Aerial view of central Bucharest with its avenues and early 20th-century buildings
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Bucharest in 3 days

  • 3 days
  • 7.9 km on foot
  • 16 stops
  • Audio guide

Three days is just the right amount of time for Bucharest to surprise you. Beyond the three routes, you'll step inside its best museums, eat mici at a neighbourhood market and save the old town's legends for your last evening. It's an unhurried plan for travellers who also want to discover rural Romania and leave room for a day trip if they change their mind.

Day 1Marble, arcades and books

Start with 'Bucharest highlights: from Parliament to Cișmigiu lake': Ceaușescu's palace, Unirii Boulevard, the Macca-Villacrosse Passage and Cișmigiu Gardens. Lunch on sarmale with mămăligă in the old town. In the afternoon, return to the Parliament to see it from the inside on a tour you've booked ahead, then end the day among the shelves of Cărturești Carusel. There's still time to stroll along Lipscani and linger over a coffee without watching the clock.

  1. Morning

    Bucharest highlights: from Parliament to Cișmigiu lake

    Mixed · 3.4 km · 2 h 15 min

    1. Palace of the ParliamentCeaușescu's former House of the People: 365,000 square metres, 1,100 rooms and an entire neighbourhood wiped off the map.
    2. Unirii Boulevard and Unirii SquareThe boulevard with which Ceaușescu wanted to outdo the Champs-Élysées, laid out over the heart of old Bucharest.
    3. Macca-Villacrosse PassageA horseshoe-shaped arcade under a glass roof, the most Parisian corner of «Little Paris».
    4. Former Royal Palace (National Museum of Art)The palace of Romania's kings, where in 1944 a young king switched sides in the middle of the war.
    5. Cișmigiu GardensAn unhealthy marsh turned into Bucharest's oldest romantic garden, with a lake, rowing boats and busts of writers.

    Start the audio guide See the route

  2. Lunch

    Try Sarmale with mămăligă at Caru' cu Bere. Strada Stavropoleos 5, București

  3. Afternoon

    Inside the Palace of the Parliament

    Having seen it from outside on the route, the guided tour takes you up marble staircases, through enormous halls and along corridors that seem endless. Booking and photo ID are usually required; check the tour options, as official events sometimes close rooms.

    Directions

    Cărturești Carusel bookshop

    One of the most photographed bookshops in Europe: it opened in 2015 in a restored building on Lipscani Street, with white balconies around a bright atrium. The café upstairs is the perfect way to close your first day.

    Directions

Day 2From the Old Court to peasant icons

In the morning, 'From Vlad III to the Revolution: six centuries on Calea Victoriei', from the 1459 document at the Old Princely Court to the Romanian Athenaeum. For lunch, a ciorbă de burtă with its green chilli. In the afternoon, return to Revolution Square: the Former Royal Palace you saw from outside houses the National Museum of Art. Then walk up Calea Victoriei to Victoriei Square, where the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant rounds off the day with a different view of the country.

  1. Morning

    From Vlad III to the Revolution: six centuries on Calea Victoriei

    History · 2 km · 1 h 50 min

    1. Old Princely Court (Curtea Veche)Here, in 1459, Vlad III signed the document in which the name of Bucharest first appears.
    2. National Bank of Romania PalaceA Parisian-style bank palace built on the site of a prince's inn, just as Romania was launching its own state and currency.
    3. CEC PalaceA dome of glass and iron on the site of an old monastery: the temple of thrift of «Little Paris».
    4. Kretzulescu ChurchThe church of a beheaded prince's daughter, built just as the Phanariot century was beginning.
    5. Revolution SquareThe balcony where Ceaușescu was booed on 21 December 1989, and the roof from which he fled by helicopter the next day.
    6. Romanian AthenaeumA concert hall paid for «one leu at a time», where Greater Romania was ratified in 1919.

    Start the audio guide See the route

  2. Lunch

    Try Ciorbă de burtă at Caru' cu Bere. Strada Stavropoleos 5, București

  3. Afternoon

    National Museum of Art of Romania

    Housed in the Former Royal Palace, it brings together Romanian medieval art, icons and a European gallery with names such as El Greco and Rembrandt. It faces Revolution Square, opposite the end of the route. Check opening times: it usually closes two days a week.

