In the warmer months, the winding ski runs of Sinaia can be utilized for numerous hiking routes accessing the peaks of the Romania’s Bucegi Mountains.
Difficulty: Easy-Intermediate
Type of Hike: Trail
Time: 4 hours to the monastery one-way
Distance: 8 kilometers
Number of Wrong Turns: 0!
Finding the Trailhead
Just head to the ski hill, pick a trail and keep climbing up. When you reach the mid-station area, you’ll see clearer hiking trail signs and a few different routes to the top.
On The Hike
Using Maps.Me, I cut out from my Airbnb in town through a faint path in the woods and over to the nearest ski run. Maybe I should have picked an intermediate trail, as this one tended to head straight up. It’s very quiet down in this heavily forested area with only a few human mushroom scavengers crashing through the woods. They made enough noise that I didn’t have to worry about bears.
At the mid-station, you’ll find a few restaurants open with food, beer, and bathrooms. After that, it’s an open and direct path to the peak in front of you. It takes about 75 minutes to reach the saddle.
Once in the saddle, you can choose to go to the right and catch the tram back down to the town, but I opted to go left for about twenty minutes to climb a small rock outcropping with amazing views. I grew up in the heavily forested mountains of Vermont, so if you can’t tell, I’m absolutely obsessed with these high-elevation plateaus in the Carpathians.
Extending the Hike
This spot pretty much connects to all the major hiking trails in the region. The gondola and tram are also super helpful (if a bit expensive) to access longer hikes along the ridges. There’s a few different routes you can take back down the mountain, but I recommend waking up early if you’re here in October as you may start losing daylight.