Hotel Privo, Targu Mures city
I will be honest with you: I was surprised to hear that Privo hotel was located in Targu Mures. Please don’t immediately jump to judge me, just let me explain (I guess I am talking to the Romanian audience 😉 ). I heard about hotel Privo in the sense that is very nice and that it won a lot of prizes but I never thought as to where it would be located. In fact, I immediately assumed that it must be in Bucharest. I don’t know why we always assume that the best things must be in the capital city of a country…. Clearly not! Then I hear it is located in Targu Mures. And I am thinking “Targu Mures?? Why?”. One of my excuses is that I have not been to Targu Mures since 2003 and at that time I cannot say it was such a touristic area. I am happy to say that things have changed in the meantime.
Targu Mures city
Targu Mures is located in Transylvania and its position offers easy access to many tourist attractions. However, you should check those only after you have exhausted all the interesting sights of the city itself. Lonely Planet refers to Targu Mures as ” Transylvania’s most underrated town”. So if you are searching for something ”off the beaten path”….you now know where to go!
You can also check other posts about Transilvania region in my previous articles.
Although this post is about Hotel Privo, I think it is helpful to know what you can see and do once you are there, so I am just going to list a few suggestions:
In Targu Mures some of the main attractions are:
- Palace of Culture
- the Medieval Fortress
- The Orthodox Cathedral
- The Orthodox Synagogue
- The Zoo
Nearby Targu Mures you can check:
- Sovata resort (well known for it therapeutic treatments)
- Praid Salt mine
- Sighisoara (the most famous medieval town in Romania) – stay tuned for a special post about it
- Bethlen – Haller castle
As I said, these are just a few attractions in and around Targu Mures, so you can see there is no risk to get bored there.
Also check other beautiful cities in the region like Sibiu.
And to have a complete and special experience there, I suggest you stay at Hotel Privo of course!
Hotel Privo
I guess, just like me, you would first want to know why PRIVO. Where is the name coming from?
Interesting you should ask…Here is what I found out: it is an invented name! But with a lot of logic and reasoning behind (I knew it!). They wanted a short, easy to pronounce name and with a certain resonance. So they started from the idea of “privilege”/ “private”/ “welcoming” (“primitor” in Romanian) but at the same time maintaining the idea of minimalism.
In Latin language, “privus” means private, particular…sooooo PRIVO! I like the result of all that thinking I must say and I like it that it had so much thinking behind.
Hotel Privo was officially opened in June 2014 and in July, the same year, it already won the prize for the most beautiful facade of a non-residential building in Europe. How about that? And that was just the beginning! It keeps logging prize after prize ever since (31 prizes up to the moment of my inquiries). Here are a few examples, just to give you an idea:
- “BEST HOTEL RESTAURANT from EUROPE” at Haute Grandeur Global Hotel & SPA Awards Gala in Bangkok (this is the 29th award that the hotel received in only3 years since it opened!!!)
- Best Culinary Experience in Romania at the same Gala as above
- Romania’s Leading Boutique Hotel at World Travel Awards 2017
- Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator in the USA for 3 years in a row!
- and So. Much. More.
Hotel Privo is what you call a family business, Plopeanu family business in fact. The couple Adina and Alin Plopeanu invested 7 Mil Eur in their dream hotel.
The hotel includes 2 buildings: the newly build Privo hotel and the renovated Csonka villa. The latter was built at the beginning of 19 century and it belonged to a Hungarian photograph, Janos Csonka. The two buildings have a completely different style. While villa Csonka was built in the Art Nouveau style (which you can find in other buildings in the city), hotel Privo is very modern and very minimalistic.
There are 46 rooms in total (40 in the hotel and 6 in the villa). While the overall concept is present throughout each building, we can find various styles of rooms. See the pictures below to understand what I mean.
Villa Csonka rooms
Privo Hotel rooms
All rooms are very spacious, minimalistic and modern and maintain the same design style. The colours are neutral with spot accents of colours and very pleasant to the eyes.
A little detail, maybe less known, but clearly a sign of quality and care for the well being and comfort of the customer, are the orthopaedic mattresses with memory foam, hypoallergenic bed linen and pillows.
The restaurant
If Privo would be in Bucharest or closer to Bucharest, I would probably be one of the most frequent customer of their restaurant. No wonder that they won “The best hotel restaurant in Europe”award (Bangkok 2017) but also the best culinary experience in Romania.
The cuisine is international and the dishes are not only gorgeously looking but extremely pleasing on the palette. Add to that local ingredients and flavours and very attentively curated list of wine and other drinks and you know you have a winner. The menu is attributed to and signed by some of the best chefs in Romania: executive chef Doru Pastrama (first year), executive chef Martin White (second year) and certified master chef Henrik Sebok (subsequently).
There is a separate restaurant for breakfast
Wine cellar
I guess then it shouldn’t come as as surprise the fact that they have their own wine cellar! And a sommelier! With a selection of over 350 wine labels and over 4000 bottles, the cellar is literally a dream come true! Of course I did a tour! Twice!
Marius Danciu, the sommelier, joined Privo team in December 2013, after 8 years of international experience at Ritz Carlton! Since then, he developed and extended the cellar, selecting the best wines that compliment perfectly Privo’s restaurant menu, but at the same time trying to bring in a lot of diversity and to cover as many wine regions in the world as possible.
I have discussed with him at length and I can tell you he is very passionate and extremely knowledgeable about wines. He is trying to educate his guests as well challenging their taste and knowledge at the same time. Privo is organising wine tasting events, gastronomic dinners or even events at some of the nearby wineries. Privo’s restaurant is the only one in Romania that has obtained the prestigious Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator USA for their wine list (in 2015, 2016 & 2017).
Wellness area
The wellness/spa area includes a gym, a jacuzzi, two saunas and a massage room.
Unfortunately I was not able to try any of the massages but I have heard only good reviews from other people who tried them.
I did however try (read took over 😉 ) their jacuzzi. It was a perfect day for that: rainy and cold. And I had a great view looking outside right from the jacuzzi.
Conference rooms
For the business traveller or consumer, the hotel has 3 conference rooms: one of 14 seats (the boardroom), one of 70 seats and one of 230 seats.
Additional services
On top of the gastronomic dinners and wine tastings, the hotel can help their guests with organising/participating in various activities in the area: cycling tours, hot air ballon ride over the city, parachute jumping, paragliding, climbing, rafting, kayaking, canoeing and so on.
PS: I know it is a long post but trust me, there is so much to say and show about this! I was even trying to keep it short!
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