Holiday home for max. 4 persons
Vale by Saliste, Transylvania, Romania

Cottage without comfort but with lots of fresh mountain air for stressed lungs. A spring emanates just a stone’s throw away, the trees are full of cherries, and you can get cheese and milk from the shepherd next door.

Instead of a WC it has a pit latrine in a wooden shack, it has spring water instead of a shower or a washing machine, kerosene lamps instead of bulbs, and a cool cellar instead of a fridge. The self-catering hut consists of a porch, a kitchen, and a bedroom with a big raised platform bed, which four people can sleep on comfortably next to each other. The accommodation is equipped with pots, pans, crockery, coarse blankets, hand towels and tea towels, kerosene lamps, a gas bottle with cooking rings, a bucket and washing-up bowl, a hatchet, toilet paper, washing-up liquid and a sponge, soap, matches, salt and sugar. You can cook with the gas burner, on the wood-burning stove in the kitchen, or on the fireplace in front of the hut. UMTS-stick for Internet access on request.

You can relax in the surrounding forest, meadows and abundant nature.

The mountain hut is about seven kilometres above the village of Fantanele, about 20km from Sibiu. You can get to it on foot, by bicycle or by mountain bike (about 1.5 hours), but you will not be able to find it without a guide, so the owners will take you there. It is less than an hour by jeep (although the hut is not always accessible by car) or about three hours by horse cart (extra cost), with an English-speaking guide. You can take provisions with you or buy them here at one of the shops or at the market in the little town of Saliste. When you arrive up at the hut, a traditional pastoral goulash can be cooked for you on request, in a pot over the open fire. If you arrive with your own car, you can park it securely on an enclosed site at the owners’ house in Vale. If you arrive by train or plane, the owners can provide free transfers to and from Sibiu. They can also provide bicycles, a generator, or interim provisions on request. A UMTS stick for Internet access is available on request. Mobile phone reception is poor at the hut itself, but is better a few steps up the hillside.

There are high meadows, forested mountains and valley glades as far as the eye can see, with old huts and shacks, sheep, cows, horses and dogs, as well as other animals such as salamanders, praying mantis and little lizards, which have long since disappeared elsewhere. You can hike to the mountain lake at Gura Raului and further up into the Cindrel mountains, lie on a hill, chew on a blade of grass and let your thoughts come and go. The owners are not trained tourist experts. They live in Vale and work together in a small family-run building company, which also built the holiday houses. After eight years of hard work, they have put down their tools for a while, are taking a break and dedicating themselves to guests as a team. In the meantime two families and various villagers are benefitting from the fruits of this labour. The owners cultivate an atmosphere of free thought and equality.