Brașov, Transylvania, Romania

Day 1

• Council Square and the Council House

  The Saxon square lined with pastel houses and the 15th-century council house with its trumpeter's tower: this is Brașov's drawing room, with cafés under the arcades and the mountain closing the view.

• The Black Church

  The largest Gothic church between Vienna and Istanbul, blackened by the 1689 fire that gave it its name. Inside it holds one of the biggest collections of Anatolian carpets outside Turkey, donated by Saxon merchants, and a 19th-century organ played at summer concerts.

• Bran Castle

  The 1377 fortress on the pass between Transylvania and Wallachia, sold to the world as 'Dracula's castle': in fact Vlad the Impaler never lived there and Bram Stoker never set foot in Romania. It remains a fine castle with secret stairs and a courtyard, but buy your ticket from the official site: online resellers mark it up heavily.

Day 2

• Peleș Castle, Sinaia

  King Carol I's neo-Renaissance summer residence, among the most opulent in Europe: carved woodwork, armouries and the country's first electric light. Ticket 100 lei (pensioners 50, students 25), Pelișor 30 lei; closed Mondays and Tuesdays, and for conservation between early November and early December.

• Mount Tâmpa and the cable car

  The mountain looming over the centre, with its Hollywood-style sign on top and the view over all those red roofs. You go up in minutes by cable car or in an hour on foot along the Serpentina switchbacks: the prices circulating online contradict each other, so check at the lower station.

• Strada Sforii (Rope Street)

  Barely over a metre wide between two walls scrawled on for decades: built as a service passage for firefighters, it's one of Europe's narrowest streets. It takes thirty seconds to walk, but it's the photo everyone takes in Brașov.

Day 1

• Șchei, St Nicholas' church and the First Romanian School✦ hidden gem

  The district where Romanians were confined outside the walls of the Saxon town: St Nicholas' church with its hillside cemetery and, beside it, the museum of the first Romanian-language school, with incunabula and the old classroom untouched. Fifteen minutes' walk from the centre and almost no tourists.

• The Weavers' Bastion and the walls✦ hidden gem

  The weavers' bastion, with wooden galleries on four levels, is the best-preserved piece of the fortifications: inside it keeps a wooden model of 17th-century Brașov. From there run the Dupa Ziduri promenade and the paths up to the White and Black towers.

• Râșnov Citadel✦ hidden gem

  The peasants' citadel on the hill above Râșnov, where villages took refuge during invasions: walls, a very deep well and a view of the Bucegi mountains. Less crowded than Bran and fifteen minutes away by car: check the state of the consolidation works before going.

Day 2

• Șapte Scări Canyon (Seven Ladders)✦ hidden gem

  A narrow gorge in the Piatra Mare massif climbed by seven metal ladders between waterfalls and limestone walls: two hours' walk from the car park, spectacular in summer and closed when it freezes. There's a zipline for the way down, too.

• Libearty bear sanctuary, Zărnești✦ hidden gem

  The refuge that houses dozens of brown bears rescued from circuses, restaurants and chains: visits by booking only, at set times, walking the wooded enclosures with a guide. It's also the right way to see a bear in Romania — the ones on the roadside should be neither approached nor fed.

Day 1

• Papanași and bulz

  The Transylvanian dessert par excellence is papanași, fried sweet-cheese doughnuts with sour cream and sour cherries; on the savoury side the mountain dish is bulz, polenta stuffed with smoked cheese and baked, often with an egg and bacon.

• Ciorbe, sarmale and Saxon cooking

  In the trattorias of the centre, Romanian cooking (sour ciorbe, sarmale, pork stews) sits alongside the Saxon recipes of old Kronstadt, richer and more spiced. In winter, get a hot ciorbă inside you before heading up the mountain.

• Kürtőskalács and local beer

  The chimney cake, or kürtőskalács, is the spiral pastry baked over coals and rolled in sugar or walnuts, a legacy of Hungarian Transylvania: buy it hot from the kiosks on the square. To drink, local craft beers and plum țuică.