Romania has the two highest roads in the country within 120 km of each other. The famous one is the Transfăgărășan. The better one to drive is the Transalpina — higher, wider, emptier, and almost 20 km of it above 2,000 m.
Drawn from the actual coordinates of every stop. The amber line is day three — the Transalpina itself, 148 km from Novaci to Sebeș, with the highest 20 km of road in Romania in the middle of it.
The Transalpina is open end to end from late May to early November, but the weather above 2,000 m is not settled until midsummer — which is why this week only runs July to September.
Your car is waiting at the hotel, off the transporter, washed and fuelled. We run a short loop out to Rășinari and the fortified church at Cisnădioara to get tyres and brakes warm, check ride height against what is coming, and settle the radio channel. Route briefing over dinner in the old town.
North to south over the DN7C, which Top Gear called the best road in the world in 2009 and which has been busy ever since. We take it early and southbound, so the hairpins come at you downhill in good light and the coaches are still climbing the other way. Vidraru dam at the bottom — a 166 m arch, 305 m across — then Poenari, the fortress Vlad III actually used, 1,480 steps above the road. We sleep south of the mountains on purpose.
A 110 km warm-up through the Oltenian hills to Novaci, then the whole 148 km of the DN67C northbound: Rânca, the long climb to Urdele at 2,145 m, and roughly 20 km of ridge running above 2,000 m with nothing either side of you. Sections have no barrier and no markings, which is the reason it is driven with a lead car and a sweep. Lunch is at a shepherd's stâna off the road — cheese, ciorbă, and the flock that put it there. Down past Oașa lake and the dam into the Sebeș valley.
West out of Sibiu on good tarmac to Sarmizegetusa Regia, the Dacian capital the Romans destroyed in 106 AD — stone sun discs and terraces in a beech forest, and no coach park. Then Corvin Castle at Hunedoara, the Gothic one with the Knights' Hall and fifty-odd rooms, and back through the star-shaped citadel at Alba Iulia. A driving day disguised as a history day.
The short day, on purpose. Sibiu to Sighișoara the long way round, through Biertan — a UNESCO fortified church with a door lock that has fifteen bolts — and into the citadel at Sighișoara for the afternoon free. At dusk, those who want it go out with a ranger to a bear hide in the forest: three hours, no talking, and roughly an 85% chance of the largest brown bear population in Europe walking past the window.
Ninety kilometres to the largest circuit in the country: 3.708 km, 17 turns, eleven double garages and a pit lane we have to ourselves. Open pit lane all day, timing on the board, and your guide instructing from the passenger seat for whoever wants laps rather than lap times. Dinner in the paddock; the transporter loads in the morning.
There is no five-star chain hotel in the Carpathian corridor, and pretending otherwise is how these weeks go wrong. The best rooms here belong to estates, wineries and houses inside old walls — so that is what we book, and we stay put where we can.
One base for three of the six nights, so nothing gets repacked mid-week. It sits on Piața Unirii at the edge of the old town — the Large Square and the Bridge of Lies are a walk, not a drive — and it has its own parking rather than a street bay, which is the deciding factor for a group of cars like this.
Alternative: Golden Tulip Ana Tower, taller and quieter, five minutes further out.
Visit the hotel →
A restored manor on a 43-hectare estate, with rooms and suites looking over the vines — and the reason we sleep south of the mountains: it puts you at the foot of the Transalpina at dawn instead of two hours away. Tasting and cellar tour included: Crâmpoșie Selecționată and Negru de Drăgășani, grapes that grow nowhere else.
Prince Știrbey, next door, started wine tourism in this valley in 2004 — worth the second tasting. Site →
Visit the hotel →A restored 16th-century burgher house inside the citadel walls, so the evening is a walk across cobbles rather than a drive. Cars go behind the gate for the night, and its own restaurant is downstairs.
Upgrade: Zabola Estate — a castle and 32 rooms in a 500-hectare park, 130 km east. Worth the detour for the grandest bed in Transylvania. Site →
Visit the hotel →
Twenty kilometres from the pit lane, so the last morning is loading the transporter and a flight home, not a transfer. The town itself is worth the evening: the Palace of Culture and the Teleki Library are a short walk apart.
Visit the hotel →The considered end of Sibiu dining, a few streets off the Large Square. Where the briefing dinner happens on night one.
The other direction entirely: a cellar doing Transylvanian cooking properly, and the better choice after a long day on the DN67C.
Dinner where you sleep on night two, matched to the estate’s own bottles. No drive afterwards, which is the point.
Downstairs from your room inside the citadel — the kitchen is the reason the house is on this list at all.
No booking, no website, no menu. Sheep cheese, ciorbă and bread, eaten standing up beside the road on day three.
We are on the Transalpina climb at first light, hours ahead of the day traffic, with a photographer already sitting on the switchbacks you can never photograph yourself.
Not a restaurant. A working sheepfold off the DN67C where lunch is the cheese they made that morning, and the road below you is empty in both directions.
Avincis and Prince Știrbey next door — the estate that started wine tourism in this valley in 2004. Tasted with the winemaker, not a hostess: Crâmpoșie, Negru de Drăgășani, Tămâioasă Românească.
Details →Romania holds the largest brown bear population in Europe. You go in before dusk with a forest ranger, sit still, and watch through one-way glass.
Details →Not Bran, which he never held. Poenari, 1,480 steps above the Argeș, where Vlad III actually lived — and Corvin at Hunedoara for the Gothic version.
Details →Transilvania Motor Ring taken privately for the final day: 3.708 km of it, timing, garages and instruction. No sharing with a club day.
Details →Nothing here is compulsory and none of it needs the group. Afternoons off are built into days one, five and six — this is what is close enough to use them on.
The largest open-air museum in Romania — several hundred relocated wooden buildings across a forest park. Two hours, easily three.
The oldest museum in the country, in a baroque palace on the Large Square. European old masters, unexpectedly good.
For anyone who wants the glacial lake without driving the DN7C twice: the cable car runs up from Bâlea Cascadă year-round.
A hilltop Romanesque church and a shepherding village at the foot of the Cindrel — the shakedown loop, at walking pace this time.
A UNESCO monastery and the pottery workshops that carry their own UNESCO listing. The plates in the estate dining room come from here.
A cave, a monastery and a limestone gorge on the way to Novaci — a worthwhile hour if you drive down a day early.
The Saxon village with a whitewashed fortified church, restored partly by the current King of England, who kept a house here.
A medieval salt mine turned cathedral-sized hall 120 m underground, with a boating lake at the bottom of it.
A 40,000-volume 18th-century library and a secessionist palace with a hall of mirrors, both a short walk apart.
Tell us the car and the week. We confirm within 48 hours with a route plan, hotel list and the handover address.