Peles Castle
To start with, you should probably know that the 's' of Peles has an accent on it which makes it pronounced like "Pel-esh". I had read online and even heard from locals that this castle is far nicer than Bran/Dracula Castle. As it turns out, my friends and I totally disagree on that point, and while Peles was nice, we still think Bran was better.
Train to Sinaia
We went on a Sunday and set off on the train from Bucharest at 8.10am and despite a slight delay, arrived at Sinaia station just before 10am. You can check train times, buy tickets online and show them on your phone to the inspector at www.cfrcalatori.ro, or just buy them at the station.
We left our luggage at Sinaia station for 10lei/€2 (open everyday from 7am-7pm) and used the bathroom for a small 1.5lei fee. You will need to show your passport when leaving your luggage so make sure you have it to hand. Sinaia is nestled in forest covered mountains, and is beautifully scenic.
The Long Walk
From Sinaia station to Peles Castle it is an uphill hike, but nothing too difficult if you take your time. It was confusing, as oftentimes there are signs for it pointing in opposite directions. In the end, I think we went the long way around following the road that was meant more for vehicles, and there was probably a shorter route with steps for walking in the other direction.
It took us 20mins to walk from the station to the Monastery. We didn't go in as we were asked to rent a skirt to cover our legs, and my friend took offence to this. I'm not sure if it's because it was a Sunday, as I hadn't read about it online before, but it's something to be careful of if you're a woman in shorts.
It took us another 25mins from there to reach the castle, and that included a stop at a local shop to buy some water and quite a bit of time stopping and trying to see if Google Maps could help us, as we couldn't see the castle and were very unsure if we were even going in the right direction. So overall it was one hour walk from the station to the castle. I had read online it was about 30-40mins, so I'm unsure if we were just very slow or if we went the long way around.
Entry Fee and Tour
By the time we arrived at the castle it was after 11am, and despite seeing no other tourists on the train from Bucharest or on the walk up, we found several coaches parked outside, and the castle was busy with plenty of group tours. We queued up and got a tour quite quickly, but I imagine could be far busier later in the afternoon. There were local women outside selling little baskets of cherries and raspberries for 10lei which were a nice snack after the long walk.
We paid 30lei/€6.50 entry, and there is also another 30lei extra charge if you want to take photos inside. We didn't bother and as it turned out, almost everyone took lots of photos. The groups were so big it was very easy to sneak photos on your phone without being caught (once you didn't use flash) and even if you were caught, you were just told not to take photos or to show your photo pass, there was no real punishment. Therefore I'd advise unless you have a big camera not to bother paying the extra photo charge.
The compulsory guided tour wasn't great, I think it took about 40mins or so. It was very crowded and at times difficult to hear the guide as he wasn't very loud and didn't have the best English, and many people spoke over him to their friends. The interior was quite fancy and decadent, but the tour just wasn't enjoyable and we would have preferred doing it in our own time.
We also had a problem that we couldn't actually get a proper full photo of the exterior of the castle, as when we walked up the lane it was obscured until we reached it, and then we were too close to get it all in one photo. There did appear to be a lane at the bottom of the field in front of the castle that we could see people walking and perhaps there we could have gotten a better photo, but we were just too tired and hungry to check it out.
The Way Back
On the way back to the station we went a little out of our way to stop to eat at a restaurant called Snow which was quite highly rated online. Unfortunately it wasn't worth our time as the service was very, very slow and the food was so bad we couldn't finish it despite being hungry (very greasy and oily). The decor was nice but I wouldn't recommend.
Once finished in Sinaia, you can hop back on another train that will bring you to Brasov, a nice city and a good starting point for day trips to Bran(Draculas) castle as well as the picturesque towns of Sighisoara and Sibiu. The train from Sinaia to Brasov took one hour and cost 14lei/€3, and departs regularly.
Overall, we were glad we went to Sinaia and Peles Castle, but we did favour Bran Castle.
No comments:
Post a Comment