24-hour room service: zabola, transylvania, romania

That a journey through deepest Transylvania should be a hair-raising experience is not that surprising. But it was the partially surfaced roads, seemingly non-existent speed limit and renegade horse-and-cart drivers – rather than shades of Gothic horror – that made our drive from Brasov to Zabola an alarming 45 minutes. Drawing up at the tall iron gates of the estate at dusk, however, our spirits lifted – this was the kind of entrance that would have made Dracula proud.