Nov 3, 2025
This is an excellent tour, our guide was fabulous with lots of local knowledge. This is a long trip but great - Our guide was wonderful, lots of knowledge about Romanian history, architecture and culture. The bears at the sanctuary are well looked after, the enclosures are fenced (electric) which makes taking pictures a little difficult - it would be wonderful if they built a viewing platform so you could take pictures from above without disturbing the bears. All in all a great trip, highly recommend. Ioana was a wonderful guide
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Oct 16, 2025
A well worth tour, with the personal touch. - My son & I were really looking forward to our trip and was not disappointed. Our guide Micheal met us in reception, where we joined a small group of 7x. The day is long so definitely bring snacks, they do stop off for a welcomed pit stop. Our first destination was the Bear Sanctuary, the tour was good with plenty of bears, young, old & cubs to see. We then had a short drive to draculas castle which is steeped in history, and you can spend some time there at the market. Finally onto Brasov this was beautiful and what made the trip was that we all decided to have lunch together in a very traditional Romanian restaurant. Micheal finushed off the day with a personal tour around the town, viewing buildings and explaining the interesting history. It is a long day but very well worth it and we thought great value too.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sep 19, 2025
Very informative and fun tour, a very long day with a lot packed in! - Me and my friend had a tour with Loana and it was a great experience. She was friendly, helpful and extremely informative. The bear sanctuary is great and extremely heart-wrenching. The drive from Bucharest to Brasov is beautiful but very long and winding, definately take some pills if you get car sick! Overall would highly recommend
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sep 1, 2025
Fabulous day out!! - Andre was our tour guide for the day, he arrived promptly on time picking us up from our hotel.
The first stop was at the bear sanctuary which is a 3.5 hour journey from the city centre Andre made toilet stops and refreshment stops on the way due to it being a long journey.
The scenery on the way was amazing and the car was comfy with air con.
When we got to the sanctuary we had a tour round for about an hour, it was an enjoyable place but be warned it's walking up hills so you need good shoes on and there's nowhere to actually sit while they are talking about the bears so if you don't like that sort of thing its not for you as they do go on abit. The kids enjoyed but it went on a it too long for small kids so probably recommended for older kids and people without any health issues as we had an elderly guy on our tour who took ages to catch up and the tour guide didn't wait.
After we got driven on to Bran castle about half an hour away where we got about an hour and 20 mins to look round and have lunch.
Luckily on the day we went there ws no queue so it may be advisable to book tickets in advance if you are going as heard it can get quite busy and whilst you are in there it's quite fast paced as there's so many people in there so you don't get long to look at things with people moving you on and pushing past.
The last stop of the day was Brasov which is a lovely little place to visit with nice restaurants and a nice square/church etc.
Our recommendations is to bring a few snacks and drinks to keep you going as its a long day and you don't have much time to purchase food also you don't really have time for a proper sit down for food until you get to Brasov.
The tour was excellent the only thing we though that could be improved is you really need a bit longer at each place to enjoy it more so you don't feel rushed do maybe 2 hours at each place as we didn't have time to look for souvenirs or have much to eat at Bran castle and my boys were abit disappointed they wanted to take a souvenir back from the castle.
My boys loved Andre and he played them some really good songs in the car to make to fun for them they missed him when we went back to the hotel!
Review provided by Viator
Aug 15, 2025
Bear sanctuary was amazing - We really enjoyed this day trip and our guide Octavian was great. We were in a comfortable van with just one other couple. Bran castle was fun to see but it was so crowded inside, therefore difficult to enjoy fully. The bear sanctuary was amazing and a highlight of our trip in Romania. Brasov was a lovely town and it was nice to spend some time there. Note to the company/other travellers: we didn't eat breakfast before the tour (pick up was at 7.20) and we didn't end up eating lunch until 4.30. I would recommend bringing snacks with you and perhaps an earlier lunch break would have been better.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jul 26, 2025
Wonderful, interesting, moving and fun day out. Would recommend - This was a brilliant experience with great driver/ guide Andrei . Really knowledgeable and interesting. Went to all planned visits, included entrance fees and brilliant chatting as we drove from Bucharest to Transylvania and around and about. Got to know some good details about local family history and sharing interests including local football teams (wonder if Ploiesti does get a Smoggies flag).
Bear sanctuary truly amazing, Drac castle is very interesting I think the tour guide enhanced the experience with his story telling and we were happy to visit despite others views that alternate castles are better. Had a lovely walk round Brasov with time for lunch. Unfortunately I was too tired to go and visit Ploiesti as Andrei offered, I wish I had now. Super trip, could have been longer than the 12 hours if we wanted. Not cheap but definitely worth it. Sorry it's taken so long to put a review on, but thank you again. Visited February 25.
Review provided by Viator
Jun 4, 2025
Top day tour - A fantastic day seeing the bear sanctuary and learning about the bears, Laura was fantastic in telling us the history of Brans castle and Brasov as well showing us Romanian food. Well worth the money!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
May 12, 2025
Trip of a lifetime! - Wow. What a day, something we will never forget. We were picked up in a beautiful car by the wonderful Ioana.
First we headed to the bear sanctuary which was just awe inspiring, what they have achieved and done for the bears is wonderful. The bears looked happy and we got to see them being fed. It was magical.
Next we went to Bran Castle. The castle itself is smaller than I imagined but so beautiful. Some may be disappointed as the only thing similar to Dracula is the outside but we were expecting this and it was still a fabulous place to visit.
A bit crowded but it was fine. Then we headed to Braşov where we were given our own time to have lunch in the beautiful square.
It was absolutely amazing and Ioana gave us amazing tips on what Romanian food to try which was all delicious!
This was seriously such a great trip, Ioana has a wealth of knowledge and passion about her country and I feel like I learned so much that we wouldn’t have otherwise on a bigger tour.
We can’t not mention again the wonderful Ioana who was so friendly and helpful and made the day what it was too. Thanks so much Ioana and we will hope to see you again in future.
Review provided by Viator
Oct 30, 2025
Long, fun day - We liked this tour and would recommend it. Octavian was nice, well-informed and helpful, and the sites were exactly as described. Bran Castle was cool but a bit cheesy, and we could have used a little more time there. Brasov was delightful, could see spending more time there. The bears were interesting and beautiful. It’s a very long day, so be prepared to be gone for 14 or 15 hours.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sep 7, 2025
b - First of all we have no issue with Andre our guide!!! He was very knowlegable and helpful !!!!
Since we only did part of bear tour and did not go into or upto bran castle , we felt ! That we should have had more time in Bran and Brasov !! It was a very rushed tour ! Only really time for lunch in Brasov !! Which was a shame!!
A bit of a disappointing experience !! It would havebtaken longer , had we we done all of the bear tour and gone into bran castle !! We shoul therefore had more time in the other places !
Review provided by Viator
