From Brasov Without a Car: Day Trips and Weekend Trips in Romania

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This autumn I chose to base myself in Brașov, Romania because I wanted to watch the colors change in the Transylvanian countryside. Of course, like a typical goofy Westerner raised on Dracula folklore, I also figured where better to spend “spooky season”? I heard that Brașov is a good base for exploring other parts of the country, although upon arriving and digging further into public transportation options, I realized that planning day trips from Brașov without a car is not always straightforward.

This guide prioritizes cultural heritage and architectural feats – there are so many UNESCO sites and historical marvels in Romania! If you are interested in hiking, look to Piatra Craiului National Park and Bucegi Natural Park. Two popular hiking trails that you can reach by bus from Brașov include Seven Ladders Canyon and Solomon’s Rocks (and of course, any of the Tâmpa trails that start from Brașov itself).

Preface: Using Trains and Buses from Brasov

Trains from Brașov

The main Brașov train station is simply called “Brașov Train Station”, located here. It is a 45 minute walk away from the town square in Brașov, the Piața Sfatului or Council Square. My accommodation was close to the square, so to avoid this walk I took the local bus from my accommodation to the train station.

I used the CFR Călători website to book train tickets. This is the official booking website, not a third-party, so the schedules were always accurate. My train tickets were between 19 lei ($4.26 USD) and 63 lei ($14.13 USD) one-way for the day trips and weekend trips on this list. If you buy round-trip, you will save a couple bucks.

I always booked my train tickets online at least one day in advance in case seats sold out. Your ticket confirmation email will have your carriage number and your seat number on it, and CFR Călători will also email you a QR code. 

When you arrive at the Brașov train station, there is a big board that lists Arrivals and Departures. Your train number and time will be listed alongside which platform you should walk to; there are not many platforms so it should only take 5 minutes to find yours.

When the train pulls up, there is a paper sign in the window next to each door that has the train number on it; double check and be sure it’s the right train. The carriage numbers were not always clear to me, but seat numbers are printed on the outside so you know you’re hopping on the right car. Some trains don’t stop very long, so you may need to hustle before doors close. Once you’re in your seat, at some point a ticket agent will come around to scan your QR code. I saved my confirmation and my QR code in the “My Files” app on my phone in case we’d lose cell service and I wouldn’t be able to pull them up in my emails.

The train station in Brașov has ATMs and a handful of shops where you can buy coffee, plus a little corner store with a small snack selection. Some of the coffee places also have pastries, but in my opinion they are not very good. It’s better to grab something to eat on the way to the station.

Buses within Brașov

To reach the Brașov Train Station, I hopped on the number 4 bus from the Livada Poștei bus stop, the closest to my accommodation. You can search bus timetables here. Bus schedules list the Brașov Train Station stop as “Terminal Gara Brașov.”

There are a few ways to pay for the bus ride, including using ticket machines, paying on-board, buying a transit card, or using an app. 

If you buy a paper ticket using one of the machines at a bus stop, you need to board the bus at the front door next to the driver because there is a ticket validator machine there; you’ll insert your ticket to get a stamp so it can’t be re-used later. Inside all of the doors there are machines that allow you to tap a transit card or pay by credit card, but only the front door has a paper ticket validator. If the bus is really crowded, it seems like it would be a real pain to try to get people to move out of the way so you can use any of these machines.

I always like to come prepared in advance in case I can’t figure out the machines and there’s no human vendor that can help me out, so I downloaded the 24Pay app. Right before you want to ride a bus, you buy a ticket via the app for 4 lei. You don’t have to disclose which bus line you are using; it is simply a timed ticket that allows you to ride any city bus for the next 60 minutes. It will generate a QR code.

I read on TripAdvisor that if you buy through the app, you don’t have to show your phone to the driver or wave the QR code at the validator machine to prove you bought a ticket. You would only show it to a controller if they board the bus to do a surprise check of everyone’s tickets. 

What I’ve described is relevant for local city buses within Brașov, not long distance intercity buses. For those, search the schedules via Autogari. I chose to take the train to reach most of the cities on this list, but buses also go to Sibiu, Sighișoara, Deva, and Sinaia if you need an alternative option. Sometimes they take less time, but they can be more expensive. The rides are also offered by so many different bus companies, whereas I already had trust in CFR Călători.

