So what are you doing for Halloween? My 15-year-old daughter is
dressing up as a punker (if that's this week's word) and heading
out to collect her annual supply of chocolate, some of which I hope
she gives me.
If you and I were more imaginative, here's what we could have
been doing today. We could have been on the fourth day of a
seven-day, six-night tour of Transylvania, looking up old Count
Dracula.
The tour is offered by Romantic Travel of Bucharest, Romania,
and you can read all about it here.
On this fourth day, we'd be at the hotel described in the pages
of Bram Stoker's "Dracula," as the "Golden Crone" and described by
Romantic Travel as "Castle Dracula" in Borgo Pass.
Tonight (Romanian time) we'd be at a Halloween Masque-Ball in
the Dracula Castle followed by an overnight stay in the castle
hotel. I would imagine sleeping quite soundly under those
circumstances.
We'd wake up tomorrow morning and, in the words of the tour
material, "stamp your diploma to know that you have not dreamt it
all."
Then we'd round out the Romanian tour with visits to Brasov and
Bran.
If you can put fifteen or more together, this itinerary is
priced at $594, with a $110 single supplement for anyone brave
enough to be alone in a room at Dracula's castle.
All the hotels on the itinerary, which includes Bucharest, are
described as three and four star.
Romantic Travel says it is a Romanian-based tour operator
specializing in "adventure into mythology...some terrible, other
loving, in a country which is so rich in beauties of all
kinds."
I can vouch for the beauty of the country, based on a long-ago
visit to Bucharest. Romania is a country that has seen many dark
hours but is among the most fascinating places in Europe. I haven't
checked but I gather that it doesn't have to be Halloween to
arrange the Transylvania trip.
In addition to that itinerary, the operator offers ski holidays,
cruises to the Danube Delta, and rental villas in the
Carpathians.
The e-mail address for the operator is [email protected].
The Web page is www.rotravel.com.