Adventure in Romania
Baile Herculane 1 bed Flat – self catering
Contact +44 7831 836 146 for details
From £250.00 per week
Rest your head for the night in our peaceful 1 bed flat, which comprises of:
Kitchen
Large Lounge
Bedroom
Bathroom
2 TV’S
Do you fancy a Romanian adventure?
Baile Herculane is a Spa town, popular for its Baths is situated 40 km from Drobeta Turnu Severin, at an altitude of 160 m, in ‘Valea Cernei’ (Cerna Valley). The rare beauty of Domogled – Cerna Valley National Park rivals even the most well-known national parks worldwide. Herculane Baths is one of the oldest balneary resort in Europe, renowned for the miraculous therapeutic effects of its thermal spring waters. The Romans used to say: "Ad aquas herculi sacras" (Sacred waters of Hercules).
Getting there
Baile Herculane is relatively easy to reach. Wizz Air (0906 959 0002; wizzair.com) from Luton from £53.50. Wizz Air flies from Luton to Timisoara – check the web site for prices. Take note of the extras as you pay for a larger carry on bag and per bag on the check in so take a big bag between you and load it up.
Other options (not recommended)
Easy Jet (0843 104 5000; easyjet.com) from Gatwick from £42; Ryanair (0871 246 0000; ryanair.com) from Stansted from £42; and British Airways, Tarom (020 3102 5480; tarom.ro)
Best way to get from the airport to the flat
It’s best to hire a car, the roads have massively improved in the last few years, and you can drive from Timisoara to Herculane (in about 3 -4 hours)
A rental car is another option and can be a great way to explore not only the city and its spas, but also the surrounding area as well.
There are daily train and bus connections from Timisoara. You can train from Bucharest, but we wouldn’t recommend it, and the taxis from the airport to Gara de Nord can be a real rip off. Be warned!
Public transport
There is regular mini-bus around the town that is cheap as chips.
Food and drink
A great atmosphere where you could eat at a different restaurant every day washed down with a cold beer and going for a swim in one of the thermal swimming pools
The Romanian cuisine is distinct, but has influences from other European countries. You can spot similarities to Greek, German, and Italian cuisine. Here's a sample of some of the local foods you'll find:
Mămăligă - ground corn dish, similar to Italian polenta and American grits often combined with cheese and sour cream;
Sarmale - minced meat and rice wrapped in pickled cabbage;
Mici (said Mitch) - grilled stick of minced beef and lamb;
Ciorbă (said Chiorba) - soups prepared in numerous ways, often with a tomato or cream base.
Plus lots of grill meats, sausages (cârnaţi), and breads (pâine)
Not a great place to be a veggie, but you can survive...
If you get thirsty after a heavy meal, try some ‘ţuica’ (said sweeka), a strong plum brandy that will knock your socks off and take tarmac stains out of white linen trousers– that’s real hospitality.
Shopping
Specialist purchases include embroideries, pottery, porcelain, silverware, carpets (not easy to get on a plane), ceramics, crystal, glassware, fabrics, wool jumpers, woodcarvings, metal, leather goods, rugs, glass paintings, and silk dresses.
Currency
The monetary unit in Romania is Lei, Notes are in denominations of Lei 200, 100, 50, 10, 5 and 1, and you can now get it from the Post office.
You can take Euros as they are now being adopted more widely, as shops, restaurants, and hotels can easily exchange these.
Car hire companies and some restaurants and shops accept credit/Debit Cards - American Express, Diners Club, MasterCard, and Visa.
ATMs (BANCOMAT) accepting MasterCard and Visa can be found in main banks, airports and shopping centres, but should not be relied upon as a sole source of cash. There are cash machines in Herculane.
Climate
Summers are generally very warm to hot, with summer (June to August) average maximum temperatures in the lower part of the country being around 28 °C (82 °F). You get a nice breeze through the mountains so it generally does not get too uncomfortable.
Driving in its best sense
Can be an adventure but that’s all part of the fun. Romanian villagers still use horse-drawn carts, coffin-shaped with rubber wheels.