Taxis in Brașov

By Western standards, taxis in Romania are extremely cheap. Still, what may seem like a reasonable amount to you might actually be a rip-off in terms of the standard taxi rates in Brașov. The taxi drivers are also cash-only, yet always pretend to not have any small bills to give you change back. I would just avoid taxis as much as possible. Uber is available in Brașov.

Best Navigation Apps in Brașov

Apple Maps is inferior in Romania; it’s not aware that some attractions and addresses exist and it can’t figure out public transportation schedules. Google Maps is much more accurate.

I use an eSIM everywhere I travel so that I can access apps like Google Maps, Google Translate, Mail, WhatsApp, Safari, 24Pay, and various social media platforms. My eSIM brand of choice is Airalo, which worked perfectly in Romania.

Some places were simply too troublesome for me to attempt to reach without a car, such as the charming mountain villages of Măgura and Peștera. I ended up booking a guided day trip for that.

Peles Castle, Pelisor Castle, Sinaia Monastery

Transit Time One-Way: 1 hour train (19 lei), 30 min walk
Entry Fee: 50-150 lei for Peleș, 30 lei for Pelisor (both closed Mondays and Tuesdays!), free for Monastery

Peleș Castle is often recommended as a must-visit site in Transylvania, particularly in comparison to its neighbor Bran Castle. Bran Castle is marketed as “Dracula’s Castle” because in Bram Stoker’s novel, the way he describes what the castle physically looks like seems to match up with Bran more than any other castle in the region. However, there is nothing else that ties this castle to the novel nor to the real man behind the myth, Vlad Țepeș, or Vlad Dracul III, Vlad the Impaler (for sites actually related to Vlad, skip to the last section). 

Many people who visit Bran express disappointment with the experience, so the common advice is that if you want to see an extraordinary castle near Brașov, visit Peleș Castle instead.

King Carol I began building Peleș Castle in 1873 and lived there in the summers with his wife Elisabeth of Wied. His nephew Ferdinand, the heir to the throne, lived at Pelisor Castle with his wife Marie, the British granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Carol was German and brought in to rule Romania to strengthen European alliances; Ferdinand was also German. They ultimately won the hearts of the Romanian people and many call them Romania’s best kings. Queen Marie was a gifted artist and was called “Soldier Queen” or “Mother of the Wounded” for how she tended to WWI soldiers at the front.

When I visited Peleș, unfortunately renovations meant that scaffolding was covering the outer facade and I couldn’t admire its renowned beauty. Thankfully the inside of the palace is breathtaking and more than made up for it. It features multiple architectural and artistic styles; according to the Peleș official website, these include the German neo-Renaissance, neo-Ottoman, and neo-Rococo styles. I was particularly enthralled by Gustav Klimt and Dora Hitz paintings, a Venetian glass mirror, sparkling chandeliers, spiral wooden staircases, a “Turkish” room, and the weapons armory. 

Pelisor Castle is much more modest than Peleș Castle; in fact, it is more of a mansion than a castle. The only extravagant room is the Gold Room, where Queen Marie’s heart is kept in a silver box. Yes, her actual heart.

While in Sinaia, you should definitely make a quick detour to check out the beautiful Sinaia Monastery. If you walk to Peleș from the train station, you can choose a route that brings you right by it. Explore the grounds and see inside the two churches, though note there are signs saying you can’t enter without “appropriate dress” (they list shorts as inappropriate). The museum located on the grounds of the Sinaia Monastery, which houses the first Bible written in the Romanian language, is not currently operating. I asked the man in the monastery souvenir shop if he knew when it would reopen, and he said he had no idea, maybe in spring 2025. Luckily, the National Museum of Romanian History in Bucharest has one you can see; the 1688 Bible was printed in several copies, although the exact number is not known.

Tickets and Tours of Peleș Castle and Pelisor Castle

Figuring out the tour/entrance ticket situation at Peleș Castle is a point of confusion for many people. Some of the TripAdvisor advice is not correct; you do not have to purchase a guided tour. You can visit Peleș Castle self-guided. However, the price is the same regardless, with or without a guide: 50 lei ($11) for just the ground floor, 100 lei ($22) for ground floor + 1st floor, or 150 lei ($34) for ground + first + second floors.

