Our full day tour turned into an epic day! Booking is
from 8:00 however we weren't picked up until 9:00 from our
hotel in Bucharest. Not a bad thing but we had hoped to
leave even earlier, knowing we had a lot of driving ahead of
us. We had a tour guide and also a driver which we hadn't
expected. Both guys were lovely and opened our doors for us
all day long and made great conversation about anything and
everything we wanted to know about. First stop was at Peles
Castle about 2.5 hours away, where we paid 35 lei to get in
hint, pay the 60 lei entry and you get to see an extra bit
of the castle during the tour - keep your ticket on you. If
you want to take photos in this castle, you also need to pay
35 lei at bag check - worth it though, this castle is full
of old world opulence and phenomenal woodworks and
architecture around every corner. Quite a modern castle in
many ways, but just beautiful in it's fairytalesque design.
Outside you can take photos without paying and well worth
having a short look around the gardens. Our guide got to
queue jump so we didn't have to wait long before we could go
in. From Peles there is another decent drive I think 1-1.5
hours to the next stop of Bran Castle. We had lunch in the
town before going in 30 lei entrance fee. This is really a
great Castle and very different in architecture and feel to
Peles. You can pay extra to go into the torture chamber, but
we chose not to. Not too far away about 30 minutes is Rasnov
Fortress where you jump on a tractor driven train to get up
the hill 5 lei for the tractor train and 12 lei for the
fortress. Absolutely stunning view from Rasnov and very
interesting stories too. At the bottom of the hill is the
Dino Park - absolute heaven for kids and big kids. Our guide
was a bit surprised that two women wanted to go in, but we
had a great time checking out the dinosaurs and playing
statues alongside them. Some great activities and play areas
for kids, including treetop walks. From here it's another
short drive to the Valea Cetaii Caves 10 minutes. By this
time with all the hills and stairs you've been climbing all
day, this is the part the hurts the most. A short walk of a
few hundred metres to the entrance, but uphill most of the
way. I think last entry was at 7:00pm, but timed entry every
15 minutes. Another 10 lei here for entry and you walk into
a different world where the temperature remains the same all
year around you might want a jumper as it can feel quite
cold if it's super hot outside. Not having ever seen
stalactites and stalagmites, I found this place fascinating
but I'd expect a lot of kids might not enjoy this as much as
they do the dinosaurs. After this we headed back to
Bucharest and here is where the fun begins.In this area most
of the roads are one lane in each direction so you don't
always move quickly if at all we were went on a Sunday so
may have had extra traffic as a result. As it was we didn't
get back to our hotel until 11:30pm so it really was a full
day tour, but most of what you'll see if from lunchtime
onwards. Make sure to take some evening snacks as it's
possible you won't stop for food on the way back. Our only
feedback to make this tour better would be if all the
entrance fees were included in the price, even if that meant
the guide was paying as we went, if the tickets can't be
booked in advance. As we'd only just arrived in the country
the day prior to this tour, it meant that we had to be ready
with cash in hand for all the entrance fees and they do only
accept lei, not euros. I don't think I could have written
any less for a full review, but if you come across this, I
hope it helps you decide whether to jump on this tour or
not. We'd done a lot of research before booking and
ultimately decided that as we didn't have a lot of time, we
wanted to fit in as much as we possibly could and this is
the tour for that. Other tours might give you more time in a
couple of locations, but this one, you will see loads and
have a very fun and random experience with dinosaurs too
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