Bran Castle, Transylvania
Dracula’s Castle
Book online for the date you want and skip the line at the ticket office.
See Tickets & Prices
Bran Castle Tickets
Choose your ticket and date below. We email your tickets within 15 minutes, ready to show on your phone at the entrance.
Choose Your Ticket
Daily entry is limited and sells out quickly.
Book in advance so you're not turned away at the door.
Standard Ticket
Castle & Royal Park entry.
Time Tunnel + Torture Exhibit add ons available.
Royal Tour + Fast Pass
Skip the line castle entry + Royal Park.
Time Tunnel + Torture Exhibit included.
Guided Royal Tour + Fast Pass
Skip the line castle entry + Royal Park.
Time Tunnel + Torture Exhibit included.
New Moon Halloween
Halloween specialA Halloween visit to the castle.
Torture Exhibit included.
Discounts for children, seniors and students vary by ticket. Bring ID or a student card for any discounted ticket.
Please be aware, tickets sell out fast.
Before You Book
Bran is one of Romania's busiest attractions. An online ticket holds your place for the date you choose, and because it arrives by email, you can skip the ticket-office queue when you get there.
Ticket Prices
Prices start at:
€33 Adults (18+)
€28 Seniors (65+)
€25 Students
€22 Children (5–17)
Children under 5 enter free.
How Long to Plan For
Allow about 2 hours for the castle and the Royal Park, and closer to 3 if you add the Time Tunnel and the Torture Rooms. The path up to the entrance is steep. Leave time for the village too, where cafés and a large souvenir market line the road to the castle.
Opening Hours
Tuesday to Sunday
09:00 to 19:00 (last entry)
Monday
12:00 to 19:00 (last entry)
Entry is every hour, on the hour.
All times are local to Romania.
Hours can change on public holidays and during events.
Book Your TicketsInside Dracula's Castle
The border fortress that Queen Marie of Romania made her summer home
What You'll See
You follow a set route through the castle, on narrow stairs that climb between its floors.
Faster entry. Royal Tour tickets include a Fast Pass, which gives you a separate priority lane to the castle entrance. On a hot summer afternoon, that lane can save you a long wait.
The fortress. With the King of Hungary's permission, the people of nearby Brașov built Bran in the late 1300s to guard the Bran pass. The pass was the mountain road between Transylvania and Wallachia, the principality to the south, and the castle's small garrison collected a 3% toll on goods crossing it. From the wooden balconies you look down over the valley.
Queen Marie's home. In 1920 the city of Brașov gave the castle to Queen Marie of Romania, a granddaughter of Britain's Queen Victoria, to thank her for championing Romania during the First World War. She turned the old garrison rooms into a family home with carved furniture and painted ceramics, and you walk through those rooms on your visit.
The Torture Rooms. Under the low vaulted ceilings of the castle's older stone chambers stands a collection of punishment devices used in medieval Europe, among them a spiked chair, a stretching rack and an iron maiden. Both Royal Tour tickets include this exhibit.
The Time Tunnel. Because Queen Marie suffered from arthritis, she had a lift built to carry her from the castle down to her park. That route now takes you through the rock and along a tunnel with a sound-and-light show about Bran's legends. It comes with Royal Tour tickets, and at the exit the Oculus gift shop prints you a souvenir photo.
The Royal Park. Your ticket also covers the park at the foot of the castle. Queen Marie laid it out as an English-style garden with two ponds and a tea house, and the Casa de Ceai (Tea House) restaurant still serves visitors there.
Standard Ticket holders can add the Torture Chamber, the Time Tunnel, or both when booking online.
Choose Your TicketTwo Draculas
Vlad the Impaler
Vlad III ruled Wallachia, the principality just south of Bran, three times between 1448 and 1476. His father, Vlad II, had joined the Order of the Dragon, a brotherhood of Christian nobles sworn to fight the Ottoman Empire, and took the name Dracul, meaning "the dragon". In some of his letters the son signed himself Dracula, "son of the dragon". Romanians later called him Țepeș, the Impaler, after the way he executed his enemies.
His link to Bran is thin. In 1459 his army came through the Bran pass to attack Brașov, whose German-speaking Saxon merchants had backed a rival for his throne. A 2002 book argues that the King of Hungary held Vlad prisoner at Bran for two months in 1462, and historians still debate the claim.
Read the story →Count Dracula
Count Dracula is the vampire in Dracula, the 1897 novel by the Irish writer Bram Stoker. Stoker managed a London theatre and never travelled to Romania. His Transylvania came from travel books and maps he read in English libraries.
