Active winter holidays in the Apuseni Mountains.

The Apuseni Mountains are the ideal region for winter eco tourism.
Lovely authentic villages are linked by hundreds of kilometer of forestry roads. These  tracks are used since ancient times and they are leading you over the main ridges of the mountains. They bring you sometimes through dense forest, other times over open plains from where you have superb panoramas.
During your trip you will meet the local people and enjoy the warm hospitality so typical for Transylvania. You stay one, sometimes 2 nights in each farm. Your luggage will be transported by horse and sledge and during climbs you can take a seat on the sledge as well. 

During the long winter evenings we’ll introduce you some typical round games. You will have a lot of time to get to know your guest families as well and you will see how people in the mountains get through the long and sometimes harsh winters.
Every evening you’ll enjoy a typical warm meal, prepared with biologic local products. In the morning you’ll have a rich breakfast, the lunch will be taken along the trip, once a lunch packet, once somewhere inside, depending the possibilities.

Snow conditions:
Mountain regions in Romania get in normal winters lots of snow. The country has a continental climate with atlantic influence. The Apuseni Mountains are the first barrier after the Hungarian plains and fresh snow falls about every week. It can start to snow as early as October and sometimes even in May the higher peaks are covered with fresh snow. The main part of both trips takes place above 1000m altitude. In case the snow conditions are not what they supposed to be, we will divert a part of the program to the higher mountain regions in the Apuseni Mountains. In this case we support the extra transfers. 
We can update you daily about snow conditions by email.
Temperatures: Average daily high between 0 and -10 degree Celsius from January till half April.

How to get in Romania:
Check our page Travel-info 

The discovery trip:

Day 1: The trip starts in the authentic Hungarian village Sancraiu at the foot of the 1836m high Vladeasa Mountain.
You sleep in guest rooms in typical farms.
We make a ski round-trip in the village and you have the possibility to test your equipment. In the late afternoon we visit a woodcarver where you can see how people since generations make artisan objects. We’ll introduce you the art of wood carving and you’ll have the opportunity to try to make something for yourself. The girls and women in the village make fine embroidery. Sancraiu is also a village where people strongly kept to their traditions and on Sundays or festive days people still wear their very nice costumes and dance popular folk dances. After the meal you’ll be invited to dance together and we’ll teach you some typical ‘Kalotaszeg’ dances.

Day 2: From Sancraiu it goes with horse and sledge to the Vladeasa Mountain. You can ski the downhill parts during the trip. The Vladeasa Mountain is the highest mountain from the Western Apuseni Mountains and dominates with his 1836m the whole region. Because it is the first barrier after the Hungarian Plains, you can expect lots of snow. You stay for the night in the Romanian village Rogojel in guest rooms. Rogojel is located at about 1100m altitude. Distance: 16 km

Day 3: The horse and sledge will bring you higher on the Vladeasa Mountain and from there you make by ski the long 15 km descent to the village Rachitele where you stay 2 nights in guest rooms. The village Rachitele is located at the confluence of the Rachitele and Stanciu River at about 1100m altitude.

Day 4: Round-trip to the village Dealu Botii at 1200m altitude.

Day 5: With horse and sledge you go to the Humpleu Cave. Speleology is very popular in Romania. The country counts over 13.000 caves. Caving in the winter is nice because the temperature inside is higher then outside.
The Humpleu Cave is one of the biggest caves in Romania. The cave is not ‘arranged’ for tourists so it will be an exploration where you’ll see the cave just as the first explorers discovered her. There are 35 km galleries with over a dozen enormous rooms of which the biggest one is 600m long en 45m high. You won’t be able to visit everything, but you will have a good idea of what the cave offers.
From the Humpleu Cave it goes along the beautiful Firei Valley till the village Doda Pilii where you stay for 2 nights in the hotel Rustic.

Day 6: Trip along the Somesu Cald River to the Somesu Cald Canyon. We bring you to one of the most remote places in the Apuseni Mountains. It is a beautiful trip along almost level forestry tracks through the endless evergreen forest. Back to the hotel Rustic. Distance: 18 km.

