Bucharest gives you a capital and a castle run in the same weekend.
What the Bran Castle day really costs, why the Palace of Parliament wants your passport, and which three hours on foot make sense of the old town. Reviews of every tour you can book in Bucharest.
Four bookings that carry a first weekend in Bucharest.
The castle run, the parliament ticket, the old town on foot, and the tour that explains the concrete. What each costs and how long it takes.
01The long day northDracula’s Castle, Peles Castle, & Brasov Old TownBran, Peleș and Brașov in one twelve-hour run. Leave at seven, and expect the light to be gone before you are back.
02The ticket to bookPalace of Parliament Tickets and GuideEntry to the Palace of Parliament is guided and timed, and the door wants a passport, not a photo of one.
03The first afternoonCity Highlights Guided Walking TourThe fastest way to make sense of the map: old town lanes, Calea Victoriei, and the squares where 1989 happened.
04The city explainedThe Real tour of CommunismSystematisation blocks, ration queues and the last days of the Ceaușescus, walked rather than read about.
Every castle worth the drive sits on one road out of Bucharest.
Bran, Peleș and Brașov are strung along the same route north, which is why nearly every operator sells them as a single twelve-hour day. The mountain highway is a separate booking, and it only exists in summer.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · Dracula’s Castle, Peles Castle, & Brasov Old Town
Bran CastleThe Dracula stop, and Brașov after it if the driver moves.
Peleș and SinaiaA royal palace of carved walnut in the Prahova valley.
Brașov and TransylvaniaSaxon squares, the Black Church, mountains right behind them.
The TransfăgărășanThe hairpin road over the ridge. Summer only, and long.
All 204 tours and day trips →
Six Bucharest days, and what each one is for.
Lanes and terraces in the old town, the concrete years, the castle road north, a mountain highway that opens for three months. Pick the day first, then pick who drives.
Bucharest spent forty years being rebuilt, and you can still walk the seams.
A fifth of the old centre came down for the boulevard and the palace at the end of it. The guides who do this walk take you past the blocks that replaced it, the balcony the last speech was given from, and the museum that keeps the ration books.
The old town is ten minutes across. The rest of Bucharest is not.
Almost everything a first visit wants sits between Unirii and Victoriei, and a guide gets you across it in an afternoon. Go wider only with someone who can explain what replaced what.
- 1City Highlights Guided Walking Tourfrom $21
- 2The Real tour of Communismfrom $32
- 3Bucharest Highlights Walking Tourfrom $21
The Bucharest days more travellers book than any other.
The whole Bucharest catalogue →Sorted the way the city actually sells: the castle road first, then the tickets and the walks that follow it.
1
Dracula’s Castle, Peles Castle, & Brasov Old Town
Travel from Bucharest into Transylvania with a guide such as Otilia, Sonia, Cornelia, or Vlad. Visit Peles Castle, Bran Castle, and Brasov Old Town in one long day. Castle admission costs extra, and the order may change with weather, traffic, and opening hours.
From · $40
Read our review →
2
Dracula’s Castle, Peleș Castle & Brașov Day Trip
from $23
3
Palace of Parliament Tickets and Guide
from $38
4
Day Trip to Dracula Castle, Peles Castle & Brașov
from $45
5
Bucharest to Dracula Castle, Peles Castle and Brasov Guided Tour
from $33
6
Palace of Parliament Tickets and Guided Tour
from $28
7
Dracula’s Castle, Peles Castle and Brasov Day Trip from Bucharest
from $33
8
Transylvania and Dracula Castle Full Day Tour from Bucharest
from $35
The cheap end of Bucharest is very cheap indeed.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. The city end of this list is cheap, because most of it is a guide and your own two feet.
Old town walks, museum entries, the communism tours, bike loops, and the shared coach north.
The salt mine, Therme with a transfer, the Bulgaria day, and the smaller minibus runs to the castles.
Private drivers, the Danube Delta, the mountain highway in a small group, and the multi-day Transylvania circuits.
Four Bucharest bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of this city can be sorted over breakfast. These four run on guided slots, passport checks, mountain weather and a boat that leaves without you.
- 01Palace of Parliament Tickets and GuideEntry is guided, timed and passport-checked at the door. Summer slots go days ahead of the day you want.
- 02Slănic Prahova Salt Mine Ticket and TransferThe road over the ridge is usually open from July until the first snow shuts it again. Outside that window the drive does not exist.
- 03Small group Bears ‘Safari’ on Transfăgărășan -max 7 touristsThe sanctuary takes visitors at set times only, booked in advance. There is no turning up at the gate.
- 04Day Trip to Danube DeltaIt is four hours of driving before the boat even starts, so these leave early and run to the boat’s timetable rather than yours.
Bucharest eats late and drinks better than you expect.
Street food walks through the old town, cellars pouring Fetească Neagră that never leaves the country, and a pub crawl that treats Lipscani as one long bar. Book the food walk hungry and the crawl for a Friday.
Every food and drink tour →
Bucharest weather has two moods, and both of them send you indoors.
The city sits on an open plain with nothing between it and the steppe. January mornings bite, August storms arrive sideways, and the answer to either one is the same. A salt mine that holds twelve degrees all year, thermal water under glass, museums with the ration books in them, and a cellar with the lights on.
Three things you can only do in Bucharest.
Old towns and cathedral squares exist all over this part of Europe. A palace built by levelling a district, a cathedral-sized room of salt, and thermal water under a glass dome do not.
The Palace of Parliament
Ceaușescu levelled a fifth of the historic centre to build it, and it is still the heaviest building on earth. You go in on a guided slot with a passport, you see a fraction of the eleven hundred rooms, and the corridors are wide enough to drive down. Nothing about the scale reads properly in a photograph.
- 1Palace of Parliament Tickets and Guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 3,182 reviews
- 2Palace of Parliament Tickets and Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 1,877 reviews
- 3Parliament Palace Skip-the-line Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 1,518 reviews
The Slănic Salt Mine
The Unirea mine at Slănic Prahova is more than two hundred metres down, and the chambers are the size of cathedral naves with salt walls cut in ribs. The air sits at around twelve degrees all year and people go down to breathe it. Take a jacket, whatever the surface is doing.
- 1Slănic Prahova Salt Mine Ticket and Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 790 reviews
- 2Salt Mine Guided Day Trip to Slănic★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 559 reviews
- 3Slanic Salt Mine Day Trip from Bucharest★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 142 reviews
Therme under glass
Thermal water is pulled up from deep under the plain and served under a glass dome full of palms, twenty minutes from the airport. Most bookings include the transfer, the evening ticket is the cheap one, and it is the obvious thing to do on a flight day.
- 1Therme Bucharest Entry Ticket and Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 608 reviews
- 2Therme Spa Night Experience with Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 237 reviews
- 3THERME “Take It Easy” Pack: Full Spa Access + Private Transfers★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 117 reviews
By where you end up
Two days in the city and one long day north: the Bucharest weekend most people end up booking.
On foot
The Palace
ThermeJust reviewed, in the city and out along the castle road.
The other new ones →
Bucharest Private City Tour 4h with Hotel Pickup & Drop-Off
Read our review →
