Transfagarasan
Romania · Transylvania · 2034 m
Description
The Transfagarasan (Transfăgărășan) is ninety kilometres of hairpins built across the Fagaras mountains between 1970 and 1974 on Ceausescu's order, after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia convinced him he needed a military road over the range. Six million kilos of dynamite and around forty official deaths went into it. It tops out at just over two thousand metres at Balea Lake and only opens from roughly the first of July to the end of October, because the rest of the year the top is under several metres of snow and the avalanche risk closes it outright.
Length of stay
Recommended length of stay: 1 to 2 days (optimal 1 day)
Travel season
Best time to visit: July – September
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun
- Jul
- Aug
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
Highlights
- Transfagarasan hairpin road (July - October)
- Balea Lake at the top of the pass
- Balea cable car from the valley
- Poenari Citadel and its fourteen hundred steps
- Balea waterfall
- Fagaras ridge walks from the pass (July - September)
- Vidraru dam and its reservoir
- Cycling the pass climb
- Fagaras fortress in the valley town(Day trip)