Transylvania: Brasov, Bran, Sighisoara and Sibiu

Your See Sight Tours guide meets the group in the arrivals hall at Bucharest Henri Coanda International Airport (OTP) and we leave at 1 pm. Land by about 12:30, or come the day before; if your flight lands later we arrange a private transfer to Brasov. The road runs north across the Wallachian plain, then climbs the Prahova valley into the Carpathians. About two hours in we stop for coffee in Sinaia, the old royal mountain town, and stretch our legs before the last hour over the Predeal pass, at about 1,000 m, and down into Brasov. We check in to a central hotel for two nights, then your guide walks us to the Council Square, the heart of the old Saxon trading town, with the Black Church's tower behind and Mount Tampa rising above the roofs.

Activity: Plan to land at OTP by about 12:30.

We leave at 8:15 am to be at Bran Castle when it opens, about 40 minutes away, before the coaches arrive from Bucharest. The castle sits on a rock above the Bran pass, the old road between Transylvania and Wallachia, and was built by the Saxon townspeople of Brasov in the late 14th century as a border and toll fort. The Dracula link is borrowed: there is no firm evidence that Vlad the Impaler stayed here, and Bram Stoker never visited Romania. Its real story is Queen Marie, who made it her home in the 1920s; your guide tells both in about an hour and a half. Fifteen minutes back towards Brasov, Rasnov's fortress crowns a hill above the town, a refuge where villagers sheltered from raids, with a deep well and a view over the plain to the mountains.

Easier option: Skip the bear hide and have a free evening in Brasov.

More active option: Walk up Mount Tampa on the marked forest path in the free afternoon (about an hour of climbing) and ride the cable car down.

Free time: Afternoon free in Brasov

Activity: Bran is all narrow stairs, with an uphill walk from the gate; you can wait in the park below. Rasnov is a steep 15-minute walk up. At the hide you sit in silence; children under the hide's minimum age cannot join. Start Monday to Thursday so day 2 does not fall on Bran's late Monday opening.

At 9 am a licensed local guide walks us through Brasov, founded by Saxon merchants in the 13th century under the slopes of Mount Tampa. We start in the Council Square, step inside the Black Church, Transylvania's largest Gothic church, named for the soot left by the great fire of 1689 and hung with Anatolian carpets brought back by Saxon traders, then squeeze down Rope Street, a lane barely wider than your shoulders, and out through the Catherine's Gate in the old walls.

Easier option: Skip the tower stairs at Viscri and sit in the churchyard inside the walls.

Free time: Evening free in Sighisoara

Activity: About 2.5 hours on foot in Brasov. The tower stairs at Viscri are steep wooden ladders in places. Start Monday to Thursday so day 3 does not fall on the Black Church's closed day, which we expect to be Monday.

Sighisoara's citadel is a lived-in medieval town on a hill, listed by UNESCO in 1999, and at 8:30 am its lanes belong to the people who live there. In about two and a half hours with a licensed local guide we climb the Clock Tower, the 14th-century gate tower that now holds the town museum, for the view over roofs and the old guild towers, pass the house where Vlad the Impaler is said to have been born, and climb the covered wooden Scholars' Stair to the Church on the Hill and the old German cemetery under the trees.

Easier option: Skip the covered stair and the Church on the Hill and wait in a café on the Citadel Square.

More active option: Climb the Council Tower on Sibiu's Large Square for the view over the roofs (open hours permitting).

Free time: Time before dinner free in Sibiu

Activity: Sighisoara's citadel is steep and cobbled, and the covered stair has about 175 steps.

The last drive is the longest, about 290 km and four and a half to five hours of driving, because most flights home leave from Bucharest. We leave Sibiu at 8:30 am and follow the Olt River where it cuts south through the Carpathians in a deep wooded gorge, the old road between Transylvania and Wallachia. After about an hour and a half we stop at Cozia Monastery, founded in 1388 by Prince Mircea the Elder, who is buried in its church; its striped brick and stone walls stand right by the river, and we spend about 45 minutes there.

Activity: Book a flight from Bucharest leaving after about 6:30 pm, or fly from Sibiu (SBZ); check SBZ routes for your dates. Cozia is a working monastery: cover shoulders and knees.