Tag: cross-country

Bucegi Circuit, the new TransAlps

We see it more and more often: groups of mountain biking friends coming for a week of riding our trails in the Romanian Carpathian Mountains in search for an alternative to the tried and tested TransAlps experiences. Sometimes there is a more personal reason, like in the case of Gabriel who left Romania as a teenager, but always wanting to come back to experience the Carpathians on the bike. He lured his mtb buddies from Germany into a leap in the unknown, and here they were. End of July, six…

All hail lycra worriers

In the realm of cool mountain biking, lycra is an obvious faux-pas. The plasticky, skin tight garments are the unmistakable sign of a road biker, someone more interested in endless asphalt pedaling, cautiously avoiding anything mildly approaching gnar, and flabbergasted by stuff that would only raise a bored yawn from a proper mountain biker. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to realize these are blatant stereotypes. The thirteen Dutch mountain bikers that came here in September 2024 for a Bucegi Circuit tour proved exactly that. Yes, they wore…

Riding with Santa

Wherever he shows up with his wild, white beard, Orbach is making an appearance. He was called ZZ Top, or a direct descendent of Durin, king of Dwarves. More often than not, he is called Santa. Pretty much like Santa, Orbach travels a lot, albeit for very different reasons. His long standing passion is mountain biking on nice trails around the world. The list is rather impressive. Turkey, Croatia, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, to name a few. He just returned home from a bike trip in Japan when his friend David…

Our mtb tours in Romania

We organise guided mountain biking tours in South-East Transylvania, Central Romania, in the Carpathian Mountains surrounding the medieval city of Brașov (Bucegi, Piatra Craiului, Ciucaș, Postăvaru, Piatra Mare, Baiului, Grohotișului, Neamțului, etc). We have several programs you can choose from: one week, medium, advanced or expert level, all- inclusive or guiding-only tours. We have a few fixed dates open tours that you can join, but we also run them on demand, for specific group sizes and dates. There's a comprehensive form on the contact page. Use it if you want…

Martin’s unexpected days of summer

"Well, I just doubled the number of sunny days for this summer", Martin said after the first day of glorious weather during our Transylvanian Alps Open tour, September 2017. And five similar days followed, with incredible blue sky, and some fluffy clouds for better contrast. As the other three Swedes in the group, when travelling abroad for the summer holidays Martin is looking for something generally warmer and sunnier than what's usually on the menu at home. Or at least less muddy as the trails Charles and Garry (another two…

Transylvanian Alps – Papanași Power

This season we tested extensively the papanași* as a genuine Romanian sports nutrition supplement. They worked wonders before, during and after intense mountain biking riding :). (Hey, some may argue the papanași are a very good substitute for sports itself, but we definitely wouldn't go as far). And what better endurance test than the Transylvanian Alps tour? Intensive climbs, technical descents, single trails riding up and down from 800 to 2500 m altitudes, through forests, pastures, deep into the mountain gorges or on the mountain crests. Plenty of carbohydrates, sugars,…

Transylvanian Alps, Girl Power

Most of the times mountain biking is a man's world. Any stats I stumble upon, be it magazine readers, equipment purchase, website's audience (yes, including this one), they all show that men are an overwhelming majority in anything related to mountain biking. It's true even with topics leg waxing, or what gloves colour would do justice to the newly bought lime-green frame-set (and also accommodate those awesome purple baggy pants). So, a seven persons group of mountain bikers from Germany counting no less than four women was something really out…

Age is just a number

In a day and age where the electric mountain bikes are stealing the front pages, a six days trip around and up the Bucegi Mountains with Mark, Rob, Rod and Paul was as refreshing as a gulp of fresh water from a mountain spring. With just one guy below 60 to balance a little bit the average of the group, the four Brits proved time and again that age is just a number. Long climbs on dirt roads, like going from the old city of Brașov up to the local…

Bucegi Circuit 2017 – first instalment

Our first Bucegi Circuit tour for the 2017 season had special guests from Israel. The four brave mountain bikers came to Romania for a nice biking holiday and ended up with much more than that: they've sampled what "mountain" stands for in "mountain-biking", they've improved their skills on bike both for the climbs and the descents, they enjoyed premium landscapes in the magnificent Romanian mountains, and they enjoyed some mouth watering home-made meals at selected accommodation places. After a warming-up day in Postăvaru Mountain, we circled, traversed, climbed and descended…

Biking and hiking on Transylvanian trails

After sampling the mountain biking tours experience with us in 2015, Eva and Christian were eager to taste the unique Transylvanian experience together with a bigger group of friends, offering them a combined trekking and mountain biking program: some people would go mountain biking, some would enjoy hiking, and everybody would regroup over the dinner table. Sharing loughs and stories from the day spent on the early summer flowery trails, eating great local food and recharging batteries for the following day of outdoor adventures. Coming up with a program matching both…