Scărişoara Glacier Cave — Attraction in Gârda de Sus

The glacier is amazing and totally worth the visit. Unfortunately arriving there is quite difficult. There are no indications on opening hours or numbers to call to have information. When I visited (April 2024) they closed at 4 pm. I suggest trying to call the surrounding "cabanas" (family hotels) to have info. The road is slightly a nightmare, is a (paved) road in the forest, with some tricky passages. You must be very careful, but it is doable. It's very long and you may find snow on the ground (it snowed when I visited). From the parking (there are a few small ones, none official) you must have a little trek of about 15 minutes. The employees at the ticket office are VERY rude, they don't speak English but I suppose they don't speak much in general. Bring lei cash!!! They accept euros but they will be very rude about it and raise the cost significantly. The glacier is wonderful, but very badly kept. You will have to walk on an old wooden deck that is literally sinking in the ice, some passages were inclined and/or frozen so it's very slippery and dangerous. I don't think they will be open much longer honestly because it is indeed very dangerous. There is a small souvenir shop on the trek and the employee is very kind. A nice thing is that near the parking there are some old grandmas that sell homemade pinecone sirup and marmalade. It's delicious and totally worth. They obviously accept only lei cash. (20 lei for a bottle of sirup). A bit further down the road there is a woman who sells homemade hot cheese scovergi. You must try it because it's the best thing I ate in Romania. She accepts only cash lei (7 lei...

I visited the place somewhere in September 2010 so things might have changed a bit since then.Trust me when I tell you that you must have someone to push you from behind a whole lot of 7+ km going upwards on a dusty hill,but bear in mind it's worth it in the end. Truth be told you can always "hire" someone to drive you up there with a 4x4 offroad car but in my opinion you'll miss all the pleasure of the walk and the sights. So be prepared for a long walk if you're going to visit this one. It took me and my family nearly 6 hours to get up there and back to our car at the base of the hill. I also ruined a pair of shoes since I wasn't prepared for THAT long a walk , but the snapshots I got there and the memories will be in my heart forever. Also we started in the morning (9 in the morning) and were surprised to see that while it was a mountain region the weather was pretty hot even for early September. While it is poorly managed and doesn't have many facilities, it has the basics, food and water and they are to be found around the road on the way up and next to the entrance to the cave. The price for the entrance is a small fee that everyone can manage and the guides are pretty good at their job. Again , I visited the place back in 2010 so some things might have changed , but still while it has some downfalls, the place is worth the visit and should be seen if you happen to be in the area. I'll also upload...

As a natural wonder this place is absolutelly amazing. But when it comes about humam nature this can be seen arround they do not care that much about the faith of this 2nd largest cave glacier in Europe. It is dirty, very poor lighted inside, very short story told by the guide,romanian only althought there is a mix of romanians and other european nations coming daily to this natural wonder. The stepways are somehow dangerous to walk and the interesting parts of the cave itself are not highlighted properly. It would have been a true pleasure to get in where temeratures drop to 0 C if it would have been better mantained. The huge ice cube that measures 36 meters deepth in the main hall contains - it is estimated 75000 cbm ice and the age of it it is dated by polen method to 10500 years old. The other two chambers that are restricted to specialist only are the Great Reservation - a 105 m level difference from the main hall and the Small Reservation where the drop goes to a 16 m difference of level between the bottom of it and the main hall. Recommended to see but close your eyes to the dirty side of the romanian authorities who know nothing but charge money and fill their pockets and make no real investments. Loved the energy and air inside the...