If you go to Romania

KALNOKY ESTATE: Miclosoara, Romania; www.transylvaniancastle.com or 011-40-742-202-586. Rooms are available in the main manor as well as in smaller guest houses on the estate. Nightly rates per person, double occupancy, $63 including breakfast. Dinner or lunch, $23 per person. Packages include day trips with tours, activities, food, wine, fees and taxes, $162 per person, as well as deals for weekends, weeklong and longer stays.

GETTING THERE: You can fly to Bucharest's Henri Coanda airport or the city of Targu Mures in central Romania and Kalnoky will arrange transportation to the manor. Trains run hourly from Bucharest to Brasov and Kalnoky will arrange transportation from the station. If you plan to travel farther afield after staying at the manor, you can hire a car at the airport and make the four-hour drive.

THINGS TO DO: Visit the nearby Saxon city of Brasov and the medieval fortress cities of Sighisoara and Sibiu. Sibiu is the European city of culture in 2007. Bran Castle is known as "Dracula's castle" because Vlad the Impaler spent a night there; it's about an hour's drive away. The capital Bucharest is four hours south. In the winter tourists can also go skiing in Poiana Brasov, close to the city.