More about the Spa
When you imagine spa locations for a tourist destination, the immediate ideas that spring to your mind are probably the fabled Turkish hamam baths or the thermal pools of Budapest. The truth is that the country of Romania is packed to the brim with thermal springs and local Romanians have been taking advantage of them for centuries. The only big difference between the more well-known mineral baths in Roman times, the resort was an important attraction for the aristocracy of ancient Rome. Impressed by the extraordinary healing power of the sacred waters of Cerna Valley, the Romans that arrived in Dacia named it 'Băile Herculane' after the great mythological hero Hercules.
There are also brilliant hiking trails and exciting caves to explore.
What you might see
One villager is taking his neighbours' cows off for a day's grazing. Expect him (or her) to have old or no shoes and an iphone (it seems like more people have phones than electricity).
Lanky haystacks around timber posts
Monasteries with air-con and 17th-century paintings, a mix of Byzantine, and folk art with biblical quotations in Cyrillic script
At the altar, visitors are praying, crossing themselves repeatedly, touching icons, and kissing the carpet beneath them.
What you can find
There are places villagers have preserved a way of life which most of the continent cast off centuries ago. A rural heritage and to its unspoilt pastures and forests
What’s it like?
An extraordinary experience, like walking into a fairy tale or stepping back into medieval Europe
You can go on some magical walks, silent except for crickets chirruping, birds singing and hens clucking. Everywhere, wild flowers grow with irrepressible exuberance – a glorious, waist-high tangle, unchecked by chemical sprays, filling verges, meadows, and orchards of plum, apple, and morello cherry.
Who is it not for
People who
1. like to spend all day on the net
2. People who need to check facebook hourly – in all honesty, you will have to do an update when you get home, but that doesn’t matter cos if you put a status of “whoop whoop holiday in Romania†someone is going to burgle your house anyway.
3. are scared of bears – the Carpathian peaks and spruce forests where bears and wolves still roam, But in all my visits I have never seen one and I have roamed a lot.
Why go now
Romania is changing – the old wooden house and carved gates are being demolished, and replaced them with plastic and concrete.
What are the people like?
Very friendly, very inquisitive; many youngsters are keen to escape what they feel is a backward rural life. Many older ones mourn the loss of collective farms and guaranteed wages. Twenty-three years after the overthrow of Ceausescu's regime, Romania still has a way to go. Despite poverty and physical hardship, this remarkable region has maintained qualities that have been lost forever elsewhere in Europe.
Romania has proudly maintained its unique culture. You will never forget your visit (unless you over indulge in the ‘ţuica’) – the wild flowers and birdsongs, and horses and carts, festivals and faith, woodcarving and other crafts, evoking a time when life was hard, but also calmer, simpler, slower, richer.
The best time to go
May to the end of October, especially spring and autumn
Books to read
Blacker’s Along the Enchanted Way: A Story of Love and Life in Romania; and for less up-to-date accounts:
Dervla Murphy’s Transylvania and Beyond;
Patrick Leigh Fermor’s Between the Woods and the Water.
Churches
There are some beautiful churches and monasteries with some scary paintings full of hellfire and brimstone. A typical Orthodox service lasts about two hours, but it isn’t rude to pop in for a few minutes. Your presence will be appreciated and the congregation will feel proud and pleased that a traveller is interested in their traditions.
We recommend…
The Danube by boat – they do a brilliant tour to a castle in a mountain not far from where Decebal is carved in the side of a mountain (complete with new nose!) Rhinoplasty Romanian style
One word to describe it – dramatic
So there you have it - unwind somewhere refreshingly stripped of unnecessary embellishment and distraction. It is traditional without feeling dated, stylish without being ostentatious, and the region in which it is located must be one of the most beautifully bucolic and fascinating in Europe.
It is easy to see why people fall in love with this part of the world. The setting is extraordinarily picturesque and calming, with hundreds of varieties of wild flower; hills punctuated with clusters of trees and haystacks.
Romania has a unique cultural legacy, seen most clearly in the Gothic-style medieval towns and fortified churches built by the “Saxon†German settlers who 800 years ago were invited to come here to offer protection from incursions by Turks, Tatars and Mongols.
Over a glass of ‘ţuica’ (plum brandy), you can reflect upon ‘This is a very special holiday experience’ One could grow rather fond of it. Are you feeling adventurous?
"Drum bun!" – Good journey/Bon Voyage!
