Bit less than a week trip so we tightly packed and planed ahead to get the most out of it. We also decided to skip Bucharest, the capital, as we were less interested in cities.
Budget: 313 CHF for all food/hotel/car (flight not included)
Detailed Trip (hotel, restaurants, tours, prices):
The plan I’m about to tell you is how we did and adapted because of weather conditions. It can however be flipped around; D we had light rain the first day (Sunday) and the castle of Bran turned out to only open at 12:00 AM on Mondays so we changed our program last minute to shift that one the last day. Anyhow:
DAY 1
Departure Sunday 6 am in Zurich, landing 9 am in Bucharest, we rented the car at Klass Wagen. They were the cheapest we found and turned out to be good quality and easy service. You are picked up at the airport and brought to the car renting area (5 min ride). Make sure you check the whole car before you leave (for any scratches and so on as well as the fuel level).
We then directly hit the road direction Brasov.
On our way we stopped at Peles Castle near Sinaia – about 1.30 h from THE airport.
There we visited Peles Castle inside and out and had a look from outside at Pelisor Castle.
Price Adult both floors 60 LEI , one floor 30 LEI and students 10 and 7.5 LEI
The castle is open every day from 09:15 to 16:15 – Wednesday from 11 to 16:15
The castle is stunning. It was built in 1873 by the Romanian King Carol I. From outside it is a beautiful piece of architecture, definitely not designed for war, but rather as a luxurious living house. From inside you will be amazed. Almost completely made out of sculpted wood, it hosts about 100 different wood species which were used to build the walls, furniture and decorations of that castle. A true masterpiece.
We then hit the road direction Citadel Rasnov, a 59 min trip through the mountains on the 73A road, through which you will have a few impressive curves up the hills; D
Citadel Rasnov is a completely different architecture and place. Designed to withstand enemy attacks, it is built on top of a mountain with view over the city in the year 1211-1225. That citadel went through serious battles and mess over history and when time became quitter in 1850, started to fall into ruins. The views from up there must be stunning (according to internet), unfortunately, it was raining when we were there soo yeah ;D still pretty.
Entrance price is 10 LEI for adults and 5 LEI for students.
Next to the Citadel, there is a Dino park for kids in case you want to add this to your planning. We didn’t do it.
From the Citadel we hit the road to Brasov city. There we had booked a night at hotel Drachenhaus (*** / 230.85 LEI per night) This was a very good hotel and excellent price/quality. Of course one can do cheaper. Breakfast was included and excellent, staff was super friendly, rooms were awesome and it was very well centered in the city center, a walking distance to any monument. From there we took a look at the city center and the black church which is a must see in the area.
Cool bars to visit:
Dr. Jekelius – Pharmacy Café – an old pharmacy decorated bar where cocktails and drinks are served in chemistry glassware
Tipografia – a bar with a choice of local beers and friendly staff
Restaurants:
Sub Tampa – a higher class restaurant (fancy) but extremely good, friendly staff and a nice place to eat
Le Ceaun – Piata Sfatului – a medium class restaurant with a choice of local food which was quite good.
DAY2
Next day we hit the road direction the fortified church of Viscri (1 h 17)
Don’t do the same mistake – in Rupea take the road to Dacia and then Viscri. We tried going through Bunesti (because we missed the road in Rupea) and It turned out that the road was just a mud road with lots of holes .. we had to turn back.. the road from Rupea and Dacia is brand new and very easy.
This fortified church was truly beautiful. It is perched on a small hill with the village below. It costs around 5 LEI to get in, it is well maintained and has a central watch tower from which you can enjoy the view over the village and the countryside. A beautiful view! Side note – on your way up to the castle there are toilets. You have to pay to use it and you get cursed at when you leave ^^ alternative are the free toilets in the fortified church ;D I would count 1 hour at most.
From Viscri we continued our road to Sighisoara (1 h )
Sighisoara has a beautiful historical center. Rich in colors and historical buildings, it also is flanked by a little hill on top of which you will find a fortified citadel and a church as well as a beautiful clock tower.
From there we finished our road towards Biertan which is a 30 min ride.
Biertan was probably the most beautiful place – still so authentic and simple.
We stayed at Pensiunea Oppidum (188.21 LEI <= CASH ONLY), a simple yet authentic place to sleep, literally next to the citadel wall. The place is nicely decorated (like back in the times), very clean and the lady taking care of the place is very friendly. As it was already late aftertoon, we took a few pictures, got invited by a local to drink liquor at his place which turned out very funny, discussing about communism and the end of it. Very funny night.
Restaurant choice is very limited here.. actually there are 3 and all 3 of them are probably mostly for tourists. We did the one next to the citadel… it was good but not awesome. I guess if I would have to repeat the experience I would eat at the hotel where we only had the breakfast. They only used local and home-made products which was awesome!
