If you enjoy having the bejeezus scared out of you, then an overnight stay at Dracula’s castle in Transylvania should be right up your alley.
Airbnb, which is offering the creepy accommodation as the top prize in a Halloween contest, will even put out a couple of velvet-lined coffins as beds, so if things get too scary you can at least pull the lid over till sunrise.
The two winners will be greeted at the doors of Bran Castle by Dacre Stoker, great-grandnephew of Dracula author Bram Stoker.
Located in the Carpathian mountains of Romania’s Transylvania region, the imposing castle was the inspiration for Dracula’s lair in the famous novel, penned in 1897.
Airbnb’s listing is in the usual style, though everything is crossed out in the amenities section. No, there’ll be no internet, no cable TV, and no hot tub. However, you will get dinner, described rather tantalizingly as a “hearty, blood-enriching meal.”
You’re free to “explore the labyrinth of lamp-lit corridors, creepy nooks, and squeaky staircases while there is still light in the sky.” You can also “traipse through all 57 rooms, from lofty tower lookouts to deep dark crypts, and even enjoy an incomparable view of the Carpathians from the terrace as the sun makes its final descent.”
But take note: “Unexpected guests have been known to come knocking in the moonlit hours.”
The global contest runs until October 26. To enter, simply sign into Airbnb, go to this page and click on “enter to win.” You’ll then have to knock out a short message explaining what you’d say to the Count “if you were to come face-to-fang with him in his own castle.”
Last year Airbnb offered a likely much spookier overnight stay in Paris’s famous catacombs, dubbed “the world’s largest grave.” You did at least get a “real bed” to sleep in rather than a wooden coffin, but spending the night underground with a load of human skulls and bones must surely have made for an uncomfortable – if not terrifying – stay.