I chose to sign up for a guided English-speaking tour because I knew I wouldn’t be able to grasp the significance of the many artistic and historical details hidden throughout the castle if I wandered by myself. Since there’s no extra charge for a guide, why not? It is also extremely crowded on the ground floor (once you get to the next floor, you leave 90% of people behind), and I knew I would rush through if I wasn’t with a guided group. I’m always trying to stay out of everyone’s way and escape the claustrophobia, at my own expense.

I bought the ground floor and first floor 100 lei ticket, and for me it was worth the extra cost to see the first floor. I read reviews saying the second floor isn’t worth the full-price 150 lei ticket.

During my tour, our guide pointed out which bookcase in a library was actually a hidden door. She explained what each room was used for, what makes the craftsmanship of some furniture pieces particularly remarkable, shared stories about how the royal family lived and ruled, and told me where to look for Gustav Klimt’s signature in the corner of a painting. There is also a replica of King Carol’s steel crown, but the original is at the National Museum of Romanian History in Bucharest.

You can buy tickets online in advance or onsite upon arrival. If you buy them in person, make sure you have cash (there is an ATM near the ticket line). The ticket line will probably be long, so it’s preferable to buy in advance and skip this first line.

If you already have a ticket, or once you buy your ticket onsite, now you’ll move into the inner courtyard where everyone waits in one of three lines – the self-guided line, the Romanian language tour line, or the English language tour line. There are signs above each line so you know where to wait. 

The tour times are listed on the Peleș/Pelisor Castle official website. Unless you choose the self-guided option, you should plan your arrival to match up with the tour times.

Even if you are in the self-guided line, you may still have to wait for a moment before they let you in. They are trying to improve the visitor experience by managing the crowds, so they let people inside in batches instead of all at once. 

Pelisor Castle does not have any unusual entrance fee tiers outside of the typical adult/children/senior/Euro card. Entrance is 30 lei per adult for a self-guided experience. The information signs are in Romanian, but you can grab a laminated information sheet that explains the rooms in English. There are QR codes in each room if you prefer to read information on your phone, but they weren’t working well the day I arrived. Instead of bringing up a special webpage or PDF with information about the room, the QR code would simply Google a phrase for me, like “Queen Marie bedroom”, in the Safari app.

Third-party tour operators:
From Brasov: Tour of Castles and Surrounding Area
From Brasov: Peles Castle, Bran Castle & Cantacuzino Castle
Brasov: Bran, Peles and Cantacuzino Castles Day Tour
Brasov: Peles Castle, Bran Castle & Rasnov Fortress Day Tour

Getting to Peleș Castle and Pelisor Castle from Brașov on Public Transportation

Peleș and Pelisor are in the cute town of Sinaia, named after Mount Sinai in Egypt. This is one of the easiest day trips from Brașov because all it requires is a one-hour train ride for 19 lei (or 29 lei round-trip) and then a 30 minute walk. 

Once you arrive at Sinaia train station, you can walk to Peleș, take a local bus, or take a taxi to get to the castles. I would recommend just walking. I took the bus there and walked back. I had to wait so long for the bus that I probably would have arrived quicker by walking. 

If you do decide to take the bus, from the train station you’ll walk across the street and up a flight of stairs. Go right to reach the Policlinica Gară bus stop, or left for the Esplanada bus stop (when I asked someone which stop to wait at, they pointed me to Esplanada for some reason, even though this is a farther walk than Policlinica Gară. After I got on the bus we ended up making our next stop at Policlinica Gară anyway, so I think you could just get on there). Take the T1, T3, or T4 bus to the Piațeta Foișor stop, then walk the rest of the way to Peleș or Pelisor.

Sibiu and Astra Museum

Transit Time One-Way: 2 hour 48 minute train to Sibiu (56 lei), 30 min bus (3 lei) to Astra Museum
Entry Fee: 35 lei

Sibiu is a cute town where it’s worth spending an afternoon simply wandering the streets. Check out the artwork inside the stunning Orthodox Cathedral and climb up the Council Tower (2 lei) for a panoramic view of the city.