DAY3
we visited at first the citadel which opens at 10 AM. Entry price is 10 LEI
beautiful citadel with a world unique locking system to keep it securely closed ;D
from there we hit the road towards Hunedoara (2h21). The first part of this road (from Biertan to Sibiu) is beautiful. You cross multiple typical villages where little tourism is active and where people still are in traditional clothes.
From Sibiu to Hunedoara there is a brand-new highway which is almost completely straight (quite boring) but very efficient.
In Hunedoara we visited Castle Corvin, probably the most beautiful castle from outside!
Price: 30 LEI adults, 7 LEI students – around 1 hour
Inside is a bit less “filled” as the castle partially burned a 100 years ago and was renovate over time. Still very nice castle to visit and walk around and among the rooms, watch towers and bridges of the castle.
After our visit we hit back to Sibiu (1h19) where we spent the night in the hotel “The Council (**** – 230.6 LEI). The hotel is nice, the breakfast is awesome. I would not qualify it as a **** but rather *** or good ***. If I’d go back I would try another one I guess. However, the hotel was perfectly centered and placed right next to the bridge of lies.
Sibiu offers a beautiful historic city center full of life, colors and restaurants/bars.
Restaurant / Bars:
We tried Imperium Pub – a nice underground pub in an old stone cave with live music and some choice of local beers. Staff is super friendly!
We visited Kombinat Gastro-Brewery for our dinner. Nice restaurant – more on the classy side and higher prices – I think the brewery is mostly to sound fancy but there was not much that relates that place to an actual brewery.
Plates are on the smaller side – nice presentation but small portions.
In Sibiu we mostly walked around in the city. We didn’t really enter any building.
In the evening we checked if there were any free spots for Zarnesti Bear Sancturay visits. This park offers guided tours in the morning only, for 50 people per tour so you better make sure to book it in advance.
DAY 4
We left Sibiu early in the morning and drove to Zarnesti Bear Sanctuary (2h20 trip) .
We slightly changed the itinerary proposed by google to take the road through Vad by turning earlier toward the mountains in Sercaia. This allows you to see the countryside, beautiful mountain villages and to avoid the large road filled with trucks and with higher traffic. Of course, the roads on that itinerary are less maintained but still in pretty good shape compared to what we found elsewhere ;D
On our way we stopped in Fagars to see the fortified Citadel which lies in the middle of a pond, a beautiful sight which we only visited from outside and took a bunch of pictures but we didn’t have time to enter.
Arriving at Zarnesti liberty bear sanctuary right on time, we had a very nice round tour of the park. This park deserves more credit than what it gets. Romania has the largest brown bear population of Europe which is nice and a problem for the country. In fact, humans, capture these bears and keep them caged for amusement and as objects for shows to earn money. It was quite common back in the days that hotel or restaurant owners as well as privates had caged bears in front of their homes or establishments to attract tourist and earn extra money.
A famous bear which really gave momentum to the brown bear protection action is Max.
Max was found as a little pup in the forest by a human. This human saw a mean to make money and took him home. Feeding him, taking care of him. When Max reached adulthood, his human when for walks with him on a chain (leach) in the city and other villages for people to take pictures (for money) with him. He also took him a few times to the famous Peles castle and walked within in the park.
Nice right? A calm bear, twice the size of his owner, nicely following on a chain, leach, like a pet dog.. sounds right ?
No.. turns out the human hammered nails in the brown bear’s eyes when he was small.. extracted most of his teeth, pulled off his claws and rubbed his nose with cheese and other smelly products for the bear to loose sense of smell… Anesthetics and alcohol was also part of the bear’S diet for him to be “calm”.
Less nice right?
Yes.. Humans are the threat…not the bears.
Therefore, Zarnesti’s bear sanctuary staff is in charge of finding these bears, taking juridical actions against the owners and bring these bears back in the sanctuary. If they get well, they can get released but most of them spent their life in 2 x 2 m2 cage and will never be able to be free again. This park of 90 sqm offers a better future and end of life perspective than their previous one.
As Said earlier, the fact that Romania has the largest population of brown bears, the Romanian government sees no need in supporting financially Zarnersti’s liberty bear project. What they don’t grasp is that the fact Romania is the only safe place for brown bear is due to the fact that the rest of Europe failed in preserving their natural habitat and that if Romania fails in protecting them …we can very soon add their name on the extinct species list.
Therefore, if you are in the area, take time to visit the park!
After the bear sanctuary we hit the road towards Bran Castle, also known as Dracula’s Castle (19 min trip ~).
Yeah… as you would expect, this is the most touristy of all ^^ by far. You can measure touristiness by the amount of shops selling gifts and things at the entry of the castle (which you will not encounter anywhere else throughout your trip). Well anyway, the castle is beautiful from outside. The way it is standing up there on the little hill, right between two mountains gives it a very strange and magical touch.
