Trip Ref #8309
DURATION
3 nights
LOCATION
Romania
ANNUAL LEAVE
2 days off work
SEASON
Apr—Oct
GROUP SIZE
Up to 8 people
MEETING POINT
Cluj Napoca Airport, Romania
ACCOMMODATION
Hotel · Guesthouse
DIFFICULTY
Easy
No previous experience is needed, just an average level of fitness and the ability to handle 3-4 hours of activity each day.
Descend into a mystical network of subterranean passages, galleries and caverns unlike anything you’ve seen before
Mountain bike through the karst plateaus, deep valleys and remote settlements of the wild Western Carpathians
Hike into the beautiful Cutilor Valley, home to a huge abundance of rare plants and wildlife
Day 1
Into the mountains
From the airport, you'll head straight into the Padurea Craiului Mountains and check into your guesthouse in the lovely village of Rosia. After a briefing from your guide, relax around the campfire and then tuck into a traditional Romanian dinner.
Day 2
Rosia Valley and endless caves
Hiking
3hrs
Caving
2hrs
After breakfast you'll head to a unique cave containing fragile calcium crystals and accessible only through a former mine. You'll next walk along the Rosia Valley route where you'll learn about the fauna, flora and the karst features of the area, with a fantastic viewpoint over the Lazuri Gorge. Next up, the caving experience. You'll run through the equipment and safety, then delve into a mystical network of subterranean passages, galleries and caverns unlike anything you've ever seen. Emerge into the light and return to your guesthouse for dinner and a sip or three of palinka, a strong local plum brandy.
Day 3
Hiking and Biking
Hiking
3hrs
Cycling
2hrs
Today you'll explore the area around Rosia. Start with a gentle 3 hour hike through Cutilor Gorge that emerges into the expansive Cutilor Valley. You'll pass several impressive cave entrances and see very rare species of plants. Return to Rosia for lunch, then take the mountain bikes and enjoy a non-technical ride through wide karst plateaus, deep valleys and remote human settlements. Head back to Rosia for your last night in Romania.
Day 4
More caving and then home
Caving
2 hours
Enjoy a final breakfast at your accommodation, then hop in the car and head to Meziadului cave, your destination for today. Arrive at Meziadului Cave, an impressive cavern with remarkable natural features including a natural bridge, before heading back to Cluj Napoca to catch your flight home.
Included
Guides
Expert, English-speaking guides
Accommodation
3 nights in a local guesthouse
Meals
Munch on tasty food throughout
Transfers
To and from the airport and everything in-between
Equipment
All your caving and mountain biking equipment
Permits
All permits and entry fees
Not Included
Flights to and from the meeting point
Travel insurance
Tips for your guides
Personal expenses
Day 1
Hotel · Single bed
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Day 2
Hotel · Single bed
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Day 3
Guesthouse · Single bed
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Day 4
Single bed
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
What is the food like?
Romanian food is hearty, flavourful and heavily influenced by its neighbouring countries.
Most meals start with a soup of meat, vegetables or fish made sour with lemon or vinegar. Sausages and other meats are popular, as well as meat and vegetable pies, goulash, stuffed cabbage rolls and cheeses.
Vegetarians can be catered for, however, vegan diets are a little more difficult in this part of Romania so it's not possible to guarantee it throughout the adventure.
What is the accommodation like?
The Mountains
You'll stay in a local guesthouse called Casa Florian. This is a traditional Romanian guesthouse with warm and generous hosts and sweeping views of the Apuseni Mountains. This rustic guesthouse offers home made food sourced from local and organic ingredients.
You'll have your own room throughout the trip - please let your host know if you are travelling as a couple or would like a twin room.
The Area
Logistics
Starts
Cluj Napoca Airport, Romania
13:30 on Day 1
Ends
Cluj Napoca Airport, Romania
19:00 on Day 4
Transfers
Your adventure begins at Cluj Napoca Airport, (CLJ) with your airport transfer at 13:30. Please schedule your flight to arrive at least 30 minutes before this. Your host and driver will be waiting for you in the arrivals area. If you’re not able to join this transfer, your host recommends arriving the day before and spending the night in Cluj Napoca city centre as they are not able to organise private transfers. You can book any flight and easily get to/from Cluj Napoca centre via a taxi.
At the end of your adventure, you will be dropped back at Cluj Napoca Airport Airport at 19:00. You’re free to book any flight that departs after 20:00. Alternatively, If you would like to be dropped off in Cluj Napoca city centre, please let your host know when booking.
Travel options
There are regular flights to Cluj Napoca from airports across the UK and Europe.
Enjoy 12.5% Off Outdoor Gear
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What's included?
- All your technical and safety equipment
Bags
- Soft overnight duffel bag or rucksack
- Daypack
- Waterproof liner (or dry bags) for kitbag or rucksack
Clothes
- Waterproof jacket
- Waterproof trousers
- Fleece jacket or similar
- Warm hat
- Buff or neckscarf
- Lightweight trousers/shorts/skirts
- T-shirts, underwear & socks
- Swimwear
- Sunglasses
- Sun hat
- Something to sleep in
- Hiking boots (worn-in)
- Sandals
Other
- Padlock for left luggage
- Universal travel adapter
- Power bank or solar charger
- Passports (and visas)
- Travel Insurance documents
- Earplugs
- Insect repellent
- Suncream
- Personal first-aid kit (inc. blister treatment)
- Personal items (biodegradable toiletries, sanitary wear etc)
- Toilet kit (toilet paper, biodegradable bags to carry out)
- Alcohol hand-gel
- Headtorch or torch
- Reusable water bottle x 2 litre
- Energy bars and snacks
- Water purification tablets/treatment system
Extra night in Rosia (Single, Twin or Double)
Payable Before Departure
Extra night in Rosia (Single, Twin or Double)
…
This trip is in a great location with a great host and food. The area is beautiful with its views and lots of peace and quiet. The location is very remote with a few friendly stray dogs for company. Cornelia will really look after you with LOTS of food. Be prepared to eat a lot but low levels of activity.
