Mr & Mrs Smith

Copsamare Guesthouses

Transylvania, Romania

Short of shacking up with a villager, stays don’t get more truly Transylvanian than Copsamare Guesthouses, where honey comes from the priest’s bees, furniture comes from the neighbours, and decorations come from nature: dried nut leaves, maize and tree trunks. Aside from the Italian owners, everything about this modest hotel is true to its Romanian roots.

Need to know

• Rooms Six, spread across a few separate houses.
• Rates Double rooms from $128.29 (€100), excluding tax at 9 per cent. Copsamare Guesthouses is unable to accept payment by credit card.
  The price shown represents the lowest nightly rate for a double room available at this hotel over the next 21 days. Any price conversions from the hotel's local currency (€100) have been conducted using today's exchange rates from xe.com.
• More details Rates usually include Continental breakfast.
• Facilities Gardens, cart, library. The Green House has free WiFi throughout.
• Check-out 12 noon, but flexible (half of the daily rate). Earliest check-in, 3pm.
• Children The hotel can’t provide cots or extra beds, but babysitting can be arranged with 24 hours’ notice (€20 an hour).
• Also Pets can come too, for €10 a day.
• Hotel closed From 15 January until 28 February 2012.

Food and drink at Copsamare Guesthouses

• Hotel restaurant

  Befriend Cornelia, who doubles up as the receptionist and cook, and let her know each morning whether you fancy meat for dinner. (Otherwise, it’s fresh pasta and salads.) Days here begin with a spread of locally produced goodies: jam and honey, Cornelia’s freshly baked cakes, yoghurt, and apple juice from Malancrav, where Prince Charles has an estate. Copsamare is rightly proud of its home-grown potatoes, vegetables, rhubarbs and plums. During Easter and Christmas, food is cooked on the outside oven, so expect plenty of grilled meat and vegetables (and lichiu, a traditional festive dessert).

• Dress code You're among villagers, so as relaxed as you like.
• Top table Breakfast is served inside the Green House, around a communal table. Dinner is similarly sociable, but guests sit outside beneath the vines. Of course, there’s also your own private courtyard for dinners à deux…
• Last orders There are no rigid timings: lunch and dinner are both on request. Breakfast is available between 8am and 10.30am.
• Room service None, but each house has a kitchen and dining area so you can rustle up impromptu snacks, although there is no fridge, so beware of stocking up on perishables.
• Hotel bar

  No bar but, but there's a stash of delicious local wines. Just ask if you want something uncorked.

Copsamare Guesthouses Strada Principala 216, Copsa Mare - Biertan, Sibiu, 557046