Bucharest still has some catching up to do before it can compare itself to cities like Prague and Budapest. But what makes Bucharest stand out is its rough-around-the-edges feel, an authenticity that has yet to be reshaped by the machinery of mass tourism.
That the old world architectural elegance rarely exists without a surrounding of rundown concrete creations, adds a poignancy and value to these memories of a pre-Ceaucescu era.
Like a historical snail trail, every era of Romania's life remains in evidence - the intense Latin roots of a country that was renamed in the mid 20th century to emphasize its heritage; the vampiric castles and medieval towns; the monolithic corpses of Ceaucescu's unfinished building projects in and around Bucharest.
The historical and natural landscape of this fascinating country present a lure as mesmerising as Dracula's eyes.
One of the most important of these is the mountainscape of Transylvania, which is under-visited and just as mysterious as it appears in the films. The glacial lakes of Fagaras Mountains are especially good for hiking. There is more to this captivating, culturally diverse region of meadows, forests and valleys than vampires, but the legends are an intriguing start.
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