The trip was absolutely phenomenal, no other words to describe it. A hard mountain climb, but full of history and incredible views. If you enjoy hiking and mountain climbing, this is hands down the trip for you. Litochoro was a beautiful little mountain town for getting acquainted with your tour group, before a beautiful hike. The views from the mountain lodge are simply incredible, you can see through the valley right to the ocean on a clear day.
The tour guide was very experienced in the local area and caves, and the food was delicious.
The entire trip was amazing! Our guide Tic was friendly, knowledgeable and a great laugh. The trip gave you a taster of several different caves, hiking and cycling. The food was delicious, home-cooked, and different every day. I would highly recommend this trip!
Nice accommodation, knowledgeable and fun guide, good home-cooked food and fun range of activities.
The activities, the food and the scenery were great.
Everything was great.
The accommodation and the ladies at the guest house, and Axy our host were great.
Everything was great! It exceeded all my expectations.
Tic the guide was fantastic, biking, caves and hiking were all really good.
We've crunched the numbers to work out the total carbon footprint of this trip, and plant enough trees to suck 2x as much back out the atmosphere.
What's the number?
It works out on average at 123kg of CO2 emissions per person, including all local transport, accommodation, food, activities, guides, staff and office operations.
The only thing it doesn’t include right now is flights and travel to the destination. We do make an overall estimate across all our customers separately, but as we don’t book flights, have customers from all corners of the world, and no way of reliably knowing their travel plans, we simply can’t include an individual number in the figure on display here. We’ve got a goal for 2023 to fix that, so that when you book, there is a way to measure and mitigate the carbon emitted by your flight too.
But what does the number mean?
Yep, hard to picture eh? To give you an idea:
- Driving 1000miles/1609km would be approx. 281kg of CO2 in an average car (or 140.5kg per person if there was 2 of you in it).
- A return economy class flight London - New York would be approx. 1,619kg (1.66 tonnes) per person.
- 10 trees in a temperate forest are estimated to remove approx. 250kg of CO2 from the air in a period of 5-10 years.
What are we doing about it?
Our trips are relatively low-carbon by design, and we're working with all our hosts to develop long term carbon reduction plans. For every person booked with us since 2016 we’re planting enough trees to suck at least 2x more carbon out the atmosphere than is emitted by their trips. All native trees, as part of amazing projects that are re-foresting degraded land, tackling the biodiversity crisis and supporting local communities at the same time. We go further than that too, also funding re-wilding projects worldwide to help protect important keystone species from extinction. See the reforestation and re-wilding schemes we support. See our carbon action plan.
Want to know more?
Amazingly, no international travel company has ever publicly published their carbon measurements before, as far as we know. We believe that must change, quickly. So we’re openly sharing the method we used in the hope that other companies will be able to more easily follow suit and build on what we've done so far. You'll find it all here.
No previous experience is needed, just an average level of fitness and the ability to handle 3-4 hours of activity each day. Your guide will give you full instructions and a safety briefing before you start.
This is an accessible caving experience - mainly horizontal galleries, with your guide on hand to help you through, however, it is not recommended for those with severe claustrophobia.
There are 2 types of cave included in this trip. Show caves like the crystal cave and the Mexiadului Cave are open to the general public but still offer a majestic underground experience.
The technical cave you'll explore is not open to the public and with the help of your guide, you’ll negotiate narrow passages and clamber and descend into small chambers. Although not for those with claustrophobia, it is an accessible experience and one you won't forget!
Sure can! Over 50% of our travellers travel solo, it’s a great way to meet like-minded people.
Summer is the best season to explore the area, but spring and autumn are also very pleasant, although there’s a greater chance of rain. The average daily high is around 27°C in summer, but it cools down at night, so pack warm clothes for sitting around the fire.
You'll need to bring all your luggage with you, however on each day of hiking your main luggage can be left in the accommodation in Rosia. You will only need to have a daypack for each day of hiking.
For current advice about travelling in Romania, have a read of the UK Foreign Office pages here.
Our recommended travel insurance provider is Campbell Irvine.
Travel insurance is compulsory on all of our adventures. Your insurance should include adequate protection for overseas medical treatment, evacuation/repatriation, your baggage and equipment and the specific activities involved on your adventure.
Your insurance policy should also include specific Covid-19 cover, including cancellation and curtailment cover if you, your travel companion or a close relative are diagnosed with Covid-19.
We fully endorse Campbell Irvine as their insurance offers all of the above, so get in touch with them or call on 020 7938 1734 to get your insurance sorted. We suggest that you book travel insurance as soon as you book your adventure, just to cover you for any last minute life changes. We know you’re an active lot and injuries do happen!
We automatically convert prices from the local currency that a host receives to your chosen currency. We update our exchange rates on a daily basis so this does mean that prices displayed on the site are subject to currency fluctuations, which is why you may see them change over time.
If you wish to change the currency you pay in, head to the bottom of the page.
All of our group adventures are specially designed for adults to enjoy (18+) as we want these adventures to bring together outdoorsy people who are truly like-minded. Children can be accommodated on some private departures.
You're in good company. Our adventures are typically made up of a mix of solo travellers and small groups of two or three friends who simply love adventure, pushing themselves and meeting awesome like-minded people. See here for more info about our lovely bunch of Much Better Adventurers.
Want to book a private trip? Just tap ‘Private Group’ in the dates and prices tab.
Your trip is led by carefully curated local hosts and expert guides. See here for more info about the guides we work with.
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