What to See around Brasov, Romania
There are some easy day trips from Brasov, including to the famous Bran Castle (also known as “Dracula’s Castle”). You may find yourself surprised by some of the highlights you’ll find below – we actually enjoyed them in reverse order of popularity and were astounded that some get little to no visitors.
The locations covered below are truly the closest around Brasov and can all be visited by taxi. Unless you have your own wheels it is the simplest mode of transport to these attractions. The furthest is Bran Castle, 30 km away. As I mentioned in my previous post on Brasov, the cost of taking a taxi is inexpensive in Romania. Note: There is another spectacular destination (our favorite in all of Romania) 50 km away from Brasov that can be visited by train. I’ll tell you about that at the bottom of this post.
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Attractions around Brasov:
.1) Bran Castle
Bran Castle is the most famous (ie touristy) Castle in all of Romania. It is promoted as “Dracula’s Castle” and I guess people gobble that up because the place is packed with tourists.
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There was no Dracula, he was a fictional character based on Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula. Stoker had actually never been to Romania and the idea of using a castle in the Carpathian mountains was only inspired by accounts he heard of cruel rulers and mysterious palaces hiding among the rolling hills and peaks of this region. Somehow, Vlad Tepes, a real-life prince known for the impalement of his enemies, became the embodiment of Dracula. And Bran Castle, which fit Stoker’s description of what Dracula’s castle should look like, became “Dracula’s Castle”. Never mind that Vlad Tepes most likely never set foot in Bran Castle.
Today Bran Castle milks the whole Dracula story to the fullest.
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Visiting Bran can be summed up as boring, uninspiring, and would have been totally forgettable if it wasn’t for the memories of having to bump shoulders with hordes of tourists for the better part of 45 minutes. We couldn’t wait to get out. Unfortunately there was a line for that too. How the heck does a place become so popular when it is so awful? It boggles the mind.
Bran Castle? For us a total waste of time and I’m not recommending it to anyone.
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2) Rรขศnov Citadel
About halfway between Brasov (18 km from Brasov) and Bran lies the town of Rรขศnov, known for the Rรขศnov Citadel.
The Citadel was built in the 11th century by Germanic Teutonic Knights as a refuge against invading Tatars. It was expanded upon by Saxons who came to Transylvania from Germany in the 12th century – encouraged by the rulers at the time – to build up the land and defend the southern borders of what was the Hungarian Empire. Strategically located on the commercial route that linked Transylvania to Walachia, the Citadel had homes, a school, a chapel and was essentially a fortified hilltop village. The Citadel repealed the first Ottoman sieges in the 1400’s and did so again in the late 1600’s.
The fortress was abandoned in the mid-1800’s and it is only in recent years that it has been restored.
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Our thoughts on the Rรขศnov Citadel: There is not that much to see of the Citadel itself – it actually looks more impressive from outside the walls and looking up from the town below. Inside the walls you’ll find a few buildings and lots of walls. The views however are great and I think it is worth a trip here from Brasov just for that.
3. The Fortified Churches of Brasov County
We have to thank our friends at Westwards.de for this recommendation: they are always full of great tips.
Very close to Brasov are 3 little German towns – all in very close proximity to each other – that have fortified churches. One of them is a UNESCO site but all 3 are equally worth a visit. We knew they were there but didn’t make them a priority. We were so wrong – they were the highlight of the day and easy trip from Brasov. And the best thing is that we saw 2 or 3 other tourists the whole day.
Prejmer Fortified Church
This is the largest fortified church in southeastern Europe. Like Rรขศnov Citadel, the fortified churches were built by the Germanic Teutonic Knights in the early 1200’s for the purpose of protecting the inhabitants of the town from attack by invading forces (and there were many including the Mongols, Tatars, Ottoman Turks, Cossacks and Moldavians). Prejmer repealed them all.
The walls around the church are 40 feet high and 10 to 15 feet thick. Within the walls is a mini-town, including 272 rooms on 4 floors. Within the center of the circular walls is the church.
Below: you can go into the homes in the wall which are all interconnected with different passageways. You’ll find a schoolroom and different workshops, as well as a long passageway that circles the whole wall, with nooks for firing and dropping boiling oil on attackers. Incredibly impressive and spooky wandering around all by yourself.
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Harman Fortified Church
A 5 minute drive away from Prejmer, Harman is every bit as impressive. Interestingly, the 3 towns that we would visit are still Germanic and the townspeople still speak German. We were given a “Danke” from the man we bought the ticket from a Harman. There wasn’t a single other tourist there.
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More views in the church grounds.
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Sรฎnpetru Fortified Church
This church sees no tourists. In actual fact I think we woke up the caretaker when we came knocking at the door. But what followed was a very interesting visit to a fortified church that has received very little restoration work – as well as a very pleasant tour by the caretaker who seemed excited to have visitors.
