Since 2013, the Bucegi Mountains can be easily explored due to the road called Drumul Babelor, officially DJ 713, Transbucegi. It’s a spectacular road that could compete for Romania’s most beautiful road trip with two other amazing highways, Transalpina and Transfagarasan.
Of the total length of 20, only three are unpaved, which means that a drive here is more than accessible, especially in the hot season.
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The maximum altitude reached by the road is 1925 meters; as it comes, you will find yourself on the highest ridges of the Bucegi Mountains, going through it.
And since the investment of 10 million euros could not have been made in vain, in this article, I talk about the best places to visit on Transbucegi in Romania. And there are many.
What I use every time I travel:
- To book hotels: Booking.com
- To book tours: GetYourGuide.com
Best places to visit on Transbucegi in Romania
1. Stay at a cottage in the middle of the mountains
From my point of view, the Transbucegi route requires at least two days of exploration, or maybe even more. It depends on how many tourist attractions in the heart of nature you want to check.
Therefore, it’s ideal to look for accommodation on Transbucegi so that you are as close as possible to these places of interest and to be able to enjoy a pleasant stay.
There are several chalets on Transbucegi where you can have an excellent time. We stayed at Pensiunea LIN Cota 1000, and we really liked the comfort inside the pension and the peace, the accommodation, and the food. As the name suggests, Pensiunea LIN is located at 1000 meters altitude and is an ideal starting point to visit the most beautiful places on Transbucegi.
Other excellent accommodation options on Transbucegi would be:
- Hotel Pestera Cota 1610 – located near Ialomita Cave, has a swimming pool, spa, free parking, room service, restaurant, bar, and rich breakfast
- Hotel Belmont – luxury hotel, located halfway between Bolboci Lake and Ialomita Cave, has a swimming pool, spa, fitness center, free parking, restaurant, delicious breakfast, dream view
2. Admire the sunset on Transbucegi
This article is called Best places to visit on Transbucegi, but the sunset should not be missing from this list even if you don’t have to get to a particular place on the Transbucegi route to witness a real show of colors and lights.
Because we spent only one night on Transbucegi, we had the opportunity to admire a beautiful sunset right from our accommodation, Pensiunea LIN Cota 1000, and the image below does not need other words.
3. Follow the route Podu ‘cu Florile | Best places to visit on Transbucegi in Romania
If I were to make a personal top with the most beautiful places on Transbucegi, I would place Podu ‘cu Florile first. It bears this name due to flowers scattered along the route and is a splendid area, with mountain ridges covered with vegetation and coniferous forests.
To get to Podu ‘cu Florile, you have to start from Cabana Bolboci. There is an intersection here, and you have to choose the road on the right, not 714. It’s about 4.5 km, the distance you will cover in an hour and a half on foot or in 30 minutes by car.
Depending on the recent rainfall in that area and the condition of the roads in Transbucegi, the trip can be pretty difficult to travel by car. It can seem dangerous, especially if you don’t have experience with such roads.
Podu ‘cu Florile is also called Zanoaga Mare Peak, but on Google Maps, you will find it with the first name. The bridge is actually a stone quarry, a plateau from which you will have a fantastic view of the whole area, and especially you will be able to admire Lake Bolboci from above.
4. Visit Bolboci Lake
The next attraction on the list of places to visit in Transbucegi is Bolboci Lake, a lake formed by a dam on the Ialomita River, between Cheile Tatarului and Cheile Zanoagei.
The sea in Bucegi, as it is called due to its impressive size, about the size of the city of Sinaia, and is one of the most beautiful and most visited mountain lakes in Romania.
Whether you want to admire it in passing, camp on its shores, or stay at the nearby Bolboci Chalet, Bolboci Lake will surely impress you. Definitely, the landscape is lovely and memorable! I imagine how beautiful Transbucegi can look around this lake in winter.
It’s possible to meet foxes on the route around the lake or maybe even bears. This is available for all the places mentioned in the article, so be precautious and inform yourself in advance.
5. Take a walk through the Zanoage Gorges
Zanoagei Gorges are part of the Zanoaga Nature Reserve, with 150 hectares. The Ialomita River passes through here, forming a splendid landscape next to the slopes with heights of over 200 meters above the level in the area.
If you have enough time, I recommend walking the route and exploring the area in detail because it’s gorgeous.
6. Enter the Ialomita Cave | The most beautiful places on Transbucegi
Located at an altitude of 1660 meters, Ialomita Cave is one of the main tourist attractions in the Bucegi Mountains. It is also called The Kings Cave and consists of several galleries and halls.
Interestingly, the cave’s temperatures remain constant throughout the year, so they generally do not exceed the range of 9-12 degrees. This means that you can visit it anytime and walk on wooden floors without danger. The cave is almost half a kilometer long.
Before entering the cave, it’s worth a short visit to the church at the entrance, namely the Ialomita Cave Monastery, built almost between the rocks and renovated recently.
7. Hiking on the Piatra Arsa route to the Bucegi Sphinx and Babele
Theoretically, you can reach Babele by car. Practically, things are a bit different. You can cover a large part of the distance by car, on the paved road, which looks good, but you will also have about an hour to walk. Or less, it depends on how fast you move and what season you are in when you choose to see the most beautiful places on Transbucegi.
The stone formations look like sculptures made by man, although the artist was exclusively the nature. The factors that contributed to shaping the strange shapes on the Bucegi plateau are wind, frost, precipitation, and thawing.
Of course, you can get here with the cable car from Busteni, but I don’t recommend it. Besides the fact that the price is relatively high for how old the cable car is, sometimes the waiting time is 3 hours. Therefore, it’s better to check if Transbucegi is open (it can still be closed for rehabilitation works) and choose the first option.