In the novel, the count's castle stands at the edge of a steep drop above a river valley. Bran is the Transylvanian castle that best fits that description, and some historians believe Stoker saw an engraving of it in an 1865 English travel book. Visitors have called Bran "Dracula's Castle" for decades, and every autumn the castle stages its own Halloween version of the legend.
Read the story →Stories from Bran
HISTORY & LEGENDS
The Prince Behind the Name
How a 15th-century prince of Wallachia gave his name to Bram Stoker's vampire, and what the records say about his links to Bran.
Read the story →
HISTORY & LEGENDS
From Border Fortress to Royal Home
Why the people of Brașov built a fortress in the Bran pass in the late 1300s, and how it became Queen Marie's favourite home.
Read the story →Frequently Asked Questions
For summer and Halloween visits, yes. Tickets often sell out well ahead at those times. On quieter dates, an online ticket still saves you the queue at the ticket office.
For a first visit, we suggest the Royal Tour + Fast Pass. It adds the Torture Rooms and the Time Tunnel, and its priority lane helps on busy days. If you mainly want the castle rooms and the Royal Park, the Standard Ticket covers both. The Guided Royal Tour adds a guide who speaks English or Romanian, with tours leaving every hour.
Both Royal Tour tickets include them. The Standard Ticket covers the castle and Royal Park. You can add the Torture Chamber for €10, the Time Tunnel for €10, or both for €18 per person when booking online.
We email your tickets within 15 minutes. Show them on your phone at the entrance, or print them if you'd rather.
All sales are final.
Entry is every hour from 09:00 to 19:00, Tuesday to Sunday, and from 12:00 to 19:00 on Mondays. All times are local to Romania.
Plan on about 2 hours for the castle and the Royal Park. With the Time Tunnel and the Torture Rooms, allow about 3.
Yes. Bring ID for child and senior tickets, and a student card for student tickets. The discounts on offer vary by ticket type.
Yes. When people say Dracula's Castle, they almost always mean Bran. The nickname comes from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula. The castle's own history goes back to 1377, when the King of Hungary gave the people of Brașov permission to build it.
The bus from Brașov's Bus Station No. 2 (Autogara 2) takes about 45 minutes. By taxi or car it's about 40 minutes along the DN73 road. See Getting to Bran below for details.
Yes. Bran village has several paid car parks a short walk from the entrance. The castle doesn't run them, so you pay on site.
The castle has steep, narrow stairs and isn't suitable for wheelchairs or strollers. A baby carrier works better for small children. If you have questions about access, contact us before you book.
Getting to Bran
Bran is a village about 30 km southwest of Brașov, the nearest city, and about 3 hours by road from Bucharest. Most visitors travel through Brașov.
Brașov to Bran
About 45 minutes by bus
Buses for Bran and Moeciu leave Bus Station No. 2 (Autogara 2) in Brașov about every 30 minutes on weekdays and about once an hour at weekends. Pay the driver in lei when you board. The bus stops in Bran village, a few minutes' walk from the castle entrance.
Departure: Bus Station No. 2 (Autogara 2), Brașov
Journey time: about 45 minutes
Fare: about 15 lei (roughly €3), paid to the driver
Before you travel: check the time of the last bus back to Brașov
Bucharest to Brașov
Train to Brașov, then bus or taxi
Trains from Bucharest North station (Gara de Nord) reach Brașov in about 2.5 to 3 hours, with departures through the day. No trains run to Bran, so you finish the trip by bus or taxi from Brașov.
Departure: Bucharest North (Gara de Nord)
Journey time: about 2.5 to 3 hours to Brașov
Tickets: CFR Călători, Romania's national rail company, sells them online and at the station
Onward journey: bus or taxi from Brașov (see the By Bus and By Taxi tabs)
Driving to Bran
Follow the DN73 from Brașov
From Brașov, take the DN73 southwest through Râșnov to Bran, about 30 km and 40 minutes. From Bucharest, allow about 3 hours. The DN1 through the Prahova Valley, the main road between Bucharest and Brașov, is often slow at weekends.
Castle address: Strada General Traian Moșoiu 24, Bran 507025
Parking: paid car parks in the village, a short walk from the entrance
Before you travel: in winter, check conditions on the DN73
Taxi or Private Transfer
About 40 minutes from Brașov
A taxi or private transfer from Brașov takes you straight to the castle, with no bus to catch. Agree the price of the round trip before you set off.
Drop-off: the castle entrance, in the centre of Bran village
Return: set a pickup time with your driver
Before you travel: save the taxi company's number for the trip back
Ask Us About Your Visit
Send us your question about tickets or travel to Bran, and we'll reply by email within 24 hours.