Transfăgărăşan, probably Romania’s most famous high-altitude road, reopens for traffic this Friday, June 7, earlier than usual. Transalpina, the other spectacular mountain road in the country, reopened last week.

Both mountain highways are usually closed from late October to late June because of the challenging weather conditions.

“Transfăgărășan (DN7C) opens tomorrow starting at 07:00 (almost a month earlier than the regulation that provides for the opening of traffic on July 1). It will also be possible to drive in the alpine area, between Bâlea Cascada (Sibiu county) and Piscul Negru (Argeș county) between 07:00 and 21:00,” said Cristian Pistol, the general director of CNAIR, the company that manages the road infrastructure.

To avoid potentially dangerous incidents, he also recommended tourists avoid contact with the bears that can often be spotted on the side of the Transfăgărăşan road and not feed them.

A project of late communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, the spectacular road that crosses the Carpathian Mountains has been a setting for drive tests, photo shootings, movies, and commercials for sports cars and motorcycles. Its popularity kind of spiked in 2009 when the famous British auto show Top Gear shot one of its episodes on Transfăgărăşan, naming it “the best road in the world.” Some also call it “The Road to the Sky.”

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Ionut Jula/Dreamstime.com)