Salt mines in Romania: the complete guide to the salt mines you can visit

How many salt mines there are in Romania and which you can visit

Salt is taken out of the ground in dozens of places in Romania, but only a few salt mines are fitted out for visitors, almost all of them run by the National Salt Company, Salrom: Slănic Prahova, Ocnele Mari, Târgu Ocna, Cacica, Praid and Ocna Dej. The only one outside Salrom is Turda Salt Mine, run by the town of Turda and modernised with EU funds between 2008 and 2010.

The table below puts them side by side. The depth is that of the level you visit, not of the whole mine: at Târgu Ocna, for example, salt is cut even below the tourist level.

Which salt mines are open now

The five salt mines you can visit are open all year round, but not all of them every day. In summer and during the school holidays they all open daily. For the rest of the year, Slănic Prahova and Cacica usually close on Mondays and Tuesdays, Ocnele Mari is open in November 2026 only from Friday to Sunday, while Turda and Târgu Ocna stay open daily. Salrom publishes the opening hours month by month, with the time of the last descent, which is 1–1.5 hours before closing.

Two salt mines have been through recent closures. Târgu Ocna was closed between November 2024 and April 2025, after several blocks of salt came away from the ceiling of a gallery, and reopened after safety works. Praid has been closed since 27–30 May 2025, when the waters of the Corund stream drained through a sinkhole that had formed under the stream bed straight into the mine and filled all the levels, including the visitor area; the details are below, in its section.

Ocna Dej is a special case: the Transilvania mine, where Salrom still cuts salt today, has an Orthodox church carved into the salt 80 m down and a leisure area, but the last published timetable said the mine ‘is not open to visitors’, and since 2025 its page has shown no opening hours at all. Do not go there without phoning the branch first.

Ocna Dej Salt Mine

Dej, CJClosed

Salt mines

Turda Salt Mine: the underground park near Cluj

The best-known salt mine in Romania is also the most spectacular. Salt was extracted here from Roman times until 1932, and after the 2008–2010 modernisation the voids left by the miners became a leisure park 120 m underground: in the Rudolf mine, a hall 42 m high, 50 m wide and 80 m long, there are a 20 m Ferris wheel, an amphitheatre, minigolf, bowling and sports pitches, and below it, in the Terezia mine, 112 m deep, you take a boat out on a salt lake, along the lit walls. The international press has called it ‘the most beautiful underground place in the world’, and with more than half a million visitors a year it is among the most visited attractions in the country.

From the new entrance at Durgău you go down by lift or by stairs to the Franz Josef Gallery, pass the crivac of 1881, the hoisting machine once pulled by horses, and the Iosif mine, the ‘hall of echoes’, and come out on the balcony of the Rudolf mine; from there, 172 steps or the panoramic lift take you to the floor of the hall. Underground it is 11–12 °C with humidity above 75%, all year round.

The adult ticket is 75 lei on weekdays and 90 lei at weekends and on public holidays, children aged 3–18 pay 48 or 59 lei, and the Ferris wheel, the boats or the Ghizela mine are paid for separately. The visit takes about two and a half hours, longer if you stay for the boats and the wheel. Turda is 30 km from Cluj-Napoca, on the A3 or the DN1; the car park at the Durgău entrance costs 10 lei an hour. Weekends and holidays are very busy, with queues for the lift: come at opening time or after lunch and buy your ticket online. 100 m from the entrance are the Durgău Salt Lakes, a lido with salt lakes, and a few kilometres away, the Turda Gorge.

Top 20

Turda Salt Mine

Turda, CJClosed75 lei

Salt mines

Slănic Prahova Salt Mine: the largest halls, 100 km from Bucharest

The Unirea mine at Slănic, dug between 1938 and 1970 on the model of the Wieliczka salt mine in Poland, is a string of 14 interconnected trapezoidal halls, about 54 m high, with a narrow ceiling of 10 m and a base of more than 30 m. 2.9 million cubic metres of salt were taken out of it, and the void left behind covers almost 80,000 m²: no other salt mine in Romania has halls this large. The walls are streaked with grey bands and swirls where the folds of the deposit show, and in the Genesis Hall Decebalus and Trajan are carved in salt.

