Peleş Castle, the Royal Estate of Sinaia

As I’ve told you before, our weekend getaway to Busteni was complete with a little blogger meetup with Vlad and John, with whom we visited one of the most beautiful castles in Romania (and one of the most famous ones too), Peles Castle (Peles meaning BELT in Romanian – this was new info for me too!).

Nestled among the dramatic Carpathian Mountains, Sinaia is a highly popular resort town visited by tens of thousands of tourists each year. Besides the castle, the town boasts plenty of other interesting attractions, such as the casino, the monastery, the beautiful railway station and two cable cars leading up to the Bucegi mountains, which offer scenic views over the area. These sites though usually pale in comparison to the infamous Peles Castle, and from the look of it, it’s quite understandable why:

Peles Castle, Romania

We arrived late to our appointment with the gang, but ended up being first at the castle, as we have taken a different route than the boys (which we realized later). While we were waiting a huge group went inside and I was secretly glad that we didn’t have to go in with a huge group. 10 minutes passed, the boys arrived, we went to the entrance and I was glad to see there was nobody else. Another 10 minutes passed as we waited for our guide, and whilst we put our elegant slippers on, a crowd made its way inside.

But at least our slippers were blue. 😀

Visiting Peles Castle Romania

I visited Peles Castle twice already, once with my parents when I was less than 5 years old and once on a class field trip. I had some vague memories of the place, however I never thought I would be so awestruck by the interior. As we started the tour we checked out the lobby and the main staircase. I’ve gotta tell you that one particular extremely detailed piece of staircase was so amazing, it was the most beautiful thing I’ve seen all day! See for yourselves:

Peles Castle, Romania

Pretty impressive right? As we moved on with our tour I found something almost as amazing as this handcrafted staircase: the weapons room, boasts nearly 1000 arms, spades and guns, and also has an amazing copy of the royal crown.

Weapon's Room, Peles Castle

We strolled through the King’s Library which has a secret staircase and more than 600 valuable volumes, which have the loveliest book-binds I’ve ever seen! One of my other favorite rooms was the music room, which had a couple of instruments lying around along with an 1800-pipe organ, which was restored 4 years ago and still works today.

Music Room at Peles Castle

As we were moving along with the crowd, I couldn’t help but notice the extravagant detail in every room which was almost nerve-wracking at times. I mean every little item in a room had even more little items on it, all of which served a decorative purpose! The lavishness can be seen in every single room, starting from the Oriental Room to the dining area.

Oriental Room at Peles Castle

Chandelier at Peles castle

For me, the tour ended too quickly (although we definitely spent more than an hour inside), because I would’ve happily wandered around the castle on my own for at least a couple of hours. I am really glad I went to see Peles in March, because as a kid I couldn’t quite appreciate the majesticity and the beauty of it and now I’m finally grown up enough to truly cherish it!

When you get outside don’t forget to walk through the beautifully maintained gardens and sculptures which make the whole place even more beautiful! (as if the architectural wonder of the castle wasn’t enough :)!)

Peles Castle, Romania

King Carol I by Raffaello Romanelli

Peles Castle, Romania

Practical Info:

Summer Schedule: Monday: Closed

Tuesday: 11:00 – 16:15

Wednesday – Sunday: 09:15 – 16:15

PriceMain LevelTour: Adults: 20 Ron / Seniors: 10 Ron / Students: 5 Ron (Duration: 45 mins)

Main Level + 1st Floor Tour: Adults: 50 Ron / Seniors: 25 Ron / Students: 12.5 Ron (Duration: 1 hr 15 mins)

Photo Tax: 32 Ron / Video Tax: 53 Ron

Where: Sinaia

Good to Know: The photo tax might not be worth it, because you aren’t allowed to use a flash and you don’t really have time to surf through the crowd and use your tripod.

Here are the boys’ rendition of the day:

Through My Lens – the Beautiful Peles Castle ~ via Vlad

Peles Castle – an Easy Day Trip from Bucharest ~ via John

Pin Now, Read Later:

Visit Peles Castle, Romania

Thank you Peles Castle for the wonderful complementary tour! As usual, all opinions are my own.

12 Responses to “Peleş Castle, the Royal Estate of Sinaia

  • Love your photos Adri! You managed to get some really nice shots from inside – most of mine came out mega blurry 🙁

    • Thanks! I was really lucky with Arpi, he was the one who took all of them while I was trying to pay attention to the guide (and failed miserably on the main level because of the crowd :)) )

  • Your photos are very lovely! When did you take the photo of the slippers though? haha.

  • To me, this is the most beautiful castle in Europe, not only because of the castle itself, but the natural surroundings and even the way to Sinaia (next time I will go by train). Not to forget the sister castle of Pelișor.

    • Aww 🙂 I love it too, it is extremely beautiful and also unique. You need to come back to Romania!

      • I am planning to do exactly that, and then travel around the whole country, living in a different region every few weeks.

        • That’s so cool! Maybe I should do something similar. There’s always plenty to see and some regions are just too far from Tg Mures.

          • Actually, that had been my plan initially. I looked at the map and thought “oh, Targu Mures is right in the center, there are trains to everywhere, it’s a perfect base for exploring all of Romania”. Obviously, I completely under-estimated the size of the country and over-estimated the speed of the trains.
            Now I know how to do it better.

          • Ah yes, the golden CFR, a total disappointment…

          • I still like them, actually, but you need a loooooot of time and books on these journeys.

          • Not to mention a ton of patience and no sense of smell 🙂

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