From Sibiu you can also embark on day trips by bus to Balea Lake, where tons of hiking trails begin.

The main reason I wanted to visit Sibiu, though, was to see the Astra Museum. I had high expectations and they were exceeded!

The Astra Museum is the largest open air museum in Europe and is truly a treasure. It features 400 buildings, such as homes and churches, from throughout Romania and throughout the centuries. You can even walk up onto the porches or inside some of the structures, which are furnished and decorated with artifacts to help you imagine what it would have been like to live there. I was overwhelmed by all there was to see and probably missed a few things. Get ready to walk!

My favorite buildings were the sheepherders’ dwellings, windmills, churches with geometric spires, and homes with very tall thatched roofs. The coolest thing I learned about was Chipăruşul, a funerary dance with pre-Christian roots. In front of the home of the deceased, 12 masked men tied together with the “chain of life” would dance and jump over a fire. It was a purification and healing ritual, a way to chase evil and death away, and an opportunity for the community to say goodbye to the departed. 

There are English-language information signs about 50% of the time, but you may need to use Google Translate occasionally. The signs explain what region of the country each structure is native to and what makes them different from the others. If a building was used for a special purpose, such as pottery-making, there was information about the craft.

The oldest building is from 1672, a church from Dretea. I kind of hoped for older examples, but I guess they would have to stray from their commitment to featuring original buildings and add recreations in order to demonstrate older architecture.

Tickets and Tours of Sibiu and Astra Museum

The entrance fee for the Astra Museum is 35 lei per adult and can be paid via cash or card. Most people see the Astra Museum self-guided. There is an audioguide app you can download from Google Play or the Apple App Store.

Their website says a guided tour can be booked for 150 lei/hour in Romanian language or 250 lei/hour in another language. I don’t see a way to book this through their website, so it must be something you’d need to contact them about via email.

Third-party tour operators:
Sibiu: Daily Sightseeing Guided Tour
Sibiu: City Sightseeing Tour
Sibiu: Cindrel Mountains Hike with Traditional Brunch

Getting to Sibiu and Astra Museum from Brașov on Public Transportation

Getting to Sibiu from Brașov is pretty easy on public transportation. You’ll take a 2 hour 48 minute train from Brașov Train Station to Sibiu Train Station, and that’s it! It’s a 15 minute walk from Sibiu station to the main town square, Piața Mare.

The Astra Museum is not a walkable distance from the center of Sibiu, so you’ll need to take local bus number 13. The front of this bus flashes the words “Muzeul Astra” as the destination, so it’s hard to be uncertain whether you got on the right one! It picks up directly from the Sibiu station where you exited the train, or if you’ve walked to Piața Mare first to grab a meal, you can get on the 13 bus at the Sala Thalia stop. The bus drops you off almost directly across the street from the Astra Museum.

The bus tickets work the same way as they do in Brașov. You can buy a 3 lei ticket via the 24Pay app which will be valid for 60 minutes, get a paper ticket via the machine at the bus stop (which needs to be validated upon boarding), or tap a credit card or transit card inside the bus.

If you decide to stay in Sibiu overnight and are on a budget, there are hostels in Sibiu or you can consider an apartment stay. I stayed at Studio Sac Voyage Ocnei, which is small but in a cute location and perfect for me as a solo traveler.

Corvin Castle

Transit Time One-Way: 5.5 hour train (86 lei), 30 min bus (13 lei), 30 min walk
Entry Fee: 45 lei

Corvin Castle, or Hunedoara Castle, is one of the Seven Wonders of Romania. It’s exactly what you want out of a castle, with a drawbridge over a moat, a prison, torture room (including, yes – impaling spikes), tall towers you can climb if you have the stamina for multiple floors of sketchy stairs, examples of medieval clothing, beautiful architecture, and rumors of hauntings. I also keep reading about the terrifying “bear pit,” but I’m not sure where the evidence for this comes from.

It looks like the type of castle you imagine from fairytales, and personally I think it’s the prettiest castle I saw in Romania. The inside is not as lavishly decorated as Peleș, but because of its age and style, it captured my imagination.

