Happy Halloween! Revisiting My Trip to Dracula’s Castle Last Year

It’s Halloween and what is more festive than the fabled Bran Castle (known as Dracula’s castle). Here is my take from partying there last year.

I’ve been excited about heading to Transylvania to attend a Halloween party at Bran Castle since I booked the trip this summer. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, we flew to Bucharest, Romania on KLM (more here) and then stayed at The Marmorosch Hotel, Autograph Collection for a night (review here). We then had a driver take us to Bran where we stayed at the Bran Chalet (review here). The party was held on October 28th and it was amazing to be able to explore the castle at night and all decked out in spooky decor, to have a vampire-inspired dinner, and then to party with hundreds of other costumed revelers in a huge tent on the castle grounds.

Tickets for the event ranged from around $53 (250 lei) for entrance to the party and a self-guided castle tour to Halloween Dinner at Queen Marie’s Tea House for around $129 (600 lei) to The Count Special Guest package (which we did) for about $172 (800 lei) per person.

We arrived around 9:00 PM decked out in our scary costumes. The sky had an ominous glow that made it feel extra spooky.

We wandered the grounds for a bit before heading inside the restaurant for our 9:30 PM reservation.

The restaurant was decked out for the holiday.

There was a fixed menu with four courses in a vampire theme. Service was extremely slow and unorganized. With everyone getting the same dishes, you’d think it would be more efficient.

Bread with Black Garlic Butter was on the table when we arrived.

We were then offered our glass of wine. The dinner only includes one glass of wine per person and other beverages are for sale. Given its price, this seemed cheap and an additional cash grab on the part of the restaurant.

Luckily, wine was inexpensive and we grabbed a bottle of rosé for around $20.

The first course arrived around 45 minutes after we were seated. The Blood Sausage in Crispy Dough was tasty and the black thing on the plate was actually cheese. It also tasted much better than it looked.

After another 45 minutes or so the second course was brought out. The Scary Good Fish was sea bream served with a pumpkin puree. The fish was overcooked and had multiple bones. The flavors were okay, but the dish was not that good.

Another 30 or so minutes passed and the third course arrived. The Steak to Kill for and Devour was delicious. It was cooked medium rare and the carrot puree was also tasty. We decided to leave after this course and did not stay for dessert. We wanted to check out the castle and the party. With the slow pace and disorganization we were not sure how much longer we would be waiting.

We made our way up the hill to Bran Castle and got to walk through and explore at our own pace.

The decorations were on point and they had actors interacting with guests throughout the castle.

It was so cool to be able to wander through a real-life haunted castle and explore history while in a costume.

We got to meet Vlad himself.

And, whoever this was cackling about her bat son.

Someone lost their teeth.

We then made our way back down from the castle to the party tent below.

There were bars both inside and outside the tent

It was packed with a DJ and tons of people dancing.

We had a good time taking pictures and dancing along with a few hundred revelers.

Everyone was costumed and the DJ played some great music.

We stayed until a little after 2:00 AM, which is way past my bedtime.

Anthony’s Take: If you have ever wanted to visit Transylvania and Bran Castle, the week around the holiday is the best time to go. This party provided us with a unique opportunity to party in a macabre atmosphere and take in a little history at the same time.