Flight time
3h 10m
Best season
April–June & September–October
Budget
Budget
Best for
Nightlife, art deco, history, value
Overview
Why Bucharest for a city break?
Bucharest is Europe's most surprising capital — a city that was called the Paris of the East in the 1930s for its extraordinary concentration of Art Deco and French Beaux-Arts architecture, that was subsequently half-demolished by Nicolae Ceaușescu's megalomaniac urban reconstruction programme (the Palace of the Parliament, the second-largest administrative building in the world, was built at the cost of 40,000 homes bulldozed) and that has emerged from that history with one of the most vibrant nightlife scenes, most creative food cultures and most genuinely inexpensive city break experiences in Europe.
From London and several UK airports it's around three hours ten minutes — direct flights with Ryanair, Wizz Air and TAROM. Bucharest Henri Coandă Airport is 16km from the centre (Express train, €1.50, 40 minutes). The city is extraordinarily cheap: a good dinner costs under £10, craft beer is £1.50, and the nightlife (clubs in former communist factories and palace courtyards) runs until 8am. Go in April to June or September to October; the summers are hot and winters cold, but neither is prohibitive.
Where to stay & explore
Bucharest's best neighbourhoods
Old Town (Lipscani)
The partially restored historic centre — the best nightlife in Eastern Europe, the finest Art Deco facades, the Stavropoleos Church and the National History Museum.
Floreasca & Dorobanți
Bucharest's upscale residential quarter — the best restaurants, the finest Art Deco villas, the Antipa Natural History Museum and the most pleasant walking in the city.
Calea Victoriei & the Civic Centre
The main boulevard — the Palace of the Parliament, the National Museum of Art and the extraordinary succession of Beaux-Arts buildings that make Calea Victoriei the finest street in Bucharest.
Things to do
What to see in Bucharest
1
Palace of the Parliament
The second-largest administrative building in the world by surface area (after the Pentagon) — Ceaușescu's megalomaniacal palace contains 1,100 rooms, 1,000 chandeliers, 27 tonnes of crystal glass and 480 chandeliers. The guided tour (mandatory, book online) visits the state rooms and the terrace with the extraordinary boulevard vista that Ceaușescu built — 3km of Unirii Boulevard, wider than the Champs-Élysées, cleared by demolishing 40,000 homes. A profound and disturbing monument to political megalomania.
2
Village Museum (Muzeul Satului)
The finest open-air village museum in Eastern Europe — 272 authentic rural buildings (farmhouses, mills, churches, windmills) relocated from across Romania to the shores of Herăstrău Lake in the northern part of the city. A comprehensive portrait of Romanian rural life from the 18th to 20th centuries, in a lakeside park of 15 hectares. Free on the last Sunday of each month.
3
Calea Victoriei Art Deco walk
The finest Art Deco boulevard in Eastern Europe — the Calea Victoriei running from the National Museum of Art (the former Royal Palace) north through a succession of extraordinary buildings: the Cercul Militar National (military officers' club, 1911), the CEC Palace (the savings bank, 1900, a glass dome of extraordinary elegance), the Cantacuzino Palace (George Enescu National Museum), and the Athenaeum (Romania's greatest concert hall, a neoclassical rotunda of 1888 surrounded by Ionic columns). All are free or very cheap to enter.
4
Stavropoleos Church & the Old Town
The Stavropoleos Church (1724) — a tiny Orthodox church of extraordinary carved stone in a courtyard behind the National History Museum, one of the most beautiful buildings in Bucharest — is the finest introduction to Romanian ecclesiastical art. The surrounding Old Town (Lipscani) has the most vibrant nightlife in Eastern Europe: clubs in palace courtyards, bars in former communist-era buildings, and a post-midnight energy that runs until dawn. The Hanul lui Manuc (a 19th-century caravanserai inn around a courtyard) and the Curtea Veche (the ruins of the 15th-century palace of Vlad the Impaler) are both in the same area.
Food & drink
Where to eat in Bucharest
Lacrimi și Sfinți
Modern Romanian / Old Town
The finest restaurant in Bucharest — chef Joseph Hadad's menu of modern Romanian cooking with Israeli and Mediterranean influences uses local produce of outstanding quality. The lamb dishes and the mezze-inspired starters are both excellent. The wine list focuses on Romanian viticulture, which is genuinely impressive. Book weeks ahead.
Caru' cu Bere
Historic beer hall / Old Town
The most beautiful restaurant interior in Bucharest — a Gothic Revival beer hall of 1879 with stained glass windows, carved wood pillars, painted vaulted ceilings and floor mosaics. The traditional Romanian food (ciorbă de burtă — tripe soup, the hangover cure, ordered by everyone, excellent, frightening only before tasting; mici — grilled minced meat rolls; sarmale — stuffed cabbage leaves) is good to very good. The building is extraordinary regardless. Book ahead.
Piața Obor market
Food market / Obor
The largest food market in Bucharest — open daily in the Obor neighbourhood, the finest place to see what Romanians actually eat: donut-shaped covrigi (street pretzels, 20p each), fresh sarmale from the hot food stalls, Romanian cheeses (telemea, caș, brânză de burduf), smoked meats and jams. The cheapest and most authentic lunch in the city. Take the Metro to Obor (5 minutes from the centre).
Itinerary
3 days in Bucharest — a suggested itinerary
Day 1
Calea Victoriei, Old Town, Caru' cu Bere
Express train from Henri Coandă Airport to Gara de Nord (40 minutes, €1.50), then Metro to the city centre. Walk south down Calea Victoriei — the Athenaeum (enter for the concert hall interior, free to look around), the CEC Palace dome, the Cercul Militar. National Museum of Art in the former Royal Palace (the finest collection of Romanian art, plus a gallery of European masters). Walk into the Old Town: the Curtea Veche ruins, the Stavropoleos Church courtyard, the Hanul lui Manuc. Caru' cu Bere for dinner — book ahead, order the mici and the beer, look at the stained glass.
Day 2
Palace of the Parliament, Village Museum, nightlife
Palace of the Parliament guided tour at 10am (book online). The scale and the waste are both extraordinary; the terrace view of the demolition boulevard gives the full picture. Walk through the Unirii Boulevard area — the apartments of the communist-era Civic Centre. Tram north to the Village Museum (allow two hours for the rural buildings on the lakeside) — the churches, the windmills, the farmhouses. Herăstrău Park alongside for a walk and a coffee. Old Town in the evening: the best clubs in Eastern Europe are in the Lipscani area (Control, Grădina Eden, Expirat) and the surrounding streets. The nightlife starts at midnight and runs until 8am.
Day 3
Piața Obor market, Romanian food, one last ciorbă
Metro to Obor for the morning market — covrigi, fresh cheese, hot sarmale. The National History Museum (the finest Dacian and Roman gold on the ground floor — the extraordinary Pietroasele treasure — if the collection is not in temporary storage; check ahead). The Romanian Peasant Museum (Muzeul Țăranului Român) in the afternoon — the finest ethnographic museum in Romania, covering folk costume, textiles, ceramics and rural religious art with unusual intelligence. Lacrimi și Sfinți for a final dinner if booked. One last ciorbă de burtă at any of the Old Town's traditional restaurants — the hangover cure of centuries, excellent before or after the hangover. Express train to the airport.
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