The castles are the excuse. The Carpathians are the reason.
Which Dracula day trip actually stops long enough at Peleș. What the Transfăgărășan costs in the weeks the road is open. Whether Brașov is a day out of Bucharest or a base of its own. Reviews of every tour you can book in Romania.
Bran, the Parliament, Lipscani, and a salt mine 200 metres down.
The four bookings a first week in Romania tends to hang off. What each one costs, and how much of the day it takes.
01The long day outDracula’s Castle, Peles Castle, & Brasov Old TownBran, Peleș and Brașov old town in one run from Bucharest. Take the early departure; the castle car park is full by ten.
02The one you book aheadPalace of Parliament Tickets and GuideCeaușescu’s parliament is the heaviest building on earth and you only get inside on a booked, guided slot with your passport in hand.
03The first morningCity Highlights Guided Walking TourTwo and a half hours through the Belle Époque banking quarter, the Old Court and the lanes behind Lipscani.
04The one undergroundSlănic Prahova Salt Mine Ticket and TransferSlănic Prahova, where the galleries run the height of a cathedral and it sits at twelve degrees whatever August is doing outside.
Three castles, three completely different days out.
Bran is the one on every poster, Peleș is the one people come back raving about, and Corvin sits four hours west with hardly anyone in it. What each kind of day costs, and which town it runs from.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · Dracula’s Castle, Peles Castle, & Brasov Old Town
Peleș, the royal oneWalnut, stained glass and 160 rooms in a mountain park. Shut Mondays and Tuesdays.
Corvin and the hill fortsGothic drawbridges in the west, reached from Timișoara, Sibiu or Cluj.
Râșnov, above BrașovA peasant citadel on a ridge, usually bolted onto a Bran morning.
All 79 Bran and Dracula day trips →
Bucharest first, then Transylvania at whatever pace suits you.
Six towns worth a night of their own, and the day out each one is best placed for.
Romania’s most popular days out.
Every Romanian tour review →The tours more travellers take than anything else in the country, and what each one gives you for the money.
1
Dracula’s Castle, Peles Castle, & Brasov Old Town
Leave Bucharest for a full day in Transylvania, visiting Peleș Castle, Bran Castle, and Brașov Old Town. Your English, Italian, or Spanish-speaking guide handles the long drives and local history, while you explore the castles with free time. Guides such as Cornelia, Sonia, Otilia, Adrian, and Vlad have earned especially warm praise, though the assigned guide varies.
From · $40
Read our review →
2
Dracula’s Castle, Peleș Castle & Brașov Day Trip
from $23
3
Palace of Parliament Tickets and Guide
from $38
4
Day Trip to Dracula Castle, Peles Castle & Brașov
from $45
5
Bucharest to Dracula Castle, Peles Castle and Brasov Guided Tour
from $33
6
Palace of Parliament Tickets and Guided Tour
from $28
7
Dracula’s Castle, Peles Castle and Brasov Day Trip from Bucharest
from $33
8
Transylvania and Dracula Castle Full Day Tour from Bucharest
from $35
Bucharest is a walking city with a very strange twentieth century.
Half the centre is Belle Époque banking palaces and the other half is what was flattened to build the boulevard. The walks below do the first, the communism tours explain the second, and both finish somewhere you can sit down.
- 1Dracula’s Castle, Peles Castle, & Brasov Old Townfrom $40
- 2Palace of Parliament Tickets and Guidefrom $38
- 3Palace of Parliament Tickets and Guided Tourfrom $28
The Carpathians cover a third of Romania and almost nobody books them.
A road that climbs past a glacier lake at two thousand metres, brown bears in an oak forest outside Zărnești, ridge walks straight out of Brașov, and ski runs at Poiana in January.
What a day out in Romania actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. Romania is the cheap end of Europe and the bottom band still surprises people.
Walking tours, castle and museum entries, the salt mines and most Bucharest half-days.
The full-day standards: the Bran and Peleș coach run, the bear sanctuary, the mountain road.
Private drivers, two-day Transylvania loops and a car with a guide to yourself.
Three things this country has that nowhere else does.
