You’re not likely to be visited by any trick-or-treaters on Halloween if you join G Adventures ghastly (or is it ghostly?) three-day “Halloween Party in Transylvania” tour, because you’ll be roaming the corridors of 14th-century Bran Castle in Romania, now associated with the Dracula legend.
The tour company has rented out the entire estate for its event, which includes a tour, a party tent outdoors, a costume ball, and, just perhaps, a few cases of deep shivers and wails. There are three- and seven-day versions of the event, priced (not including airfare) at $389 and $1499.
In reality, the castle has nothing to do, historically, with the bloodthirsty Wallachian ruler Vlad Tepes, also called Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Dracul, whose name was taken by English novelist Bram Stoker as the basis of Count Dracula. And just as Vlad was no vampire, Bran Castle was no home to Vlad: Stoker just took its eerie appearance as a good start for describing Dracula’s home.
