Transylvania Winter Walk & Snowshoe

A hidden gem of natural beauty in the Transylvanian Mountains

A hidden gem of a European trip exploring the quiet and less visited Transylvanian Mountains complete with charming, local accommodation and delicious food to match!

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A really interesting week’s snowshoeing in beautiful mountians in an unspoilt part of the world

A great week, despite very little snow.

I’m just back from this trip, and had a great time. The trip was full, with 16 people, and everyone was lovely. Villa Hermani is a great small hotel, and the food is excellent. Katharine and Herman are lovely hosts, and their Romanian cook is excellent. Our walk leader was Leo, their son, and he was good fun and a very capable guide. He had to make some difficult decisions because of the dodgy and changeable weather, and the varying abilities in the group,which he handled very well. It was great to have Rares (Alex) along as a second guide, and we really needed him at times.
Magura – like most of Europe – has had a strange winter, so there was only a dusting of snow when we arrived. But, with that and a couple of further dumps of snow during the week, we managed 2 walks with snowshoes and 1 with yaktrax, as well as ordinary walking in hiking boots.
I liked the mix of walking and cultural visits – bears, Saxon history, Bran Castle. And I stayed for 2 days in Bucharest at the end to see a bit more of Romania. It was so different it seemed like a totally different country!

The most beautiful views I have ever seen...

… and I’ve been to Canada, so that says a lot.
Our group was extremely lucky with the weather. You basically walk up and down mountains every day, nothing interesting about that. It is the weather that controls what the views look like. I regret nothing.

Snowshoeing in Transylvania

This was my first snowshoeing holiday and despite being a bit apprehensive beforehand I absolutely loved it. Everything combined to make it a fantastic holiday – a get away location in the middle of the national park, a very homely hotel with superb food and hospitality, stunning scenery on each walk and a very interesting daytrip to some of the local places of interest. Add to that a really friendly group of fellow travellers and it truly was a week to remember.

A great intro to snow-shoeing in a really beautiful place

A great intro to snow-shoeing in a really beautiful place, with ‘warm up days’ to learn how to do it.

A very fine and scenic trip!

A good week in the foothills of the Carpathians. The hotel, the Vila Hermani, was excellent. Even included 3 friendly hounds, one or two of which followed us most days as “free agents.” Not the most challenging snowshoe trip I’ve been on, it’d be good for a newcomer to the sport. Wonderful scenery, good snow, very remote + unspoiled territory. Our guide, Thomas, really knew every path on the mountain!

TRANSYLVANIA WINTER WALK & SNOWSHOE

Wonderful snowy scenery in the forests. Expert guide (Thomas Oyntzen) with great historical knowledge of the area. Great historical buildings built to resist invasion from the Turkish empire. Very pretty mountain farming villages built on very steep grazing land, which is very hard to farm. Great wildlife to view. Very comfortable hotel with lovely food.

Winter Wanderings

We had never snowshoed before so were a bit apprehensive before the trip, but our nerves quickly dissolved when we arrived. Villa Hermani was excellent, with a strong focus on good quality local dishes and a wholesome experience. The owners Hermann and Katharina are very hospitable and welcoming. We had loads of fresh snow so the conditions for this snowshoeing trip couldn’t have been better. The trip was more tiring than regular hiking, though still was very enjoyable, and the mountain scenery was stunning. Snowshoes and poles are provided; you just need to take a day pack for extra layers, yak traks, lunch, snacks and a thermos of herbal tea.

Stunning scenery

We took part in this group tour in February 2018. It was the first time we had visited Romania and it was fascinating to learn about its history and experience its wild beauty.

Pros:
Very well organised from start to finish; we felt well looked after.
Food at the hotel was delicious, and we were well catered for as veggies.
Good variety of walking with stunning scenery.
The area is very unspoilt and most days we did not see another person once we got into the mountains.
The country has reasonable prices for food and drink.
Our guide, Holger, plus the staff at the hotel made sure we all got where we needed to go safely.
We were lucky to be in a good group of fellow travellers who we got on very well with.
Flights and transfers were very good.

Cons:
Although the food was delicious be prepared that there is no choice for dinner options (as if often the case in chalet accommodation). At breakfast there is no juice, and the buffet choice is not huge.
Be warned that there are lots of dogs living outside of the houses in the village, and sometimes they bark all night. If you’re a light sleeper, take ear plugs. In room 6 we also had a creaky bed and ended up putting the mattresses on the floor to get a good night’s sleep.
The trip is rated as moderate. I am pretty fit and have completed two Moonwalks (walking marathons), and I found the two longer walks quite challenging. Ice under foot plus the elevation gain made these walks tough, so you’ll need to be fairly fit or a regular walker, not a novice. The yak traks recommended in the packing list are really essential when there is ice under foot.