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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:
8 Days / 7 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 Dracula’s atmosphere.
- Overnight in Bucharest
ACCOMMODATION:
Option A:
Crystal Palace****
Option B:
Casa Gabriela****
Day 2:
ROUTING: BUCHAREST – 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 – 1885) and Olari Church.
- Overnight in
Curtea de Arges
ACCOMMODATION:
Option A & B: Montana Guesthouse***
B
Day 3:
ROUTING:
CURTEA DE ARGES –
POENARI – BRAN
- 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 – 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 – 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)
- Overnight in a Bran
ACCOMMODATION:
Option A & B:
Cheile Gradistei Hotel ***
B
Day 4:
ROUTING: BRAN - RASNOV - SINAIA - BRASOV
- Breakfast in Hotel
- First stop in Rasnov to visit the Peasant Citadel founded in
1225 by the Teutonic Knights, with beautiful mountains of the Barsei land
- Then onto Sinaia to see its stunning Palace "The Pearl of the Carpathians.
Also you will get a chance to see Pelisor Castle and the Sinaia Monastery
- We then depart for Brasov, and have short walking tour of the bustling
historic center
- Overnight in Brasov
ACCOMMODATION:
Option A:
Casa
Wagner Hotel ***
Option B:
Flamingo Guesthouse***
B
Day 5:
ROUTING: BRASOV – PREJMER – HARMAN - BISTRITA - PIATRA FANTANELE
- Breakfast in Hotel
- We start the day visiting the fortified Saxon Churches in Prejmer and Harman
- Prejmer fortified church is the biggest fortress of its kind in Eastern
Europe; built in the 14th century. The fortress has double walls and dungeons.
Inside its walls there is a church, but the interesting thing here is the
honeycomb like inner wall. Every family had one small room for sheltering in
case the village was attacked
- We continue our route to Bistrita and a short visit of the city which is the
setting for much of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, we follow by Borgo Valley where we
will find the Hotel Castle Dracula in Piatra Fantanele
- **OPTIONAL ADD-ON FOR GROUPS:
Special Dinner and Dracula Show in the
restaurant of the hotel (Min. 15 People)
ACCOMMODATION:
Option A:
Hotel Castel Dracula***
B
Day 6:
ROUTING: PIATRA FANTANELE - SIGHISOARA
- Breakfast in Hotel
- Depart for Sighisoara
- En Route we will stop in Targu Mures, one of the great Magyar Cities of
Romania
- Arrival in the afternoon to Sighisoara
- The old medieval city is included 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 – referring to his father
Vlad Dracul, whom the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Hungary made a knight of
the order of The Dragon in 1431.
- Highlights of the Citadel include The Clock Tower, the Church on the Hill, the
Scholar’s Stairs, The Monastery Church, the towers of the citadel (originally
fourteen), The Shoemakers Town, the Tailor’s Tower, the Tinsmiths Tower are only
a few of the marvels of this place called Sighisoara.
- Overnight in Sighisoara
ACCOMMODATION:
Option A:
Sighisoara hotel***
Option B: Poenita Hotel***
B
Day 7:
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 Liar’s Bridge , the House of the Butcher’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 8:
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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