8. Visit Laptici Peatery (Turbaria Laptici)
One of the most beautiful surprises on Transbucegi was Turbaria Laptici, the first peatery I visited or, at least, the only one I remember.
The Laptici peat bog is close to Bolboci Lake, so you shouldn’t miss it if you get to the area. It’s practically a kind of wetter or drier swamp, depending on the season, full of grasses, shrubs, spruces, and other species of dwarf trees, along which lies a wooden bridge on which visitors can walk freely.
The place is located on the road leading to Dichiu Chalet and is called peat bog because peat is formed here, coal that results from the decomposition of plant material.
I think it’s one of the least known places in Romania and yet so unique. I assure you that it’s a pleasure to walk in the quiet of the spruce forest, and it deserves its place at the top of the most beautiful places to visit on Transbucegi.
9. Visit Scropoasa Lake
Lately, Romanians turned their attention to their country’s beauties, which also happened in the case of Scropoasa Lake.
Instagram was full of beautiful pictures of the photogenic lake in the Bucegi Mountains, and so its popularity has grown. So much so that you shouldn’t be surprised by the queues you have to sit at to take a picture of the Instagrammable lake.
Scropoasa Lake is part of the category of artificial lakes, but this doesn’t influence its beauty in any way. The lake’s water changes its colors depending on the season, the weather, the sun or the clouds, and the vegetation on the slopes that surround it. The lake thus becomes a mirror of the sky and the surrounding nature.
Scropoasa Lake is located at an altitude of about 1200 meters, and you can reach it either on foot or by car, following a forest road that starts from Camping Zanoaga. All you have to do is look for this campsite on the map, and then the route becomes predictable and easy to follow. Here, you will also find the first hydropower plant in Romania, Dobroesti Hydropower Plant.
Although it’s much smaller than Lake Bolboci, the fantastic landscape around it and especially its beautiful color makes it worth the effort to get here.
10. Go to Cascada 7 Izvoare
On the same forest road that leads to Scropoasa Lake mentioned above, you will see a wonderful waterfall. It’s so beautiful and unique that, when I saw it, I had the impression that I was not in Romania.
Many legends and myths surround the water flowing in the waterfall, and most of them talk about purity and healing powers. I don’t know how much truth there is and how much legend there is, but I know one thing for sure. The landscape will delight you!
However, the water from 7 Izvoare Waterfall is one of the cleanest in Romania, which resulted from numerous tests performed on it. You can also find this water in supermarkets, and the bottle from which you can drink it has the same name, 7 Izvoare.
11. Enjoy the fauna and flora of Transbucegi | Best places to visit on Transbucegi
In addition to the breathtaking landscapes, the Transbucegi road reveals other well-hidden treasures in the Bucegi Mountains. Extensive forests with coniferous species and lots of flowers and wild or domestic animals are part of the alpine scenery to which Transbucegi has access.
In the Bucegi Mountains, it’s possible to come across a beautiful and rare Romanian flower, meadows with ivy, or even rhododendrons. You will surely meet hundreds of sheep grazing, shepherd dogs, curious foxes, bears, or wolves if we talk about wildlife.
The list doesn’t end here, but a specialist in flora and fauna could provide more details. Our role is to admire and not disturb the mountains’ life in all its forms.
12. Make a short stop in Sinaia
From Sinaia to Transbucegi it’s only a few km, and you have to go through the town of Peles Castle to get here anyway, so it would be good to make a shortstop, especially if you haven’t been here before.
Sinaia is one of Romania’s most beautiful and clean resort towns, and it is worth your time. Don’t miss the Sinaia Monastery, the gorgeous casino building, the George Enescu memorial house, and the two castles, Peles and Pelisor.
My suggestion is to stay at least one night in Sinaia or, why not, to make Sinaia the starting point for Transbucegi, considering that the distance is not that big. In case you decide to spend a night in Sinaia, I recommend the following accommodations, depending on your budget:
- budget: Casa Albert Sinaia
- mid-range: Complex La Tunuri – Vila Economat
- luxury: Hotel Boutique Belvedere
How to get to Transbucegi
As already mentioned, to reach the beautiful Transbucegi road, you must first get to Sinaia. The mountain resort is the starting point for this spectacular route.
From Bucharest to Sinaia, you can cover a distance of 140 km in two hours on a typical day. And from Sinaia to Transbucegi it is about 16 km + 5 km if you leave from the city’s north. You can also get to Sinaia by train, but you still need a car to explore Transbucegi.
What is the condition of the roads in Transbucegi?
When I was there, in October 2021, the road was impeccable, especially in the paved areas. However, there are also unpaved sections, such as the road that leads to Podu ‘cu Flori.
If you want to be aware of the state of the road, it is best to check directly on the cnadr.ro website
When to go to Transbucegi?
Anytime, that’s the short answer. Given that the road is open all year round, except for when maintenance work is performed, you can always embark on a bit of adventure on this spectacular road.
If you want to see greener landscapes and have temperatures that allow a more comfortable movement, it’s best to come in spring or summer. On the other hand, if your dream is to enjoy the snowy mountains, the winter on Transbucegi should be beautiful.
How long do you need to visit Transbucegi?
Considering how many km Transbucegi has, about 20, you would think that one day is more than enough to check the most beautiful places on Transbucegi. But to get to most of the attractions, you have to get a little away from the road and go hiking.
This means that two days are ideal for exploring the area properly. And if you fall in love with places, as happens to everyone, and if you have even more time, you will certainly not get bored even if you spend a week on Transbucegi.