Corvin Castle was built on top of a 14th century stone fortress. In 1446, the Voivode of Transylvania John Hunyadi began construction. Hunyadi was a great Hungarian military leader, and his son Matthias Corvinus would become King of Hungary from 1458-1490. 

The original construction had Gothic inspiration. Matthias added onto the castle during his reign, as did Gabriel Bethlen much later in the 17th century. Both added Renaissance elements. The final stage of construction was in the 18th century, and then some restoration work took place in the 19th and 20th centuries.

If you’re still looking for Dracula connections, Corvin Castle does actually have a few, at least tangentially in relation to Hunyadi and Corvinus. It was Hunyadi’s invasion of Wallachia that was responsible for the death of Vlad the Impaler’s father Vlad II and older brother Mircea, and Corvinus later imprisoned Vlad III for 12 long years, though it was at Visegrád in Hungary, not Corvin Castle.

Tickets and Tours of Corvin Castle

Entrance to Corvin Castle is 45 lei per adult and you can pay by card or cash. I’m not aware of a guided tour that’s offered onsite, but plenty of third-party tour operators do guided day trips that go to Corvin Castle from Sibiu, Cluj-Napoca, or Timișoara. There is a guided tour from Brașov too, but I found it to be too expensive for a solo traveler.

There is an official Corvin Castle audioguide app you can download for free before your self-guided visit. I didn’t use it, but a reviewer said that each chapter is only a minute or two long, which is awesome; I sometimes glaze over during too-long audioguide explanations.

Getting to Corvin Castle from Brașov on Public Transportation

Corvin Castle is one of the more difficult places to reach from Brașov via public transportation. I referenced Go Live Go Travel’s article on reaching Corvin Castle without a car, and they were spot on.

First, you need to get to the town of Deva. There are direct trains from Brașov to Deva, but they are quite long at 5 ½ hours. An alternative is to take a train from Brașov to Sibiu, enjoy the sites in Sibiu, and the next day take a train from Sibiu to Deva. The train from Sibiu to Deva is 2 hours and 45 minutes and 51 lei.

Once you’ve reached Deva, as Go Live Go Travel explains, there are frequent buses departing from the Deva train station to the next town over called Hunedoara. You can’t book these in advance and will just hop on the next available bus when you arrive, paying the driver 13 lei in cash for the 30-40 minute ride. This price is correct as of late September 2024. Check bus information here. Note that this is sort of like a private minibus and is not part of the TPLD, Transport Public Local Deva. TPLD buses are usually blue and the Deva to Hunedoara bus is white.

The bus drops you off next to the old Hunedoara train station. From here it’s a 30 minute walk to Corvin Castle. 

I stayed at a hostel in Deva called Hostel Citadella after my visit to Corvin Castle. There’s an awesome bakery next door that opens at 6am, perfect for an early train! Note that there is also a cool fortress in Deva which you might want to explore while you’re there. You can hike up or take a cable car.

While you are in Hunedoara or Deva, it would be awesome to find a way to visit some of the six Dacian Fortresses of the Orăștie Mountains. The Dacians were pre-Roman people in present-day Romania, and these fortresses are sort of like Romania’s Stonehenge. The closest one to Deva is Costești, but there is no public transportation option to reach it. I was only able to find private tours to the ruins, which are unaffordable for a solo traveler.

Sighisoara Citadel

Transit Time One-Way: 3.5 – 4 hour train (51 lei)
Entry Fee: None to explore citadel; Casa Breslelor and Casa Armelor combo ticket is 25 lei.

Tourists tend to pilgrimage to Sighișoara Citadel because of the claim that Vlad Țepeș (Dracul III) was born here. You can visit a building that’s marketed as being his birthplace, but according to BS Historian, this claim is extremely dubious. He may well have been raised somewhere around Sighișoara, but almost certainly not within the citadel and not in the Dracula House. 

The real reason tourists should visit Sighișoara is because the old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site! It is often repeated that the citadel is “the only still-inhabited medieval fortress in Southeast Europe.” Sighișoara is one of many towns founded by Transylvanian Saxons who were invited by Hungarian kings to settle present-day Romania to help fortify borderlands; in the case of Sighișoara, it was King Géza II (1130-1162). The architecture and cultural artifacts of these craftsmen and merchants are preserved in Sighișoara’s citadel and museums.