    Directions

    National Museum of the Romanian Peasant

    Textiles, ceramics, icons painted on glass and a wooden church in the courtyard: a museum bursting with character, named European Museum of the Year in 1996. It's on Kiseleff Avenue by Victoriei Square, with a metro station next door.

    Directions

Day 3Villages, market and legends

Spend the morning in the north and east: first the Village Museum, on the lake in King Michael I Park, then the metro to Obor, the big neighbourhood market, where you'll have grilled mici for lunch among stalls of fruit and cheese. Rest in the afternoon. At dusk, start 'Secret Bucharest: wandering churches, spies and legends' at Mihai Vodă, pass Patriarchal Hill and Vlad III's Old Court, and finish at Stavropoleos. Dinner is tochitură at Hanu' lui Manuc.

  1. Morning

    Village Museum (Muzeul Satului)

    Peasant houses, mills and wooden churches from all over the country, gathered since 1936 in an open-air museum beside the lake. Go first thing, when it's quieter. From here, the Arch of Triumph is just a few minutes' walk away.

    Directions

    Obor Market (Piața Obor)

    One of Bucharest's biggest and busiest markets: vegetables, cheeses, pickles, flowers and, above all, mici stalls with queues at weekends. This is everyday Bucharest, far from the tourist trail. Take metro line M1 to Obor station.

    Directions

  2. Lunch

    Try Mici at Piața Obor. Strada Ziduri Moși (Piața Obor), București

  3. Early evening

    Secret Bucharest: wandering churches, spies and legends

    Mysteries & legends · 2.5 km · 2 h

    1. Mihai Vodă ChurchA 16th-century church that in 1985 travelled 289 metres on rails to escape the bulldozers.
    2. Patriarchal HillBucharest's holy hill, where the prince of the union was elected and where a prime minister was murdered and nobody paid for it.
    3. Manuc's Inn (Hanul lui Manuc)The inn of a rich and enigmatic Armenian, an agent of the tsar, where the fate of Bessarabia was negotiated in 1812.
    4. Old Court: Vlad III without the mythThe palace of the real Dracula, the legend of the shepherd Bucur and the tunnels that popular imagination digs under the Old Town.
    5. Stavropoleos MonasteryA jewel of carved stone whose courtyard keeps gravestones and fragments of vanished churches.

    Start the audio guide See the route

  4. Dinner

    Try Tochitură at Hanu' lui Manuc. Strada Franceză 62-64, București

The map

Bucharest in 3 days, on the map

Each route’s stops are numbered in order; the stars are the extra sights.

Mixed History Mysteries & legends Extra sight

Loading the map…

Before you go

Tips for Bucharest in 3 days

  • Many Bucharest museums close on Mondays and sometimes Tuesdays too: check opening times and keep those days for the walking routes.
  • Metro line M1 links Piața Victoriei with Obor, and M2 runs to Aviatorilor, near the Village Museum: on day three, those two lines are all you need.
  • If it rains or you need a break, Therme București, the huge thermal spa complex in Balotești near the airport, can replace the morning of day three; check tickets and opening times first.

Questions

Bucharest in 3 days: your questions

What day trips can you take from Bucharest?

The closest are Mogoșoaia Palace and Snagov Monastery, where tradition places the tomb of Vlad III. Further afield, by train or car, there's Sinaia with Peleș Castle, and Bran Castle, sold as 'Dracula's castle', although its link to Vlad is more marketing than history.

How many kilometres will I walk in three days?

The three routes add up to about 7.9 km, spread over three days. With the museums, the market and getting between areas, expect 7 to 8 km a day. It's a relaxed pace, and the metro gets you to the north and to Obor without tiring you out.

Can you visit Ceaușescu's house?

Yes. The Spring Palace (Palatul Primăverii), the family's residence in the north of the city, can be visited on a guided tour with advance booking. It's close to the Village Museum, so you could swap it for Obor market on day three if communism interests you more than food.

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