Castles · Tour

Thirteen Hours from Cluj, with a Shot at the House in Sighișoara

Thirteen hours is a long day, and it is what this one takes: Cluj-Napoca to Bran and back, with Sighișoara in between and a good deal of Transylvanian countryside through the window. Sighișoara is the reason the day runs so long, and the reason to take it. The medieval town is walked with a guide, including the clock tower, which gives both the history and the view over the citadel and the old defensive towers and walls. The house shown as the birthplace of the Wallachian ruler Vlad Dracul, whose name Bram Stoker took for his Count, is part of the visit, and a shot of Romanian brandy is drunk there. Bran comes after: a 14th-century castle on a high rock above a deep valley, half of it given over to the Dracula story and half to the Romanian royal family who lived in it. The guide separates the two. Pickup can be arranged at four points, in Cluj-Napoca, Turda and Sighișoara.