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We spent a little over 2 hours exploring these 3 churches in the little towns of Prejmer, Harman, and Sinpetru. All the churches you see above are within about 5 minutes drive from each other and the furthest was Prejmer which was about 20 minutes from Brasov. Really, a fantastic afternoon.
Cost of entrance to the churches: Prejmer 8 Lei per person, Harman 7 Lei per person, Sinpetru 5 Lei per person. Totally worth each.
Tours I recommend:
This Tour takes you to the fortified churches of Prejmer and Harman.
This full day tour (starting in Bucharest) covers Brasov old town, Bran castle and Peles Castle*.
This tour from Brasov covers Bran, Peles Castle* and Rasnov fortress.
*Note: I write about Peles castle below. Absolutely fabulous, it should be at the top of your list.
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These above are the highlights in the immediate vicinity of Brasov. I mentioned at the top a spectacular destination about 50 km away that can be visited by train: that place is Peles castle. I cover that below.
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Related: Our absolute highlight in Romania: Peles Castle
Related: Why you should Visit Brasov, Romania
Related: Comparing and rating our favorite Balkan capitals
Ps. If you find our blog helpful, please consider using our links to book your flights, hotels, tours, and car rentals. Have a look at our Travel Resources page.
Great wrap up and photos of Brasov. Got to spend some time in Romania, but only Bucharest. So much more to see in Romania! Thanks for all of the great info.
Thanks Ric!
Wow – there was no one else there in Rasnov ten years ago, now it’s going great guns! Not sure about all these big town names on the hills!
You’re right about the big names. I’m told Rasnov copied Brasov…actually I thought it was really tacky when seeing them in photos but in real life doesn’t seem as bad. Almost adds a little touch of something..
Those fortified churches though were very impressive as was Peles castle which was just absolutely fantastic.
Now I’m wishing we’d gone to a couple more fortified churches! We went to Prejmer and were very impressed. Your visit to Bran castle looks a lot more crowded than our visit, and ours was bad enough. We were there at just about closing time, though, so once the huge group of school children left it was more bearable. It is kind of crazy how big of a tourist attraction it is. And I bet I can guess what your highlight in Romania was!
Thanks for keeping it a secret Patricia ๐
Glad that you enjoyed visiting the fortified churches. Harman and Sinpetru look interesting too. Greetings from Berlin!
Thanks again Natascha. Yes, great fun, I especially enjoyed climbing around all the passages and stairs in Prejmer.
I agree with you – sometimes the most famous tourist attractions turn out to be boring and you just have to get out of the tourist zone a little to discover something even nicer. But again, in the photos (just like Brasov), the castle looks really tempting.
Really??! Is it the Hotel Transylvania 2 photo? ๐
Wait until I post in a couple of days about the other castle we visited. It’ll blow your mind.
Thanks for taking the time to comment Tomasz.
No, it’s not the Hotel Transylvania that caught my eye ๐ Anything associated with pop culture puts me off ๐ I was talking about the other photos. I like the old/medieval/ancient buildings/sites. I’m sure that the less popular castles are much nicer. But it makes me wonder why tourists usually just go to a place, see the most famous thing, take a selfie, tick it off the list and that’s it. In Malta, at the Blue Lagoon beach I saw people pay 10 EUR for a sunbed set on a dirt road near the beach (it was so crowded) – the sunbeds were squeezed one next to the other and I doubt it was a pleasure to watch the person’s back in front of you – while 10 minute walk further there was an amazing secluded area without crowds and with the most spectacular views. And none of the tourists even thought of walking a bit away from the main beach.
Most people are sheep, following where everyone else goes. The worse thing is they’ll tell people “yes, I went to the Blue Lagoon and it was so cool” thinking that if everyone else goes then they should be enjoying it. It’s Ok not to like a popular place and to admit it. The problem is that it just perpetuates the idea that some of these touristy spots are really worth seeing…the fee just to get into Bran is crazy for Romania and the only the reason they get away with it is because the people continue flocking there like sheep.
The same applies to SE Asia. Everyone tells you how cheap it is but for Bangkok Grand Palace you must pay 12 USD, for Bagan in Myanmar 20 USD and for Angkor Wat in Cambodia also 20 USD. The balloons over Bagan 1 hour flight is over 300 USD! Even in Cappadocia you can get it for half of that price. However, when you visit a place you want to see its most famous attractions too – even just to see it yourself so you’re able to judge it. But what’s important – don’t limit yourself – also go and see beyond ๐
Exactly. All true.
We moved to Brasov a year and a half ago and still haven’t been to Bran. All the Dracula stuff is such a turn off to us. People always ask if that’s why we moved here. Nothing could be farther from the truth! We don’t even make it out of the center much. It’s a really beautiful town. Glad you enjoyed it!