Arrival in Bucharest. A city with a long, complicated history, it is full of cultural treasures. Your private guide takes for a walking tour of the sights. What you discover is a city with a vibrant taste for art and fashion, and a youthful attitude. Themed walks are a great way to learn of the city’s layers. From the days of communism, to the Art Deco buildings, to the street art, and the up-and-coming ateliers. After a few days in the capital, you fly to Bucovina, where you will get a first look of Romania’s heritage. The Painted Monasteries are a prime example of Byzantine art and in the frescoes, let you glimpse into a colourful culture that captures the imagination, where light and dark play in concert to create the most wonderful nuances.
Now you enter Transylvania. Your first stop is Zabola Castle, which is nestled in a landscape evocative of the romantic era. Walks in the forests and the grounds of the estate are something out of a novel. You go bear tracking, and truffle hunting, horseback riding and hiking in the forests. A candlelit dinner by the fireside is certainly a moodsetter beneath the shadow of the mysterious Carpathians.
Sighisoara is one of the best preserved medieval towns in the world. The many towers that surround the town’s defences are steeped in history, as is practically every single corner of Sighisoara. One of Romania’s most famous characters ― or infamous ― was born here: Vlad Tepes, inspiration for Dracula. You lose yourself in the narrow streets, sharp corners and magical nooks, and you imagination begins to soar. There is something charming about the Middle Ages, and Transylvania embodies the best of it.
From Sighisoara you travel to Prod on horseback, and begin a tour of fortresses, churches and small villages where you stay overnight in family-run lodges, you meet traditional artisans that have kept their crafts alive through the centuries. Viscri, Sibiu, Brasov, are all full of worthy sights and mysteries. In Brasov you visit Bran Castle. Some claim this is the site that inspired Bram Stoker, and is sometimes known as Dracula castle. There is little chance that Vlad the Impaler ever spent time here. That doesn’t take away from its power… not one bit.
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