Epic Hikes in Romania
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When you think of epic hiking destinations, Romania might not be the first place that comes to mind. While most people are familiar with the legend of Dracula and the famous Transylvania, few have any idea about the stunning mountain ranges that traverse the country. As someone always on the hunt for new, budget-friendly places to hike around the globe, I didn’t expect Romania to pop up on my radar. After visiting this fall, I can safely say that some of the most challenging, beautiful hikes I’ve ever done can be found in the storied Carpathian Mountains, and I can’t recommend this beautiful country enough.
Omu Peak (Vârful Omu) – 2507 meters
Our first hike was Omu Peak (Vârful Omu in Romanian). The sixth tallest mountain in Romania, Omu is located in the Bucegi Mountains. While this was technically our second hike of the trip, it represented our first big effort. It’s worth noting that Romanians don’t tend to talk about hikes in terms of distance – they speak in terms of elevation or time to complete the hike. However, by my GPS watch, this hike is about 13.5 miles long and has a total elevation gain of 5,316 feet – some pretty serious stuff.
The beginning of the hike up Mount Omu starts in a heavily wooded forest. If you’re lucky, you might see one of the famous Romanian brown bears, although we didn’t come across any on our trip. After clearing the forest, you’re rewarded with the first sweeping views of the rocky faces of the Bucegi Mountains. These were some of my favorite views of the entire trip, as they are totally unique to anything I've ever seen.
Like many big hikes in Romania, you’ll come across a mountain cabana (hut) along your hike up Omu Peak. At the hut, you can get a beer, some soup, and other refreshments to sustain you on your journey.
After passing the hut, we continued our hike up on our way to the “chimney.” It’s here that things became a bit tenuous, as the chimney is more like a completely vertical chute with some strategically placed cables designed to help on your ascent. While this is the fastest route up, it’s not recommended to head down this way. Instead, there’s an alternate route that takes you down through the valley. Our guide had the good sense not to tell us this on the way up, as I think we probably would have opted for the longer scenic route! Still, conquering the chimney was a huge sense of accomplishment.
With less than an hour to go to the peak, we felt like we could do anything after conquering the chimney. Omu Peak itself features a weather station and sweeping views of the entire area, including Braşov below.
Piatra Craiului – 2238 meters
Our next big hike took us up several peaks within the Piatra Craiului. My watch said we hiked for about 13 miles, but I’d recommend taking that with a grain of salt. We started out the morning walking through a stunning gorge with towering rock walls along each side. It was a very mild start to the day and definitely not an indicator of what was to come!
Like the climb up Omu Peak, this hike began by winding through some forested sections and past a hut that offered the opportunity to use the restroom and grab some soup. I highly recommend stopping at each of the cabanas you come across, as they are all different and offer such a unique element of Romanian hiking culture! Also, the soup is delicious.
This hike is best known for its views of rocky cliffs that are, to be honest, a bit intimidating at first glance. The goal of the day was to hike along the ridge of Piatra Craiului, but in order to get there, we were going to need to do a lot of climbing. Far from just ordinary hiking, this task featured metal ladders and cables and is not for the faint of heart! It’s an incredibly cool experience, but maybe not the best if you’re afraid of heights.
The hardest part of the hike is getting up to the ridge line. Make no mistake, it’s a challenge, with many ladders and cables to help you get to the top. Still, the views along the way more than make up for the effort you’re putting in. Just try not to look down.
Once you’re at the top of the ridge, the hiking gets easier, but it’s still quite precarious. The ridgeline is very narrow and features rocky cliffs on both sides. We had a lot of clouds on the day we attempted our hike, but every once in a while, we got a clear path that made for some incredible views.
Admittedly, one of the most challenging aspects of this hike was the descent. While you head down a different way than you come up, it’s full of lots of loose scree that makes the descent slow going. Just be prepared for it to take a while and make sure you enjoy the views along the way!
Negoiu Peak (Vârful Negoiu) – 2535 meters
Our final hike of the trip was an attempt to climb Negoiu Peak (Vârful Negoiu), the second highest mountain in Romania. When I asked our guide why we didn’t hike the tallest one (I mean, go big or go home, right?), he told us that it was only 9 meters higher, harder to get to, not as challenging, and had less impressive scenery. As a result, Negoiu Peak is one of the most popular hikes in Romania.
The climb up Negoiu Peak starts at the top of the Transfagarasan Highway, rated “the most beautiful road in the world” by the Top Gear TV series. I had seen pictures of the road before, but the pictures really don’t do it justice – it is absolutely breathtaking in person! Even if you have no desire to hike, I highly recommend driving on this road if you visit Romania.
The start of the hike was alarmingly steep, but by this point, my friend and I had convinced ourselves that nothing could possibly be harder than the two hikes we had already done. Given that I live in the Tetons and my friend and I have both hiked all over the world, I thought I had a good understanding of what a difficult hike is. I was wrong. Maybe it was just the fatigue accumulating in our bodies. Maybe it’s the fact that there is no Romanian word for “switchbacks” (because they don’t believe in switchbacks and everything just goes straight up). Maybe it was the fact that we were climbing the second tallest peak in Romania. Regardless, this was straight up one of the most difficult hikes I’ve ever done. There’s no getting around it. Luckily, it also happened to be stunningly beautiful.
The hike heads up, then goes along a ridgeline until you reach an alpine lake. Then, you start an even steeper climb that eventually takes you to the top of Negoiu Peak. We happened to do this hike on the Saturday, so there were a lot of people on the trail and at the top of the mountain. I will say that as difficult as the climb up the peak was, the thought occurred to me that it was actually not that bad. Our guide told us that this was the fastest he had ever summitted the mountain, so my friend and I were feeling quite accomplished. That didn’t last long.
The difficult part actually came on the trip back to the car. We dealt with loose rock and scree (to be expected given the steepness of the climb) but took a slightly different route down through a valley. Our guide told us there was just “25 minutes of climbing” before we got back to the car. I don’t know about you, but when I hear “25 minutes of climbing,” that feels like a hill. It wasn’t. It was an entire mountain. First, I wanted to cry – but then, I decided to just do it as quickly as possible. Our guide told us that everyone curses him at this point in the trip!
Still, the sense of accomplishment was huge when we finished the hike, and it was one of our favorite days of the entire trip. I highly recommend doing these hikes in the order they are presented in this article. Each one is progressively harder and builds your confidence for the next one.
This entire trip and all of the amazing hikes were made possible by Alpine Adventure Romania (not sponsored – I paid for everything!). Our guide, Nicu, booked everything for us and guided us on every hike. The entire trip could not have gone more smoothly! I highly recommend Alpine Adventure Romania for your next trip to the Carpathians.
