Bran to Magura, Walking in Romania
You might not meet Dracula, but walking from Bran to Magura in Romania, takes you back into history and to little changed villages in the foothills of Carpathians.
Bran Castle is a beautiful mediaeval castle, built on the rocky hilltop, in 1377 by Transylvanian Saxons with the authorization of King Louis I of Hungary.
In 1940 the castle was a defence against Ottoman Empire. In 1920 the castle became the Royal Residence of Queen Maria, Queen’s Victoria granddaughter, who married the King of Romania.
The Bran Castle is known as “Dracula Castle” from Bram Stokers novel Dracula. The name Dracula comes from the Vlad the Impaler’s father surname “Dracul”. The truth is that Dracula Vlad Tepes never lived in the castle. The only Dracula we have seen, was a friendly one outside the castle, at the touristic stalls. Ignoring the kitsch stalls and the crowds the castle is worth exploring. It does have a torture chair, the only scary thing.
After visiting the Castle, you start the trekking from Bran, on the red stripe sign. This is the main route which links Bucegi Mountains to the Piatra Craiului National Park.
The route is easy to medium, through forest and meadows, with great views to both mountains and to the Bran village.
The track description specifies that in about 2 hours you will see the Magura village. At one moment the path goes down directly to the main road of Magura village, you walk about 2 km and you reach a junction. Here you turn to the left and after 300 m you see the guesthouse “ Nea Marin”.
When we saw the village, we did not know what to do as the path was not marked. We went down through the houses to the main road earlier then we suppose to. In the end we arrived to Nea Marin guesthouse walking on the road.
The whole track was 9.67 km. The track had a total ascent of 625.27 m and had a maximum elevation of 1,334.04 m. The time taken was 5.21 hours with a medium effort on rolling hills.
Nestled in the middle of Piatra Craiului National Park, Magura is a picturesque village, where local traditions are preserved. The hay meadows, the sheep grazing on the alpine pastures and horse drawn carts can be seen on the road along the modern cars.
At Nea Marin Guesthouse you can enjoy the tranquil life of the Magura Village and the homemade Romanian food. At the guesthouse was also was filmed the Romanian TV series “Serviti, va rog!”
This was a self guided walk, organised by Active Travel Brasov. Marian from active travel took care of the transport and accommodation.
You can contact Marian at :