As far as travelers are concerned, Romania tends to get resigned to three fates: ignored, considered unsafe, or stereotyped because of Transylvania's bloodthirsty 15th-century madman Vlad the Impaler. But even though the country is still lacking in the infrastructure department, would-be tourists will be happy to know that it's not only relatively safe (it ranks above Sweden and Greece in the 2024 Global Peace Index), it's replete with dramatic, jaw-dropping landscapes, astonishing countryside castles,
the "Little Paris of the East," Bucharest, and much, much more. Some mountain towns, like Bușteni, will give you a taste of all of the above, complete with cable car and cliffside monastery.
Less than two hours by train from Bucharest to the south and a bit over an hour from Brașov to the north, Bușteni is similar to its neighboring town, Sinaia, a mere 20 minutes away along the same road. But while Sinaia is home to the incomprehensibly detailed, fairytale castle, Peleş Castle (and lots of others), Bușteni is home to the lesser-known, imposing, fortress-like Cantacuzino Castle, finished fairly recently in 1911. Visitors to Bușteni and Cantacuzino Castle can not only stare in awe at the contours of the nearby Bucegi Mountains (Romania's most striking mountain range) but trek directly through them. The Busteni Babele Cable Car can drop you right off in the middle of the mountains, and you can even visit an Eastern Orthodox monastery — Caraiman Monastery — on the way.
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What To See In And Around Bușteni
While Bușteni doesn't have rows of sumptuously gorgeous, shoulder-to-shoulder Parisian architecture like Bucharest, it does have some narrow, cute residential streets to poke along. It also has a few local shops along its main drag, European Route 60. Really, it's a traveler's village (population: 8,300) full of hotels more than anything else. So, when you arrive at Bușteni station from either Bucharest or Brașov, you can head directly to Cantacuzino Castle — it'll only take 20 minutes on foot.
Looking more like a noble's estate than a castle in the medieval sense, Cantacuzino Castle is a unique piece of architecture that fuses Neo-Romanian and Neo-Brâncovenesc architectural styles into something visually distinct. Taking 10 years to build, the aristocratic heritage of its original resident (Prince Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino) can be felt in its sprawling grounds, ornate balustrades, and multiple art galleries. And not to lean into the spooky Transylvanian angle too much, but fans of Netflix's "Wednesday" will be delighted to know that this very castle is where the external shots of Nevermore Academy were filmed. And yes, the castle is well aware of this draw and advertises itself as such.
Caraiman Monastery sits on the other side of town, but is only a mere 1.5 miles away. Accessible via a barely visible wooden bridge and staircase that lead into the woods, the monastery is open to the public and free to enter. It even has accommodation for those of the Eastern Orthodox persuasion. The monastery's grounds and facade have a simple beauty to them, but the entire structure is very new and Spartan, built in 1988 towards the end of Romania's communist rule.
Ride Bușteni's Cable Car To A Hike Through The Bucegi Mountains
Romania's Bucegi mountains are stunning enough to behold from a distance, but Bușteni provides the perfect access point to reach them with your own two feet. You can strike out from the west side of town, past the Caraiman Monastery, and make your way up some seriously rocky, but undeniably beautiful trails bordered by waterfalls like Foamy Valley Waterfall, Cascada Caraiman, and Mini Cascada Caraiman. The last of these waterfalls sits under two hours from the trailhead, at an intersection of switchbacks that makes an ideal point to pause and get your bearings. You can look up at the rough, rolling mountaintops above and out at the deep, forest-filled chasms below that, in many ways, rival the Swiss Alps.
For those who are short on time or who want an aerial view of the mountains, there's always the Bușteni Babele Cable Car. Departing from near the Caraiman Monastery, it drops you off high in the Bucegi mountains near Babele Natural Monument. This unusual, mushroom-shaped rock formation makes another excellent place to connect with a number of trails of varying difficulty, such as the easier 4-mile loop out to Heroes' Cross monument, a World War I monument that sits on a cliff overlooking the valleys below. This trail also connects to an expert-level loop that heads south, so be careful about getting on this trail by accident.
Sadly, the cable car itself isn't too highly reviewed on sites like Tripadvisor, where people say that the windows are scratched and the car is too expensive. Nonetheless, it's a good option for those who want to cap their trip to Bușteni with a little extra, special something.
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Read the original article on Islands.
