Some place to stay:
- If you have lots of money – Hotel Marriott or Crowne Plaza. Neither are central.
- If you want still very good, but highly central: Howard Johnson.
- The best hotel in Bbucharest, and very central, you won’t regret: Athenee Palace Hilton.
- If you have less money, I don’t personally know. I’ve been to all of the hotels above for conferences, for at lest 5 times in each of them, so I recommend them from personal visits. Others, I don’t know, just go to booking.com and you’ll find your way in there. If I were you, I’d consider having a look at the expensive ones above, you might like the experience, and the prices are not high at all.
What to do in Bucharest?
I lived in Bucharest 2001-2015, 15 years in there. (call to make sure that their schedule follows yours)
MUSEUMS:
- 100% National Peasant’s Museum – The best place for understanding the psyhcology of Romanian people; english-friendly
- 100% National History Museum – See the gold & treasurses beneath it (they have jewelery); don’t see the museum, just go for the gold below
- 80% National Arts Museum – If you’re in that artsy’ stuff. It’s a huge building, I wouldn’t visit it if I were on a run
- 40% Palace of Parliament – The second largest building in the world. I think it’s ugly
- 40% Village Museum – Lots of houses of peasants
NON MUSEUMS
- 100% Stavropoleos Church – extremely nice church; go there!
- 80% Cart with Beer – eat here once, it’s cheap & great place
- 80% Cărturești Library, very beautiful place to visit; huge book shop
Night life:
100% Go in the old town (centrul vechi). Go from club to club, stay in one 30 minutes, go to another one, and so on. Bucharest is a night city, not a day one.
I don’t have a specific recommendation, go from one to another.
80% If you want to see a nice park, try Herăstrău.
Try to talk to people, Romanians love to talk to anyone.
Go to the postal office, or to an official building, and say you need some document. Ask for help. It’s an amazing experience, to see how bureaucratic a simple thing can be made. Just enter, and stay 5 minutes.
Travel with the tube, for the feeling of it.
The buses and other transportation means are not that different.
When booking taxi’s, go for this company: Speed Taxi. If not, Meridian Taxi.
The taxi people will try to ask for bigger prices, don’t give in. The above two companies should be fine.
A lot of young people speak English.
Get a local Vodafone phone card, it’s cheap.
It takes you 1 to 2 hours to do this route – from Piata Unirii to Piata Victoriei by foot and still have an understanding. Do this. Go Piața Unirii – Piața Universității – Piața Romană – Piața Victoriei – go on Calea Victoriei – Piața Națiunilor Unite – go to old town.
Take it, it’s a lot of things in there, that’s most of the city.
