The Romanian mountains

Autumn in Piatra Craiului

On the terrace of the Curmatura shelter

Mountain goat in Fagaras mountains

The Caltun refuge

The Avrig lake

The best climbers

Romania's highest point - the Moldoveanu peak, 2544 m

The Podragu lake along with the shelter

Near the Vistea refuge

On the way to Romania's third highest peak (Omu)

The Romanian Sphinx

While we lived in Romania we used every opportunity to "escape" the hot Bucharest and go to the mountains. Together we climbed in three mountains: Bucegi, Fagaras and Piatra Craiului. Out of these three the Bucegi mountains are the most crowded, Fagaras is the biggest and perhaps the most wild. Piatra Craiului is simply amazing especially in the autumn.

The Bucegi mountains are beautiful but a bit crowded because of the cable-car which functions between Sinaia and the Omu peak. Near the peak you can find people eating chips, drinking coke and partying in their brand new training trousers and white sweatshirts, so if you climb up it is not very rewarding to see those who took the easy way. A good alternative is to start your hiking from Busteni and head towards the Malaiesti shelter. The hike might take 6-7 hours so you can rest for night in the shelter but you can also use your tent. No need to get scared but at times there could be bears around the shelter. The shelter looks very nice and probably you will get a friendly welcome. Next morning you can head to the Omu peak, the track will be quite easy. Before you get to the peak you will spot a shelter in an amazing place. The shelter is called Caraiman but unfortunately the guys who own it are not the nicest. If you want to sleep in the shelter you might end not sleeping at all because of parties. Here you cannot use your tent. The Caraiman shelter might seem heaven if you start you hike from Busteni and head directly to the shelter: the track is quite hard especially in rain. The Bucegi mountains are nice but if you want the "real thing" maybe choose the Fagaras mountains.

The Fagaras mountains
We climbed in the Fagaras mountains three times. Each time we were simply amazed. Those who have been there know why. We hope that the pictures show at least a bit the beauty of these mountains.
When we climbed in the Fagaras for the first time we started early morning from a small city called Avrig. By early afternoon (or maybe it was noon?) we reached the Barcaciu shelter where put put up our tent and went to explore the surrounding, including the Avrig lake. The shelter has very nice owners and it is located in a beautiful place. Next day again we started early and we wanted to climb the Negoiu peak (third highest) and make it to the Balea lake. Our calculations proved to be too optimistic. The track from the Barcaciu shelter is easy in the beginning but later it turns harder and quite slow. Unless you are very experienced, don't try this track in rain or snow: it might be fatal. There are huge rocks over rocks, like some giant would have played Lego. Early afternoon we made it to the Negoiu peak which was quite a reward. We realized that we won't be able to reach Balea on the same day so we headed towards the Caltun refuge, which is amazingly located. To our surprise we met here quite an international crowd: Czechs, Slovaks and Polish. Next day in 2-3 hours we reached Balea: going down to the lake and see the tourists who drove here with buses was was quite of a shock.
Other times we started from Victoria. One good advice: if you start from Victoria head to the Turnuri shelter, and from there to the Podragu lake. The other track is exhausting: in the beginning there is barely some elevation but later in the day you need to climb 1.100 m in altitude. From the Podragu lake/shelter the Moldoveanu peak is quite close (2 hours). In the Fagaras mountains we always slept in our tent, so we don't have much experience with sleeping in shelters, nevertheless we would recommend the Turnuri shelter. The owners are extremely nice, the place is very "homeish" and it is well located. The Podragu shelter is also very well located, but probably this is the only positive thing about it. In case that you get stuck around the Moldoveanu peak, it is good to know that on the Eastern side of the peak you can find a small refuge called Vistea. It is very basic: four walls, a roof, and some place where you can put your sleeping bag (the capacity is around 20 persons). We spent in tent one night next to the refuge. All night we had storm and lightings but we stood it bravely. Our courage lasted until 5 a.m. when we decided to leave our tent and make a run for the refuge. Because of the heavy storm, clouds and rain we didn't see the refuge at all even if we were 40 m from it. We were never so happy to be under a roof!
In short, if you prefer remote places, scary rocks, beautiful green then Fagaras are your mountains.

The Piatra Craiului mountains
We were only once in Piatra Craiului, middle of October 2004. We started from Zarnesti and it was a bit hard to find the track going out from the city. After a couple of hours we reached the Curmatura shelter. We thought that it will be too cold to sleep in tent so we rented a room for two persons in the shelter. The room was simple and great: two beds, a fireplace and a table. It was so good to listen at night the fire burning and watch the shadows on the wall. The couple who runs the shelter are very nice and the food is also very good. Next two days we were just hiking without backpack and coming back each night to the shelter. On the forth day unfortunately we had to head back to Bucharest.

Some advices. In general Romania and the Romanian mountains are cheap for the budget of a "Westerner". Cheap but there are a lot of amazing places that you can visit. If you head to the mountains you should get yourself a good map even if the tracks are well marked. The standards of the shelters are below the EU standard, meaning: you won't have shower and bathroom inside the shelter. But if you can get over these small inconveniences a great experience is waiting for you! Just write us if you need advices.