Bucharest to the Castles in 7 Days on a Budget
Seven days: the same castle spine, plus a second Brasov stop to break up the ride home
A full week takes the 6-day plan and adds one thing it skips: a second night in Brasov on the way back, so the return from Sighisoara doesn’t turn into one brutal travel day. Shorter trips, the 6-day version does Sighisoara in a single long return, or the 4-day plan skips Sighisoara entirely. Full price detail lives in the Bucharest guide .
| Day | Focus | Rough spend (2 people) |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Arrival, OTP transport, free Old Town walk | 150-250 RON |
| Day 2 | Sinaia: Peles and Pelisor castles, train to Brasov, overnight | 500-650 RON |
| Day 3 | Bran Castle, Brasov old town, train to Sighisoara, overnight | 450-600 RON |
| Day 4 | Full day in Sighisoara’s UNESCO citadel | 250-400 RON |
| Day 5 | Train back to Brasov, Tampa Mountain cable car, second overnight | 350-500 RON |
| Day 6 | Train back to Bucharest, flex afternoon | 200-300 RON |
| Day 7 | Departure | 100-200 RON |
Book these before you go:
- Peles/Pelisor timed-slot tickets : the 2,000/day cap at Peles fills fast on summer weekends.
- Bran Castle tickets : buy online rather than risk the walk-up line in peak season.
- Brasov guesthouses : book both nights (Day 2 and Day 5) together if the same guesthouse has rooms.
- A Sighisoara guesthouse : a small citadel town with limited beds in July and August.
- Your Bucharest hotel : lock in the arrival and final-night rooms together.
Day 1: land in Bucharest, spend the evening on foot
OTP connects to Gara de Nord by the direct airport train, roughly 6.50 RON and 20-25 minutes after a short shuttle bus to the platform, or Express Bus 100 for about 3 RON to Piata Unirii. Check into an Old Town or Gara de Nord-area room, walk Lipscani’s cobbled streets for free, then dinner: sarmale, mici, ciorba, 60-100 RON per person at a mid-range place. Use Bolt or Uber rather than a street taxi at the airport, that overcharging risk is the one real scam in this whole itinerary.
Day 2: Peles and Pelisor at Sinaia, then up to Brasov
A CFR train from Gara de Nord reaches Sinaia in roughly 2 hours, tickets around 25-50 RON one-way through cfrcalatori.ro . Peles costs 100 RON adult (25 RON student), Pelisor 30 RON adult (7.5 RON student), and both run a timed-slot system since June 2025 with hard daily caps, book your slot before you leave Bucharest in summer. A further 30-60 minutes by train reaches Brasov, roughly 2.5-3 hours total from the capital; check into an old-town guesthouse for the first of two Brasov nights.
Day 3: Bran Castle, Brasov’s old town, then east to Sighisoara
A local minibus or short Bolt ride from Brasov’s bus station reaches Bran in under an hour. The castle runs 120 RON adult, 60 RON child (5-17), 90 RON senior, 80 RON student, hours 9:00-19:00 May-Oct. Say plainly what it is: “Dracula’s Castle” is 1970s tourism marketing, Bram Stoker never visited Romania, and Vlad the Impaler’s actual link to the building is thin. It’s still a genuinely striking 13th-century fortress with real Queen Marie history. Back in Brasov, the Black Church and Rope Street cost nothing to walk, then an evening train covers the further 3.5-4 hours to Sighisoara.
Day 4: Sighisoara’s medieval citadel, no rush
Sighisoara is a genuine UNESCO-listed Saxon citadel, and its Vlad the Impaler connection, unlike Bran’s, is real and largely undisputed: a house inside the citadel walls is traditionally identified as his birthplace. Spend the day on the Clock Tower, the covered stairway, and the citadel walls, mostly free or low-cost, and stay a second night before starting back.
Day 5: back to Brasov, with time for the mountains this time
Reverse the Sighisoara-Brasov leg, roughly 3.5-4 hours, and use the afternoon for what Day 3 skipped: the Tampa Mountain cable car above Brasov or a trip to Poiana Brasov, the ski resort a short bus ride up the valley. This is the day the 7-day plan buys you that the 6-day version doesn’t, an actual look at the mountains rather than a straight run home.
Day 6: the ride back to Bucharest
The return train to the capital covers the same roughly 2.5-3 hours as the outbound leg. Use the afternoon for whatever Day 1 didn’t cover, a return Old Town walk, or the Palace of Parliament tour if you booked it by phone at least 24 hours ahead (60 RON adult, passport required at the door).
Day 7: departure
A slow breakfast, then the direct airport train or Express Bus 100 back to OTP; no reason to rush a morning with nothing left on the list.
Is a full week too much time for Peles, Bran and Sighisoara?
Not if you use the extra day over the 6-day plan on the mountains rather than more castles. Splitting the Sighisoara round trip across two Brasov nights instead of one long return day means an actual afternoon at Tampa Mountain or Poiana Brasov, a real break from train seats that the 6-day version skips entirely.
Confirm both Brasov guesthouse stays, Day 2 and Day 5, at booking time rather than assuming the same room is free twice, small old-town guesthouses run short on rooms in peak summer.