Travel Guide Ploieşti

Located 60 kilometers north of Bucharest, Ploieşti is a highly industrial city of 180,000 inhabitants with little tourist interest, apart from a few curiosities. It is Romania's oil capital. Black gold has been mined here since the mid-19th century, making it one of the oldest extraction sites in the world. Although Romanian oil production is declining a little more each year, the activity is still very much in evidence, especially as you travel through the town by train at night, when the refineries' chimneys and flames light up the surrounding area. One of the city's two major soccer clubs is Petrolul Ploieşti. In any case, Ploieşti is an almost obligatory stopover if you're heading for the Carpathians from the capital via one of the two valleys (Prahova, the more prestigious, or Teleajen).