Contestants on The Traitors are in and around the castle for only a few weeks in total, not for months, and they do not actually live or sleep inside the castle itself. Filming days are long and intense, but players are bussed in and out from separate accommodation nearby.

How long are they there?

  • Application notes say contestants must be available for up to about four weeks of filming, which covers the whole series.
  • Within that window, individual players may only last days or a couple of weeks in the game before being murdered or banished.
  • One Series 3 contestant said the five episodes he appeared in equated to roughly five or six days of actual time in the castle.

What is a typical day like?

  • Days are organised around breakfast, a mission, meals, and then the big round table, often meaning around ten hours of work.
  • There are no clocks visible, so time feels distorted and players just follow production’s schedule.
  • Round table arguments you see condensed into minutes can in reality run for several hours with everyone speaking.

Do they sleep in the castle?

  • The iconic Scottish location (like Ardross Castle in the UK version) is mainly a filming set for meetings, missions set‑ups, and dramatic scenes.
  • At night, contestants leave and stay in nearby hotel‑style accommodation, even though the show often films them walking “up to their rooms” in the castle for atmosphere.

Extra behind‑the‑scenes details

  • Some former players describe the castle rooms used for filming as freezing and deliberately uncomfortable to heighten tension.
  • Security and production staff carefully control where contestants can go so they are almost always in view of cameras.

TL;DR: In The Traitors , contestants spend several intense weeks filming around the castle but usually only survive days or a couple of weeks in the game, and they sleep off‑site rather than actually living in the castle.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.