Next to the city of Brasov in the centre of Romania there is a location called Bran. This location is a small village with nothing special in it, except… the castle which resembles most with the castle of Count Dracula: the Castle of Bran.
Although the Castle from Stoker’s book is nowhere near that area (it takes place in Bistrita, the northern part of Romania), due to it’s looks the Castle got the name of Count Dracula’s Castle. And here, the myth is really put to use: there are thousands of tourists visiting the castle with a lot of tourists from abroad. I think the entire village makes a living out of this one single revenue. Granted, the castle is a looker and it is in great shape for tourists.
The entry price into the castle is 25 RON (~€5.5) with the price for the audio-guide for 10 RON (~€2.2). The audio-guides and all information in the castle is available in 4 languages (Romania, English, German and French). We did not rent an audio-guide, the information provided on the inscriptions in the rooms provided to be useful enough (although the audio-guide might provide much more information). The actual visit took around 1 hour, which is much less than I expected and payed for in the parking lot: yes, there is a guarded parking lot with the price of 4 RON (~€0.85) per hour.
The actual visit consist of walk through most of the rooms and terraces of the castle, visiting all 4 floors and the interior court. The tour can be done easily without a guide, because there is a clear path for visitors to follow (one way only). During the visit one can stay in each room as much as one wants to, provided that other visitors are not blocked. Some of the rooms are quite small, so blockages can easily occur.
Anyway, I think the visit to this castle was one of the best visits I did in Romania. The castle is very tourist friendly, people are nice and one can have a great time there. At last I saw there are some places which are not let to waste and their true value is used well.
Pictures of the castle can be found here.
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