László Varga

Two weeks ago the company I work at has organized a ‘survivor camp’, which is basically a team-building activity to which our partners/family is also invited. On that weekend around 240 people have gathered, so a grand hotel was needed to accommodate everyone. The decision has fallen to Grand Hotel Bálványos a hotel in Bálványos, a remote resort very close to the town I was born in (Kézdiásárhely – Rom:Tg. Secuiesc). So, in a way, this was an opportunity to actually go home to the mountains I grew up in. I must say, although I am used to them, there were still quite a few surprises.

First of all, the hotel itself was recently renovated and compared to the old hotel, that was in its place before, the new hotel looks awesome: a true 21st century four star hotel. There were some minor inconveniences with one of the internet plugs not working, but other than that our room was excellent. I would recommend anyone who decides to stay in the hotel, to take a room located on the front side of the hotel, with a view upon the valley: it is breathtaking 😉 .

During the weekend we have organized a few trips to some local attractions. There was a possibility to take a long hike on the Puturosu Mountain, ending it at the ruins of the Bálványos fortress. It was a long trip and because of the weather and some health issues I recently had, I decided no to choose this (although from what people say it was fun).

The other option was to visit the St. Anna Lake and the Mohos swamp. I must say the lake itself looked rather empty: I was used to the tons of people lying on the shores of it in the summer. The place is usually full of life, not really resembling a natural reserve. Now, however, I got the chance to admire it in peace. If the weather wasn’t so cold I would visit it in October more often 🙂 .
To the swamp itslef there is guided tour, because it is not really a safe area: keep on the tracks and you’ll be safe. A word of advice: do not visit it in October, none of it’s plants or wildlife will be visible then. Choose a warmer month, it is much better then. (You can imagine the speed we went through the swamp considering the cold, and the fact that there was not much to see 😀 )…
And… although we, fat tourists, went by bus, some of our more sporty colleagues chose to rent bikes from the hotel and to just get to the lake with them. It is a good alternative, but it is advised only for hardcore people in October (it was really chilly…).

Last but not least, there was a possibility to visit the Sulfurous Cave, which was just a few minutes hike away from the hotel. We decided to visit the cave on the 3rd day (it was actually included also in the long hike that I mentioned above). There is not much to see on the cave itself, but much more to smell and feel once inside. The sulfur concentration coming out of the cave is so high, that people can actually smell it from hundreds of meters away. Once inside, there is a level below which it is deadly to breathe, but the tingling feeling which covers your body below that line is funny. Also if people look closely the sulfur pouring out of the cave is visible with the naked eye: the air is shaking 30-40 cm-s above the ground (it is best visible while looking out from the cave), just as if water would be pouring out, down into the valley.

In the end I can say it was a good experience. For me it was about re-visiting the places I always knew since my childhood, so I should have said it was boring… it was actually not. Granted, I haven’t been up in Bálványos for quite a while, but still, I knew every inch of it and even so it was a pleasant experience. I never knew the area is this relaxing in the more quiet months (also more the more chilly months, but for me, the mountain boy, this is no problem 😛 )…

You can find some low-q picture taken with my phone here

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To get to the place where we have spent our last weekend, one must go up! One must go up to 1430m to the Vladeasa Cabin in the Vladeasa Mountains (part of the Western Carpathians). But why would one want to go up to such a place? Well, obviously, the view is breathtaking. The air is much cleaner and the silence is relaxing. The place is not really a tourist attraction, and this is why it is special: it is not full of people ruining this natural beauty.

But how does one get there? Well, follow the E60 from Cluj to Bologa. From there get off the main road and follow the 103H road until you reach the crossing to 103J which leads you to Rachitele. From here on, the road is best done by foot. Leave the car in the village and prepare yourself for a 1.5 hour escalation (make sure you have backpacks). On the walk upwards you can admire the mountain village, share some words with the locals, and almost at the top you might run into peacefully grazing cows.

The Cabin is easy to spot. You can find good accommodation here, I think for a cabin this high and this remote in the mountains it is quite cheap and quite good. The hostess can even prepare some dishes for you if you talk to her.

From the cabin there are a lot of trails to follow and “hot-spots” to visit. One of them is the meteo-station on the mountain top (1836m). The view from here is absolutely magnificent. Just be prepared for a quite strong wind. The meteo-station is off limits. Do not try to get in, even if the doors are open: the guy operating it is quite grumpy 😛 .

Another great thing in the neighborhood is the Sequoia Park. To get here, you need to go back to the village, follow the 103J back and somewhere on the road you’ll see a sign and a road leading up the forest. Follow that road until you get to the “park”. There are actually two twin sequoias, not very old (round 200years) and not as big as the ones in Mariposa Grove, but quite big to make an impression (you can actually make a hugging photo, where two people can barely reach half the tree around).

To get to yet another attraction of the area, get back on 103H and follow it until you reach the crossing with the road 108C (you’ll be glad you have reached it 😉 ). Then follow 108C towards Rachitele. Here you need to follow the signs, because at one point you need to get off the main road across a bridge to get to the falls. On the road towards the falls, you’ll see some large cliffs. The rings shining on their surface show that people escalate them from time to time. The falls itself is at a sharp turn of the road. It is called Cascada Valul Miresei (Bridal Veil Falls). This place is quite the tourist attraction in the area, so do not expect peace and tranquility… There are people taking photos, climbing from rock to rock to reach a nice spot. The area seems a bit overcrowded. The fall itself, however, is very nice and quite large. It is worth the trip there.

