Cabana Tilia is reached on foot — a 30-minute walk from the road, longer if you stop. The forest is mostly beech, with patches of linden which is where it gets its name. There is electricity, fed by a small array of panels on the roof, but no Wi-Fi and only intermittent phone signal in one corner of the meadow. The stove is the centre of every evening.
It is the silence. Not the absence of noise — the presence of small ones. A woodpecker. The stove ticking. The bell of a goat half a kilometre off. We have spent three nights here ourselves and slept harder than in any city hotel.
- · Wood stove
- · Solar electricity
- · Pets welcome
- · Bear tracker app on the desk
- · Composting toilet
Elena rebuilt the cabin with her brother in 2018, on the foundation of her grandfather’s shepherd hut. She lives down in Zărnești and walks up every other day to check the stove, refill the woodpile, and take photos of any bear tracks for the science group at the foundation.
A few of the sights within easy reach of this house.
The castle the Dracula myth attached itself to — better visited at 9am than at noon.
A Saxon town centre tucked between forested hills — the Black Church, Council Square, narrow streets.
Europe's largest brown bear sanctuary — 100+ bears rescued from circuses and roadside cages.
A 25-kilometre limestone arête south of Brașov — one of the great ridge walks of Europe.