When it comes to getting fed, bucatarie romaneasca (Romanian cuisine) is tasty and filling, so don't bother with the ubiquitous $2 Big Mac combo when you can dine sumptuously on the likes of sarmale (savory meat-and-rice-stuffed cabbage) for half that; soups, salads, and beer for under a buck; bottles of good local wines like Premiat for $3 or less; and palinka (potent plum brandy, the national tipple) for 80,000 ($2.65/liter). For breakfast, neighborhood patisseries serve calorie-laden extravaganzas of chocolate, whipped cream, and fruit for 7,000 to 12,000 lei (23cents-40cents), and coffee for 4,000 (13cents). If your hotel has a fridge, groceries are cheap (loaf of bread 6,000 lei/20cents, processed cheese 63,510 lei/$2 a pound, yogurt 5,000 lei/17cents a container).

The Bucharest dining scene is becoming more international every year, but there are plenty of excellent, centrally located spots to enjoy local grub. A favorite is country-style Terasa Doamnei (Strada Doamnei 9, sector 3, 1/314-6481), with wooden furniture and pottery tableware, serving roast sirloin with wine sauce or chicken fricassee for 30,000 to 50,000 lei ($1-$1.65). The vaulted brick cellar of the Hanul Manuc (see above) is now a bistro where hot entrees and grilled meats go for 18,000 to 73,000 (60cents-$2.40). Becker Brau (155 Calea Rahovei, 1/335-5650) is a faux-rustic restaurant/pub where German-style bere (beer) is brewed on the premises and homestyle entrees run 105,000 lei ($3.50).

Good bets for quicker bites are Braseria Cina (Strada Franklin 12, 1/310-1017), an outdoor cafe with a lively young crowd (most female patrons have magenta hair) and stalwart dishes like grilled trout (78,000 lei/$2.60) and beef stew (92,000 lei/$3). At folksy Boema (Strada C.A. Rosetti 10, 1/313-3783), welcome mats of fresh evergreen branches are followed by a plate of smoked sausages and beans for 68,500 ($2.30).

Three other novel spots are not to be missed. Burebista (Strada Batisetei 14, 1/211-8929) is styled as an ancient, candlelit hunting lodge, with boar's heads, antlers, and animal pelts, and specializes in traditional cuisine (especially game) such as lettuce with venison and wildberries (45,000 lei/$1.50) and pork fillet stuffed with sausages and garlic (40,000 lei/ $1.35). At Casa Oamenilor de Stnnta (Piata Lahovari, 1/210-1229), housed in the elegant 125-year-old Romanian Academy of Sciences, you're given a free tour of the ornate upstairs before dinner. At its nine tables, diners are feted with the likes of beef schnitzel (63,000 lei/$2.10) and fried carp (72,000 lei/$2.4) to live violin music. The Count Dracula Club (Splaiul Independentei Strada 8A, 1/312-1353) starts guests off with drinks in the Weird Bar, then follows up in the Medieval Room, Count's Library, or Chapel with imaginative (and unbloody) treats like cheese-stuffed polenta with bacon (70,000 lei/$2.35) and wild duck with fruit (130,000 lei/$4.35).

Transylvania beyond Dracula

Speaking of the toothy count, many outsiders' only image of Transylvania is still hopelessly mired in cheesy Bela Lugosi flicks. In reality, Romania's central region, surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains, is awash in dramatic scenery, history, medieval villages, outdoor activities, and cultural diversity.

The real Dracula, fifteenth-century prince Vlad Tepes, was one of the most dreaded foes of the invading Ottoman Turks. Though all in all he probably wasn't any more bloodthirsty than the average medieval ruler, "Vlad the Impaler" is remembered for his favorite version of the death penalty: impaling enemies on wooden stakes, then relishing their slow deaths as he dined (and giving new meaning to the concept of a "stake dinner"). Locals are planning to cash in further by opening a Dracula theme park by late 2003.

Only one-and-a-half hours from Bucharest by train, the town of Sinaia, 2,500 feet in the Bucegi Mountains, was established by a wealthy seventeenth-century lord who visited Mount Sinai in Israel and built a similarly named monastery. Sinaia climbed in social importance after King Carol I built his summer residence, the fanciful 160-room Peles Castle (admission 60,000 lei/$2), in the 1870s. Today this charming old town lined with elegant villas and gingerbread-style houses is also a ski resort (equipment rental around $4 to $6 a day, lift tickets $8 adult, $3.50 child).

Northeast of Sinaia is Bran Castle (50,000 lei/$1.65, also includes admission to the Village and Customs Museums). Perched atop a 197-foot rock aerie, this standard stop on the Dracula trail is extremely atmospheric, with its four towers, Gothic arched ceilings, and secret stairway through the chimney. Alas, the bloodthirsty luminary never actually resided here - but it was owned by Vlad's granddad between 1395 and 1427. You'll find good buys in surrounding souvenir stalls.

Continue a bit farther north to Brasov, a stunning twelfth-century walled town (100 miles/21/2 hours from Bucharest by express train, first-class 185,000 lei/$6.15), built by Saxons and boasting Romania's largest Gothic church, the fourteenth-to-fifteenth-century Biserica Neagra (Black Church; admission 15,000 lei/50cents), with an extraordinary collection of ancient Turkish carpets; services (in German) are on Sundays at 10 a.m. Anchoring Brasov's historic district is Piata Sfatului, the central square, rimmed with fifteenth-and-sixteenth-century buildings in muted sherbet palettes (now housing shops, pubs, and outdoor cafes, ideal for an afternoon of browsing).

Another two hours (first-class train 165,000 lei/$5.50 each way) northwest of Brasov is Sighisoara, a UNESCO World Heritage Site built by Saxons in the twelfth century. There are two main squares, lined with fifteenth-and-sixteenth-century houses, and it was in a mustard-colored house on one of them, Piata Muzeului, where Vlad Dracula was born around 1431. It's very much a living town; I once noticed a bride dressed in foamy white cascading down the cobblestone streets to a ribbon-bedecked Citroan. The fourteenth-century clock tower (35,000 lei/$1.15 for tower and museums) contains eclectic displays of medical instruments, beer steins, and more on the way to the top's spectacular views. The nearby torture room exhibits delights such as a finger crusher, rack, beating sticks, stocks, and chains.

If you drop your bags in Sinaia, do so at historic Complex Economat (44/311-151, fax 44/311-150) near Peles Castle. This grand chalet with wood-trimmed pink stucco (where King Carol's guests waited for audiences) has 34 rooms; rates with bath in the hall run 425,000 lei ($14) single and 850,000 ($28) double; doubles with bath 950,000 ($32). There's a spiffier section for about $6 to $8 more that includes a voucher for 450,000 lei ($15) daily to be used in the hotel restaurant (most full entrees 64,500-73,100 lei/$2.15-$2.45). A terrific value!