Sighișoara is also extremely colorful and whimsical if you enjoy photographing idyllic settings! Don’t miss the covered staircase, the clock tower, the Bootmakers’ Tower, the Saxon cemetery, and the only surviving ancient crypt in Transylvania.

Tickets and Tours in Sighișoara

Sighişoara is all about wandering the cobbled streets and admiring the colorful buildings, so you don’t necessarily have to pay for any attractions. However, I would highly recommend buying the 25 lei combination ticket for Casa Breslelor and Casa Armelor, aka the House of the Guilds museum and the House of Weapons and Maps museum.

Casa Armelor was particularly interesting to me because they have prehistoric artifacts on display. I love ancient archaeology and I’ve been really keen on discovering more about pre-Roman-era Dacia. None of the other museums in Brașov, Sibiu, or Sinaia seem to focus on this; in those towns you’ve got the Museum of Communism, Museum of Hunting, etc. The Ethnographic Museum in Brașov is mainly about textiles. So Casa Armelor really scratched an itch!

Casa Armelor also has tons of old maps created in the 1500-1700s. I had been confused about how the borders between Wallachia, Moldavia, and Transylvania changed over time, so these were helpful. One of them was even drawn in 1546 by Johannes Honterus, a famous Transylvanian Saxon who advocated for Lutheran reform. He opened a school and printing press in Brașov and wanted to print books in the local language instead of Latin. There is a statue of him outside the Black Church in Brașov. 

The maps added a new confusion, though, because it appears the place name “Dacia” was still being used by cartographers rather recently. Is it not a pre-Roman term? If any historians read this – educate me!

The second floor of the museum has weapons, though they weren’t all made in Romania. Amongst them is a dagger from Lebanon, a sheath featuring a carving of Genghis Khan’s visage, and a full suit of Ottoman armor. The same floor includes examples of traditional clothing and drawings that ethnographers created when visiting Wallachia and Transylvania in the 1800s showing what kinds of costumes and traditions they witnessed.

Casa Breslelor is all about the various guilds that operated in Sighișoara. It seems every profession had a guild – the carpenter’s guild, the blacksmith’s guild, the hatmakers, the cobblers – even a “combing guild” (I’m guessing this has to do with spinning, weaving, and combing wool as opposed to combing hair). The exhibits demonstrate what tools were used in each craft. There are more cool clothing examples here, particularly a woman’s black velvet headpiece, a Saxon bridal crown, and two beautiful Saxon coats.

I also visited Mystical Transylvania, which has two interactive exhibits. One has four rooms, each of which tell a different story from the history or folklore of Sighișoara. The other has five rooms that take you through the life story of Vlad Dracul III, told from “his perspective.” These exhibits are a bit silly, but informative nonetheless. I didn’t know any of the Sighișoara stories, and had I not already read about Vlad before my trip, I might not have known the true story of the man behind the myth. This was a more fun way to learn these anecdotes than reading a soulless information plaque. It’s 20 lei to visit just one exhibit and 30 lei for both.

Third-party tour operators:
From Brașov: Sighișoara, Viscri, and Rupea Unesco Day Trip
Sighișoara: Candlelight Tour of Dracula’s Home Town
From Brașov: Sighișoara and Viscri UNESCO Day Tour
Sighișoara: City Walking Tour and Dracula House Visit
Sighișoara: 2-Hour City Tour

Getting to Sighişoara from Brașov on Public Transportation

There is a direct train from Brașov to Sighișoara which takes about 3 hours and 15 minutes, or sometimes 3 ½ – 4 hours. The train station in Sighișoara is walking distance from the citadel.

There is one hostel in Sighișoara. I stayed at an apartment called Central Amelie Accommodation which is centrally located with a fantastic view of the clock tower from the roof terrace. I think you could probably see all the main attractions in Sighişoara in just a few hours, though, if you want to make it a day trip and return to Brașov in the evening.

