Romania 
In numbers.
60m
Height
OpenStreetMap
Apr–Jul
Best months
1,517m
Elevation
The water at Bâlea Waterfall, month by month
It roars from May to July.
The fullest months: from May to July. Below −4 °C on average (from December to February): the falls can partly freeze.
- 35%Jan
- 37%Feb
- 55%Mar
- 74%Apr
- 92%May
- 100%Jun
- 90%Jul
- 67%Aug
- 54%Sep
- 50%Oct
- 36%Nov
- 27%Dec
Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from April to July.
Estimate from rain, snowmelt and evaporation month by month (NASA POWER, 1991–2020) around the falls. Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Bâlea Waterfall is a waterfall in Romania. The water falls 60 m.
Getting there.
- Cârţişoaranearest town · 10 km in a straight line
- Parking 1,210 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Sibiu International Airport (SBZ)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 45 km in a straight lineCar hire at SBZ airport (Sibiu)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From April to Julybest months to go (estimate)
Plan your visit
Stay, explore and get there
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
How big is it?
How big it really is.
Height of the drop as mapped in OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
Seen from the sky.
8 × 8 km of cloud-free satellite image, with what OpenStreetMap knows around the falls.
N
2 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
The line follows the river as mapped in OpenStreetMap; heights from the 30 m Copernicus model, which smooths narrow drops — the published height of the falls is the one above.
Around the falls the river drops 563 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 419 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 4viewpoints
- 8waymarked walking routesCăldarea Văiuga - Șaua Văiuga, Cabana Bâlea Cascadă - Curmătura Bâlei - L. Bâlea, Transfăgărășan - Șaua Netedu - L. Bâlea and 5 more
- 1car parks
- —swimming spots
- 1picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- —other named waterfalls within 4 km
- —caves
- 11campsitesCălțun, Capra, Lacul Podragu and 8 more
- 10hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmHotel Pârâul Capra, Refugiul Bâlea Tunel, Vila Flora and 7 more
- 1restaurants and cafés within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, up to 2 km around the falls (unless noted). A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Cârţişoara10 km in a straight line
- Arpașu de Sus12 km in a straight line
- Victoria14 km in a straight line
- Ucea de Sus15 km in a straight line
- Arpaşu de Jos18 km in a straight line
- Cârţa18 km in a straight line
- Ucea de Jos18 km in a straight line
- Porumbacu de Jos19 km in a straight line
Weather
The weather, month by month.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | -5 | -3 | 2 | 8 | 14 | 17 | 20 | 20 | 15 | 9 | 3 | -3 |
| Night °C | -12 | -11 | -7 | -2 | 3 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 4 | -1 | -5 | -10 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 41 | 37 | 48 | 62 | 96 | 117 | 105 | 76 | 62 | 62 | 48 | 46 |
| Wet days | 9 | 8 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 16 | 15 | 12 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 10 |
| Sun h/day | 3.0 | 4.1 | 5.1 | 6.0 | 6.9 | 7.7 | 8.3 | 8.1 | 6.2 | 4.9 | 3.2 | 2.6 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 17 | 18 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 16 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (1,517 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.
Photos
Through visitors' eyes.
Recent years
Wet years and dry years
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A wet season above 100 % usually means a fuller waterfall.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 19% | 108% | 165% | 32% | 119% | 177% | 117% | 74% | 136% | 183% | 39% | 182% |
| 2021 | 197% | 73% | 150% | 103% | 130% | 71% | 86% | 96% | 55% | 43% | 75% | 209% |
| 2022 | 55% | 48% | 52% | 140% | 87% | 37% | 65% | 137% | 177% | 32% | 120% | 93% |
| 2023 | 392% | 93% | 63% | 126% | 70% | 113% | 79% | 67% | 89% | 35% | 150% | 53% |
| 2024 | 80% | 106% | 101% | 101% | 83% | 61% | 75% | 45% | 138% | 27% | 106% | 102% |
| 2025 | 21% | 31% | 157% | 76% | 154% | 15% | 104% | 69% | 61% | 170% | 234% | 26% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Bâlea Waterfall
Romania
- 60 mHeight
- —Average flow
- Apr–JulBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q12274393) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Height of the drop | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Relief, river profile, 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Paths, viewpoints, parking | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
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