You go down to 208 m in the mine's minibuses, along a spiral ramp; the old lift has been out of use since 2014. Down below there are a small salt lake with a waterfall, a museum of mining machinery, sports pitches, go-karts, minigolf and play areas, plus a rest area with loungers for those who come for treatment. The temperature is 12–13 °C even in August.

The adult ticket is 60 lei, children aged 3–18 pay 40 lei and seniors 45 lei. The first minibus goes down at 09:15, the last at 15:30, and the last one comes back up at 16:30; outside the holidays the mine is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, and in summer and at weekends there are queues for the minibuses, so come in the morning. Slănic is about 100 km north of Bucharest, via Ploiești. Less than 1 km away, in the town, the Salt Mountain is worth seeing, a mass of salt that has come up to the surface, with the lake known as the Bride's Grotto (Grota Miresei).

Top 100

Slănic Prahova Salt Mine

Slănic, PHClosed60 lei

Salt mines

Ocnele Mari Salt Mine: the working mine near Râmnicu Vâlcea

At Ocnele Mari salt has been extracted for thousands of years, and on the hill above, archaeologists have found the Dacian fortress of Buridava. The salt mine you visit is a working one: the Cocenești mine, begun in 1993, has three levels, one of which, worked out, was opened to tourists in 2009; since 2015 the leisure area has been in a gallery of more than 40,000 m², with grey salt walls whose white veins are crinkled into waves and spirals.

The visit starts at the surface, inside the leisure complex, from where the mine's buses take you through a tunnel to the underground in about 10 minutes; they leave every 30 minutes, and the transport is included in the ticket. Down below there are football, basketball, tennis and volleyball pitches, a go-kart track, the only ice rink in a Salrom salt mine, minigolf, trampolines and play areas, a restaurant and a small salt museum. The most striking corner is the church of Saint Barbara and Saint George, considered the largest underground church in Romania, with its wooden portal set into the salt wall and a carved iconostasis, where a service is held on Sundays. The air is 13–15 °C all year round.

The adult ticket is 60 lei, and children and schoolchildren pay 40 lei; activities are paid for separately. Ocnele Mari is 8 km from Râmnicu Vâlcea, about 100 km from Sibiu along the Olt Valley and 180 km from Bucharest; parking costs 15 lei a day. The opening hours change monthly: in November 2026 the mine is open only from Friday to Sunday.

Top 100

Ocnele Mari Salt Mine

Ocnele Mari, VLClosed60 lei

Salt mines

Târgu Ocna Salt Mine: the deepest visit, at 240 m

In the Trotuș valley salt has been extracted for more than five centuries: under Stephen the Great the salt mines became a princely monopoly, and generations of ocnași, convicts sent to cut salt, laboured here. The salt mine is still a working Salrom mine today, and since 2005 level IX of the Trotuș mine, 240 m deep, the deepest tourist level in the country, has been fitted out for visitors.

You go down in the mine's bus along a lit spiral tunnel more than 3 km long. Down below, across almost 10,000 m² of vaulted galleries with striped salt walls, there are St Barbara's church, made by the miners in 1992, with an iconostasis, pews and chandeliers worked in salt, a salt lake with a waterfall lit in colours, a salt museum, sports pitches, play areas and go-karts. The temperature is a constant 12 °C, without draughts, and the air, laden with salt aerosols, is used to treat respiratory conditions.

The adult ticket is 60 lei, children and schoolchildren 40 lei, with transport included; the visit takes about two hours, including the bus ride, and the last transport underground leaves an hour before closing. In summer, an open-air salt-water pool operates in the grounds of the salt mine. Târgu Ocna is 14 km from Onești, 60 km from Bacău and 126 km from Brașov; by train, get off at the Saline halt, 700 m from the entrance. The nearest resort is Slănic-Moldova, less than 20 km away, which has no salt mine of its own: anyone searching for ‘Slănic Moldova salt mine’ ends up here.

