AZUGA

Azuga is a short drive / train-ride (in our case) from Bucharest, and this makes it an ideal weekend getaway destination. We went there last weekend and generally loved it.

Arriving there noon-ish on Saturday, it's eery how quiet the place is. Walking for about 2 km, I encountered about 3 people and no more than 2 restaurants. Weird, particularly when compared to the bustle of other mountain resorts in the area. For example, 10-minute-drive-away Sinaia has traffic jams and full restaurants and shockingly many Porche Cayennes parked on sidewalks.

There are no street signs and no way to know the names of streets or the house numbers. Using a gps to find your accomodations is strongly recommended.

The place we stayed at, Vila Casa Alba was great though. The decor was lovely, the view was, wonderful, and it was steps away from the slopes. Strongly recommended. The one negative point was the lack of a restaurant. There was a well-equiped kitchen provided for guest use, but who really wants to cook on vacation?!

Now, for attractions and fun things to see and do, Azuga is severely lacking. There's the gorgeous view to take in and photograph. There are 3 ski slopes to enjoy (all easy ones). There are a couple restaurants, all rustic ones, from what we could tell. There's a wine cellar where you're likely to get no service (read below). There are no shopping opportunities. There is no coffee shop that I was able to locate.

If you're into peace and quiet and restful weekends away and beautiful scenery, Azuga might be a good place for you.

Whatever you do, though, do not arrive at the train station too early for your train. It is not heated and, at the time of our visit, the door didn't close properly. Brrr.

W(h)ining

I'm not frequently one to whine, but I was frustrated recently in my attempts to wine , so I figured it might be worth sharing.


A corporate Christmas party took us to Azuga this past weekend. One of the big planned highlights of the trip was a visit and a tasting, and potentially even some purchase at Rhein Cellar.




Now, let it be stated that we're not huge fans of their wines. We're nowhere near having tried enough of them to actually state a formal, informed opinion so let's just say that the bottles we tasted so far did not impress us at all.




But we were in Azuga, and it was right there, on our way to the hotel, and we love wine, and I love wineries, and I love wine tastings both as a great low-risk way to discover new favourites and as a low-cost way to get drunk on potentially-crappy wine and we shall visit friends and family over the holidays and what better way to show how much you care about them then to purchase mediocre wine?




So, we walked in to an empty, long driveway and a fairly large courtyard, empty except for a massive bus. We attempted to walk through a door labeled "reception" and that took us to an empty room. There was no bell and after waiting for a few minutes, nobody arrived. I, of course, suggested that the 3-4 bottles on display there were free for the taking, but Andrei's moral compass suggested otherwise.

Therefore we walked out and towards another door labeled "cellar". It was locked. With a large padlock. We then tried yet another door labeled "wine museum". Also locked. With a padlock. Finally, we walked into what appeared to be a restaurant-like space. That's where the former passengers of the massive bus parked outside were having a private party. We attempted to walk in, and actually did, hung around for a bit, partiers were eyeing us suspiciously but no partier asked us anything and no staff member whatsoever materialized.




Needless to say we walked out and they'd have to do some serious wooing to get me back there again.




It's one thing to have the place booked for a private party and nicely say to incoming people "We're sorry. We are closed to the public due to a private party. Maybe you can return some other time when we're open. This here is our schedule.". That is acceptable.




What is unacceptable is staff ignoring people and basically letting them wonder about the property without so much as making themselves seen or heard.




Also, as a side note, this invisible staff should not leave unattended bottles and handbags in the reception room because not everyone's moral compass is as strong as Andrei's.