Bucharest to Dracula Castle, Peles Castle and Brasov Guided Tour

PROS This was a good opportunity to see a lot of things in a short amount of time. The scenery is very beautiful and the tour guide gave interesting facts about the towns and general history enroute. Bran Castle was very interesting and beautiful and Peles Castle was a real spectacle. Our guide actually gave us the tour round Peles Castle and he knew a lot of very interesting facts and pointed out various things. CONS You travel over 400km in a day so far more than half of the day was on a coach (7+hrs). The double-decker coach was full so every seat was taken and I don't think there was a toilet on board. There is no eating or drinking on the coach, and with a 07:00 departure I was starving by the time we got to the first stop (Bran Castle) but didn't have time to eat. If you want to visit the castles you have to pay extra for entry and there is barely enough time to satisfactorily see things because you have to get back on the coach to go to the next destination. The passageways in Bran Castle are very narrow; only wide enough for one person at a time so it does feel a bit like you are herded round by the hoards. It is also not as big or impressive as I thought it would be (still very interesting and beautiful though). Brasov was pretty much a lunch-stop and I was underwhelmed by the recommended venue (La Ceaun).

Trip had a busy schedule and we knew it. So no problem. But for anyone with more time, would recommend staying in Brasov and making the castle trip(s) from there. Everything worked OK, but the price of castle tickets is a little bit difficult to understand. And no receipt was given. The music/radio in bus was terrible. Fortunately fell asleep many times and this way escaped listening to it.

Kind of weird that you have to pay €30 extra to have a guide for a tour that you already paid for, and apparently for a tour guide who “loves to share information”. The description was very misleading. Would recommend finding someone else who will guide you on the tour without forcing you to pay extra once you board the bus. Was not a great experience.

Excellent choice of castles and Brasov is a lovely town. Edward the guide was very informative and patient with us all.

The trip was worth of taking! Don't think of missing castle tours ( Bran and Peles) and take the advantage to loosen up by letting the agency book the cards for You, because You won't be on any time schedule other than the group has if You do so. Our guide Emanuel did his job perfectly, he was interesting, amusing and well organized. He even got us back at time to go to the Opera and I really really aprecciate this! Thank You Emanuel, You are the best!

Definitely a great experience, make sure you buy tickets to get into the castles as well through the tour. Cost around €40. Trip was long on the bus so wouldn’t hurt to bring a neck pillow or something and the plugs don’t work so bring two portable chargers. The guide was very helpful and spoke in many languages as well.

Our trip was a mixed bag. Peleș Castle was beautiful and absolutely worth visiting, but Bran Castle felt highly overrated. Our driver, Christian, did an excellent job and drove very safely throughout the trip. Unfortunately, the experience was ruined by our tour guide, Marios. He was rude and ignored anyone who did not buy internal tour tickets directly through him, focusing his attention only on those passengers.

The overall trip took 12 hours, 7 of which we were on the bus. The road took a really long time, and it was very tiring. The guide was telling stories on the road while many people were sleeping and therefore could not hear him. The biggest red flag for me was selling student-level castle tickets to adults at a cost of 40 euros for 2 castles. We thought that the prices were fair, especially since this is a guided tour, so we'll also hear the guide's stories. On the spot, it turned out that when they said "2 castles," they meant Bran Castle and Pelisor Castle (not Peles, which was actually the most beautiful of the 3 and the one that should be visited). The guided tour, by the way, was only for the Pelisor castle (a very exaggerated castle in terms of sights). In Bran Castle, we were left alone to walk through the rooms by ourselves. We didn't hear the story behind it on the bus, as like almost everyone we were sleeping. Just go and check their official website for ticket prices. The student ticket for Bran is 60 RON and for Pelisor is for 7,5 RON, which together make just 12-13 euros, not 40! If we compare the adult ticket prices, still for 2 castles, together they make 130 RON (24-25 euros). See how much they earned in between on us?! The second red flag was the timing. The trip suggests 2 hours stop at Peles. We stopped only for 1:30 or 1:45 and were strictly advised to be back on time if we did not want to be left there. Because of the guide, we spent quite a lot of time on Pelisor castle, waiting outside for 15 or more minutes for a lady to open the door and then walking through the corridors of a secondary castle. As the tickets that we bought from the guide did not include Peles castle, we bought them on the place and when we were out of the castle (which we looked through veery quickly) we found that we had less than 15 minutes left to be next to the bus. The road from Peles castle to the car parking is an uphill road taking like 10-15 minutes to walk, and as soon as you get there, rushing to be on time, you find yourself breathing out of your lungs! At Brasov, we were given 1:15-1:30 hours during which we could just do some very quick lunch and walk on the main street only (which is quite a short street by the way). To get back, again we had to almost run to not be late. At Bran castle, we were given something like 1:15 hours. So the tour was mainly about rushing from one place to another, sweating and breathing out of lungs to not be late for the bus and trying to see as much as possible. Just be aware when booking this trip that you are going to visit these places just for some check marks. Also, before the tour we were sent an email with some rough costs of the tour, and when I asked about the types of tickets (general admission, combo tickets, etc. - like the official castle websites offer), they didn't answer precisely to my message, referring to read the 1st message again. Before the tour they were very responsive via email, doing their best to communicate. But after the tour ended, you can never hear back from them! We actually bought tickets for one day, which turned out to be so heavily raining in the morning that we couldn't even get out of the hotel to reach the picking point, so we wrote the tour manager about this, asking them to reschedule our trip for the next day due to a force major situation. They didn't answer us, obviously. So we bought another trip for the next day, and later, when we were back asked for a refund, which we didn't get, obviously. We paid twice for a tour which was made so poorly that 100+ people left a review of 1, and now, when I read them, I relate to them so much! Forgot to say that on the day of our tour, when the bus moved from the meeting point, after like 10-15 seconds, some people reached the bus, running, and asking to open the door; they were late for just a few seconds. The tour guide never opened the door, reasoning that they'll be fined by the police if they open the door mid-way. While they could simply drive a bit forward, stop where they can for just 10 seconds, and pick up those people. I imagine their frustration. I was frustrated myself being on the bus!

Lovely guide and a funny guy. Plenty of time in each location to explore.

Really long drive there and back, no stops, not allowed to eat on the coach, super early start and massive group of people to one guide. Great guide and driver but... once you are coach, you then need to pay extra €60per person for tickets, so value for money is questionable. You will need the bathroom when you get there. You will be hungry and probably a bit fed up. So maybe consider seeing the amazing castles with a different company, who are not trying to stack their tour groups to make more money.