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The Real Dracula Tour - Truth and Myth of the Legend of Vlad Tepes
Tour ID:
1057
Tour Theme:
Historic and Cultural Tours
Regions:
Transylvania, Walachia
Duration:
7 Days / 6 Nights |
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Day by Day Itinerary:
Day 1:
ROUTING: BUCHAREST
- Your English-speaking specialist guide will pick you up from Bucharest Airport
or another location in the city
- Start off with a tour of Bucharest to see it most important monuments, such as The old quarter, the
Stavropoulos
Church, the Revolution Square with the famous balcony, and the Village Museum
- At the end of the tour you will be dropped off at your hotel
- **OPTIONAL ADD-ON FOR GROUPS: dinner at Club Dracula, a great restaurant with
specific Draculaâ™s atmosphere.
- Overnight in Bucharest
ACCOMMODATION:
Option A:
Crystal Palace****
Option B:
Hotel Venezia***
Day 2:
ROUTING: BUCHAREST â“ SNAGOV - CURTEA DE
ARGES
- Breakfast in Hotel
- After Breakfast, we start on the trails of Dracula, to see his final resting
place.
- Snagov is a small village 40 km north of Bucharest, with its beautiful sixteen
kilometer long lake; In the centre of the lake is an island occupied by a
monastery, built in 1519
- The Snagov monastery is situated on the island of the lake with the same name,
we have to reach the monastery by crossing the lake by boat (If time and weather
permit).
- Visitors come here to seek the tomb of Dracula sitting in the front of the
church altar.
- Vlad's murder is believed to have occurred in the forests nearby, where the
monks took the his body, since both Vlad and his father had both given money to the
monastery.
- We will depart for Curtea de Arges (Court de Arges): The former
second capital of Walachia. The strongholds rebuilt in the 14th century
- See its Princely Church and its frescoed interior which is one of the first
examples of Romanian paintings. The Episcopal Church (the monastery) which is a
recreation of the original built in 1512 -1517 by prince Neagoe Basarab (rebuilt
in 1875 â“ 1885) and Olari Church.
- Overnight in
Curtea de Arges
ACCOMMODATION:
Option A & B: Montana Guesthouse***
B
Day 3:
ROUTING:
CURTEA DE ARGES â“
POENARI â“ BRAN - BRASOV
- Breakfast in Hotel
- Today we will continue our journey of uncovering the real Dracula's foot steps
- Reaching POENARI CASTLE; standing on a cliff but know in ruins this is known
as the real castle of Dracula (Vlad Tepes). To get to the top you must climb up
its 1400 steps (takes approx. 1 hr)
- Once you arrive to the top of the Citadel you will find that the citadel is
surprisingly small, one third has collapsed down the mountainside in 1888.
Entering through a narrow wooden bridge, you come across the crumbling remains
of two towers within; the prism shaped one was Vlad's ( Dracula's) residential
quarters, from here, according to the legend , The Impaler's wife flung herself
out from the window, declaring that better this way than be captured by the
Turks, who were besieging the castle. Legend has it that Vlad himself escaped
over the mountains on horseback.
- We then depart for Bran village, with the famous
history and beautiful Bran Castle .
- Why is Bran so famous? It is a rich village, situated 28 km from Brasov, the
village commands the entrance to the pass of the same name, once the main route
into Wallachia .
- The Saxons from Brasov built a castle here in 1377 â“ 1382 to safeguard this
vital trade artery and although what's now stated on every tourist brochure as
Dracula's Castle. It has only few associations with Vlad the Impaler â“ it is
said that he sieged it in 1460 on an attack of the land of Bran.
- One of its famous residents was Queen Marie of Romania, the granddaughter of
Queen Victoria and married to prince Ferdinand in 1893.
- Today this region is full of beautiful guesthouses, the landscapes are some of
the most beautiful in the country
- Visit to the castle
- **OPTIONAL ADD-ON FOR GROUPS: Traditional
Romanian Dinner and Party. Enjoy the romanian cuisine with folk singers and
dancers, camp fire (Min. 15 people)
- End the day in Brasov. short tour of the magic medieval center of Brasov (2
hours) â“ Concil Square, Black Church, White and Black Towers, Weaverâ™s Bastion
and Ecaterinaâ™s Gate.
