The Trails Around Cluj I Ride on Repeat

I grew up in Craiova. It's a city in the south of Romania — flat, not particularly close to the mountains, and not a place where cycling or hiking is especially part of the culture. I ran a bit, walked, went to the gym. But being outside in the active sense — that came later.

When I moved to Cluj-Napoca, I remember the first time I understood what the city was sitting next to. You drive twenty minutes in any direction and you're in the forest. You go a bit further and there are ridges, valleys, proper mountain climbs. Right on the edge of the city itself there is Faget, and there is Hoia — two forests where you can disappear for two hours after work and come back a different person than the one who left.

I was excited in a way that probably looked naive from the outside. For someone who had grown up somewhere flat, this was just a completely different world. And once I started, I couldn't stop.

The progression was gradual and then suddenly fast. Local rides in Faget and Hoia first, then longer days into the Apuseni — Muntele Rece, Valea Ierii, Finișel. Then two-week trips to other countries. Then a month away. Then a full year on the road, with a bike always somewhere in the equation. It all started here, with these trails, and the specific feeling of driving home on a Sunday evening already planning where to go next weekend.

Here are the ones I keep coming back to.

Faget and Hoia — the everyday ones

Faget. This meadow, this light, this bike.

Faget is a forest park on the edge of Cluj, and it's where a lot of local riders start — including me. The trails are accessible, varied enough to keep you interested, and close enough to the city that an after-work ride is genuinely possible. You don't need a car. The climbs are not punishing. The descents are satisfying rather than terrifying.

Hoia forest, on the other side of the city, has a different atmosphere — denser, quieter, a bit eerie in the way old forests get when the light comes through sideways. It's smaller and less developed for cycling, but good for those days when you want to be somewhere that feels entirely separate from the city even though you're twenty minutes from the centre.

The day I realised what I was capable of. New world, unlocked.

I remember the first time I completed a route in Faget that I'd been nervous about. The trail wasn't objectively hard — it was just more than I'd done before. And finishing it felt disproportionately good, the way any first time does. That's the gift of starting close to home: it keeps unlocking things.

Muntele Rece — when you want space

Muntele Rece. The sky is the main event.

Muntele Rece — "Cold Mountain" — is about 30 kilometres from Cluj and offers something different from Faget: openness. Long gravel roads on the ridgeline with panoramic views across the Apuseni. The kind of trail where you stop not because you need to rest but because the view demands it.

The climbs to get up there are sustained and require patience. But the reward is exactly the feeling in that photo — you on the ridge, the valley far below, the whole sky available to you.

Valea Ierii — underrated

Valea Ierii in autumn. The wooden fences are everywhere out here.

The Iara Valley is quieter and less known than the other spots on this list. The trails run through a mix of farmland and forest, past old wooden fences and occasional villages, with the kind of rural Romanian landscape that reminds you this country is still largely outside the tourist conversation.

It's a good ride for the days when you want to feel like you've found something rather than followed somewhere. Less infrastructure, more improvisation.

Finișel — for the summit photo

Finișel summit. Five bikes, five people who rode up here, one shared joke about the climb.

Finișel has a proper summit — a rocky outcrop with mountain views in every direction and the kind of exposed position that makes you feel like you actually climbed something. It's best done with a group, because the effort to get up there pairs well with someone to suffer next to, and the summit photo is better with more bikes in it.

The people you ride with

Two on the trail. It's different riding with other women.

Something I didn't expect when I started cycling: how easy it is to make friends this way. There's a social dynamic on a bike or a hiking trail that doesn't exist in most other contexts. You're moving together, you're suffering slightly, you're focused on the same thing — and conversations happen naturally in a way they don't in a café or a bar.

I've met some of the most interesting people I know on trails. People who turned into regular ride partners, then travel companions, then actual friends. The Cluj cycling and hiking community is more active and more welcoming than you'd expect for a city this size.

If you want to find routes, Strava and Komoot are both invaluable — thousands of routes logged by other riders, public and free, covering everything from half-hour evening rides to full-day mountain crossings. You just need the time, the energy, and the willingness to take care of yourself — recovery matters as much as the ride itself.

If you're a woman who rides near Cluj and wants company for any of these routes — message me.