Churches frescoed on the outside, a salt mine with a Ferris wheel in it, and the largest brown bear sanctuary in Europe.
The Painted Monasteries
Five hundred years ago the church walls of northern Moldavia were frescoed on the outside as well as the in, so villagers who could not read could follow the whole story from the churchyard. The blue at Voroneț has never been matched, and the colours have held through five centuries of Carpathian winters. That is most of the reason UNESCO listed them.
- 13-Castle: Peles,Bran,Rasnov,Sinaia Monastery from Brasov w pickup★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 274 reviews
- 2Bucovina Painted Monasteries Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 83 reviews
- 3Peles Castle, Bran Castle, Rasnov Fortress and Sinaia Monastery Tour from Brasov★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 55 reviews
The Salt Mines
Turda and Slănic were cut by hand from Roman times until the last century, and what is left underground is enormous: galleries a hundred metres high, dry and lit, holding a boating lake, a Ferris wheel and a mini-golf course. The temperature sits near twelve degrees all year, which makes this the one plan that works in August and February alike.
- 1Slănic Prahova Salt Mine Ticket and Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 790 reviews
- 2Salt Mine Guided Day Trip to Slănic★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 559 reviews
- 3Turda Salt Mine, Corvin Castle, Alba Carolina Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 184 reviews
The Bear Sanctuary
Libearty took in bears that had spent their lives in concrete cages outside restaurants and petrol stations, and now runs to seventy hectares of oak forest with around a hundred of them living in it. Groups go in at a set hour with a keeper and the numbers are capped, so this is the rare place you see brown bears without a hide and a long wait.
- 1Bear Sanctuary, Dracula Castle, and Râşnov Fortress★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 176 reviews
- 2Brown Bear Watching in the Carpathian Mountains★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 128 reviews
- 3Bear Sanctuary, Bran Castle & Rasnov Fortress GUIDED Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 88 reviews
Four Romanian bookings that will not wait until you land.
Most of this country can be sorted the night before over a beer in the old town. These four run on entry slots, closing days and a road that is under snow for half the year.
- 01Palace of Parliament Tickets and GuideYou get in on a guided slot and you hand over a passport at the door. The slots are capped and the English ones fill first.
- 02Peles Castle, Bran Castle, & Brasov Old Town TourPeleș shuts on Mondays and Tuesdays, and again for maintenance in November. Arrive on the wrong day and you are photographing the courtyard.
- 03Small-group max 7 – Top Gear Road – Transfăgărăşan HighwayThe high section over the Făgăraș ridge is under snow from November until roughly the start of July. Outside that window the day turns round at the dam.
- 04Bear Sanctuary, Dracula Castle, and Râşnov FortressZărnești takes one guided group at a fixed hour and caps the numbers. In summer it is gone more than a week ahead.
From November the mountain road closes and Romania moves indoors.
The Transfăgărășan is under snow until midsummer, the bears go to sleep and the Delta boats stop. What is still open is better than that sounds: thermal water under a glass dome, salt galleries at a steady twelve degrees, and the runs above Brașov.
Seven walled towns, and the fortified churches in between.
The Saxons built Sighișoara, Brașov and Sibiu, then walled the village churches between them so everyone had somewhere to get behind when the raids came. Viscri and Biertan still look exactly like that.
Every Transylvania day trip →
By kind of day
Bucharest, Sinaia, Brașov, Sighișoara, Sibiu, Cluj: the circuit most first trips end up doing.
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Danube Delta PRIVATE boat trip to Letea Forest (guided tour)
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Discover Apuseni Mountains – Scarita Summit,Sipote Waterfall and Dumesti Village
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Saxon Heritage in Transylvania: Day Trip from Cluj-Napoca
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Transylvania Gems: Sighisoara, Medias, Biertan & Gypsy Encounter
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Carpathian mountains Snowmobile, ATV or Buggy tour in one day
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The Salt Mines, The Winery, The Muddy Volcanoes! The Fixers Private Tour
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Salt Mine, the Muddy Volcanoes and Wine Tasting Private Day Tour from Bucharest!
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