Romania · RO

Apuseni Mountains

The Apuseni Mountains in western Romania are a labyrinth of limestone carved by water over millennia — a karst kingdom of caves, gorges, sinkholes, and disappearing streams that rewards curious hikers with landscapes found almost nowhere else in the Carpathians. Though lower than Romania's southern ranges — topping out at 1,849 m on Cucurbăta Mare — the Apuseni trade dramatic alpine peaks for something more intimate: over 1,500 caves, wild karst plateaus, and living mountain villages where the Moți people still carve wooden instruments and tend flocks on high meadows.