If you enjoy winter sports, you are invited to Maramures, in northern Romania. Suior, Cavnic, Borsa, Izvoare and Mogosa are perfect destinations to practice winter sports.
In Maramures you can also find fairy tale sights, monasteries of a rare beauty, and cheerful people who are great hosts. You also have a variety of accommodation venues for all tastes and pockets.
Maramures is a mostly rural area, where tourists can discover life in the countryside. We spoke to Ioana Tripon, director of the County Tourist Office: “Since the winter holidays are over, women take up weaving on the loom once again. They make shirts, traditional garments, carpets, bags and shaggy bedspreads. The villages of Botiza and Sapanta are famous for these, but are not alone. The men practice their crafts, they whittle little wooden objects, make spindles with jingles, wooden patterns that get pressed onto the dough of bread before baking, and many more. The tourists can actually learn these crafts in the workshops of traditional craftsmen. In this area, they can also find cheap accommodation.”
The locals are very hospitable people and tourists can find there lots of great things to eat. The area is famous for its pork dishes. If you are vegetarians, you can also find a wide selection, such as vegetable spreads, mushrooms or vegetable soups. For desert you have a wide variety of pies, and you can also enjoy the local homemade plum brandy.
Beyond crafts and cooking, Maramures is a destination for its culture itself, according to Ioana Tripon: “We have eight wooden churches which are UNESCO monuments, we also have the ‘Merry Cemetery’ in Sapanta, which derives its name from the vivid colors painted on crosses, in a traditional, naïve style. The epitaphs are written in the local dialect, are original and fresh, with no clichés. This place lies 20 km away from Sighet. In Sighetul Marmatiei, the old seat of the county of Maramures, you can visit Elie Wiesel’s memorial house, or the Memorial of the Victims of Resistance, a jail turned into a museum, where the country’s elites were exterminated. In the 1950s, over 100 dignitaries, former ministers, politicians, academicians, priests, historians, economists and journalists did hard time there.”
Lovers of winter sports can find a rich offer in Maramures, Ioana Tripon told us: “If you love alpine skiing you can try the slopes in Cavnic, Suior and Borsa. You can also find cross-country skiing venues, and if you want to see more of Maramures in winter, you can go on high altitude treks. We have the Maramures Mountains Nature Park, the Rodna Mountain Nature Park, and lots of protected areas. And after all that exertion, you can relax in the salt- water pools in Ocna Sugatag. The salt- water baths are great remedies for people afflicted by a stressful lifestyle, for people with rheumatic conditions, muscle and bone problems, with neurological or vascular disorders.”
Horia Buhan is marketing director for the tourist complex in Suior, specializing in winter tourism, with excellent ski slopes: “Right now the ski pistes are in great condition, with a layer of snow between 35 and 50 cm. Even though it hasn’t snowed as much in Maramures as in other areas, we resorted to artificial snow, since we have artificial snow installations and floodlights along the entire length of the slopes, which amounts to 3,600 meters. We have a rental center for sports equipment. We have about 250 sets of gear which can be rented here. We have a snowboarding school and lots of instructors, who are on the slopes all day long, teaching people their skills. We have tourist guides, and we have marked trails all year long. They can take you on trips to the Rooster’s Peak and other objectives in the area. We are right in the heart of Maramures, so all tourist objectives aren’t further than 50 to 70 km from us.”
Ana Poenar is marketing director of a tourist complex in Cavnic, another highly sought after destination in Maramures: “The ski slopes in Maramures, Cavnic especially, have loads of snow. In Cavnic we have 6 km of slopes. They are in excellent condition, I myself have just come back from skiing. We have a ski school, the only one in Romania with a slope dedicated to beginners, with internationally licensed instructors. We have a great rental center, too. We have loads of Polish, Ukrainian and Hungarian visitors. They seem to appreciate the conditions here a lot. They used to go skiing in Austria, but they said the prices there are too high, and they love the price-quality ratio they get here. The slopes are in great shape, and we had skiers all throughout the season. Now that we have natural snow, the scenery is wonderful. We eagerly expect all lovers of winter sports.”
Here you have your invitation, and you should waste no time in getting in touch with your travel agent to take advantage of the best offers.
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