Winter Vacation in the North

Winter, snow, ski, sleighing, relaxation… If it smells like vacation for you, but you are yet to plan, we are ready to give you a few tips. What would you say about spending a few days in Bucovina? Or, maybe, you prefer Maramures?

The hotel and boarding house owners in the north of the country wait for you with their arms wide open and with prices for all.

CROWDED. One can hardly find a room for the New Year’s Eve in the hotels and chapels in Bucovina.

MISCELLANEOUS. The main attraction in Vatra Dornei is represented by the winter sports. The resort in the Suceava district comes with an important offer: ski lessons and expeditions on the snowmobile, two accredited alpine ski tracks and many more. The accommodation in Vatra Dornei is pretty cheap for the periods before the holidays as well as for the ones after the holidays. At a pension, for a two-bedded room you must pay approximately 70-80 RON for one night, depending on the conditions, is what Carmina Chiuzan, from the Tourism Promotion and Development and Mountain Rescue Service in the resort, stated for us. However, no food included. The hosts are ready to offer this service as well, but you would have to pay an extra 35-40 RON per person every day. A place in a two-starred hotel costs approximately 50 RON per person, if you plan to stay less than 3 nights, Chiuzan says. In the same time, if you want to stay at a three-starred hotel you would have to pay approximately 60 RON per person, per night, if you stay for three nights at most, and 50 RON if you stay for a longer period. The hotelkeepers offer only the breakfast for this money. So, you have to bring food from home or eat at the restaurant, if you can afford it.

CHRISTMAS. These prices are valid for the Christmas period as well, especially if we take a look and see there are few people that give up on the tradition of celebrating in the family, Carmina Chiuzan says. So, there is plenty of room. "The vacancy degree is 40-50% - and the boarding houses have more clients. I observed that the tourists that come here to spend Christmas go for the boarding houses mainly. The entire ceremony of the pig killing, trips with the sleigh pulled by horses, and the old customs are the main attractions", Chiuzan thinks.

PRICES. The new Year’s Eve brings an income of approximately 2 million RON (more than 500,000 euros) to the hotel and boarding house owners in Vatra Dornei. And this is only a superficial computation. The boarding houses, as well as the hotels in the resort have drawn the attention of the clients with attractive offers. This way, a four-night vacation all included costs between 650 and 900 RON depending on the conditions. The festive dinner and the New Year’s Eve carnival are included here. The hotels are a little more expensive. The four-day mini-vacation will cost 800 RON at a two-starred hotel and 900 RON at a three-starred hotel. The price is for the accommodation, the breakfast, the New Year’s Eve dinner and, of course, the carnival.

RESERVED. However, you should not think of finding a room in this period because all the valid places, in Vatra Dornei, 2,500, have been taken a long time ago. "There is nowhere to go on New Year’s Eve. There are reservations for all the rooms in our registers, as well as for the other ones. There will be turn-up beds in many hotels and chalets, because the demand is very high", Carmina Chiuzan told us.

CAMPULUNG. If there is no way for you to spend the New Year’s Eve in Vatra Dornei, there are some vacancies in Campulung. "We have some vacancies. We are yet to make any deals", Sorin Fota, the owner of the 4-starred Manoir Mignon Boarding House, told us. The Eden Hotel Complex still has vacancies as well. You can spend 5 days in here, the 29th of December - the 2nd of January, with 895 RON per person. The price is for accommodation, breakfast, New Year’s Eve dinner, fireworks, a surprise-dinner and special winter customs. The Zimbru Hotel and the Rarau Chapel are the only ones with no vacancies. However, you can make reservations for Christmas. A three-day vacation (23-26 december) at Zimbru costs 349 RON per person. The Eden offer is for three days as well (24-27 December) - 400 RON per person. Besides the accommodation you will also get other services. On off-season, a room in Campulung costs approximately 100-160 RON. For the periods before the holidays and after the 2nd of January, a two-bedded room costs 50 RON, 25 RON per person.

BORSA, THE SKIERS’ PARADISE. Hundreds of Romanian and foreign tourists come to Borsa every winter to "brighten" their skis on the 1,800-meters-long track in here. The town bristles with tourists almost every weekend as well as on the New Year’s Eve, when one cannot find a room in the resort or in the town. "Everything is booked. Many chapels were booked in the summer. There are also people who, when they leave, on the 2nd or 3rd of January, book the chapel for the next New Year’s Eve", Ionel Paul Timis, the chief of the Borsa Mountain Rescue. There is plenty of room until the 28th of December and after the 3rd of January - approximately 1,000, Timis appreciated. The prices are quite good: 35-40 RON per person at the Ursul Chapel, 80-100 RON the two-bedded room at the Mihali Boarding House, 120-140 RON the room at the Cerbul Hotel and at the Focus Chapel. Unfortunately, there is not much entertainment besides skiing. There are two or three restaurants and several bars. Some of the boarding houses have pool or ping-pong tables.