Video The cheapest mountain resort: tourists pay 10 lei for the cable car ride and ski on the road

Pasul Vâlcan in Hunedoara is among the cheapest mountain resorts in Romania. Tourists go up here by telegpndola, they can enjoy the snow and use the alpine road as a slope.

Winter was no longer waiting for snow in the Vâlcan Mountains, where the mountain resorts of Straja and Pasul Vâlcan (video), covered with snow, are among the attractions of Văiii Jiului in Hunedoara, during the winter.

The Straja mountain resort in Hunedoara is crowded on weekends, being sought after for the slopes and the numerous ski facilities at the foot of the Straja peak (1868 meters).

On the other side of the Straja peak, tourists descend into the Vâlcan Pass, located at about 1,640 meters, transformed into a tourist resort for over a decade, with the construction of the cable car that goes up from the mining town of Vulcan to the leisure area.

Since the 1970s, the first cabins were built in the Vulcan Pass, an old pass of the Carpathians that connected the historical regions of Oltenia and Transylvania, for the accommodation of tourists – then mostly employees of the coal mines in the Jiului Valley.

At the end of the 2000s, the construction of the gondola began and, in the following years, with European funds, of the mountain road that ascended the Vâlcan Pass (inaugurated in 2014). The investments of the Romanian state in the development of tourism in the Vulcan Pass decreased in the following years.

The initial plans of the authorities aimed to connect the Straja and Pasul Vâlcan resorts, through a cable car installation of more than three kilometers, which has not been completed. Instead, a four-kilometer segment of road was modernized from the Pasul Vâlcan resort, which goes up to the border of Hunedoara and Gorj counties.

Pasul Vâlcan, the cheapest resort in Romania

In winter, County Road 664 from the Valcan Pass is inaccessible by car, and since the construction of the road, it is used as a ski and toboggan run. In Pasul Vâlcan, several hundreds of meters of slopes have been laid out, but when the entire four-kilometer road, from the lift station of the cable car to the resort, is covered with snow, the slope road is much more attractive for skiers.

“For now, only part of the road can be used for tobogganing. If it had snowed more, then the tourists could go up – just like in some winters – by gondola to the resort, from where they went down on skis or sleds, directly to the road. And they were quite cheap: 10 lei going up with the gondola, or 15 lei going up and down“, says the employee of a cottage in Pasul Vâlcan.

Those who do not come to ski in Pasul Vâlcan can relax by walking on the snow-covered mountain, which rises above the mining towns of the western Jiului valley (Aninoasa, Vulcan, Lupeni and Uricani). The longer trails, over two hours, lead to the Straja Peak and then descend to the mountain resort of Straja (video).

“It’s probably the cheapest resort in Romania: you go up for 10 lei and you take the sled on the road that goes down through the forest. Many people prefer to walk up the road to Pasul Vâlcan. We see them mostly in the morning – they come for a walk: there are also some attractive places on the way to the resort, such as Cascada Lupilor (video), located near the road, in the forest“, says the local.

The gondola operates during this period until 4 p.m., but those who are late to go down with it can stay at the few cabins in the resort, or they can go down on foot, on the road – slope, partially covered with snow. “They have to be careful, because as night falls, the forest often gets foggy and you can’t see anything for several meters, even with a flashlight,” says the cabin employee.

Pasul Vâlcan – the pass used since ancient times

The Vâlcan Pass in Hunedoara is a pass in the Carpathians, located at an altitude of over 1,600 meters, which connects the Petroşani and Oltenia depressions.

In the past, it had a strategic role, being a point of connection between Transylvania and the southern Carpathians. In the medieval period, the pass was the site of fierce battles to stop the Turkish invaders.

Michael the Brave passed through the Valcan Pass to reach Vienna in 1600, and according to legend, in the place called Poiana lui Mihai, the voivode’s horse would have died due to the effort. The statue of Mihai Viteazul, erected in the resort, reminds of this legend.

Also here, in the fall of 1916, there were battles between the Romanian, Austro-Hungarian and German armies, and hundreds of people died on the peaks of Vâlcan.

Pasul Vâlcan, also called Pasul Vulcan, was a place of customs and a place of fair where the inhabitants of the two historical regions met, but it gradually lost its importance from the end of the 19th century, with the construction of the road through the Jiului Gorge – at the foot of the Vâlcan and Parâng Mountains – and later of the railway in the gorge.

An eight-kilometer road, modernized between 2013 and 2019, climbs steeply from the municipality of Vulcan in Hunedoara (video) towards the Vâlcan Pass, being asphalted up to the ridge on the border of Hunedoara and Gorj counties, at about 1,600 meters altitude.

Here, travelers find several monuments erected in honor of Romanian heroes from the First World War and traces of trenches dug by the Romanians over a century ago.

From the border of the two counties, the road descends towards the commune of Schela in Gorj, located about 20 kilometers from Târgu Jiu, on an unmodernized sector, inaccessible to cars. Tourists can also reach the Vâlcan pass in Hunedoara by gondola, built at the end of the 2000s.

From here, travelers can climb to Straja Peak (1,865 meters), the emblematic site of the Vulcan Mountains, which watches over the Straja mountain resort.