The best walks and hikes in Brașov

You can slip off the rocks! Be very careful on the descents! I cut my elbow when I took a curve.

The entrance to the Seven Ladders Gorge is also the starting point for zip line adventurers. Downhill, there are a total of 37 such zip lines (called Tiroliana in Romania), which you can hook into using a double pulley. Gravity takes over the rest, with a cable incline of between two and four degrees. The total length is four kilometers; the shortest individual section measures 47 meters, and the longest 273 meters.

The Șurii de Piatră mountain stream plunges spectacularly 58 meters into the Seven Ladders Gorge (Canionul Șapte Scări) over seven steps carved into the Jurassic limestone. Visitors, who are literally within touching distance of the waterfalls, negotiate the stone steps, which are between two and a half and fifteen meters high, using steel ladders connected by metal mesh walkways. The most dramatic ladder is the third: it rises fifteen meters almost vertically and is secured with bars to prevent anyone from falling backward. But that's the only safety feature in the gorge. Right next to the left handrail, the water roars impetuously into the depths. An experience!

To reach the Seven Ladders Gorge, you have to hike a good four kilometers uphill from the town of Timișu de Jos through the Piatra Mare Mountains, always following the Șurii de Piatră mountain stream, which also carved the gorge into the rock further up. In total, the approach takes just under an hour and a half and involves climbing 260 meters, occasionally surrounded by zipline adventurers who, suspended from a pulley on a rope, use gravity to crisscross the canyon.

Entrance tickets are available at this hut, just before the entrance to the gorge. A large signboard explains in several languages the potential dangers that can be expected when climbing the ladders. Once you've hiked this far, you won't be deterred by them.

Bran Castle's current appearance, with its dramatic location and ominous atmosphere, has been created through numerous additions and modifications to the medieval fortifications. It provides the perfect backdrop for tourists who want to imagine Dracula's castle here.

In September 1940, Princess Ileana of Romania had the coffin containing the heart of her mother, Queen Maria, who died in 1938, brought to Bran. The queen had used the castle here as a beloved summer residence. The previous burial site, the Stella Maris Chapel in Balchik on the Black Sea, had recently been ceded from Romania to Bulgaria as part of the Southern Dobruja region. In this small crypt at the edge of the forest overlooking Bran Castle, the queen's heart (her body was interred in the cathedral church of Curtea de Argeș) was "temporarily stored" until the copy of the Stella Maris Chapel in the valley was completed.

The origins of Bran Castle (German: Törzburg) date back to the early 13th century, when it was initially built as a wooden fortress called Dietrichstein by the Teutonic Knights under the patronage of King Andrew II of Hungary to defend the strategically important pass between Transylvania and Wallachia against invading troops. In 1377, the Transylvanian Saxons of Kronstadt (Brașov) were granted the privilege of building a stone castle. This example of medieval architecture underwent numerous alterations and expansions over the centuries. In the 1920s, the castle became the residence of Queen Marie of Romania, who significantly altered and modernized its interior. Bran Castle's connection to the Dracula legend is a fascinating blend of history, literature, and folklore. Largely a product of the 20th century, this connection owes much to the atmospheric descriptions in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel "Dracula." Although Stoker never visited Romania, his depiction of Dracula's castle was inspired by descriptions of Eastern European castles—and Bran Castle, with its dramatic location and menacing appearance, fits this vision remarkably well.