Romania, castle by castle.
Which Bran day gets you inside before the coaches. Where the bears actually are. What the Transfăgărășan costs once the snow clears. Every tour in Romania, reviewed.
Bran, Peleș, the bears and the salt.
Two castles, a mountain road, a forest full of brown bears and a mine the size of a cathedral. Most Romanian itineraries are built out of these six, and each has a right way to book it.
Bucharest, Brașov, Sibiu: the loop, stop by stop.
Bran, Peleș and Brașov in one day — or one of them properly.
All 216 castle tours →
Nearly every Romanian trip starts with a castle. Three runs carry the most travellers between them; the rest of the list splits by which castles you actually want and how long you are willing to sit in a minibus.
Bran, Peleș and Brașov old town
The day trip the country is built around: Peleș before the queue forms, Bran on its rock at midday, an hour in Brașov’s Council Square before the drive back down the valley.
Peleș and Sinaia, taken slowly
Carol I’s summer palace with its armoury and painted rooms, then Pelișor next door and Sinaia monastery — the reason the whole Romanian court moved up here every July.
Corvin Castle, out west
A Gothic keep on a wooden bridge over a ravine at Hunedoara, black with iron-age slag and half-empty most mornings. The western circuit that first trips almost always skip.
From Bran to the Delta: what everyone books.
Every Romanian review →These carry more travellers than anything else here — the castle circuit out of Bucharest, the Parliament tickets, the salt-mine run and the walking tours of the old town.
1
Dracula’s Castle, Peles Castle, & Brasov Old Town
A 12-hour Bucharest day trip to Peles, Bran, and Brasov. Royal rooms, Dracula lore, and fortified old town views with guided time.
From · $40
Read our review →2
Dracula Castle, Peles Castle & Brasov Old Town
from $40
3
Dracula’s Castle, Peleș Castle & Brașov Day Trip
from $36
4
Palace of Parliament Tickets and Guide
from $38
5
Day Trip to Dracula Castle, Peles Castle & Brașov
from $45
6
Bucharest to Dracula Castle, Peles Castle and Brasov Guided Tour
from $33
7
Palace of Parliament Tickets and Guided Tour
from $28
8
Dracula’s Castle, Peles Castle and Brasov Day Trip from Bucharest
from $33
Little Paris, then Ceaușescu, then Lipscani at midnight.
Belle Époque boulevards, the heaviest building on earth, and a grid of cellar bars behind Lipscani that does not shut until four. Most travellers give the capital a single day. It repays three.
Bran, the bears, the Delta — and what each one costs.
Every tour on the site sorted by price. Romania is one of the last places in Europe where a serious day out still costs less than dinner at home.
Old-town walks, Parliament tickets, salt-mine entry and the thermal-dome shuttle.
The castle circuit and most full-day runs out of Bucharest and Brașov, lunch usually extra.
Private drivers, the Transfăgărășan by car, bear hides and multi-day loops into Maramureș.
Brașov, Sighișoara, Sibiu: the Saxon three.
Seven fortified towns, German street names on Romanian squares, and market places that have not changed shape since the guilds ran them. Base yourself in Brașov and the castles, the bears and the ridge walks are all inside an hour.
Bears, salt and a road built by an army.
Old towns and castle keeps you can find across central Europe. Six thousand brown bears, a Ferris wheel inside a salt mountain and a highway blasted over the Făgăraș ridge belong to Romania alone.
The Carpathian Bears
Romania holds the largest brown bear population in Europe outside Russia, somewhere near six thousand animals, in beech forest an hour from Brașov. You watch from a licensed hide in the last hour of light, with a guide who knows which clearing the sow with cubs uses. The Libearty sanctuary at Zărnești is the daytime alternative: a hundred-odd rescued bears in oak woodland, most of them taken out of roadside cages and circus wagons.
- 1Top Gear Road and Wild Brown Bears Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 782 reviews
- 2Small group max 7 – Bears Safari on Top Gear -Transfăgărășan★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 208 reviews
- 3Bear Sanctuary, Dracula Castle, and Râşnov Fortress★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 176 reviews
The Salt Mines
Turda stopped producing salt in 1932 and reopened as something much stranger: a lit chamber the height of a cathedral, with a Ferris wheel on the floor and rowing boats on a lake in the level below. Slănic Prahova, the one within reach of Bucharest, is bigger and plainer — grey rooms the size of hangars, a constant twelve degrees, and echoes that take a while to come back.
- 1Salt Mine Day Trip to Slănic★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 869 reviews
- 2Slănic Prahova Salt Mine Ticket and Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 790 reviews
- 3Turda Salt Mine, Corvin Castle, Alba Carolina Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 184 reviews
The Transfăgărășan
Ceaușescu had the army blast a road across the Făgăraș ridge after 1968, in case he ever needed to move troops over the mountains in a hurry. It took six million kilos of dynamite and a great many lives, and it now climbs past Bâlea Lake to 2,042 metres in a stack of hairpins. Snow shuts the high section for most of the year; the dependable window is July to October.
- 1Small group max 7 – Bears Safari on Top Gear -Transfăgărășan★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 208 reviews
- 2Brasov Private Tour: Transfagarasan road & Poienari Fortress★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 71 reviews
- 3Top Gear Road – Transfăgărășan Highway Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 68 reviews
What Ceaușescu knocked down to build the boulevard.
All communist history tours →
Three Romanian bookings that will not wait.
Most of Romania can be arranged from your hotel the night before. These three cannot. One is closed by snow for most of the year, one runs to a licensed schedule with a handful of places an evening, and one checks your passport at the door.
- 01Small-group max 7 – Top Gear Road – Transfăgărăşan HighwayThe high section over the Făgăraș ridge is shut by snow most of the year — the dependable window runs from the start of July to the end of October.
- 02Brown Bear Watching in the Carpathian MountainsThe observation hides hold a handful of people per evening and run to a licensed schedule. Good dates go weeks ahead.
- 03Palace of Parliament Tickets and GuideEntry is by guided tour on a timed slot only, and photo ID is checked against the booking at the door.
Carpathian rain is a reason to go underground.
Romania gets proper weather: thunderheads over the mountains through August, flat grey drizzle over Bucharest from November. The best answers are all under a roof — a salt mine at a steady twelve degrees, a thermal dome of palms under glass, the Parliament’s marble corridors, a cellar of Dealu Mare red.
By place — where you are based
Bucharest649 tours
Brașov158 tours
Cluj-Napoca61 tours
Sibiu26 tours
Sinaia25 tours
Sighișoara45 tours
Timișoara22 tours
The Danube Delta17 tours- Every Romanian tour →
By day — what do you actually want to do?
Latest from Bucharest, Brașov and beyond.
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Winery touring & private wine tasting – one day private tour
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Dealu Mare Winery Private Trip with Wine Tasting
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Turda Salt Mine, Gorge & Rimetea Village (private from Cluj)
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Private tour to Turda Salt Mine, Rimetea and Alba Iulia
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Turda salt mine and Corvin Castle day tour from Cluj
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Traditions in Bucharest: Village Museum and Wine Tasting
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Transylvania Tour: Dracula’s Castle, Peles Palace & Brasov
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PRIVATE 8h tour: Mila23 and SULINA – the end of the Danube
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PRIVATE 4-5h speedboat tour to the village Mila23
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Guided Birdwatching day trip to the Danube Delta – private program
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Excursión en Moeciu de Sus (recomendado para familias) con guía español nativo.
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