Pensiunea Smida Park

Breakfast was quite decent, though it may come a bit late. The other meals were simple but tasty, and the food choices are limited. It’s a modest, comfortable place with a small indoor pool. It can be quiet, depending on the other guests and neighbors. Five stars in context: it’s very remote and has only a few dedicated staff members.

Eni was outstanding, helpful, and made room for our dietary requirements. Breakfast and dinner were very good, too. Smida Park is well placed for getting around Apuseni Natural Park. The pool, sauna, table tennis, and darts were a nice bonus. Thank you, Smida Park.

The setting is lovely, with forest, river, and lake, and Smida Park has a great garden and a playground for children. But our five-day stay was disappointing: the food quality was poor, there wasn’t much variety, and service was lacking. We usually had no hot water in the morning or evening, and there was no cleaning during our stay. It doesn’t deserve four stars, in my view. For the service provided, it was quite expensive and poor value for money.

Our family of six adults and five children went to Smida Park’s restaurant for lunch, drawn in by its inviting new building and the beautiful Apuseni National Park scenery. It turned into a wasted opportunity. We were told we could only order from the menu of the day, with two soups, two mains, and two desserts. Since we were a little late and it may be hard to predict how many guests will arrive, that restriction was understandable. The wait was not. We waited about 30 minutes before anyone took our order. On a high-season Sunday, there seemed to be just one cook and one waitress/receptionist handling all the guests. An hour later the soup arrived, and one bowl was ice-cold. The five main courses came another 30 minutes after that. Waiting more than two hours for the menu of the day was hard to understand and unacceptable. I realize the kitchen staff were under pressure, but I would have thought the two soups could be prepared ahead and served without much effort. We asked if the children could get their soup earlier. The youngest were one and three, and they were getting restless after the long wait. We were told we’d be served when it was our turn and should wait. On the way back, people in our group started feeling sick, and some vomited. We strongly suspect the pork neck we were served wasn’t up to the standard you’d expect.