Europe 2024 - 2026 / August 8, 2025

Zarnesti area

We spent a month in the mountain town of Zarnesti (near the bigger city of Brasov and the tourist village of Bran). This town is fairly centrally located to many of the towns and tourist attractions that we wanted to visit.

Zarnesti

Zarnesti (pronounced Zarnesht) was a small town (the old town center was just a tiny square with a church and town hall), but it was spread out in length. We stayed in a newer part of town with in a modern apartment complex that had a convenient supermarket on the ground floor. We had a lovely view of the mountains and town from our balcony (this was one of our favourite apartments so far on our trip). On the last weekend we were there, the town had a festival with a market and food stalls and some folk dancing.

Amfiteatrul Transilvania

When we first arrived in Zarnesti, we overlapped with some other Worldschooling families that we had met before who were staying in Bran. They suggested that we meet and have dinner at this area where there is a hotel and restaurant. We weren’t sure about it at first since the 1 hour drive consisted of 45 minutes up a dirt track up the mountain. But the views from the top were incredible and we liked it so much that we went there for dinner again with R’s parents when they came out to visit.

LiBEARty

The town of Zarnesti also had a bear sanctuary. The owners resuced bears from all over Romania. They now have over 100 bears in the sanctuary. The tour guide was very informative with personal horror stories about many of the bears and how they were held captive and treated before they were rescued.

Brasov

Brasov is the largest city near Zarnesti. It had a very cute old town center and The Black Church (named so because of a fire that turned it black). R and I went on a date there while the grandparents were with the kids and had an incredible Lebanese luch!

Rasnov

This is a small town between Zarnesti and Brasov. The town center is very small (only a square and a couple of streets), but what makes this town impressive is the castle on the top of a mountain overlooking the town. Unfortunately the castle is closed for renovation, but we walked up the mountain, and all around the castle and down the other side past the town’s other tourist attraction – a Dino park for kids.

Bran

This is probably the most famous tourist town in the area due to the castle. This castle dates back to the 14th century and is the castle in Romania which is closest in description to the castle in the Dracula novel. We had heard beforehand that many people thought the castle was overrated and a tourist trap, but actually we quite liked the castle (although it was a shame it was soooo crowded!) Some of the rooms in the castle were dedicated to Romanian myths and legends (including the original story of vampires) and they had a room dedicated to Dracula and the various movies that were made about Dracula. Of course K jumped on the opportunity to get into character for the visit.

Fagaras

We took a day trip out to see this castle which is halfway between Zarnesti and Sibiu. It didn’t disappoint! This was such an interesting castle and the museum was really informative – definitely worth a visit! This castle dates back to the 12th century and was a residence for kings, a military garrison and was also used as a prison during soviet times. What we have found quite interesting all around Romania is that the historic information found in museums always seems to end in 1918 when Romania was reunited. There seems to be no information at all of Soviet times or of Ceausescu’s time. In Fagaras, there was an unmarked room in a tower of the prison where there were about 10 bilboards, all written in Romanian (thanks Google Translate) which told the story of various ‘insurrectionists’ from farming towns who were spied on and imprisoned here in the 1960s – 1980s. I couldn’t help but think that although they had this room, they didn’t really want tourists to see it or hear their stories.

Beside the castle, there was also an interesting church in town. The church is new of course (as many are in Romania), but it had an interesting carved wooden alter and some very beautiful inlaid marble floor ornaments. It also had a very gypsy feel to it with benches covered in gypse-esque blankets and pillows instead of normal wooden pews.

Peles

I was really looking forward to seeing this castle as so many people had said great things about it. The town is about a 1.5 hour drive from Zarnesti. This town contains the palace that the first king of Romania built for himself. The palace complex includes 3 palaces (one you can’t visit as it is currently used as a function space for the Prime Minister), a hunting lodge, a guard complex, etc. The town itself is also quite nice as many other rich people built mansions there to be near the king.

We visited two palaces there – the main Peles palace and the smaller Pelisor palace. Pelisor wasn’t that impressive, but the main palace was incredible!