As winter came with snow this year, we decided to visit the Northern Romanian Ski slopes of Bucovina. Having gone in summer to Poiana Izvoarelor for lunch and a visit to the Deer and Llama preserve we made reservations for 4 nights.
Starting from Bucharest we chose to go via Oltului Mountain Pass. The route would take us over 9 hours, but the views on this particular pass are absolutely spectacular. The sheer mountain cliffs, the wide river gently rolling, the forested crests all provide a unique view into an amazing place.
We arrived at the lodgings late and went straight to sleep. However, when we woke up a purely wonderful vista greeted us. The location is superb, situated up a hill, on a well cleaned dirt road, it shows mountains and high hills all around, quite reminiscent of a wild cabin in the woods.
The hotel has a deer and llama wildlife private preserve, which you can visit from behind a fence, after climbing quite a steep hill, or if you are lucky the groundskeeper might let you in(he did this time). The deer are super friendly and will come see if you are or have brought food. In addition there are 3 lakes with fresh trout and other fish and another 3 basins, from which you can choose your lunch or a fish to take home, freshly picked. The food isn’t fancy, but it’s good, traditional food from the area and even though they have little in the way of breakfast or dinner specialized menu, everything is available at any time of day.
This being said, the hotel is poorly run, the personnel is indifferent, the rooms are not quite clean, the towels are atrocious, the mini-bar is empty. The prices are those of a 4 star hotel, but the feel is more like 2-3 stars. It had snowed in the area the previous weeks and while the driveway was completely cleared, in front of the door there was ice, and climbing up the hill to the deer was treacherous and an exercise in figure skating. The location was fully booked during the weekend, but once we were the only ones left Sunday night, the place got chilly and unwelcoming (someone left a window open in the hallway at -10 degrees Celsius outside).
All in all, while we enjoyed the deer immensely and were sad to not be able to visit more, we left a day early and went to Brasov.
Would we come back? Yes, for the deer, but not spend the night there. As a restaurant, is is worth it and it even has an indoor swimming pool. But overall we wouldn’t recommend spending the night.
Unlimited Travels 