Deva is a practical base for some of the most interesting sights in southern Transylvania.
The single must-do is Corvin Castle at Hunedoara, twenty minutes by car or bus to the south. The UNESCO-listed Dacian fortresses in the Orăștie Mountains, in particular Sarmizegetusa Regia, are an hour east — the rugged hilltop capital of pre-Roman Dacia, reached by a forest track. Roman Sarmizegetusa, the legionary colony that replaced it, is on the other side of the mountains near the small town of the same name.
For Romanian wine country, the vineyards around Lipova and Miniș are an hour and a half to the west on the road to Arad. The Apuseni mountains, with their karst caves and wooden churches, are an easy 90-minute drive north.