Why this ride
Sustained elevation change, linked bends and open summit views. It also links naturally to Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Bran-Rucar Corridor
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 90 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 56
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Access context
High passes are seasonal. Verify surface, weather and construction status. Specific flag: traffic.
Seasonal context
Apr-Oct
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Braşov
Brașov is a city built against a mountain. The wooded slope of Tâmpa rises straight from the old town, topped by a giant white sign in the style of Hollywood, and a cable car takes you to the summit for the view over red tiled roofs and the Carpathian foothills. Behind the city the high peaks of the Postăvarul and Piatra Mare ranges ring the horizon, and winter snow lies on them from late autumn.
Read the complete Braşov write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Braşov sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Bran.
2. Bran
Bran is the village with the castle that the whole world calls Dracula's, and that is both its fortune and its problem. The castle, perched on a rock above the road, was built in the late fourteenth century by the Saxons of Brașov as a fortress and customs post guarding the pass between Transylvania and Wallachia. There is no solid evidence that Vlad the Impaler, the real figure behind the legend, ever spent much time here, and Bram Stoker never visited Romania, but the castle looks the part, and the tourist industry has run with it. In the twentieth century it was a royal residence, much loved by Queen Marie, and its rooms are furnished in her style.
Read the complete Bran write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Bran comes up 20 km in. Next is Rucăr.
3. Rucăr
Rucăr is a long village in the upper Dâmbovița valley, on the Wallachian side of the old pass from Bran, and for centuries it was the frontier post where merchants paid their dues before crossing into Transylvania. It sits in a broad green valley between the Piatra Craiului to the north and the hills of the Muscel to the south, and it has the feel of a mountain village that has been lived in for a long time, with old stone and timber houses, orchards and a big Orthodox church.
Read the complete Rucăr write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
At least 44 km in you reach Rucăr. Next is Câmpulung.
4. Câmpulung
Câmpulung, often called Câmpulung Muscel to tell it apart from its namesake in Bukovina, has a claim that most Romanians learn in school: it was the first capital of Wallachia. In the early fourteenth century, the first princes of the new state ruled from here before moving to Curtea de Argeș and later to Târgoviște and Bucharest. The town sits at the foot of the Carpathians on the Râul Târgului, at the southern end of the corridor that leads up to the Bran pass, and it has a long history as a market town and trading post between Wallachia and Transylvania.
Read the complete Câmpulung write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Câmpulung, late in the day.