Cycling in Holbav, one of Transylvania’s most beautiful villages

View in Holbav

The first days of June blessed us with exceptionally good weather so we decided to temporarily stop office work and go explore the surroundings on our bikes. Cycling in Holbav proved to be the perfect choice, as it is a stunningly beautiful village situated just a few kilometers away from Brașov, Transylvania’s most important city.

We left the city quite late, at around 10 am, so we avoided the morning rush hour. The almost empty streets looked so quiet under the warm morning sunlight.

Cycling through Brasov streets

After reaching the outskirts of Brașov, we took a back country road towards Cristian, our next stop. The views over it left us speechless already.

View over Cristian

Exploring the village streets, we admired the 19th century houses built here by the Saxons…

Houses in Cristian

as well as the 13th century evangelical fortified church. The initial building was erected in the 13th century, being consolidated over time, especially after some major earthquakes caused serious damage to its structure. The final look of the church dates back to a few centuries ago.

Cristian fortified church

After a fast stretch of paved road, we reached our next stop, the village of Vulcan, which has nothing to do with Star Trek 🙂 We quickly realized that we were in for our first major climb: a 4 kilometer twisting road that leads to Holbav. Looking back to where we came from, we decided to stop and immortalize the scenery. Bucegi mountains looked so massive and overwhelming! Everything seemed so perfect in our cycling in Holbav adventure.

View over Vulcan

After reaching Holbav village, a fast and winding descent awaited us. Saying hello to the locals made us forget about time and we quickly realized the paved road was gone. Cycling through an idyllic valley surrounded by trees, meadows and haystacks, we continued our journey.

Reaching the village primary school, we turned right and began climbing what seemed to be a never-ending ascent towards the high plateau.

The views immediately changed and we found ourselves surrounded by nothing than sheer quietness and only the sounds of the crickets and birds accompanied our cycling adventure. Yes, there was some push bike involved but staying off the saddle just lets you take in this amazing rural scenery.

View in Holbav

As we were cycling in Holbav, the first scattered houses started to appear behind the corners and the only signs that indicated someone’s living there were the wood piles and the occasional dogs which were barking at us.

Pile of wood in Holbav

The push bike continued (although we are sure some eBikes could have been a better choice) until we reached a local shop, where we stopped for a beer drink and admire the beautiful Transylvanian landscape. A grazing cow just ignored us all the time and we couldn’t do anything to make it stare at the camera.

We headed towards the forest, hoping that we won’t be chased by a bear

Forest road in Holbav

and took another trail right, at the foothills of Măgura Codlei hill…

Magura Codlei hill near Holbav

until we reached a local household. We were welcomed with a mouth-watering traditional grilled bulz (polenta ball filled with cheese) and a couple of drinks.

We wanted to stay there so badly but there was some rain in the forecast, so we hopped on our bikes and prepared for a fast descent on a scenic gravel road.

Descent on a gravel road from HolbavOnce we reached back in Vulcan, Brașov was just 30 minutes away and we ended the ride with a refreshing beer.

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