Remember when I was moaning about traveling to Straja without a car ? As I wrote there, we decided to go by car with a friend. And since that was our choice, we planned to go via Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa and come back via Hunedoara (Corvinilor Castle) and Deva (Deva Citadel).

The first thing that shocked me was that the PUBLIC road going from the entrance to the resort to the mountain lodges in the resort can only be accessed by 4×4 wheel drive cars. Huh? And on top of that, even if we decided to go up at our own risk, there wasn’t any parking space at the accommodation. I wouldn’t have gotten so mad if I was told about it. Needless to say, I wasn’t.

So we parked the car in a paid and monitored parking lot (8 lei / day, almost 2 euros) and then somebody offered to take us up for 20 lei (that’s about 4.5 euros). 3 persons and luggage. We were lucky cause it was Friday and the resort wasn’t busy. Apparently the transport system is legal but no one gave us a receipt. Typical Romanian style.

There is a cable car from Lupeni (well, not directly from the city) to Straja but it works between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. and I doubt you can actually take a lot of luggage with you (as in: food, as we did because unless you plan to pay a lot at the restaurants there isn’t any other way to get food here).

The second shock was when we were dropped off (literally) on the road and had to go to the mountain lodge. It was well , unreachable , unless you’d tackle a slope of snow. So yeah, got pissed again. And since I also was tired, I managed to hit the snow with my behind couple of times.

At least the accommodation was sort of ok. The rooms are very small but the kitchen was kind of nice. Plus, it was just us and the owners in the lodge so it was…silence and we got to relax.

As for what to do in Straja…there isn’t much unless you plan to hit the slopes and ski.

There is a church you can visit, also you can hike to a big cross (close to 1800 m) and you can take the cable car to Lupeni and back (that will kill about 1/2 h because there’s isn’t anything to do where it stops in Lupeni either).

And, if the weather is ok, you can walk in the resort …up to the top of the mountain, back to the cable car or parking lot…kind of boring if you ask me. Since the snow is melting , the road was horrible and muddy.

I can safely say Straja is one of the ugliest places I’ve been to. The view from the Lodge was beautiful, but when you have to tackle the road to /from the resort, you are hit by the ugliness. I am pretty sure though that either a lot of snow or no snow at all would do the resort more justice. But in March it was just…ugly.

I doubt I’d ever give this place a second chance. I am glad I won the stay. If I would have paid for it, I would have kicked myself for the choice.

Our rating: