Compare On top of Romania’s Two Highest Peaks, in Transylvanian Alps by Alpine Adventure Romania

Day 1

We depart from Bucharest at 18.00 and head, by car, towards West passing by the city of Pitesti and then Curtea de Arges. Half an hour after Curtea de Arges we will be on “the most beautiful road in the world” and soon on the most spectacular dam in Romania. We must stop to see it, the vertical drop is huge.

We head then north following the “most beautiful road in the world”. We will spend the night at one of the guesthouses on this road.

Day 2

In the morning, as early as we can but no later than 8.00, we continue on this road (opened only from June to September) getting dizzy from time to time because of the sudden steep bends of the road and passing through 1Km tunnel we end up on the North side of the mountain at Balea Glacier Lake. Now you should be cold and the only way to warm up is to start the hike.

We are now in Fagaras. This is the biggest, highest and probably most sought mountain massif in Romania in the summer months, while in winter it becomes a challenge. The range it is not called for nothing the Transylvanian Alps. And we are going to have a go for its second highest peak, Negoiu – 2535, following the ridge trail.

The first hour is tough. The second is a pleasure following the ridge. The end of the third one will find us having a short meal just beside Caltun glacier lake. At this point Negoiu is overpowering us and you must wonder which is the way through these vertical walls. But some chimneys, one of them called the Devil Chimney, solve the problem for us. In five hours since we started we should be breathless both because of the effort and of the view from the peak of Negoiu, the last one being simply spectacular in all directions.

We return to Balea on slightly different route which follows a trail underneath the ridgeline.

We will stay at the same guesthouse, as in the previous evening.

Day 3

8.30 AM is our departing hour. We return a little bit to the South and then enter a mountain road which we follow about 18 km.

At the junction of two rivers we leave the car(s) and start hiking. The path is steep and heads directly towards Romania’s highest peak – Moldoveanu (2544m). We stand on top of it after 4 tough hours.

All of Transylvania will be at our feet with its low plain of Fagaras and its rolling hills. The ridge of Fagaras itself seems never to finish and only Negoiu, far in the distance, the second peak of Romania that you climbed the day before, blocks the view.

We take advantage of the good hour and we return to our car(s) by other route. This time we will follow a little the spectacular ridge of the Transylvanian Alps up to Podul Giurgiului Glacier Lake.

We estimate to arrive in Bucharest by 22.00, depending on the traffic.