The Banat plain around Timisoara is flat and agricultural — most of the interesting day trips are towns rather than landscapes. Arad, an hour's drive north, is the largest neighbour and an attractive Habsburg-era city with its own substantial Secession-era centre.
The Recas wine region, 25 km east of Timisoara, is the local viticultural area and several wineries offer tours and tastings — Recas, Cramele Recas and Petro Vaselo are the established names. The small Habsburg-era town of Lugoj, an hour east on the railway, has a notable cathedral and a small Banat ethnographic museum. The Buzias-Lugoj spa area was a 19th-century mineral-water resort and the surviving buildings make for a half-day curio.