also get to it by plane, Tulcea being home to an airport but unfortunately it mostly serves charther flights. You can land on Constanta‘s Mihail Kogalniceanu airport though which is better connected, rent a car from there and go straight to Tulcea.

If cruises are your thing, then you may want to reach Tulcea and the Danube Delta by taking a cruise ship all the way from Germany, Vienna, Bratislava or Budapest. 

There are plenty of ferries linking Tulcea itself with various places in the Danube Delta as well as the smaller towns at the end of it such as Sulina and Sfantu Gheorghe.

Branches

The Danube Delta is expanding into the Black Sea at a rate of about 20 m per year. The river splits itself into two branches right before Tulcea, one of them being the northern branch Chilia while the other splits once more right after Tulcea into two branches named Sulina, the middle one and the most navigable, and Sfantu Gheorghe (Saint George), the southern one, bringing the total number of branches before flowing into the Black Sea to three. There are also literally hundreds of channels sprinkled between these three branches as well as forests and wetlands.

Nature

The Danube Delta is home to more than 300 species of birds, 50 freshwater fish species and no less than 1200 varieties of plants. Almost 80% of its area is strictly protected.

It serves as a resting place for many species of birds coming from all over Europe, Asia and even Africa to rest here during migration.

People

The Danube Delta hosts more than 15000 people that use traditional wooden kayaks or wooden boats to travel. Their main occupation is fishing although tourism is on the rise.

Sulina

The largest city inside the Danube Delta is Sulina, located at the end of the Sulina branch, on the Black Sea. A mere 5000 people live in this small and very remote town, only accessible by boat, whose moments of glory came in the mid 19th century, when it used to be a porto franco, a major shipyard as well as the seat of the Danube Commission. Nowadays opportunities are scarce and the unemployment rate stood at 40% in 2004.

Accommodation

Please visit our page of Tulcea hotels to get further information on Tulcea accommodation or to comment or rate a specific hotel.

Sports

Tulcea is home to one of the most successful male volleyball teams, Deltacons Tulcea.