Târgu Ocna Salt Mine

Târgu Ocna, BCClosed60 lei

Salt mines

Cacica Salt Mine: the old mine in Bukovina, down 192 steps

Cacica is the opposite of the theme-park salt mines: a small mine, opened by the Austrians in 1791, dug by hand, with narrow galleries and halls carved without machinery, where miners brought from Galicia, from Wieliczka and Bochnia, worked. You enter through the shaft building, which houses a small museum, and go down a spiral staircase of 192 fir steps, more than two centuries old and mineralised by brine.

At 29 m you reach the chapel of Saint Barbara, carved at the beginning of the 19th century, with an altar and pulpit hewn from the salt, where on 4 December Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic priests celebrate together. Further down you pass a salt lake more than 2 m deep, and at 42 m the ballroom opens up, framed by balconies cut into the salt, where parties were once held. Underground it is about 14 °C.

It is the cheapest salt mine in the country: 38 lei for adults, 25 lei for children, 30 lei for seniors, and the visit takes about an hour and a half. There is no lift, so it is not suitable for pushchairs, wheelchairs or anyone who finds climbing difficult: the 192 steps have to be done on the way back too. In summer, there is an open-air salt-water pool next to the salt mine. Cacica is 19 km from Gura Humorului and 35 km from Suceava and combines easily with Voroneț Monastery, Humor Monastery and Sucevița Monastery.

Cacica Salt Mine

Cacica, SVClosed38 lei

Salt mines

Praid Salt Mine, closed since 2025: what happened and what to visit instead

Beneath the Salt Hill (Dealul Sării) at Praid lies one of the largest rock salt bodies in Europe, a block of roughly 1.2 by 1.4 km that goes 2.6–2.8 km deep. In the old galleries, at 120 m, there was a leisure and treatment area with halls several hundred metres long, visited by hundreds of thousands of people a year; until 2025, Praid was the most visited salt mine in Romania.

Between 27 and 30 May 2025, after torrential rain, the waters of the Corund stream drained through a sinkhole that had formed under the stream bed straight into the mine and filled all the levels, including the visitor area. Salrom halted all activity. The commune has been under a state of alert extended month by month, in July 2026 micro-earthquakes in the salt body led to an orange alert, and access to the mining area and to the Salt Canyon in the Corund valley is prohibited. At the end of October 2026 there is no official reopening date, and specialists are talking about years, not months. No tickets are sold; the open-air salt-water pool next to the salt mine was not affected and opens in summer (adults 50 lei).

If you had Praid in your plans: Lake Ursu in Sovata, 7 km away, is the best-known salt lake in the country, with a lido on its shore in season; the nearest open salt mine is Turda, 70 km from Târgu Mureș on the A3, and from the Brașov side, Târgu Ocna.

Top 100

Praid Salt Mine

Praid, HRClosed

Salt mines

Lake Ursu

Sovata, MS

Lakes

The largest, the deepest and the oldest salt mine in Romania

The answer depends on what you measure, so here they are one by one:

• Deepest visit: Târgu Ocna Salt Mine, 240 m underground. Next come Slănic Prahova (208 m), Turda and Praid (120 m), Ocna Dej (about 80 m) and Cacica (42 m).
• Largest halls: the Unirea mine at Slănic Prahova, with 14 halls 54 m high over almost 80,000 m². The leisure gallery at Ocnele Mari covers more than 40,000 m², and the tallest hall is the Terezia mine at Turda, a bell 90 m high and 75 m across, with the lake at its bottom.
• Largest deposit: the salt body at Praid, roughly 1.2 by 1.4 km and 2.6–2.8 km deep, one of the largest in Europe.
• Oldest mine you can enter: the Terezia mine at Turda, opened in 1690, with its lake at 112 m. Cacica, from 1791, is the oldest salt mine to have remained almost unchanged. Salt was being extracted much earlier, though: at Ocnele Mari since the Neolithic, and at Turda, Praid and Ocna Dej since Roman times.
• Most visited: Turda Salt Mine, with more than half a million visitors a year; until the flood, Praid rivalled it.
• Cheapest: Cacica, 38 lei for an adult ticket.

