by Dasa Suciu

Created on: September 24, 2010   Last Updated: September 25, 2010

There are so many wonderful places in Transylvania that deserve visiting such as Sibiu area, Dracula's Castle in Brasov or old Dacian Sarmisegetuza City.  This is a region of Romania located in the central part of the country. It is surrounded by mountains that give it a special status among places to travel to. I have travelled to many places in Transylvania, but one of them was memorable because of the adventure we, my husband and I had which was unexpected.

Visiting this place and the surroundings was an unforgettable travel. The unique place I'm talking about is a small mountain resort in Cluj county, in the heart of the mountains: Fantanele. It is placed at over 1000 m altitude, at the encounter of two mountain chains, Gilau and Bihor, on the border of the rather big lake with the same name. This Transylvanian resort is recommended for trips and vacations but also for the treatment of anemia, asthenia, tiredness and neurosis. 

We reached the resort rather difficultly, going by train and then taking the bus. But the landscape we saw when we arrived deserved all the trouble. We enjoyed a lot the facilities such as the sport ground and the boat trip on the lake. There are nice camping places, villas and hotels where people from Transylvania and other places of Romania come with pleasure. But one of the most interesting attractions of the Transylvanian resort Fantanele was Belis, the highest village in the country placed close to the resort. We reached here after walking up the sinuous way and found out from the villagers the secrets of the place. We talked about how is life so far away from the crowd.

It was summer then, so we couldn't try the natural skating ring and the natural skiing slides nearby. The food served was great and we were very hungry all the time because of the fresh air. An unforgettable day was the one we went sun bathing on the border of the lake. The water was so clear that we could see the little trout swimming nervously. The lake is one of the biggest barrier lakes in Romania and an attraction for many Transylvanian tourists. Seeing the fish so near, I was tempted to catch some to fry it on the spot. And we did it! By hand with a plastic bag! The place was so wild that we did not fear to be seen doing such a childish thing. But all of a sudden, as if nature didn't like what we did, a storm came out. We hardly had any time to pick up our clothes, to put the blankets on us and to run to our room. We served trout on that evening at dinner, but not ours!

One day we dared to go on a trip to the cave ice of Scarisoara, one of the well-known attractions of Transylvania. Someone in the village told us it’s pretty near. But each time we reached a village we were told the same thing. The trip along the mountains from village to village was like in a fairy tale. An immensity of grass land spotted with scattered houses far away from the madness of the crowd. We had to sleep over night in a village because the distance was too long for us. Next day after a log trip by foot we arrived at last. The feeling we had when going down the stairs into the deep cave was a bit scary. But when we saw the ice we forgot about that. We came back to the Fantanele resort by train, rather tired but charmed by the beautiful landscapes of Transylvania. 

There are many old vestiges and natural beauties in the surroundings that we visited only in part because the time was so short: the churches, the natural reservation, the caves, the Somes River and so on. For those looking for peaceful places, this Transylvanian resort is the perfect place to travel to: no pollution and not a trace of the agitation of the big resorts.

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