Vulcanii Noroiosi (Muddy Volcanoes), Southeast Romania, Romania

4AventuraFamily 5:00 PM Jul 20, 2021

Worth the drive! Hiking and unique landscape
Paclele Mare and Paclele Mici are the two locations you can visit at the Vulcanii Noroioși. Like most nature attractions in Romania, the road signs to get there are virtually non-existent, or so old they are barely legible. We had no problem keeping our shoes clean (thankfully because the kids were wearing new sneakers)… the area is baked hard dry mud and the areas that are wet (bubbling mud volcanoes) are clearly visible and easy to navigate around. Paclele Mare (go left at the sign) has a big bubbly pool of mud that covers a wide area and deep ridges of hard dried mud that you can climb/walk on. There’s paid parking (~3 lei) and just a short walk further is free parking. There’s a restaurant right in the parking lot and some portable toilets. There are funny signs about dragons and the volcanoes lining the entrance to the volcanoes. You basically walk from the parking area right into the mud volcanoes area. Paclele Mici was our favorite (go straight at the sign). You pay a small parking fee (~3 lei) and then hike ~.5 km uphill to the entrance, where you pay the entrance fee. The view of the surrounding mountains is lush and green until you come over the crest of the hill to the ticket booth where you wind up in something that looks like a lunar landscape. We went on a pretty hot day… so while the terrain hiking up isn’t bad, it definitely seemed strenuous. I think an umbrella for shade should have been a good idea at both locations. Definitely worth a day trip!

4Iulia T. 5:00 PM Sep 2, 2020

Worth a visit
We've only visited Paclele Mari and we really enjoyed it! We had it planned for quite a while and managed to take a trip in August. Weather was beautiful - I definitely wouldn't recommend visiting on rainy days. The road to get there isn't the best and there is only 1 sign at some point informing you which way to go for Paclele Mari and Paclele Mici - I definitely think this could be improved. Once we got there we parked in the free parking lot (it had plenty of spaces available). Overall, we all felt it was worth the trip and had a great day out!