Each record, with the source of the figure and how it is measured, is in the guide to the largest, deepest and oldest salt mine.

Which salt mine to choose

• With small children or a pushchair: Turda (lift from the entrance and panoramic lift, both optional: the mine may stop them), Ocnele Mari and Târgu Ocna (the bus drops you right in the galleries) or Slănic (minibus). Cacica, with its 192 steps, is best kept for children who are good walkers. Everywhere, children under 3 go in free: at Turda with a doctor's note, at the Salrom mines with a doctor's recommendation or on the adult's responsibility; and everywhere it is cold.
• For spectacle: Turda, unrivalled: the Ferris wheel, the boating lake and the Rudolf hall. Slănic Prahova impresses with the size of its halls.
• For peace and history: Cacica, the old hand-dug mine, with its chapel and ballroom.
• For treatment: all five have air at 11–15 °C and salt aerosols; Slănic has a rest area with sun loungers and beds, Ocnele Mari and Târgu Ocna spaces for relaxation and exercise, while at Turda the cure takes place in the Ghizela mine, with a separate ticket; only Turda publishes the indications and contraindications of the cure. Passes for 5–7 days cost 33–65 lei a day. What each operator says about the cure is in the guide to salt mine therapy.
• For a day trip from Bucharest: Slănic Prahova, 100 km away; Ocnele Mari is 180 km away.
• From Cluj-Napoca: Turda, 30 km away. From Sibiu: Ocnele Mari, 100 km along the Olt Valley, or Turda. From Târgu Mureș: Turda, 70 km away. From Brașov: Slănic Prahova or Târgu Ocna (126 km). From Bacău: Târgu Ocna, 60 km away. From Suceava or Iași: Cacica, 35 km and 165 km away respectively. From Craiova: Ocnele Mari, 120 km away. From Timișoara, Oradea or Constanța no salt mine is less than three hours away.

For small children and babies, with the access rules, family prices and pushchairs, see the guide to salt mines with children; distances and driving times from 22 cities are in the guide to the nearest salt mine, and a point-by-point comparison of Turda, Slănic and the others is in the ‘Turda or Slănic Prahova?’ guide.

Salt mine, salt baths or salt room?

Many people search for ‘Ocna Sibiului salt mine’, ‘Sovata salt mine’ or ‘Ocna Mureș salt mine’, but there you do not go underground. They are salt baths: lakes formed on the site of old salt mines that collapsed, with water so salty that you float, where you swim in summer, at lidos. The best known are at Ocna Sibiului, 15 km from Sibiu, Lake Ursu in Sovata, the Durgău Salt Lakes at Turda, Ocna Șugatag in Maramureș, Băile Cojocna near Cluj and the Telega Salt Baths near Câmpina. The Ocna Mureș Salt Baths are a modern spa complex with salt-water pools, open since 2023; the former salt mine cannot be visited.

Salt rooms, sometimes called ‘artificial salt mines’ (in Bacău, Buzău, Reșița, Vălenii de Munte and many other towns), are rooms lined with salt, with sessions of 40–60 minutes. They have nothing to do with a mine and are not covered in this guide.

The salt mines proper, where you go down into salt galleries, are the seven in the table above. All the salt baths and salt lakes on the site, with their season and prices, are in the guide to salt baths and salt lakes.

