Arsenal Park
In 1936, King Carol II had an experimental compound arranged for the army, just outside the town of Orastie. During the communist regime, an ammunition factory operated on that plot. The idea of a holiday destination here emerged in 2003, and six years later, in 2009, Arsenal Park welcomed its visitors and launched a new form of military life: the holiday soldier. What does Arsenal Park offer in 2014? Here is event manager Olav Bagyo: “The site was turned from an ammunition factory and military unit into a theme park. At present we have accommodation facilities for 208 people, we have a very large spa center, with an indoor pool, an outdoor pool, two massage salons, a body treatment salon, a bodybuilding gym, and four saunas. There is a restaurant within the compound, and the range of activities for our guests is quite wide, from target practice using real ammunition to airsoft simulations, paintball, military training, or rides on military vehicles.”
Daniel Onea, 07.08.2014, 12:57
Arsenal Park has 3 four-star villas with two bedrooms, a dining room and a large living room each. Arsenal Park event manager Olav Bagyo gives us more details about the accommodation facilities: “We recommend the cannon rooms and the TAB rooms. The cannon rooms have a field cannon inside, with the barrel sticking out of the window, and the bed arranged on the gun carriage. The TAB rooms include cross-sections of the Romanian-design armored personnel carrier known as TAB. Each half of a TAB is fixed on a room, and inside it there is the bed. Each accommodation facility is different in our compound, and has specific decorations. The restaurant itself is a museum, with a variety of items on display. The entire park is, in fact, an outdoor military museum. We have at least 150 items of military technology, ranging from TAB vehicles, anti-aircraft machine guns, cannon, tanks, minelayers, helicopters, aircraft.”
For the colder evenings, tourists can find here a small co-called “Dacian Village,” made up of three chalets. They are ideal for indoor parties, and guests may cook here their own traditional meals, with or without the help of the Arsenal Park cooks.
But since this is a military theme park, we asked Olav Bagyo whether the tourists should expect some military training as well: “Only if they want to. This is one of the activities in the highest demand here. Since military service became optional in Romania, there are people who want to see what being in the army feels like. This is training for entertainment, with drills that take the form of games. A lot of people who were never in the army want to try it, so we have prepared training sessions that take several hours. They include marching, the introduction of the specific forms of address used in the army, and drills such as obstacle races in a variety of forms, from racing wearing gas masks to handcuffed running. There are plenty of exercises that give people an idea of what life in the army means.”
After an action-packed day, thrill seekers may have a rest in the evening listening to music around a campfire.
Event manager Olav Bagyo tells us what Arsenal Park prepares for its visitors in the future: “In 18 months’ time, we will also have an Aqualand, a horseback riding center, an artificial ice skating rink, a skate park, 16-km long cycling tracks, a water tower with an elevator, where tourists will be able to practice bungee jumping, abseiling and zip-lining. We will have the longest zip-line in Romania, 700 meters long. Another surprise will be a traditional sheepfold, which will be arranged as a restaurant for our tourists.”
Thanks to an extensive promotion campaign, lots of foreign tourists come to Arsenal Park, both from Europe and from America, and their number seems to grow by the year.
According to Olav Bagyo, the French, for instance, come here for off-roading: “There are groups of foreigners interested in off-road racing, using ATVs and motorcycles. We have been working quite well with an agency from Denmark that has been sending us large groups, and all tourists leave with the best impressions. The French visitors were quite surprised, they said they had come to Romania with a slight misapprehension, but after a few days here they became quite relaxed. All the people they met along our off-road tracks were very welcoming, so they said they found here a new image of Romania, one they had not expected.”
A place that once produced mines and explosives now produces peace and relaxation. Arsenal Park is the perfect holiday place for both adventure seekers and families with children, who are delighted to spend time in the special playground or by the pool.
