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ContactSinaia exists because the Romanian royal family wanted a mountain retreat within reach of Bucharest, and the result is a small Prahova-valley town with two of the country's best palaces at one end and a cable car into the Bucegi mountains at the other. Come in late autumn if you can: the beech woods turn, the summer coaches thin out, and the castle looks exactly like the postcard it is.
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Sinaia is a Prahova-valley resort town built around the royal Peleș estate, with a 17th-century monastery and a cable car climbing into the Bucegi mountains.
Peleș is the reason people come. Commissioned by King Carol I in the 1870s and built in a German Renaissance style with a great deal of carved walnut, it sits in a clearing with the forest pressing in on three sides and the mountains behind — a setting that does as much work as the architecture. The interior tour runs on timed slots and moves at a fixed pace, so pick what you want to look at before you go in: the Hall of Honour staircase, the armouries, and the reception rooms on the ground floor. A few minutes' walk up the hill, the smaller Pelișor was Queen Marie's own residence, Art Nouveau rather than German Renaissance, and for many people the more interesting of the two because it feels lived in rather than ceremonial.
A Peleș Castle spire framed by bare autumn branches
Below the castles, Sinaia Monastery was founded in 1695 by Mihail Cantacuzino after a pilgrimage to Sinai — which is where the town's name comes from — and its small stone church and courtyard are a quiet counterweight to the crowds uphill. From the monastery, the cable car climbs in two stages to Cota 1400 and then Cota 2000, and in clear weather the ridge walk between them is the best hour you can spend here. We were in Sinaia in early November, when the woods were gold and the upper cable car was already running in its winter pattern; the trade-off is that Peleș closes for annual conservation, usually from 2 November to 1 December, so check before you build a day around the interior.
Late September through October for the beech colour, but avoid the first month of November if you want to see inside Peleș — it closes for conservation then.
Near the monastery end of town, which puts you between the castles and the cable car rather than at the station end.
Look for tochitură (a pork stew served with polenta and a fried egg) or bulz — polenta baked with cheese and bacon — at the restaurants along the main street; it is mountain food, and it suits the weather.
Peleș is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays and sells timed tickets with a daily cap, so book on the official site before you travel rather than turning up and hoping.
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