All in all there are quite a few nice places in the area. It is perfect for a short weekend. Some of the attractions reminded me of a park in the U.S. which I could not visit this year… Anyway, this was, I think, a weekend which was very well spent.

Photos can be seen here.

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Although we visited the place I am going to write about right after our visit to “Baile 1 Mai”, I am only writing it now, because I have been a little busy (and yes, more articles will follow because of that 🙂 ). We basically wanted to spend our weekend relaxing in the sun, so the first spa that we visited fully satisfied our needs. But… this was only the warmup: our real target was Baile Felix which is the better known resort out of the two. Our second day was dedicated entirely to visiting this resort and I think it was a wise decision that we visited this after the first one, because… well, because upgrade is just better than downgrade 😉 …

Baile Felix has been entirely renovated and is by far in a much better shape than Baile 1 Mai. The two resorts are just a few kilometers away from each-other allowing even walking between the two. Since it was our last day in the area, we went there by car. This had it’s downside but also an upside. The downside was, that I had to pay a 10 RON parking fee (~€2,50), the upside, was that I can write this information down now 🙂 . The parking place is a fenced area with guards at the entrance, but apart from that I did not see any patrols/cameras, so I guess it is more of a money-making machine, than an actual service…

After parking the car safely one can have a short walk to the entrance of the actual resort, and pay the 25 RON entry fee (~€5,80) to actually access the pool area. Once in, the relatively high entry price immediately gets obvious: free deck-chairs (well, for the ones who get there in time). Most of the area is paved and only some areas are left covered with grass. There are also very few trees which could offer some shading, so prepare for a burning sun…

The resort is mostly equipped with shallow pools filled with warm water (~38ºC). People can just stay there enjoying the water and play with children in it. There are a few mini-waterfalls which can massage your back quite well. The problem with them is that they tend to get overcrowded. There is also cool-water pool (~25ºC) which generates waves every 1.5 hours (for 15 minutes). This too gets very crowded, with people looking like herrings in the moving water. It is not really a place for swimming around either: there are just too many people to go around 🙁 . Another special feature is the giant slide-structure with five slides. There is a timetable for the slides, so it this is also a limited service.

The entry ticket to this area is also for one use only, effectively blocking people inside for lunch. Luckily the many small shops at the edge of the area keep hunger and thirst satisfied for anyone: there are places which sell cookies, places which sell fruits and fruit salads, places selling more consistent foods with meat and places selling pizza slices and baked products. One thing that they don’t have is Lángos, which should be a “basic necessity” 😛 …

At the point when we could not take the heat of the burning sun anymore, we decided to head out to eat something. But first… we visited the nearby water lily park (really nice). It has a few small lakes filled with water lilies and turtles swimming around among them. A really relaxing and quiet place. After that we just went across the bridge to have dinner in one of the local restaurants: again great prices for great food 😉 .

Yes, I would go back again. Yes, I advise anyone who goes near the area to visit it. Yes, I can imagine a few things which could improve the services…

Photos can be seen here (Taken with my phone… ).

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The week was long and tiring, so it was a bless, that the weekend afterwards had three days instead of two: after Saturday and Sunday, Monday was a religious public holiday! It would have been a sin not to use the extended weekend for something more than just shopping and sleeping… But what to do? Well, the solution lies not that far from Cluj (actually 156km-s away). There are two thermal bath spa-s near Oradea: one of them is a modest spa, which is in fact so modest, that at the time of writing not even Wikipedia knew about it: it is called Baile 1 Mai (1st of May Spa).

(Photo from: http://www.turismland.ro/statiunea-baile-1-mai/)

We went to this modest spa the first day because of one important reason: it is easier to find accommodation in a place which is not so overwhelmed by tourists… or at least that is what we thought. We did not book in advance, we tried to rely on the fact that we’ll surely be able to find something on the spot. And oh so wrong we were… almost everything was full! It took us quite some time to find a single empty room, but eventually we did, and we were free to go have fun in the water!

The entry fee into the spa resort is 15RON(€3.50). For this you get… well I guess you simply get access to the water, nothing more. To say the truth it is not a bad price, the problem with it is, that once in, you are not able to go in and out anymore. This means, that if you get hungry or need a drink you need to buy stuff from within the spa-complex limits. Of course that is not cheap (in some cases even double than the normal price).

The surroundings themselves are not bad: you can lie down mostly on a grassy area and you have access to a few types of pools: small, warm water pools for children (and old people 😛 ), one single larger, cold-water pool and one deep circular pool for diving. There are two other pools: one large, circular and another one for straight-swimming with lanes, but those were empty. The water itself seemed quite clean, the problem is that because of the grassy surroundings it quickly gets filled up with mess.

After some swimming around and sunbathing (I am now suffering the consequences 😛 ) we decided to leave the complex and find a place to eat at. There are not so many restaurants in the area, so one needs to be quick and ahead of everyone else coming out of the spa-complex, to get an empty seat. The prices are good though and the food (one juicy pizza) was very tasty (or I was really hungry… I am not sure…)

In conclusion, the place is not a looker or too exciting, but it was just perfect for us to relax an do nothing after the long week. For people who wish for more: it has been bought by the same company who rehabilitated a bigger spa resort nearby (check out my next post). The plan is to upgrade also Baile 1 Mai to a better quality resort and to attract more tourists (not that there are so few these days…)

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