Monica Suma | Bucharest-based travel writer

Hi! I’m Monica

I’ve filed many positions so far, but my most defining role has always been that of a traveling writer. As a travel and lifestyle writer, I write about arts & culture, food & drinks, unique properties around the world, as well as up-and-coming destinations with booming artsy happenings and a burgeoning culinary scene. Since moving back to my native Romania, I’ve been covering Bucharest and Romania extensively.

Portfolio

Europe’s Most Exciting City Right Now

Romania on a platter:

The new Romanian Cuisine

Cluj-Napoca: Transylvania’s

capital of culture

Bucharest

Travel Guide

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

African Art Capital:

Cape Town transformed

LONELY PLANET

Why Romanians are

obsessed with garlic

Exploring Schiedam, the gin

capital of the Netherlands

LONELY PLANET

Take a sip of Romania’s burgeoning wine scene

LONELY PLANET

New museum in Bucharest

sheds light on communist-era

modern art

LONELY PLANET

SEE FULL PORTFOLIO

As seen in

Bare Feet in Romania with Mickela Mallozzi

Greetings from Tallinn 😎🇪🇪 So happy to

Greetings from Tallinn 😎🇪🇪

So happy to be back in Estonia’s lovely capital with @airbaltic ✈️, three years later after I first visited with @vikingcruises. Missing dear friends @kirstenalana, @neumarc & @mumhad1ofthose whom I first explored the city with, loaded back then with tips from @lifeisjovial. A city I instantly liked for its walkability, its stunning creative scene and its friendly people 🙌🏻. I’ll be back with my favorite spots for a day trip or weekend visit, but first things first, this panoramic view 💥 A simply perfect welcome of sunlight and breeze, fewer people than how I knew it and an overall delightful, calm atmosphere. Just what the doctor ordered.👌🏻

#Tallinn #Estonia @visittallinn

Greetings from the end of two power days in Berlin

Greetings from the end of two power days in Berlin 💥

A city I first discovered in the winter freezing cold, on @itbberlin nights and through quirky boutiques in Mitte.

Three years later since my last visit, it’s been bright sunshine ☀️, lots of walking and a glorious sensation of feeling so free.

Of finding my way intuitively to all my favorite spots, of going where the mood strikes, of savoring every moment.

Because even though lots has happened since, I have walked those very streets before, immortalized onto a memory box I now simply pressed play on.

What a joy to feel this creative energy and witness a capital’s beating heart again. 🧡 🇩🇪

#Berlin #Germany

Hey, hey 👋🏻 Popping back into the travel uni

Hey, hey 👋🏻 Popping back into the travel universe, and the creative boost that comes with it.

Feels great to finally end a year and a half of severe travel draught and embark on my first trip abroad since early 2020.

After a first 6 months of this year focused on moving and getting my own place up and running (more on that later), it’s great to put the wheels back into motion, pack some bags, see some friends and travel freely where it’s safe to do so. A feeling I so craved and needed in all respects.

Happy to be in Hamburg again, pop over to Berlin next, before embarking on a chill, off the grid Baltics roadtrip. Onwards and upwards, I say. It’s high time!

#Hamburg #Germany #Sternschanze

Hello old friend 👋🏻, it’s been much too lo

Dear 2020, I’m delighted to bid you farewell, ev

Dear 2020, I’m delighted to bid you farewell, even if I know 2021 won’t be instantly better.

But while you made a global mess of yourself, it wouldn’t be fair to dismiss the good you have brought upon too.

Looking back at the year, and my memories and actions through it, 2020 was so much more than a year of isolation.

I did feel lost or rather numb at times, to the continuous cycle of delays and what now-s, but I also found a quieter space of slow and steady I didn’t quite fathom before. A space that unleashed non-negotiable desires and realizations I wouldn’t have discovered without. How to be enough for yourself when the world at large is closed for business.

A year ago, around this time, long before the pandemic drove a wrench into our lives, I vowed myself to become self-reliant. To not let anything or anyone disrupt my inner equilibrium I’ve fought hard to rebuild several times throughout the years. Become rock solid at my core, without losing my faith or sensitivity. Even if it meant propping up an under-construction sign first.

Then the pandemic came along – only to reinforce a thousand times over there could be no better time for it. No better time to train my mind to shut up for once, to analyze and react less. To gain a sense of perspective. To carry my emotions proudly to shore. To alchemize into a greater meaning, not banish them.

Despite the lack of certainty on anything, I feel more in control today than in any of the previous years’ end that brought loss or big change. I’ve since stripped all the layers and found along with it the liberation at knowing I can be in more control than I previously thought. It just takes a bit of deep digging. And for that, I have 2020 to thank for.

Here’s to a more positive 2021 and a return to calmer waters!🤞🏻 #dear2020

Today is Romania’s National Day 🇷🇴 La mult

Today is Romania’s National Day 🇷🇴 La mulți ani, România! #1decembrie

For me, this day is mostly a reminder of the incredible people that inspire me and make me proud to be Romanian born myself. The people I’ve met since returning home after twelve years away, some of which hold similar stories.

I’ve always verged towards local artisans wherever I’ve been, but it’s never been so important to support and buy local like this year has. Whether it was sourcing my food from a bevy of small producers, ordering from my favorite restaurants, supporting local coffee shops or artisan grocers, local was the key word this 2020.

Romania is a heritage, folklore and landscape rich country – and yet in the three or so years that I’ve been back – I’m mostly drawn, and in awe, by its creatives putting in a contemporary twist to the age-old traditions. Designers, artists and craft makers from all walks of life, a realm in which I see myself getting involved much more in the near future.

Just like this fine art print of an illustrated Romania I purchased some weeks ago from darling @madalina_andronic, going up my wall in a few weeks - a different kind of map that is playful, whimsical and fun 🧡#madeinromania

#Romania #lamultianiromania #mapofromania

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