Why this ride
A dense sequence of passes, valleys and viewpoint roads. It also links naturally to Apuseni Natural Park.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Apuseni Mountain Loop
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 221 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 51
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Access context
High passes are seasonal. Verify surface, weather and construction status. Specific flag: surface variability.
Seasonal context
May-Oct
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Câmpeni
Câmpeni lies in the Apuseni Mountains of western Transylvania, in a high, wooded valley cut by the river Arieș. This is Țara Moților, the land of the Moți, a highland people known for their woodcraft, their wooden buckets and troughs, and a long history of rugged independence. The town is small, about eight thousand people, but it is the capital of the area, and it carries more history than its size suggests.
Read the complete Câmpeni write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Câmpeni sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Scărişoara.
2. Scărişoara
Up in the Arieș valley, in the heart of the Apuseni, sits a scattered Moți commune that lends its name to one of the strangest places in Romania: a cave full of ice. The Scărișoara ice cave lies a few kilometres up a side road from Gârda de Sus, at around eleven hundred metres in the karst plateau above the valley, and it holds one of the largest underground glaciers in Europe. You descend a long metal stairway into a great shaft, and at the bottom there is a block of ice tens of metres thick, layered like a cake, some of it thousands of years old. Even in August the air down there is close to freezing.
Read the complete Scărişoara write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Scărişoara comes up 32 km in. Next is Arieşeni.
3. Arieşeni
Arieșeni is where the Arieș river begins its long run east across Transylvania, and where the road out of the valley starts to climb toward the Vârtop pass and the border between Alba and Bihor. The village spreads along the upper valley at around nine hundred metres, among spruce forests and high meadows, and in winter it is one of the small ski resorts of the Apuseni, with a few lifts and plenty of guesthouses. In summer it is quiet, green and cool, the kind of place where the smell of woodsmoke and cut hay hangs over the road in the evening.
Read the complete Arieşeni write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
64 km in you reach Arieşeni. Next is Beiuş.
4. Beiuş
Beiuș is a modest market town on the western side of the Apuseni, sitting in a wide basin on the Crișul Negru with the mountains forming a curved wall to the east. It is the first place of any size you reach after coming down off the Vârtop pass and through Ștei, and it feels like a different world from the high Moți villages: flatter, warmer and more open, with orchards, maize fields and long straight village streets. The town has around ten thousand people and the slightly sleepy charm of a place that has been an administrative centre for a long time without ever becoming big.
Read the complete Beiuş write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Beiuş, late in the day. Next is Câmpeni.
5. Câmpeni
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Câmpeni write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Câmpeni sits at 221 km, late in the day.