Transylvania High Road — Transfăgărășan South to Bâlea Lac via the Argeș Valley

Nicolae Ceaușescu built the Transfăgărășan in four years using military labor and enough dynamite to rearrange a mountain range — forty workers died doing it. The southern approach from the Argeș Valley floor at Curtea de Argeș begins gently enough, following a reservoir and then climbing through dense beech forest before the road reveals its true character: a series of increasingly audacious switchbacks carved into vertical granite faces, rising to the Bâlea Lac tunnel at 2,034 metres and the glacial lake just beyond. The southern wall of switchbacks below the tunnel — a tight, guardrail-lined corkscrew of maybe 20 hairpin turns — is the kind of driving that makes your forearms ache and your passengers go quiet. Beyond Bâlea Lac, the northern descent drops into Transylvania proper.

The road is closed from roughly October to late June due to snow — the exact dates depend on the season, and the Romanian Road Administration posts current status online. In summer it is paved throughout and technically manageable in any vehicle, but the southern hairpins demand genuine attention and working brakes. Fuel in Curtea de Argeș before ascending; there’s nothing useful at the top. No permit required, but weekend traffic in July and August turns the upper section into a slow-moving queue — arrive before 8am or go midweek. At Bâlea Lac there’s a cable car, a refuge hut, and a view of the Fagaras ridge that justifies every kilometer of the climb.