When you’ve traveled to most of the beautiful or iconic locations around the world, your next step is to visit the more off-the-beaten-path destinations. Singles Travel International recently hosted a group of singles on a Danube river cruise from Bucharest, Romania, to Belgrade, Serbia, with stops in Bulgaria and Croatia.

As well as learning about the Communist history and many revolutions in these areas, we visited several stunning castles: Peles Castle, the home of the first royal couple of Romania; Cantacuzino Castle in Busteni; and, the most famous, Bran Castle.

We may all know of Bran Castle from Bram Stoker’s Dracula; however, this castle’s other-worldly heritage is all fiction! On Nov. 19, 1377, the Hungarian King Louis the Great – Louis I of Anjou – granted the people of Brasov the privilege of building a castle.

Completed in 1388, the castle stood at the Eastern border of Transylvania and served as a fortress, inhabited by professional soldiers, or mercenaries. For the next few centuries, its main job was as a garrison whereby to defend against Ottoman expansion.

The infamous Vlad the Impaler (Vlad Tepes), who Bram Stoker loosely fashioned his fictional Dracula character on, likely never even set foot inside the castle! In 1920, the citizens of Brașov offered the castle to Queen Maria of Romania as a gift for her efforts in unifying Transylvania with Romania.

Our group of singles had an exclusive after-hours guided visit of the castle followed by dinner at the Queen’s Tea House on the grounds. And while we didn’t see Dracula, we did get a glimpse into Romania’s storied past!