Entry is more expensive (yeah what did you expect ;D ) 40 LEI for adults, 25 LEI for students.
The castle is very nice inside, lots of rooms, little bridges, a secret passage…you will not get bored.
After Bran castle we went back to Brasov and, since we really liked our night at Drachenhous, we booked it again.
For restaurants and bars, have a look at Day one where I put both restaurants.
This was our last night, we drove to Bucharest to take the plane early next morning.
Roads & Driving:
Driving is on the right (you sit Left) like all of EU (since UK is out ^^)
Roads are quite bumpy and you will have a few places which are in bad shape (potholes and so on …) so be careful when you drive. This is changing because they are building and maintaining the roads.
People drive like anywhere.. I was told it was very bad but to be honest.. it didn’t choc me… what I was surprised and what you should pay attention to is that people tend to take over very easily and at places which are by far safe.. even if the distance is not enough they might try and expect you leave them space … be careful with that.
There are lots of trucks on the roads and therefore, traffic is slow when you go through mountains.
Traffic is also heavy on mountain roads and normal roads as Highways are not yet finished everywhere. Count a bit more time for your trips. .. for some reason we were quite lucky and always made it in time but some friends told me they had more traffic..
Roads in the countryside are a bit worst…specially in the villages, they are sometimes completely missing ;D
Food:
Excellent plates in good restaurants hit 60 LEIS while cheap restaurants turn around 10 to 30 LEIS. Average restaurant is between 20 to 30 LEIS.
They are really fan of stews, potatoes, polenta and corn =) there are soups serve in bread which are really good.
Beer is ranging from 4 LEIS to 17 LEIS for craft beers. I tried a few local beers:
Silva Romanian Pale Ale was ok.. nothing special
Timisoreana Lager was a good lager
Sencha – an original green tea beer from Hop Hooligans but was missing bubbles
Zaganu Adonis Pale Ale was quite a good pale ale! Would recommend
Indigen and Red Revolution from Klausen Burger are two good beers, I would rather go for Indigen
Safety:
I would not say you should paye more attention than anywhere else.. we didn’t do the capital Bucharest so I can’t tell you for big cities.. however, every place we visited was pretty safe, we never were scared or had second thoughts about walking somewhere….villages are extremely quite and people very friendly.
All in all I would apply my standard tourist rules which are:
Don’t leave valuable things in the car, keep valuable things close to your body… close your bags.. so yeah .. nothing special.
Flying your drone:
If you plan to fly your drone you should try to register it.
I did try but I did not manage to have any answer from these guys. I was however in contact with a local and he told me most about it, thank you to him!
In short:
Don’t fly close to airports, crowded arears and military / governmental buildings.
I usually avoid cities …. Too much risk and not worth it.
Based on above trip:
- Peles Castle: it’s a no go… it is not written anywhere but there are a lot of guards and they will make you land… no fine or so (if you are lucky…) maybe this will change but yeah ..
I also had a look if it works from further away … but it is difficult … lots of trees and very little open space.
- Citadel Rasnov: I guess it should work.. weather was bad so I did not tack off. However if there are not too many people you could probably find an open space somewhere and take off.
- Fortified Citadel of Viscri: This was ok. We took a little walk around the caslte and took of from there.. we gained enough altitude that you don’t hear the drone and took enough distance to not annoy anybody.. no problem there.
- Fortified church of Biertan: You can take off from different roads before the village and fly towards the church. Stay high enough to not make too much noise for the people below and try to avoid to fly above crowd.
Don’t go too close to the church for respect and also for safety.. we would not want a drone hitting the building.
In the village it’s difficult because there is not really a park, only a plaza which is crowded and if you aim to start from roads please ask people if they are ok with that.
- Castle Corvinilor: there are a few guards in the area so I would not start from the park or the castle sector. We took the road which is above the castle and stopped along there. You then take enough altitude that the drone is silent and enough distance for you not to fly right in the castle. If you plan to turn a bit around, make sur that the RTH distance is high enough that the drone does not hit one of the towers…
- Zarnesti bear sanctuary … no go! Natural zone
- Fagars: It’s a city.. more crowded than what I would like. I turned around the castle and took of from the back, on the road. There is a restricted area a bit on the back so be careful if you flight backwards. I did not try to go above the castle or so because of the bad weather.
- Bran Castle: The caste area and the entry has a clear sign that it is forbidden in the castle area… not sure about the surrounding… I also saw that sign too late and took-off from a park a bit further away.. I flew toward the castle but didn’t enter the castle perimeter.. on the other side, this is not really a problem as you want to capture the castle and the surrounding forest.
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