Casa Dușe — Hotel in Cârțișoara

Our family, including a 7-year old boy, stayed at Pensiunea Duse in July 2014 for 1 night. The location is a bit off the beaten path, but considering the clientèle they serve it is well chosen, right next to the road that goes up into the mountains (a few minutes from this end of the Transfagarasan). It is nicely built and maintained place. There is a lot of space for parking cars and motor bikes. The B&B consists of the main building, a few smaller cottages/huts at the back of the yard and space for tent camping as well. The looks of the location are very pleasant. ||We rented 2 rooms, one with a double bed and one with 3 beds. Price was very affordable for a foreigner. The rooms were basic, with a small fridge and a very small TV, but given the outside environment you will not be staying in the room a lot except for sleeping. The washroom was clean and had hot water. The cottages/huts do not have their own toilets (at least I don't think they do) and there is an inside toilet next to the main building that serves these accommodations as well as the camping sites. I have seen a number of RVs parked there but I cannot testify to the level of service and utilities they were plugged into (or not).||There is a restaurant inside the main building and an eating area outside across from the main building. There is also an area to make bonefire outside in the yard. The food is decent and so are food prices. Like everywhere in Romania the restaurant may smell like smoke since indoor smoking had been allowed in Romania for many decades (not sure if the law changed recently regarding this or not).||There are almost no constructions on 3 sides of this location, so you can see a large meadow opening around the B&B and the mountains a bit further away - gives you a good feeling of freedom.||From this location you can easily drive up onto the Transfagarasan. The road is in fairly good condition up to there and the Transfagarasan has been recently refurbished so it is pleasant to drive on it. First you will encounter Balea Cascada (Balea Falls) and up in the mountains the Balea Lac (Balea Lake). Both are amazing. You can take the suspended car (telecabina) from the Falls to the Lake or just drive. If you keep driving from the Lake crossing onto the other side of the mountain you will end up at Baraj Vidraru (Vidraru Dam), another location worth visiting for its huge size and beuatiful view.||In the village of Cartisoara, where this B&B is located, there is a small museum that used to be the house where one fighter for the freedom of Romania was born. "Badea Cartan" is most commonly known to have walked on foot to Rome (some 2500 kms) just to see Trajan's column with his own eyes. An interesting place to see a traditional peasant house from more than 100 years ago.||Overall we had a good time during the time spent at Pensiunea Casa Duse. The staff was friendly and accommodating. You have to keep in mind that customer service is slightly different at this type of accommodation than anything you are used to across Europe or the American continent. I am not sure if they speak English or another language (we all speak Romanian), but I would think they do though given the variety of clients they had staying when we were there.||Will stop by during our next visit...

Service is under european standard level although meeting romanian standars which are quite poorer than in the western EU. Almost noone from the staff speaks english and if so the english is very poor. They usually use google translate on their phones to communicate with foreigners. Staff never smiles at you and you have a feeling you are bothering them. Rooms are very very small. Rooms under the roof are too hot in summer months missing AC. It is almost impossible to cool down the room temperature in these rooms. Almost all the rooms have its own bathroom. The is no hairdrayer nor cosmetics. Food is really good and traditional. I was missing more vegetable salads but this is caused by the fact that a traditional romanian food consists mostly out of meet. Next to the pension complex there are also small cottages using a shared bathrooms placed in the pension complex. There are few small groceries in the village with basic sortiment. We were not able to buy fresh fruits here for example. From vegetable they only had cabbage and mashrooms. In the end this place is a good choice comparing price and service provided. You have to count on with the lover balkan service standards. The place is a very good choice when planning trips to Fagaras mountains and...

This review only refers to the service we received, not to the accommodation.||||We arrived in Cartisoara in the afternoon and were very hungry, so my husband called Casa Duse to make sure that they have a restaurant and that we won't walk almost a mile for nothing. They confirmed they had a restaurant, so we went there for dinner.||||Upon our arrival, there were 2 couples at a table, but no waiter in sight, so my husband went to ask if someone could come and take our order. But, to his surprise, the lady refused to serve us because they were waiting for a very large group of people and they were concentrating all their resources on feeding such group.||||To make matters worse, she also asked my husband how many persons were in our group, to which my husband told her there were only two. I guess she would have made an effort if there had been a larger amount of money involved. ||||If your restaurant is not open, why lie about it and make us come for nothing? Money talks...