- Overnight in a Brasov
ACCOMMODATION:
Option A:
Casa Wagner Hotel***
Option B:
Flamingo Guesthouse***
B
Day 4:
ROUTING: BRASOV â“ SINAIA â“ BISTRITA â“ BORGO PASS
-
Breakfast.
- We'll go to Sinaia and visit the Peles Castle, former summer residence of the kings of Romania, the Peles Castle is 44 kilometres far from Brasov, in Sinaia, a well-known mountain resort as well. Nowadays the Castle is one of the most important museums in Transylvania where one can admire furniture and ornamental objects, carpets, tapestry, sculptures, paintings, collections of weapons from the 15th up to the19th centuries.
- Continue our route to Bistrita short visit of the city. We pass through Bistrita, the setting for much of Bram Stokerâ™s Dracula, at km 108, followed by Bargau Valley we will find the Hotel Castle Dracula in Piatra Fintinele.
- Birgau Valley has a very dramatic scenery, with huge hills draped in forests of fir trees and with villages appearing as living monuments to a way of life unchanged for centuries, with the Saxon House Museum from Livezile village, attesting a former Saxon population in this region (established here in the 12 and 13 centuries).
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The Borgo Pass is the border between Transylvania and Bucovina, with fantastic landscapes. The Hotel situated on a 1116m altitude with a fantastic view of the Carpathian mountains.
The Hotel dates from 1983, built in the style of a medieval mansion, it was created to bring alive an authentic Dracula atmosphere.
- Overnight in
Piatra Fantanele
ACCOMMODATION:
Option A & B:
Hotel Castel Dracula***
B
Day 5:
ROUTING: PIATRA FANTANELE â“ BISTRITA â“ SIGHISOARA
- Breakfast.
- Leave the hotel and Birgau Valley. We pass through Bistrita and Targuâ“Mures, one of the great Magyar cities of Transylvania, with the famous Teleki â“ Bolyai Library, with 40,000 volumes founded by the Hungarian Count Samule Teleki, containing many ancient medical scientific texts.
- In the afternoon we arrive at Sighisoara. Also called "The Pearl of Transylvania" the old medieval city is include on UNESCO's Word Heritage. The Old Town or the Citadel is the only one still inhabited in Europe - a lost world and still so at the present!
- In 1431, the storey house at Museum Square 6, within the shadow of the old town's Clock Tower, a women whose name is lost to posterity gave birth to a son called Vlad, who in later life earned the title of The Impaler , abroad better known as Dracula, derived from Dracul or the Devil â“ referring to his father Vlad Dracul, whom the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Hungary made a knight of the order of The Dargon in 1431.
- The Clock Tower, the Church on the Hill, the Scholarâ™s Stairs, The Monastery Church, the towers of the citadel (originally fourteen), The Shoemakers Town, the Tailorâ™s Tower, the Tinsmiths Tower are only a few of the marvels of this place called Sighisoara.
- Transfer to the hotel.
- Overnight in
Sighisoara
ACCOMMODATION:
Option A:
Sighisoara hotel***
Option B: Casa Saseasca Hotel***
B
Day 6:
ROUTING:
SIGHISOARA - SIBIU - BUCHAREST
- Breakfast in Hotel
- Depart from Sighisoara to Sibiu which was the European Capital of Culture in
2007. Sibiu is one of the most important fortified towns in Transylvania.
- The city was founded in 1190 and grew to be the chief city of the
Transylvanian Saxons. This amazing town, with the "Old Town" (The Big Square,
the Small Square, the Ursuline Church, The Franciscan Church, The staircase
Tower, the Tanners Tower, the Liarâ™s Bridge , the House of the Butcherâ™s Guild
and last but not least with the amazing Bruckenthal Museum) are a few highlights
of Sibiu
- Continue our route to Bucharest through Olt Valley who pass the Carpathians
Mountains offering beautiful landscapes to the traveler.
- On the route stop at Cozia Monastery; erected by Mircea cel Bătrân in 1388 and
boasting his tomb, is one of the most valuable monuments of national medieval
art and architecture in Romania.
- Continue to Bucharest
- Arrival and overnight in Bucharest
ACCOMMODATION:
Option A:
Crystal Palace****
Option B:
Casa Gabriela****
B
Day 7:
ROUTING: BUCHAREST - AIRPORT
- Breakfast in Hotel
- Transfer to Airport and the final good-bye from your Specialist Guide
B
End of tour services
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