Exploring the Castles of Romania and Transylvania Through Hiking Adventures

Romania is a country that most Americans wouldn't typically consider unless it was directly suggested by someone they know. This journey also reflects our ongoing appreciation for Eastern Europe.

Bucharest

We began our journey by flying into Bucharest and spent the weekend there. We might have needed a bit more time to fully appreciate the city. Unlike typical European cities, it doesn’t center around an old town with everything branching out from there.

There is an old town that was charming, though somewhat rough around the edges, especially when compared to Brosov.

I will say, however, that they do have a very long, busy street that bisects the city, which they close down all weekend, every weekend, and it becomes a pedestrian street. This is really where everybody goes, tourists and locals alike. There are lots of restaurants and bars on this street and branching out. There were also musicians and lots on this street, which was very cool. I'm sure it was even more lively as the sun went down, but we are firmly in the "in bed before sundown" crowd.

Transylvania

After the weekend in Bucharest, we rented a car, drove 2.5 hours north into Transylvania, and stayed 5 nights in Brasov.

On the drive up we stopped in at Peles Castle which was at the top of my list and is a really awesome castle, unforutnatly they were doing major renovations to it so lots of scaffolding. Still very cool to see.

Additionally, this is the castle where some outdoor scenes of The Christmas Prince were filmed. As we departed from Peles Castle heading towards Brasov, we drove right past the location where the school scenes for the Netflix show Wednesday was shot, the Nevermore Academy. It was quite cool and unexpected.

Brosov

We really enjoyed Bosov. It has a great balance between being a decent size city but lots of old historic charm. Plus we did a hike that gave full panoramic views of the city and valley.

Here I'll mention that we ran into a lot of weather issues, delays, and pivots because there were rainstorms just about every day. The first hike we did above Brasov, we timed it so that we drove there in the rain, sat in the car waiting for the worst of it to stop, then jumped out and started the hike. From there on, that day it cleared up.

Before anyone asks, "Why didn't you carry Landon instead of letting Liz do it?" it's because we didn't bring our larger, sturdier carrier. My body is too wide, and his legs are now too long for me to use our smaller carrier.

Sighișoara & Rupea Castle

Longer driving day we headed north and stopped at our second castle, Rupea. This reminded us of Slovakia when we went to an old forturess on a hill that you can see clearly for miles. Cool pitstop on the way to another medieval town.

Sighișoara is a cool small old town that is a Unisco world heritage site. Severl really good places to eat food and more history and old town vibes. Once we ate we sort of had to rush through because clouds started rolling in and when the storm hit, boy did it hit hard.

Minutes after getting in the car, it began to rain, and soon after, hail. I feared a window might break. Storms in Transylvania are intense. Throughout the trip, we saw many fallen trees, including in Bucharest, where a park was partially destroyed by them.

We are not souvenir people but made the rare exception because we saw a really cool painting at nearly the same time and loved it. After talking to the shop owner, she told us her husband painted it using Picasso's spackle technique, and it gives the night scene of the town a very creepy but cool Transylvania look.

Seven Ladders Hike

This was the top hike we wanted to do and planned on doing on day one, but we had to keep delaying it due to the rain. Well, on this day, the rain didn't come until that afternoon, so we got up there before it even opened and were the first ones up and through.

As you can see, really unique and awesome hike. You can even do it with a toddler strapped to you, well as long as both of you are small enough to fit through that one cage.

The hike did cost money to party, and then when you get to the base of the ladders, it charges you another 20 Lei per person again (about $4). At first, I thought it was a cash grab, but honestly, the construction and maintenance of this make it well deserved.

Castle Bran aka "Draculas Castle", and some dinosaurs.

The final full day was a wild card day. Originally, I planned on us driving way up into the Carpathian Mountains, but it was a minimum 2.5-hour drive just to get there, and that's a lot of car time we didn't want to do to see some mountains. I do think it's a great point of interest for those who come to Romania, and if we return, we will make that a priority.

So today we marked off possibly the top tourist attraction in all of Romania, Castle Bran.

This was merely a 20-minute stop to park and take some photos. Many YouTubers I followed mentioned that it's somewhat too touristy and overly crowded, especially since it has no real connection to Dracula. The castle grounds appeared nice, but we seldom pay for entry to places when traveling with a toddler.

From there we figured we would do something specifically for Landon because he only mildly cares about the castles.

While in Bucharest when we first went to our hotel there was a small dino park and ever since landon saw it he was talking about seeing the dinosaurs. Well i already had a much larger Dino Parc marked off and it was only about 15 minutes from Castle Bran.

Very cool park, lots of information on the dinosaurs, sound effects and some moved. The forest setting was a nice touch. Also with parking, the tractor ride up and ticket in cost a whopping $27 total.

TLDR Cliff Notes

Food

Possibly our favorite part of travel. There weren't any real classic Romanian dishes we saw; a few were common but nothing truly unique. Like most Eastern European countries, meat and potatoes are the name of the game, and it's no different here. They do meat very well here. You do see some uncommon cuts like beef cheeks, veal ribs, and pig brain, but still normal cuts.

We observed that the food, even when consisting of simple and typical dishes, was rich in flavor and tasted excellent. It seems that the quality of the ingredients here was superior and fresher. Landon ordered penne pasta a few times with a basic red sauce, and the sauce always tasted incredibly good. Surprisingly, we aren't usually fans of pasta and red sauce.

Lastly, everything was very affordable, aka cheap. Most of our meals were around $50, which included 1-2 drinks each, a main dish each, and sometimes something for Landon. We're talking $3-4 for beers, $12-15 per entree. Another big reason we love Eastern Europe.

Transportation

As I mentioned earlier, we rented a car, and I believe it's necessary in this country. Many people assume that public transport is the best option in Europe and all you'll ever need. However, Romania is a large country, similar in size to Oregon, and its mountainous terrain means limited train services. Whenever I compared routes by car versus train, the train journey would take twice as long.

Now, once you are in the cities, they have transportation passes where you can use the buses to get around. It's like $3 for unlimited riding per day, which is super cheap.

Playgrounds

Because we are parents of a 3 year old travel priorities per day is first food, second playground/child activity to get his energy out.

Romania has a lot of playgrounds and green spaces, so not much shortage there. As usual, old towns almost never have playgrounds no matter what country you are in, but we saw a ton around because most people live in apartments there.

In Bucharest, in one of their large parks, they have a really awesome huge playground that goes up 4 levels and has a wide variety of things to play on. But asterisk with that was, boy, there was a lot of bird poop around. Seriously, Bucharest has a ton of pigeons.

Quick Advice

• Romania is a place for people who love to hike, castles, and cheap food and drinks.

• Romania is large and to best see it expect to rent a car, just be comfortable with driving through lots of round a bouts that can get busy.

• don't worry about finding a specific Romanian dish, just try what looks good and find places with high google reviews.

• Romanian beer is very good

• Be on top of the weather, it changes rapidly and DONT use apple weather. We used Accuweather to help predict the storms, they roll through fast.
  

YouTuber to watch on Romania

• Sammy and Tommy

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