Mountain trails · The Obcini of Bucovina

Sucevița – Bercheza valley – Putna

Waymarkingblue cross
EffortHigh
TechnicalEasy
TypeTraverse A → B
Duration5–6 hours
Ascent+450 m

A linear trail: you start in one place and finish in another. Either walk back the same way, leave a car at the far end or use the train/a transfer; we'll tell you at the gate what works.

Daylight · Sucevița Monastery · today,

  • Sunrise 07:06
  • Sunset 16:55
  • Daylight 9 h 49 min −3 min vs yesterday

The times are for the starting point. Between ridges the light goes earlier than the clock says, so turn back a good hour before sunset.

Weather · Sucevița Monastery · today,

6° min 0° cloudy
  • Precipitation8%
  • Wind8 km/h · gusts 24
  • UV index2,6
  • Elevation562 m
  • Fri 6° 1°
  • Sat 3° -2°
  • Sun 6° -3°
  • Mon 5° -3°
  • Tue 7° -3°

The forecast is for where you set off. Up on the ridge, count on a few degrees less and on wind you cannot see from below.

What the walking is like

Between Stephen's two monasteries: from Sucevița, up the Bercheza valley, over the ridge and down to Putna. Easy, open all year, to be done with a service at each end.

Mountain trail

  1. Sucevița Monastery · 550 m
  2. Bercheza valley
  3. Ridge · 1,000 m
  4. Putna Monastery · 600 m

What we'd tell you at the gate

  • You leave a UNESCO monastery and arrive at the tomb of Stephen the Great: Bucovina's pilgrimage on foot.
  • The return: a car left at Putna or a local taxi.

Elevation profile

550 m1,000 m600 m
Sucevița Monastery+450 m of ascent · 5–6 hours

Worth knowing about the whole range →

What else you can do on the trail

  • 🐴 The Lucina stud farm, with its Hutsul horses, right below Lucina Peak.
  • Mountain biking on the ridge tracks and the Tatars' Road.
  • The Palma zipline, at Ciumârna Pass.

What grows and what moves along the trail

Flora

  • beech, sycamore and spruce mixed
  • mown hay meadows, with wildflowers until July
  • raspberry and blackberry at the forest edges
  • crocuses in the clearings, in autumn

Fauna

  • roe deer and red deer in the hay meadows, in the morning
  • Hutsul horses at the Lucina stud farm
  • buzzard, kestrel and woodpeckers
  • bear and wolf present, rarely seen

The species above are those documented in the area by the protected-area administration; what you see depends on season, hour and luck.

How long it takes, honestly

A linear trail: the time is one way (A → B). If you return the same way, add about two thirds; or leave a car at the far end / take the train. The duration is the one in Suceava County's official guide (Salvamont); the kilometres and driving minutes to the trailhead are from Google Maps.

  • 5–6 hoursone way, A to B, at your usual pace
  • 4 hoursback the same way (estimate)
  • 9–10 hoursout and back, with short breaks
  • 8–9 hoursone way, if you stop for photos and eat on the grass
  • 9–11 hoursone way, with children, grandparents or a pack full of “just in case”

Sleep at the foot of the mountain

Start from the gate, not from a car park

La Cuib is 62 minutes by car from the start of this trail: a fully equipped kitchen that is yours from first light, a place to dry boots, a garden for the evening. Three nights, the whole house, 1.797 lei.

We checked all of this in .

If you liked this one

A few more in the Obcinile Bucovinei

All 6 trails in the Obcinile Bucovinei

We checked all of this in .

Once you're back down

Sleep twenty minutes from the trail.

The whole house is yours: wet boots by the door, packs in the hall, a late dinner. Parking in the yard and an early start, without waking anyone.

799 lei a night on Booking 599 lei / night See available dates