Eco Maramureș: craft tours to Breb, Sârbi and Călinești

The green heart of historical Maramureș

Eco Maramureș is an officially recognised ecotourism destination in the Mara and Cosău valleys and the Gutâi Mountains, between Sighetu Marmației and Baia Mare. It is developed by a local partnership: the administration of the Maramureș Mountains Natural Park, the tourism service of the Maramureș County Council, the communes of Budești, Călinești, Desești, Giulești, Ocna Șugatag and the town of Baia Sprie, as well as NGOs and several local hosts. The destination is managed by the EcoLogic association from Baia Mare and advised by the Romanian Ecotourism Association and WWF Romania.

The main idea is to show Maramureș as it is: wooden houses and churches, haystacks, shepherds in the high pastures and people who still make the things their households need by hand. The destination's website lists more than twenty folk craftsmen in Breb, Budești, Sârbi, Călinești, Văleni and Desești: weavers and makers of folk shirts, carvers of gates and crosses, a hazel-basket weaver, a sheepskin-coat maker, and a family in Sârbi who process wool on water-powered devices — a carding machine, a loom, a fulling mill (piuă) and a whirlpool (vâltoare).

Why go

Most craftsmen work at home, without signs or opening hours, so they are hard to find on your own. Eco Maramureș guides arrange the visits, translate and explain what is going on. Besides an ordinary day with the craftsmen, you can learn alongside them how to make folk-costume bead necklaces (zgărdane), little Maramureș hats (clopuri), woollen slippers or a small wooden sculpture — and take the piece home.

The two-day «Story of Wool» tour starts with a hike to a sheepfold at about 1,000 m below the Rooster's Crest (22 km, 700 m of ascent, start in Breb at 10:00). On the second day guests follow the whole path of the wool in the Cosău valley: combing by hand and on a water-powered machine, spinning, dyeing with plant dyes, weaving, two days of fulling and washing in a river whirlpool. «The Story of Wood» combines the old-growth beech forests of Strâmbu Băiuț (a UNESCO site) with the churches of Breb and Budești, carved gates and a maker of straw hats.

What to see and try

• Water-powered devices — whirlpools, fulling mills, mills and horincă stills in Sârbi, Budești, Sat Șugatag, Văleni and Chiuzbaia; they are best seen at work in autumn.
• Spinning and weaving with the weavers of Breb and Călinești.
• Carved gates and the workshops of Breb's woodcarvers.
• Things for the home — woven bags, woollen blankets, felt slippers, hazel baskets.

Practical information

Booking: send a request through the form on ecomaramures.com, call +40 745 332 022 or e-mail [email protected]. Tourist information centre: Piața 1 Decembrie 4, Ocna Șugatag, phone +40 745 392 904; further centres operate in Baia Sprie, Călinești, Budești and Desești.

Prices (as of November 2026): «The Story of Wool» — 360 lei for adults, 180 lei for children aged 6–14 (May–August); «The Story of Wood» — 330 / 165 lei (May–October, groups of at least 4). Transport and meals are paid separately.

Getting there: from Ukraine the nearest border crossing is Solotvyno – Sighetu Marmației; Ocna Șugatag is about 20 km away and Breb a few kilometres further. From Baia Mare over the Gutâi Pass it is about 45 km.

Nearby

• Ioan Petric's Sculptor's House in Breb.
• Breb – Gutâiul Mare trail.
• Cavnic – Rooster's Crest trail.
• Baia Sprie – Poiana Boului trail in the Gutâi Mountains.

Official website: ecomaramures.com

Photos: DimiTalen, CC0, Wikimedia Commons; Josep Renalias Lohen11, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.