The Transylvanian castle that inspired Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula is giving two lucky guests the rare opportunity to spend the night of Halloween sleeping within its haunted walls.
Located high in the Carpathian mountains, Romania's Bran Castle was made infamous when Stoker published his bestselling novel, in which naive solicitor Jonathan Harker ends up as the increasingly reluctant guest of Count Dracula in a remote gothic stronghold modelled on the real-life castle.
But while a stay in Dracula's home didn't work out so well for Harker, Airbnb is offering two competition winners a chance to recreate the horror classic.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
This will involve arriving at their destination by horse-drawn carriage and dining on a "blood-enriching meal" before "bedding down for the night in 'luxurious velvet trimmed Dracula coffins'", the Daily Telegraph reports.
The experience will be hosted by Dacre Stoker, Bram Stoker's great-grandnephew, whom Airbnb somewhat unnervingly describes as "a well-respected vampire expert".
It may not be a holiday for the faint-hearted, but the castle does have its fair share of less supernatural charms, including stunning views of the Carpathians.
Stoker's novel describes "a sea of green tree tops" and "silver threads where the rivers wind in deep gorges through the forests" – although the writer never actually visited Romania, instead taking his inspiration from a book about Bran Castle.
If this sounds right up your street, you can enter by submitting a short passage describing what you would do if you came "fang-to-fang" with Dracula. Fingers crossed the winners won't have to find out…
