At the Sighet-Solotvyno Border: From Romania Into Ukraine

The border crossing between Sighetu Marmatiei (Sighet) and Solotvyno makes for a convenient way to get from Romania into Ukraine when travelling by train or on foot. This little trip report shows you how the crossing is like.

Sighetu Marmatiei

After a fantastic and highly scenic journey on the Bucharest to Sighetu Marmatiei night train, I found myself in the far north of Romania just a stone throw away from the Ukrainian border.

Located in Maramures Country, Sighetu Marmației (just shortened to ‘Sighet’ by the locals) is an important regional market town and actually quite a pleasant destination in its own right.

I’ve visited Sighet a couple of times before as there is quite a lot to see both inside the town and it the surrounding area.

For example, you could visit the Memorial Sighet, located in an infamous communist-era prison where dissidents were tortured and killed.

Located just a few kilometres outside of Sighetu Marmației in the village of Săpânța, the Merry Cemetery is one of the most unique sights in Romania.

The area around Sighetu Marmatiei is also well-known for its wooden churches and monasteries such as the ones at Călinești and Bârsana.

Into Ukraine

I will cover all those sights another time in a different trip report, as this time around I was just passing through Sighet on my way to Ukraine.

At this moment, the Sighetu Marmatiei-Solotvyno border crossing is one of the most convenient ways to travel between Romania and Ukraine as transport links on both sides of the border area great.

From Sighetu Marmatiei, you have easy onward connections by train to Brasov, Bucharest and Cluj, while there are also frequent bus connections to Baia Mare.

At the other side in Ukraine, Solotvyno has trains departing to Khust, Uzhhorod, Lviv and Kiev.

You can also take a bus from Solotvyno to the nearby town of Rakhiv, from where there are trains departing to Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv as well.

However, if you come from Romania you can now also take a train from Valea Vișeului to Rakhiv as this disused railway line has been reconstructed and reopened in January 2023.

When I travelled, this railway border crossing was still firmly closed so I had no choice but to take the Sighet-Solotvyno border.

Walking across the border

What makes the Sighet-Solotvyno border such an easy crossing for travellers is that you can simply walk from the train station of Sighetu Marmatiei in Romania all the way to Solotvyno’s railway station.

From the train station of Sighetu Marmatiei, the Romanian border post is just a straightforward 15-minute walk away.

When you exit the station, you simply turn right and continue to walk parallel to the railway tracks.

At the roundabout, you continue straight ahead until you reach the end of the street.

Here, you make a right-hand turn and walk across the level crossing over the railway tracks.

Continue to walk straight ahead and after a couple of hundred metres you will have arrived at the Romanian border post.

At the Romanian border

If you have an EU passport, exit formalities are unlikely to take long when leaving Romania.

The border guard scanned my passport, asked whether I would be coming back the same day or would stay a while longer, and that was about it.

Within three minutes I had my passport back in my hands and was free to walk onward into Ukraine.

Bridge over the River Tisza

The border between Romania and Ukraine in this area is marked by the River Tisza.

To get from Romania into Ukraine, you therefore simply walk across the bridge over the Tisza river as a pedestrian.

At the Ukrainian border

The border formalities at the Ukrainian side took a bit longer as the border guards turned out to be rather inquisitive.

First, I had to show my vaccination certificate and proof of health insurance valid in Ukraine.

If you don’t have health insurance coverage in Ukraine, you can buy a temporary insurance policy for the duration of your stay right at the border.

After browsing through all my passport pages, the border guard wanted to know what I was going to do in Ukraine and where exactly I was going in the country.

Then, I had to follow another guard into one of the buildings for a baggage check, being given the order to unpack everything from my bag and to put it all on a large table for inspection.

Although this was rather annoying, at least the check went fast as I had packed rather light for this trip and only carried a small rucksack.

Even though the entire procedure was much more cumbersome than the last time I crossed into Ukraine at Solotvyno some 5 years ago, I was finally stamped into the country after some 20 to 30 minutes.

Solotvyno

From the Ukrainian border post, the town centre of Solotvyno is just a 10 minute, slightly uphill walk away.