Top 100

Ocna Sibiului

Ocna Sibiului, SBClosed35 lei

Resorts and thermal baths

Durgău Salt Lakes

Turda, CJClosed40 lei

Resorts and thermal baths

Ocna Șugatag

Ocna Șugatag, MMOpenFree

Resorts and thermal baths

Băile Cojocna

Cojocna, CJClosed50 lei

Resorts and thermal baths

Before you go down: temperature, clothing, how long it takes

• The temperature is between 11 and 15 °C in every salt mine, winter or summer, with high humidity at Turda. Bring a warm jacket and closed shoes with grippy soles: the floors are damp.
• How long it takes: an hour and a half at Cacica, two hours at Târgu Ocna, two and a half hours at Turda, Slănic and Ocnele Mari, plus the wait for the lift, minibuses or buses. Weekends and holidays are the busiest; the morning, at opening time, is best.
• Tickets: for the Salrom mines they can also be bought online, on Easy2visit and Eventim, and for Turda on the official website; a ticket is valid for a single entry per day. Discounts for children, schoolchildren, students and seniors are given only on proof of eligibility. Underground, at the leisure facilities, payment is often cash only, and the mobile signal is weak.
• Children under 3: go in free, at the Salrom mines with a recommendation from the family doctor or on the accompanying adult's responsibility, at Turda with a doctor's note, which is also required there for people over 65.
• Pets: are not allowed in any salt mine; at Turda only guide dogs are admitted, muzzled.
• Photos: at the Salrom mines, for personal use, yes; professional shoots (weddings, graduations) are charged separately, from 2,000 lei a day. At Turda, the rules require the company's consent for photos, filming and live streaming.
• Opening hours: announced monthly; the last descent is 1–1.5 hours before closing. Check the salt mine's page, where the opening hours and prices are up to date as of the date shown.

The temperature, lift and steps, duration, pets and tickets, salt mine by salt mine, are in the guide to your first visit to a salt mine.

Frequently asked questions

How many salt mines are there in Romania?

Seven salt mines are tourist attractions: Turda, Slănic Prahova, Ocnele Mari, Târgu Ocna, Cacica, Praid and Ocna Dej. In 2026 five can be visited: Praid is closed after the flood of May 2025, and Ocna Dej does not admit visitors.

What is the largest salt mine in Romania?

It depends on what you measure. The largest halls are at Slănic Prahova (14 halls 54 m high, over almost 80,000 m²), the deepest visit is at Târgu Ocna (240 m), and the largest deposit is at Praid. The most visited is Turda Salt Mine.

Is Praid Salt Mine open?

No. Praid Salt Mine has been closed since 27–30 May 2025, when the Corund stream flooded all the levels of the mine. At the end of October 2026 there is no official reopening date, and access to the mining area and the Salt Canyon is prohibited. The open-air salt-water pool next to the salt mine opens in summer.

What is the nearest salt mine to Bucharest?

Slănic Prahova Salt Mine, about 100 km away, on the A3 or the DN1 to Ploiești and then via Plopeni or Vălenii de Munte. The next is Ocnele Mari, near Râmnicu Vâlcea, 180 km away.

How much does it cost to visit a salt mine in Romania?

Adult day ticket: 38 lei at Cacica, 60 lei at Slănic Prahova, Ocnele Mari and Târgu Ocna, 75 lei at Turda on weekdays and 90 lei at weekends. Children aged 3–18 pay between 25 and 59 lei, and under-3s go in free. Prices from the official websites, September 2026.

What is the temperature in a salt mine?

Between 11 and 15 °C all year round: 11–12 °C at Turda, 12 °C at Târgu Ocna, 12–13 °C at Slănic Prahova, 13–15 °C at Ocnele Mari, about 14 °C at Cacica. Bring a warm coat even in summer.

Can you take children under 3 into a salt mine?

Yes, free of charge, in all the open salt mines. At the Salrom mines (Slănic, Ocnele Mari, Târgu Ocna, Cacica) they go in with a recommendation from the family doctor or on the accompanying adult's responsibility; at Turda, with a doctor's note (the official site's rule). Bear in mind the cold and, at Cacica, the 192 steps.

Which salt mines have a lift?

Only Turda, which has a lift from the Durgău entrance and a panoramic lift in the Rudolf mine. At Slănic Prahova you go down by minibus, at Ocnele Mari and Târgu Ocna by the mine's bus, and at Cacica by the stairs. The lift at Slănic has been out of use since 2014.