TauniWe wanted to see Brasov, Romania as it is was near some of the castles that are supposed to be the inspiration for Dracula’s castle in Transylvania, and is the heart of that region of Romania. We took our 3rd MyDayTrips route, and had selected two castles to see en route from Bucharest and Brasov. Bran’s Castle, which is supposedly THE castle that inspired Dracula, was reserved as a 90 minute stop, and Peles Castle [which we’d never heard of but looked cool on the websites] was only a 60-minute stop. Our driver recommended that we reverse those times and spend more time at Peles castle. As he likely would have dropped people off and visited both castles multiple times, we took his advice. Pro-tip: on the MyDayTrips website, when you reserve to visit various sites, it provides a default recommendation for duration of stay, but that timing can be adjusted up or down [all of which changes the fees, of course].
- Castle #1 – Peles Castle. It looked Germanic like a large Tudor-style house, with wood carvings everywhere. Inside was ornate, with every room almost too intricate. The castle was comparatively recent, built between 1873 and 1914 for King Carol I of Romania. As it was being built, they hired the best artisans to bring the best of Europe, including glass from Venice. There were multiple buildings on the property, and there were walks and streams, and it was as nice to stroll the grounds as it had been to tour the castle. We stayed the full 90 minutes of it and were glad the driver had suggested the longer duration.
- Castle #2 – Bran’s Castle – This is the castle that people think of when they think Transylvania, and is the castle Dracula was supposedly based on. It is old — the first documented mention of it is 1377—built of stone, and perched high up on a hill. The drawback is that it was a massive tourist trap, with a long line winding through T-shirt stands [featuring Dracula fangs] and snack stands, and it took us almost the full hour just to get to the castle. And, this was in August 2021 – where there were very few international tourists traveling because of Covid. Inside, there were some nice displays of old armor in the lower levels, but things turned from touristy to cheesy in the upper levels where there were haunted-house style gimmicks. The view from the castle over the surrounding hills was worth the trip, but we escaped before we explored every room, overwhelmed by the crush of people and conscious that we were over our promised time back to the car [we had WhatsApp’ed the driver, and we tipped him accordingly.].
Brasov [pronounced Brash-ov]
Brasov is in the mountains, and was cooler than Bucharest, and the streets were packed with people, either locals out for a bite to eat, or tourists from Romania or the nearby countries [judging by accents]. Our hotel – Aro Palace Hotel -was built to be a grand old hotel back in the 40’s– it was still beautiful, but a bit dated [we needed more outlets for everything we had to charge!]. On the plus side, it had a balcony over looking the mountains, and in the morning there was mist swirling through them right as the sun was rising.
We only had the afternoon and evening in Brasov, so only had time to wander through the town square, and choose a couple of sidewalk café’s that lined the pedestrian-only streets. Everyone else had the same plan, or so it seemed, as the cafes were hopping, and it was a perfect summer night to sip wine and watch the world go by.
