Bucharest City Break: 3 Days, Real Budget, Honest Guide

I booked Bucharest on impulse. It turned out to be the right call.

Friday evening. Michał asked where we were going in March. I sorted Ryanair by price and clicked Bucharest Băneasa — €32 per person, return, from Kraków. Decision made in under ten minutes.

The trouble with "cheap European city breaks" is that cheap and interesting are rarely the same thing anymore. Prague: €100-a-night hotels in the centre. Budapest: same story. The places that are genuinely affordable tend to be empty of things to do, or require such a detour that transport costs cancel out the savings.

Bucharest doesn't fit cleanly into either category. It's architecturally dense in a way that rewards slow walking — four distinct styles stacked on top of each other within a radius you can cover in two days. It's underrated in a way that makes you skeptical until you actually get there.

Here's what we did, what it cost, and what I'd change.

Day 1 (Saturday, 28 Feb) — Old Town, a bookshop, and dancing until midnight

Landed at Băneasa (BBU) at 15:40. Small airport, no queue, fast. Bus line 100 to Piața Unirii: 3 RON, tap on the driver's machine, 40 minutes through the city.

First 40 minutes through the bus window: Bucharest looks like three different cities sharing one street grid. Communist tower blocks next to Belle Époque mansions next to Art Nouveau facades next to 1990s concrete. It sounds chaotic. It's genuinely magnetic.

First stop: Luca (Strada Gabroveni 61). Romanian pretzels called covrigi — 15 RON for a handful. Warm, crispy, slightly salty. Ate them walking.

Around the corner: Cărturești Carusel on Strada Lipscani 55. Went in for a quick photo. Left 40 minutes later with two coffees and no regrets. Multi-level, white-arched bookshop in a 19th-century building — one of those places that genuinely earns its reputation.

Evening loop: Stavropoleos Monastery courtyard (arcaded, quiet — don't skip it), then Hanul lui Manuc — the courtyard of Bucharest's oldest hotel, built around 1808.

Check-in at Hotel Razvan (Calea Moșilor 102). Bolt from the centre: 18 RON, 15 minutes. Modest, clean, excellent value. Two nights: roughly €48 per person.

Dinner at Restaurant Bucătărașul near the hotel — home-style Romanian food. Sarmale (stuffed cabbage), mici (grilled rolls), ciorbă. Two people: ~160 RON (€37). No pretence. Exactly what you want on night one.

Then: Ganesha Caffe Victoriei on Calea Victoriei — real local atmosphere, mixed crowd, not a tourist trap — followed by Mojo Club. Back to the hotel past midnight. Michał's take: "we didn't come here just for the churches."

Day 2 (Sunday, 1 Mar) — architecture all day, surprises at the table

Patriarchal Cathedral on the hill at 9am. We were nearly alone. Golden interior, silence, genuinely strange and beautiful. The time of day matters — go before the tour groups arrive.

Down the other side of the hill toward Parliament. From Constitution Square, the scale is genuinely unsettling — second-largest administrative building in the world. Ceaușescu demolished a significant part of Bucharest's historic centre to build it. That context is inseparable from the visit.

Caru' cu Bere (1879) — in for coffee and photos, not a full meal. Neo-Romanian interior with stained glass: one of the most beautiful restaurant rooms in Europe. Ten minutes. One coffee. Worth it.

Lunch: Mexikanos. Yes, a Mexican bistro in Bucharest. Michał suggested it; I didn't object. The burritos were legitimately good. The break from Romanian classics was also welcome.

Dessert: Varta — traditional Romanian pastries. Papanași: fried doughnuts with fresh cheese and sour cream. Best thing I ate in Bucharest, full stop. Remember the name.

Revolution Square: into the Romanian Atheneum (main hall interior is spectacular — go in), then Crețulescu Church (1722, Brâncovenesc style) right outside. Cantacuzino Palace on Calea Victoriei 141 — the most beautiful Art Nouveau marquise I've seen outside France. Didn't enter the Enescu Museum, but five minutes on the pavement staring at the facade is enough to understand why it's on every list.

Late afternoon: AFI Palace Cotroceni. Unplanned — we wandered in on tired legs looking for souvenirs. Perfectly standard shopping centre, not a travel memory. Air conditioning and coffee after 25k steps: appreciated.

Day 3 (Monday, 2 Mar) — thermal baths before the flight

Changed the plan for the last morning. Instead of more walking: Termy Bucharest thermal spa. Pools, Finnish sauna, relaxation zone. Around 100 RON per person for three hours.

Best decision of the trip.

After 50,000+ combined steps across two days, three hours in warm water is the correct use of a Monday morning. End-of-February Bucharest runs 10–12°C and sunny during the day — sitting in an outdoor thermal pool at that temperature is quietly excellent.

Bolt to BBU: 55 RON, 25 minutes. Flight 16:10. Home by 18:00.

What it actually cost

I'd budgeted €160. Ended at €191. The difference is Termy and Mojo Club. Zero regrets on either.

What I'd change

Going back to:

• Termy Bucharest, last morning — this is now permanent in any Bucharest trip plan
• Patriarchal Cathedral at 9am — atmosphere difference vs midday is enormous
• Ganesha Caffe Victoriei for an evening drink

Would skip:

• AFI Palace Cotroceni — ended up there by accident, not a destination

Surprised me:

• Mexikanos — genuinely good, not "good for a Mexican place in Bucharest"
• Papanași at Varta — if you skip this, you've made a mistake
• How genuinely underrated Bucharest is — no high-season crowds, real city energy

Build your own Bucharest trip

The 3-day plan we ran is available as a ready-made Bucharest city break template in Kompas Podróży. Copy it, pick your intensity variant (chill / standard / intense), and swap out places to match your preferences. The cost estimates are pre-filled.

Tip: Michał and I tracked every shared expense directly in the trip plan — no "let's settle up later" at the end. For two people it barely matters. Scale that to a group of five and it matters a lot. The template has all estimates built in precisely for this reason.

Bucharest's biggest problem is its reputation, which hasn't caught up with what's actually there. Go find out for yourself.