Although there isn’t actually that much to see or do in Solotvyno, it’s a pleasant enough border town with one or two decent cafés and restaurants if you want to eat or drink something.

In the centre of town, you will also find a bank, ATMs and exchange offices if you need to get Ukrainian hryvnia.

If you transit through Solotvyno in summertime, you could also kill some time swimming in the salt lake and mud baths just outside of town.

Train station

Around an hour after I started my walk from Sighetu Marmatiei’s train station in Romania, I arrived at the railway station of Solotvyno across the border in Ukraine.

The last time I visited Solotvyno, I took an overnight train from here to Lviv.

This time around, the ‘elektrichka’ (slow commuter train) to Khust was being readied in front of Solotvyno’s small railway station.

Behind the elektrichka, the sleeper carriages which form the train from Solotvyno to Kiev were already lined up on the railway track for its late afternoon departure.

If you take the train in Ukraine, you can easily buy your ticket in advance through the website of the Ukrainian Railways, which is recommended when taking the sleeper service to Lviv or Kiev as tickets can sell out.

Tickets for the elektrichka train to Khust can be bought at the station when you arrive in Solotvyno.

Bus station

On this trip, I wasn’t taking an onward train from Solotvyno but from the nearby town of Rakhiv, located some 46 kilometres away to the north-east.

To reach Rakhiv, I however first had to take a bus from Solotvyno’s small bus station, which is located right on the main H09 provincial road which runs through town.

You’ll find the small bus station building next to the unfortunately named WOG gas station.

Inside the small bus station building – not much more than a shack – you can buy a bus ticket from the cashier and inquire about the next departure.

I’ll detail my full experience of the bus ride between Solotvyno and Rakhiv in the next chapter in this trip report.

Conclusion

The border between Sighetu Marmatiei and Solotvyno is one of the most convenient crossing for those wishing to travel from Romania to Ukraine or vice versa.

Thanks to the great transport links on both sides of the border, the Sighetu Marmatiei-Solotvyno crossing is especially well-suited for train travellers.

From the train station in Sighetu Marmatiei, it was an easy one-hour walk to reach the railway station in Solotvyno – which included time at both the Romanian and Ukrainian border posts for passport control and a baggage check.

Of course, when crossing from Romania into Ukraine or vice versa I would always budget in a bit more time to be on the safe side as you don’t want to miss your onward train or bus connection due to a longer than anticipated holdup at the border.

Both in Sighetu Marmatiei and in Solotvyno you will find all the facilities you might need such as banks, ATMs, exchange offices as well as cafés and restaurants.

By taking the Sighetu Marmatiei-Solotvyno border crossing, you can easily travel from cities in Romania such as Bucharest, Brasov and Cluj to places in Ukraine like Uzhhorod, Lviv and Kiev.

With direct train connections still being suspended between Romania and Ukraine, the Sighetu Marmatiei-Solotvyno border remains the easiest and most convenient overland crossing for travellers between these two countries.

Trip report index

This article is part of the ‘Mail From Mariupol: A Pre-War Trip to Ukraine by Train‘ trip report, which consists of the following chapters:

1. Review: Night Train Bucharest to Sighetu Marmatiei, Romania
2. At the Sighet-Solotvyno Border: From Romania Into Ukraine (current chapter)
3. Review: Solotvyno to Rakhiv by Bus
4. Review: Hotel Europa, Rakhiv, Ukraine
5. In the Land of the Hutsuls: A Visit to the Town of Rakhiv
6. Rakhiv to Mariupol: Riding Ukraine’s Longest Train Route
7. A Tribute to Mariupol: Memories of a Pre-War Visit
8. Ukrainian Railways Mariupol to Kiev Train in Platzkart
9. Review: Ibis Kyiv Railway Station Hotel
10. Review: Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi Station First Class Lounge
11. Ukraine Night Train: Over the Mountains to Mukachevo
12. Review: Latorca InterCity Train Mukachevo to Budapest
13. A Short Stopover in Szolnok, Hungary
14. Review: Ister Night Train Budapest to Bucharest
15. Epilogue: Witnessing the Ukrainian Refugee Crisis at the Border