Apuseni Natural Park

The Apuseni are lower than the eastern Carpathians and quite different in character: limestone country riddled with caves, swallow holes and underground rivers, with high pastures and isolated wooden farmsteads scattered across the plateaus between them. More than a thousand caves are known within the park, including the Scărișoara ice cave with its underground glacier, the vast portals of Cetățile Ponorului, and cave systems still being explored. The surface is just as strange, with whole valleys ending in sinkholes and rivers vanishing into the hillside to reappear kilometres away. The park also protects a way of life that has largely disappeared elsewhere: the Moți people farm hay meadows on steep ground, and hamlets sit at altitudes where you would expect nothing but forest. Distances are short on the map and long in practice, because roads are poor and often unsurfaced.

What you actually see

• Cave systems - Scărișoara, Bears' Cave, Meziad and dozens more, some show caves and some wild.
• Padiș and Cetățile Ponorului - the karst heartland with its sinkholes and giant portals.
• Scattered hill farms - wooden houses and hay meadows high on the plateaus.
• Gorges and springs - Galbenei, Sighiștel and the resurgences where rivers reappear.

When to go

May to October. Spring brings the strongest flow through the underground systems, autumn the best colour and the most settled weather. Winter closes most access roads and many caves. Caves stay near freezing in every season regardless of the surface weather.

Honest expectations

Access is the hard part: many of the best places are reached by rough tracks that ordinary cars will not manage, and signposting is patchy. Wild caves require equipment, a guide and permission, and people do get into trouble here. Accommodation is thin and concentrated at a few points. Mobile coverage is unreliable across the plateaus.

Nearby

Bears' Cave and the Padiș plateau lie within the park; Cluj-Napoca is east.