Salina Slănic Prahova (Mina Unirea) — Attraction in Slănic

Review for beginning of March 2023.

-Tickets may be bought on site via card payment or cash. -there is quite a large parking area (no asphalt but covered with a layer of rounded rocks) nearby. For my trip parking was free, however I saw signs for a fee/hour (future maybe). During the weekends parking area is not sufficiently large enough. access in the Salt Mine is done via micro-busses, 20 seater roughly 10 minute drive. Everyone travels seated. Diesel engines :(

Interior of salt mine is huge, both in length you can walk and also in height. It "beats" by far the Turda or Praid salt mines for height of interior spaces. Interior temperature is 12C/53F. It can get "drafty" in some areas, one might require a hoodie/cap.

Interior activities are on the low end compared to Turda or Praid salt mines: Free ones (included in the admission ticket): benches to relax, tables & benches to have a snack, beds area with bring your own sleeping bag, Additional pay required: mini golf area, kids area (inflatable jumping area, pedal karts), ping-pong tables, inflatable dome planetarium with short movie projected inside 30 min/movie - Romanian language.

There was 1 shop with limited PET bottles drinks and limited snacks. DO BRING YOUR OWN FOOD/SNACKS/Water as the salty air will create quite a huge craving in your body. There are 2 instant coffee / tea automated machines.

There are toilets with running water, located in a central area of the salt mine. Remember your path to this zone as the signage could be definitely improved for this.

Interior lighting exists, but definitely needs revisiting. There are at least 3 different types of lights, each with different color light being emitted and each with different "flicker". It just tired my family a lot. Old neon/fluorescent tubes, new CFL bulbs, some LED flood lights, LED bulbs.

There are plenty of garbage bins.

For the price paid, (8€/ adult) I would expect more & better services, as company running it is owned by the government. Because it's a monopoly you get what...

An interesting and spectacular experience, in some ways, and not so great in others. Let me explain.

It is a spectacular cave, with amazing motifs in the stone and you can't be but awed at the sheer height of the place. You feel small, and in admiration of the people who built this. Reachable through a large tunnel by minibus (new, air-conditioned), and relatively easy trip (though there is an elevator aslo which can do the trip in 90 seconds rather than 15 minutes, allegedly). Cool temperatures (12 degrees) and constant humidity (70%) and way deep into the mountain (210 m to be exact). Ample space to explore and walk around and saw people reading books, etc. Recommended for beneficial effects of the air, etc, we are told. Perhaps, but it definitely feels nice to be away during a hot summer's day.

But once you get past the initial wow factor, you see the not-so-perfect items: tacky activities (pool? Minigolf? A planetarium?), Lack of facilities (no restaurant, only a coffee machine and a snack bar), relatively large empty spaces...and no real explanation of the history etc (only one large placard explaining how the mine came to be - you also learn it's been a tourist attraction since the '70s, and you start to realize not much has changed since). And finally, the minibus experience, especially the way back out is terribly organized, with swarms of people trying to cut lines and get on one, with staff overwhelmed.

And it's expensive (45 lei/€9 per person). At least the minibus is included...Oh, and parking. They charge you nearly €2 for parking, when if you park across the street and do the 1 min walk, it's free. Not good.

Overall, if you're in the area and are looking for something to see, yes, go. But don't make a trip there just for this, you'll be disappointed i think when you put everything in...

The salt mine at Slanic is really impressive! The massive height and open space considering you are beneath a whole mountain is mind blowing. The pictures could never do it justice: only when you are inside the mine you realise how massive it is! So the mine is great and really big- you have lots of benches to rest during the walks and public restrooms available. You even have a space for resting with some beds while inhaling the salty air. Other than that, it's not really that interesting and that is due to the lack of vision from the management. It is true that in the end its not a museum, but a mining company that still extracts salt from parts of the mine, but still they could do more. And because of that I gave it 4 and not 5 stars. There are for show only very few pieces of tools, trolleys, ore and some oxygen masks for the rescue of miners, next to few sculptures in salt. (I won't expand on the spaces for children to play, or the planetarium, because they are anyway separate businesses inside that mine). But they could do so much more... for example creating a mini-train ride inside de mine with some stations where you could see phases of exploitation, pictures of how they did it in those time, compared to videos of how it's done today... an audio guide telling you about the fascinating stuff of how they dug up almost 3000000 m³ or rock salt, and videos explaining how they dug up only 2,5 m at a time with those "haveza", like a huge chainsaw, how they produce the salt that reaches our food and tables, to see the whole chain of events... so, yeah, lots of potential for the mine to become even greater, but the rough diamond is there and...