6-Day Padiș Trek from Cluj with Caves and Karst Wonders

Upon your arrival, your Curly Guide and bus driver will wait for you at the airport with a traditional welcome drink, or they can pick you up from your hotel in Cluj-Napoca or Oradea.

Travel by bus to Pietroasa, where your accommodation is located at a family-run guesthouse or pension, with rooms offering outstanding views of the mountains.

At dinner, enjoy a BBQ and a campfire, where your Curly Guide will inform you about the activities for the coming days and the rules of the national park.

Wake up at 7 o'clock in the morning and have breakfast.

Around 8 o'clock, start hiking. This hike is a circuit, which means it will start and end at the same place.

The hike starts from the Park Ranger's Hut near the camping place. At some point, you will leave the main road and follow the trail to Balcoanele Ponorului. This section should take approximately 30 minutes of walking. After Balcoanele Ponorului, the path intersects with the trail that leads to Galbenei Gorges, and in about 1 hour, you should reach one of the local highlights, Avenul Borțig (Borțig Sinkhole). At 54 meters deep, it houses Romania's second-largest glacier at the bottom.

Continue your hike for about 30 minutes more until an intersection. From here, in 5 minutes, you will reach Izbucul Galbenei (Galbenei Spring). Galbenei Spring represents the starting point of the gorges, and you will have to go up and around it to reach the other side. With some resting time and plenty of pictures, the estimated time is around 2 hours.

When you reach Evantai Waterfall, you will have only a few cable sections left to cross, and then the route will take you onto a trail through the forest.

After a sustained climb, you will reach Poiana Florilor, where the slope of the path returns to a normal angle, and here you will take advantage of the break to have lunch.

After about 2 hours, you should reach another glacier, Focul Viu. From here, you will return to the camping place at Glăvoi, where a good cold beer is waiting for you :)

From here, you will take the minibus to your accommodation, where you will be served a traditional Romanian meal.

After the hiking day, you will visit 2 of the most beautiful caves in the country: Bear Cave and Meziad Cave.

Wake up at 9 am and, after breakfast, head by minibus to Chișcău village to visit Bear Cave. The visit will take 45 minutes. The cave has a length of 1,500 m and is structured on two distinct levels. It shelters beautiful formations, but what makes it famous is the remarkable paleontological deposit - the bones of Ursus spelaeus.

Close to the cave is the Ethnography Museum "Horea and Aurel Flutur", which houses a collection of 2,000 objects that you will visit.

After that, you will head to the Pădurea Craiului Mountains, where you will visit Meziad Cave. It is undoubtedly one of the most visited caves in Romania and is an important site for both speleologists and regular tourists. It is also one of the oldest caving tourist attractions in Romania, having been included in the tourist circuit since the beginning of the twentieth century.

For these 2 caves, you do not need special equipment. You will visit them in regular hiking clothes, and the temperature inside the caves is between 10 and 12 degrees Celsius.

After visiting the caves, you will dine at a traditional Romanian restaurant and then return to your accommodation.

Today, you will hike to Cetățile Ponorului (Ponorului Fortresses).

Wake up at 9 am and, after breakfast, set out on a 5-hour round trip to one of the most impressive karst phenomena in Eastern Europe. It is worth visiting not only for its 3 gorgeous sinkholes and the surrounding wild forest, but also because this is one of the biodiversity hotspots of Apuseni Natural Park. In the southern part, the route climbs the steep slope of a torrential valley toward 4 viewpoints - two above Sinkhole III and two above Sinkhole II - allowing you to contemplate the impressive karst system of the Fortress of Ponor from high above. Cetăților Valley ends at the bottom of a 100 m tall wall with a cave entrance 70 m high. Thanks to this geological formation, it is easy to surprise any visitor with its breathtaking grandeur.

Once you arrive in Padiș, you will visit the Padiș Visitor Centre of Apuseni Natural Park, a place where visitors receive information about caves and karst, the flora and fauna of the area, and the need to conserve these natural features. A self-guided interpretive trail near the building gives visitors the opportunity to discover and better understand the karst formations in the area. The panels displayed along the route complete the information about the region. Within the center, there is also a presentation room where multimedia projections and other presentations related to Apuseni Natural Park are held.

Return to your accommodation in Pietroasa, where a warm meal awaits you.

This day is planned to be a relaxed one. A lazy morning and a slow breakfast are the perfect start. Today, you will travel to Vârtop Pass, where you will make a short hike to Ruginoasa Hole. When it comes to the beauty of nature, the "Rusty Pit" - Groapa Ruginoasa - is definitely worth visiting. The hike to this place goes uphill through a beautiful forest and is about 800 to 1,000 m from the main road. The climb is considered light, but keep in mind that nearly 300 m of altitude difference must be covered. Groapa Ruginoasa was formed through erosion of the mountainside caused by water passing through the clay and kaolin slopes.

After Ruginoasa Hole, you will go for lunch at a local Romanian guesthouse in Gârda town.

Afterwards, you will hike for around 2 hours, and after an easy walk through forests and village, you will reach the cave. The glacier entrance, at 1,165 m high, is made through an impressive sinkhole with a diameter of 60 m. Descending 48 meters to the bottom of a great abyss, you will walk over a surface of 70,000 cubic meters of ice, 23 meters thick. Obviously, the glacier temperature is constantly below 0, so in summertime, while descending, there might be a temperature difference of 25 degrees or even more. The most impressive ice structures are found in the second chamber of the cave, named "The Church", where the ice formations reach over three meters high, with diameters of 15-30 cm. For this cave, you do not need special equipment, and you will visit it in regular hiking clothes.

The last night of accommodation will be in Arieșeni town, where you will have free time and a traditional Romanian meal. Plum brandy ("țuică") or wild berry brandy ("afinată") will surely be on the table.

Have breakfast together and talk about the wonderful places you have visited and the next trips you will plan. You will leave the natural park with a smile on your face and with a story your future nephews will want to hear.

Transfer back to your accommodation or the airport in Cluj-Napoca or Oradea.