🇷🇴 Romania · Europe
Bucharest
Paris-of-the-East boulevards, brutalist swagger and Bolt rides for pocket change.
cityculturefood☀ best: May – Jun & Sep
SHOESTRING
€35/day
dorms, street plates, transit
COMFY
€61/day
private room, sit-down meals, a treat
FLASH
€126/day
nice hotel, good dinners, no maths
🧮 Trip maths
€425 total
What Bucharest costs, day to day
🛵 Getting around
Bolt
Uber
Metro ride€0.6
Bus / tram ride€0.6
Airport train€1.3–€1.7
🛏 Stays
Per night
Hostel dorm bed€10–€16
Airbnb 1-BR€35–€61
Old-town hotel€48–€78
5-star palace€104–€191
Monthly
Studio€391–€651
1-BR central€477–€781
🛒 Groceries & daily life
Lidl / Kaufland — value anchors
Mega Image — everywhere downtown
Obor market — Bucharest's produce classic
Water 1.5 L€0.5–€0.8
Milk 1 L€1–€1.2
Eggs ×10€2.1–€2.6
Bread loaf€0.7–€1
Rice 1 kg€1.2–€1.6
Chicken breast 1 kg€5.2–€6.9
Bananas 1 kg€1.1–€1.5
Local beer 0.5 L (shop)€0.8–€1.1
🍜 Eating out
Covrig (street pretzel)€0.4–€0.7
Mici + bread + mustard€2.6–€4.3
Meniul zilei lunch€4.3–€6.9
Beer-hall feast (Caru' cu Bere tier)€10–€17
Craft beer€2.2–€3.5
🎡 Things to do — with kids
Herăstrău park + rowboatper boat€3.5–€5.2
Village Museum€2.6–€3.5
Therme Bucharest daypalm-house pools — kids’ paradise€17–€26
🌙 Things to do — grown-ups
Palace of Parliament tour€8.7–€10
Old-town bar crawl€0–€8.7
Cărturești Carusel bookshopfree
Peleș Castle day (train + entry)€13–€22
🌤 Climate
Day °CRain
Best: May – Jun & Sep · Wet: —
Hot city summers, proper snowy winters — Therme is the year-round weather cheat.
✈️ Getting there
Wizz AirRyanairRome€17–€48
Barcelona€22–€52
Dubai (Wizz)€52–€122
🏧 ATMs & money
Fees: Bank ATMs are broadly surcharge-free; the Old-Town Euronet boxes are the trap, as ever.
Limits: Bank machines 2,000–5,000 lei; Euronet caps around 800 to farm fees.
Best machines: Banca TransilvaniaBCRING
Withdraw lei from bank machines and always in lei. For cash exchange use banks or established case de schimb — never the guy 'helping' near a machine.
🩺 Health & safety
Vaccines: Routine; tick-borne encephalitis for Carpathian hikes.
Health: City tap water is treated (many prefer bottled for taste). Stray dogs in outskirts: don't engage, carry on. Private clinics (Regina Maria, MedLife) are quick and inexpensive.
Tap water: ✅ City tap water is treated and safe; many prefer bottled purely for taste.
Safety: Bucharest is statistically safer than Paris or Brussels for violent crime. Old-town clip joints and 'meter' taxis are the actual traps — both die instantly to apps and our restaurant rules. Peleș and the mountains: standard hiking sense.
Emergency: 112
🌱 Vegan, veggie & gluten-free
Plant-based: Orthodox fasting ('de post') menus are vegan by definition — zacuscă, fasole bătută, sarmale de post; every menu marks them.
Gluten-free: Mămăliga (polenta) is the great GF staple; covrigi and bread are the wheat.
'De post' = fasting = plant-based — Romania's menus label it as a category.
🛂 Visa & entry
This is a Schengen-area country. Most US, UK, EU, Canadian, Australian, NZ, Brazilian, Japanese and Korean passports enter visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180-day period across the whole Schengen zone. From 2025 the EU's ETIAS pre-authorisation applies to visa-free non-EU visitors — check before you fly.
Rules change — always verify with an official source for your nationality before you book.
💬 Traveller tips & reports
Therme beats the weather — Twenty minutes north sits Europe’s biggest thermal complex — palm trees, slides, 33 °C pools. A rainy-day plan so good people fly in just for it.
@balkan.baths · Jan ’26 · ▲ 104