Our Personal Experience
In June of 2023, our family experienced the Transfagarasan Highway through the Fagaras Mountains in Romania. This highway is only open for part of the year due to the treacherousness of the road when it is winter. Even in the summertime, the temperatures are low enough that there is snow along the route. The highway climbs up, up, up to Lake Balea. You can see, even in June, that the ice on the lake is still melting.
We drove to the highway after a stop at Bran Castle. So, we entered the highway from the north entrance after driving by the town of Fagaras. Once we entered the Transfagarasan Highway (Highway 7c), we passed a few small towns before beginning our ascent into the mountains. We saw a bear on the side of the wooded road and spotted flocks of sheep on the mountainside once we passed the tree line. We took every opportunity for viewpoints as the view changed as you went further up the highway into the mountains. Taking our time, it ended up taking us a few hours, but we arrived at Lake Balea. We parked our car and adventured around. Our children were ecstatic to walk on the snow in the middle of summer. With just light jackets, we were quite cold at the top. There was plenty of shopping to do and the scenes into the valley below were incredible.
We then began our descent down the other side of the mountain. The tunneling on this side of the mountain is impressive and you find yourself very quickly back to warmer temperatures and into the forested area (below the tree line).
We found a campground, succinctly called Transfagarasan Camping. It was located across from the Chalet Bear Manor and was about 30 minutes down the mountain from Lake Balea. By the time we reached the campground, you have left the piles of snow and are back in the woods.
On the right side of the road is the bathrooms, showers, and places to hook in if you have a recreational vehicle. There is also a building where you can pay for your campsite, find a few items for sale, such as beer, water, and coffee. We stopped here and talked to the manager to secure a campsite. Camping was cheap (from our experience of camping around Transylvania) and we paid about 120 lei for 2 tents, 6 people. The manager pointed across the road and allowed us to choose our spot.
The land across the road had a few picnic tables scattered around some rocky terrain and some trees. We found a flat spot with enough room for our two tents that was next to a picnic table. The temperature was warmer than at the top at Lake Balea, but with the wind, the kids were pretty cold, bundled up and staying as much as possible inside the tents. We were not able to make a fire, so thankfully we had brought food that we could eat cold.
When we needed to use the bathroom and shower, we needed to cross the road. Thankfully you could see up the road quite far, so it was safe to cross. The water in the bathrooms and showers had no heat. It felt very fresh and looked to be pumped up from the spring. The bathrooms are individual stalls. There was also a spigot for washing dishes and hands.
Simple rustic, but exactly what you need for a true Transfagarasan experience. Out in the wild and able to breathe in the fresh air of the mountains. My children loved playing in the rocks and trees around the campsite.
One of the greatest benefits of this campground was its proximity to Lake Balea. In the morning, we were able to pack up and head back up the mountain. The temperature was very low in the morning so we could see our breath. There continued to be a strong wind. The children were cold, so we bought coffee and chunks of cheese wrapped in aluminum foil grilled over an open fire. This warmed our bellies, and we were able to hike around on the snow for a while as the only visitors around. The view from every direction around us – the mountain cliffs above us and the highway climbing up the mountain below us – was breathtaking.
