Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
PRAHOVA VALLEY
Wallachia funnels into Transylvania in this narrow valley at the foot of the fir-clad Bucegi
Mountains. Sinaia, a king's summer retreat a century ago, is the finest town, but the real
draw is up, way up, with hiking and biking trails along the flat plateau atop the mountains,
and ski trails that carve down the mountainsides. If you're looking for just a taste, it's pos-
sible to do a day trip from Braşov and take a cable-car ride up and take a short hike. But it's
easier if you stay a night or two.
Sinaia
POP 11,470
Nestled in a slender fir-clad valley, this pretty town teems with hikers in summer and skiers
in winter. Backed by the imposing crags of the Bucegi Mountains, it's a dramatic place for
a day's hike or, using the network of cabanas open to walkers, several days.
The town itself is a melange of crayon-coloured wooden houses contrasted with the
'wedding-cake' style of its grander 19th-century buildings. Once home to Romania's first
king, Carol 1, who created a summer retreat here, Peleş Palace is a dream of hidden pas-
sages, fairy-tale turrets, vertiginous galleries and classical statues; it's so beguilingly ima-
ginative, it could raise a swoon from the most hardened cynic.
Sinaia is named after Mount Sinai, and you'll notice there's a cross on the mountain
above the town; a bi-product of a nobleman's visit to Israel in 1965. Following his return
he founded a monastery with a lustrously gilded interior up the hill.
Sinaia is administratively part of Wallachia but is most easily reached from
Transylvania.