Prejmer and Harman Fortified Churches

Transit Time One-Way: 30 min bus (4 lei) to Prejmer or 15 min bus (4 lei) to Hărman
Entry Fee: 30 lei for Prejmer and 15 lei for Hărman

Transylvania once boasted 300 fortified churches, though only half of these relics from the 13-16th centuries still stand today. 7 of them are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including Biertan, Prejmer, Viscri, Dârjiu, Saschiz-Keisd, Câlnic, and Valea Viilor. 

Biserica Fortificată Prejmer, or Prejmer Fortified Church, is just outside of Brașov. Nearby is another spectacular example of medieval fortified villages which is less visited but equally impressive, the Biserica Evanghelică Fortificată Hărman, or the Hărman Fortified Evangelical Church.

In case of attack by outside forces, people could hole up in the village surrounding the church, which was protected by thick walls. Wooden staircases lead to hundreds of rooms, and tourists can climb some of these stairs today. Some of the rooms have been turned into museum exhibits which display artifacts from the last few hundred years of Romanian history, including more “recent” traditional clothing (the men wore a badass Jimi Hendrix-esque coat!).

The coolest part of visiting Prejmer and Hărman, for me, was that you can go inside the walls and walk around the perimeter of the fortress that way. It’s sort of like walking the ramparts of a castle, where soldiers would have stood to keep an eye out for threats below, but you are not in the open air. These passages are very dark and creepy, which was a great way for me to celebrate the beginning of spooky season this fall!

I also particularly enjoyed the preserved 15th century frescoes in the chapel tower at Hărman.

Tickets and Tours of Brașov’s Fortified Churches

The entrance fee for Prejmer is 30 lei and for Hărman is 15 lei. There are no guided tours offered directly by the staff at the fortresses, but you could always book with a third-party operator.

At Hărman, the ticket agent gave me an English-language laminated information packet. As you walk through the fortress, there are numbers on the walls which correspond to blurbs in the packet. I noticed the same numbers at Prejmer, but nobody gave me an information packet there.

Getting to Prejmer and Hărman Fortified Churches from Brașov on Public Transportation

Prejmer and Hărman are not very far from each other and you can plan on seeing both in the same day. If you start at Brașov Train Station, all you need to do is take the 520 bus which drops you directly in front of Prejmer or the 511 bus which drops you directly in front of Hǎrman.

I started from my accommodation near the main square in Brașov, which meant walking to Livada Poştei bus station, boarding the 1 bus, then transferring at the Vlahuta bus stop to the 520 bus to reach Prejmer. This took about an hour.

After visiting the Prejmer church, I took the 520 bus backwards to the Hǎrman DN bus stop, then walked for 25 minutes to Hărman Fortified Church. If you don’t want to do that walk, depending on the time of day/day of the week you can sometimes transfer from the 520 bus to the 511 bus after getting off at the Hărman DN bus stop, and this will bring you right to the church.

You could also do them in the opposite order, getting off at Hǎrman first and then continuing on to Prejmer after.

Note that the buses have more limited schedules on the weekends. I went on a Saturday and had long wait times for each bus since they weren’t running as frequently.

There is another bus to the fortresses called the “Brașov – Podul Olt – Brașov” bus which doesn’t appear to be run by RATBV. I think this might be similar to the minibus you take from Deva to Hunedoara. It’s worth checking these schedules if the 511 and 520 don’t work with your timing.

I still have time left in Romania and may be updating this post with more day trip and weekend trip ideas from Brașov, but these are the simplest destinations I’ve been able to figure out via public transportation so far. Obviously Bran Castle or Bucharest could be easy additions to the list, but they are so popular (you probably arrived in Romania via Bucharest to begin with) and my aim is to give you other ideas! You might think about Rupea Fortress, Rasnov Fortress, Bâlea Lake, Cantacuzino Castle (where the TV show Wednesday was filmed), Vulcanul Racoș and Emerald Lake.

I expect that many tourists coming to Romania will be curious about how to visit Maramureș, which is located at the northern border quite far away from Brașov. It is possible to reach by public transportation from Brașov via a direct train, but it’s a long overnight train and you will probably want to dedicate a good few days to Maramureș. If I end up writing about this, it will be a separate post.

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