About Vişeu de Jos

Within the authentic village of Vişeu de Jos is a comfortable guest house of modern interior design. Across the street is a traditional farmstead where the cow is milked early and the vegetables grow plentifully. This guest house is a wonderful place to relax. It is also a good place to explore village life in Maramureş walking or by taking a ride. From Vişeu de Jos it is a good day trip up and over the pass to Bogdan Voda. Perhaps catch a ride on a horse drawn wagon, or pedal up the switchbacks and coast into the next valley and the village of Bogdan Voda. Turn right and it is only a short way to the oldest and largest historic wooden church in Maramures in the village of Ieud.

The town of Vişeu de Sus is the gateway to the highest mountains of Maramureş Country.  From here, travelers can explore the forests via the Mocaniţa railroad before entering the mountainous region around Borşa. Vişeu de Sus plays an integral part in meeting the daily product and service needs of the villagers who live in the Vişeu River Valley. It is a town in transition, where horse drawn wagons deliver refrigerators to homes on the same roads where automobiles whiz by on their way to the ski slopes in Borşa. In town, clothing, food, hardware, appliances, and other mainstays of life are sold in small storefronts along the main street. Banking and postal services, as well as a variety of restaurants are located in Vişeu de Sus. There is even an internet café where visitors can access their email for less than a dollar per hour and where local teens spend their free time playing computer games. An information center is located at the travel agency in the center of town, and a small open-air market is open daily at least through the fall season.

Vişeu de Sus has built up around logging and saw mill operations. Outside the town are a number of large and small saw mills not typically open to the public. However, the largest saw mill operates the slow going steam train that goes into the mountains daily to deliver loggers to the woods and to retrieve logs for the sawmills. This day-long experience is pleasant in warm weather when picnicking and hiking in the forest is a pleasure.