Bran Castle

What it is

Bran Castle stands on a steep cliff in the Bran pass, the route between Transylvania and Wallachia, about 30 km from Brașov. The castle's own chronology says that on 19 November 1377 the chancery of King Louis I of Hungary issued an act allowing the people of Brașov to build a castle here, and that it was finished in 1388. It served as a customs post, keeping 3% of the value of goods crossing the border, and as a fortress on Transylvania's eastern frontier.

Brașov took it on a lease in 1498 and bought it in 1651. In 1920 the Brașov city council gave it to Queen Marie of Romania, who made it a favourite residence and restored it as a royal summer home until 1932. Her daughter Princess Ileana inherited it, ran a hospital here during the Second World War and had to leave the country in 1948. The communist authorities opened it as a museum in 1956, and in 2006 it was returned to Ileana's heirs.

The Dracula link

The castle's own site is candid about this. It says Dracula is a fictional character from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, that the name comes from a nickname of the Wallachian ruler Vlad the Impaler, and that Stoker never visited Romania. It says Bran is the only castle in Transylvania that matches Stoker's description of the Count's home, which is why it is widely called Dracula's Castle. On Vlad himself, the site says he does not seem to have played a significant role in the castle's history and that the connection was made much later. We follow that account: this is the castle behind the legend, not a place where we can say Vlad lived.

Visiting

The castle publishes last-entry times: from 1 April to 1 November, Monday 12:00 to 19:00 and Tuesday to Sunday 9:00 to 19:00; from 2 November to 31 March, Monday 12:00 to 18:00 and Tuesday to Sunday 9:00 to 18:00. The standard tour costs 100 lei for an adult and 40 lei for a child aged 5 to 17, with student (60 lei) and senior 65+ (70 lei) rates and free entry for children under 5. The Time Tunnel and the Torture Rooms are optional extras at 30 lei each. The Royal Tour Plus Fast Pass (170 lei adult, 110 lei child) includes both extras and a priority lane, and the Guided Royal Tour Plus Fast Pass (210 lei adult, 150 lei child) adds an hourly guided tour in English or Romanian. Prices and hours were checked on 29 October 2026 on the castle's own pages. The castle does not say how long a visit takes.

Getting there

By car, Bran is about 30 km and 35 minutes from Brașov on the DN73/E574, and about 160 km and 2.5 hours from Bucharest on the DN1/E60. Trains run only as far as Brașov. The castle gives the CFR train from Bucharest North as about 2.5 hours, roughly hourly and around 70 lei (timetable on infofer.ro). From Brașov Bus Station 2 a bus to Bran-Moeciu takes about 50 minutes, runs every 30 minutes on weekdays and hourly at weekends, and costs about 13 lei. There are also taxis and ride-hailing from Brașov. Planning from the capital? See our Bucharest guide.

More about Romania, and our trip builder, are in the links below.