Day 7: Transfer to the town Cluj Napoca, where you sleep the last night. Along the road we visit the village Izvoru Crisului whit its numerous artisan shops where you can see or buy artisan products from all over Romania. In Cluj we offer a guided city trip. Downtown Cluj-Napoca looks like a typical Hungarian provincial town with many baroque and classicism buildings. You can visit the St Michaels Church, the Banffy Palace and the ethnographic museum.
You sleep in a hotel in the town.

Day 8: Return home.

Accommodation : Double or more person-bedrooms. 
Bathrooms: Shared showers and toilets.
Meals: continental breakfast, lunch packet, warm dinner (typical regional meals, made from mostly homegrown products.)

The trip can be made as well with touring skis or with cross country skis. Because the trips don’t take place in a tourist resort, there are no ‘loipes’ or special tracks for cross country skiing. Therefore the sledge is equipped with a plow and makes a prefect track for cross country skiing. During the uphill parts, the cross-country skiers can take place on the sledge, the touring skiers have the choice or to climb the track by themselves or to take place on the sledge as well.

Day 1: The trip starts in the village Risca at 1000m altitude, in the Apuseni mountains. Risca is a typical village with farms spread out over the plateau.
You sleep in an authentic Romanian farm.

Day 2: The trip goes along forestry roads and over the plateau to the village Belis, at the border of the 25 km long Lake Fintinele. 
Distance 10 km.  Accommodation: guest rooms.

Day 3: From Belis we go over the villages Balcesti and Dealu Botii to Doda Pilii. We follow the 15 km long northern arm of the lake. Doda Pilii is a small Romanian village at 1100m altitude where almost the whole population are wood cutters. The lovely houses are made from wood.
Distance 15 km.  Accommodation: hotel rooms.
 
Day 4: From the village Doda Pilii we’ll go to the village Rachitele via the Prislop Saddle and the Muntcelu Peak (1542m) to the Stanciu Valley. We descend the valley till the village Rachitele. 
Distance: 15 km.  Accommodation: guest rooms

Day 5: Round-trip in Rachitele 
Distance 12 km. Accommodation: guest rooms

Day 6: Trip from Rachitele to Rogojel. The trip goes along the slopes of the highest mountain of the region; the Vladeasa (1836m). The first 9 km we go with the sledge up the Stanciu Valley till Piatra Alba, a 100m vertical cliff. From there you can ski down to the village Rogojel. Distance: 19 km.  Accommodation: guest rooms

Day 7: Trip from Rogojel to Sancraiu. 
Descent from the village Rogojel along the Alunisu Valley to the village Sacuieu. From there we climb the Bogdanului Peak with the sledge. The trip descends over the village Alunisu to Sancraiu. Sancraiu is an ethnic Hungarian village where people kept strongly to their traditions and on Sundays or festive days people still wear their very nice costumes and dance popular folk dances. 
Distance: 18 km.  Accommodation: guest rooms

Day 8: Return and eventually a visit to the village Izvoru Crisului, another ethnic Hungarian village with dozens of artisan shops.

Accommodation :Double or more person-bedrooms. 
Bathrooms: Shared showers and toilets.
Meals: continental breakfast, lunch packet, warm dinner (typical regional meals, made from mostly homegrown products.)

Red line = skiing trip      Blue line = Discovery trip

How to get there: (for links to airliners etc, click here)   Direct flights from London Luton, Paris Beauvais and Dortmund to Cluj Napoca with Wizz Air.  There are also direct flights between Paris Beauvais and Rome and Cluj Napoca. (Blue Air) Lufthansa operates a direct flight between Munchen and Cluj Napoca. Or  Flights to Budapest (regular airlines and low-cost) and train to Cluj -Napoca: there are trains departing the airport Ferihegy at 08.43 (arrival Cluj Napoca at 16.40) and 13.43 (arrival Cluj Napoca at 21.33) Train connections: see at http://www.mav-start.hu/english/index.php   Back: train leaving Cluj Napoca at 06.23 arrives at 12.16 and train leaving Cluj Napoca at 10.29 arrives 16.16. at the airport. (The trains depart at new trainstation at airport terminal 1 and you have to change trains in Szolnok, time between trains is somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes)