Tourist attractions in Arges County – Dambovicioara

The area is highly recommended to all categories of tourists.

Daniel Onea, 27.07.2017, 13:12

Today were heading towards the main entrance gate to the Piata Craiului National Park – the Dambovicioara Gorges. The area is highly recommended to all categories of tourists. Here you can practice mountain climbing and cycling as well as agri-tourism. Actually, the Dambovicioara Tourist Information Center makes available, to all those interested, an events calendar, in which traditional costumes parades and festivals promoting local cuisine hold pride of place.

The Dambovicioara Gorges is a mountainous region that offers tourists a great number of routes, to everybodys liking. Some of these routes have been promoted recently under a special project, dubbed Remarking Romania, coordinated by Octavian Bodron, working for the Arttour Association.

Octavian Bodron: We very much wanted to promote this area, in terms of tourism. We had eight remarked routes, of various degrees of difficulty. There were two very accessible routes on a forest road that took two or three hours each. Then we had medium-difficulty circuits, which are tailored for those who climbed the mountains in before, who are fit and who have the minimum necessary mountain gear. Also, we took high-difficulty circuits that cross the Piatra Craiului mountain ridge. Were speaking about an eight, nine-hour track, and for that you need to be exceptionally fit, you need to have special mountain gear.

Raluca Busuioc has been promoting Dambovicioara for nine years now. She started as a property manager at a guesthouse, and now she works for the resorts Tourist Information Center. It is more than a job, it is a passion, she says. With details on that, here is Raluca Busuioc herself.

Raluca Busuioc: We have a very wide range of accommodation facilities: hotels, guesthouses, chalets. We can accommodate a total of 650 tourists. Most of these facilities are rated three or four daisies or stars. Dambovicioara has just been declared a resort of national interest. So were doing perfectly fine as regards accommodation. Were also doing fine regarding the tourist objectives. These have a great national and even international importance. There is a big number of tourists who come for the Piatra Craiului Mountains, but mostly for the reserve with the same name. The latter has a lot to offer. We have many rare and endemic flora species, that are unique in Romania and some are unique in the world. The Piatra Craiului carnation for instance, can only be found in our region.

Raluca Busuioc recommends tourists to practice organized tourism in the Dambovicioara region. Thus they can reach all tourist objectives in the area and can get all the information they need. Raluca Busuioc: They ask what mountain treks they should take and it is advisable for them to be accompanied by a specialized guide if we speak about longer treks, with a high degree of difficulty. There are also easier routes, where tourists are accompanied by locals, along shorter, more accessible treks, available to all categories of tourists, children included. Also, they can find information about the activities that can be staged here in an organized manner. We have an adventure park, tailored for groups of children or adults. Also, upon request, we can organize a menu at the sheepfold, with the shepherds bulz and all the other products that are typical for the summer season. We can also give tourists directions for mountain bike treks. Just as the head of the Arges Mountain Rescue Service Ion Sanduloiu used to say, Dambovicioara is the best area for mountain biking. “

A must see tourist objective is the Dambovicioara Cave. It was discovered more than 400 years ago in 1579 and has electric lighting since 1980. You will also meet some very special guides here. They are local children who learned the history of the objectives and who cannot wait to spin the yarn of the local legends.

Right at the cave entrance you will find a restaurant serving a traditional menu. With details on that, here is Raluca Busuioc once again: All the official information about the time when it was discovered and the fact the bear fossils were discovered there are displayed at the end of the stairs leading to the cave entrance. We have a complex made of 50 caves in the Piatra Craiului reserve. The Dambovicioara Cave is the best known of all. It has a 250-m gangway, made of metal, along which tourists can walk to visit the cave. The cave also has other corridors that are not accessible to the public. “

Raluca Busuioc recommends that we visit all the tourist objectives in the area: The Brusturet Gorges are also worth seeing. They are still unpaved. We all know tours depend on infrastructure, but I for one still believe that unpaved roads are perfect for walks in nature. There are always pros and cons. For me, one pro is the opportunity to take a quiet walk. The Brusturet Gorges are like an oasis for the walks you can take in nature.

Carmen Victoria Bârloiu is the first female war correspondent to Angola. She was born in Timisoara and retired to Dambovicioara. Here she runs a Friendship Club, whose members are the children she teaches how to protect the environment. She is also the owner of an adventure park. Why Dambovicioara?

Carmen Victoria Bârloiu: If you ask me, the intensely promoted areas such as the Prahova Valley are a little bit too crowded, while the Rucar-Bran region will soon be the next point of attraction. Here you can find everything, from history, scenery, a rich cuisine, traditions, customs and crafts. We also need to bear in mind that Campulung, which is Wallachia first capital, is very close. The Dambovita Bridge is located here, a stone bridge built some time ago by ruler Constantin Brancoveanu. There are also a couple of stone crosses, dating from that time as well. You can also visit the Saint Constantine and Helen church, made of stone. Then the Dambovita river springs from the Dambovicioara Gorges, a river flowing all the way to Bucharest. Very close to the ruins of the Oratia fortress lies the Everac cultural park, towards the Saxons Hill. The fortress is included on the list of national monuments. “