Transfăgărășan

What makes it special

It goes over the Făgăraș mountains rather than around them. The road was built in the early 1970s, and nearly all of it is hairpins, which is why the speed limit is forty for most of its length and why three hours of driving takes a full day.

The northern climb is the famous half. From the Bâlea waterfall the road zigzags up an open valley above the trees to Bâlea Lac, the glacial lake at the top, then goes under the ridge through the longest road tunnel in Romania, 887 metres. Cloud often sits on the north side, and the weather is frequently better once you come out of the tunnel.

The south is longer and gentler, through forest to the Vidraru dam, finished in 1966, with a statue of Prometheus above it and boat trips on the lake in summer. Further down is Poenari, the fortress most closely tied to the real Dracula: 1,462 steps up, visited only with the park's rangers, and only in summer.

Driving it

Before ten in the morning the traffic moves freely. Between eleven and three, especially at weekends, it backs up around the lake and the waterfall where the parking is, and the last week of August is a public holiday and the heaviest traffic of the year.

The high section, between Bâlea Cascadă in the north and Piscu Negru in the south, closes with the snow, normally from the start of November to the start of July. Outside that window the road below those points stays open, and a cable car runs from the waterfall up to the lake.