Visit Hotel Transylvania 2 in real life

Welcome to Transylvania! Or should I say Hotel Transylvania 2? The cobblestoned pathways will take you into the heart of Romania, into a land of mystery, legends, people with inspiring stories, historic streets, picturesque villages, heart-stopping fortresses and castles. It will make you wonder what better travel destination than Romania, who matches magic with splendour?

Hotel Transylvania 2 tries to give a taste of Transylvania, the land of fairy tales. The story takes its characters intro an adventure you can’t miss.

And by the way, did you know that you can now leave reviews on TripAdvisor for Hotel Transylvania? Crazy!

Let’s say you want to come to Transylvania and to follow the steps of Dracula, but did you know where to come? Transylvania is in the heart of Romania, surrounded by the Carpathians, wild mountains with tall and abrupt cliffs, home to rare fauna and flora.

Since the movie became a phenomenon, we wanted to show you Transylvania and the fact that it exists. What you see in the movie is a fantasy, but in reality it’s much better.

For example, how you think Dracula’s Castle looks like vs. how it actually looks like:

Did you know that Bran Castle has a beautiful garden? Of course, you did! In the movie, Dennis (or Denisovich as Dracula calls his grandchild) celebrates his one year anniversary in the garden. But what you saw there is quite different. In reality, the garden is impressive. It has a beautiful vine-covered house, a small lake, lots of trees and benches, a cobblestoned road that will take you all the way to the entrance of the castle.

What you saw and what it actually looks like:

But what about the interior of the castle? Don’t know?

In Hotel Transylvania 2 there are multiple sequences with the interior. But in reality the Castle is far more interesting:

When you enter the castle, at the ground floor you’ll go through the guard room, the vestibule, the former royal dining room, the kitchen, the fountain, the chapel of prince Mircea. Upstairs you will find the Queen’s bedroom, the crossing room, the Castellan room, the large lounge and the secret staircase.

At the second floor, you can find: the vestibule and the secret staircase, Biedermeier parlor, the bedroom of King Ferdinand and the dining room, costumes room, weapons room, cinema room and the defence corridor.

Oh, did I mention the monsters? The monsters from the movie aren’t so scary, but nor are the ones from Romania. They are wilder if I might say so. I am talking about bears, wolves, lynx, wildcats, wild boar, European bisons, pine martens and so many other species. The interesting fact is that about 60% of Europe’s bear population and 40% of its wolf population are located in the Romanian Carpathians.

Vampires though are now part of the legend. In this part of the world the popular legends speaking of moroi, the local name for vampires, are stronger than anywhere.

Returning to Hotel Transylvania 2, the adventure is starting to breadth when Drac takes Dennis to a summer camp through the ”dark forests of Slobozia”.

Fun fact: in Romania Slobozia exists, but the forests are not dark, on the contrary.

As you can see on the map Slobozia is quite far from Transylvania.

As they get closer to the camp they walk through the forest, but the image is really different from what you can see in Transylvania.

What you imagine Transylvania looks like vs. what you can see in real life:

Imagined and real:

As they arrive at the destination, to the Camp Winnepacaca — the camp for vampires. You won’t see something like that in Romania. You’ll see beautiful small heart-stopping houses build in the forests with scenic landscape, an oasis for travellers. There are lots of small villages in Transylvania that can offer a trip worth remembering.

Attractions in Transylvania

One of the most known is the small, fortified medieval towns — Sighisoara, which played an important strategic and commercial role on the fringes of central Europe for several centuries.

Sighisoara fortress is the only inhabited mediaeval fortress in South-East Europe, being part of the UNESCO heritage. This makes it a true tourist destination and on top of all most of the people who visited it fall in love instantly with this heavenly place. The beautiful thing is that every year is organised The Medieval Festival Sighisoara, where you can feel like in the Middle Ages. This is perfect for Game of Thrones fans because they can see all that medieval turmoil, people dressed in medieval clothes, walking and shopping, acting so normal for that period.

A visit to Bran Castle, the well known Dracula’s Castle is a must when you decide to visit Transylvania. Set strategically atop a 60-metre cliff, the castle is towering over the most important access route into Transylvania. Bran Castle or Dracula Castle boasts a museum spread over four floors of the castle which houses furniture items of inestimable value.

Poenari Fortress is a great place to get a spooky image. It was the former place of refuge for Dracula, the ruler of Walachia, who retreated here when fleeing foreign invaders. There is also an interesting legend about how the fortress was built by the demands of Vlad the Impaler aka. Dracula, that you should definitely listen when you come to visit it.

Not to mention the fact that you could see a lot of bears, since Romania is home to more than a third of the bear population of Europe, in one of the largest animal welfare projects in Europe — LiBEARty Sanctuary. On top of that, you can even “adopt” a bear. Founded in the memory of Maya, a female brown bear with a very sad destiny, the sanctuary from Zarnesti is a great place for couples, families, adventure and all kind of trips you want to make.

Also, starting from this year at Zarnesti was opened the first Teddy Bear Museum in Romania.

Romania is indeed a bear-lover country and LiBEARty Sanctuary is a place worth visiting so be sure to put it on your MUST SEE list.

Source: Metro

So stop dreaming and start exploring the real beauties of Transylvania. As I’m always saying ”We are craving for experiences…living for adventures”.

If you want to experience the real adventure of Dracula, we have a thematic tour following the steps of Dracula through Romania.

The End

Originally published at www.rolandia.eu on March 15, 2016.