Bucharest is definitely an up-and-coming city and we think in a few years it will soon be stag/hen do central.
For now though, many tourists are yet to discover what this place has to offer. It definitely wasn't our most seamless break to plan - but luckily for you we've added all of our hints and tips below to give you a slightly easier trip...
Day 1
Our first day was spent getting to Bucharest. We flew from London Stansted airport, where we got a Leon for lunch once through security.
Once we arrived in Bucharest, we got through passport control quickly, but unfortunately had a long wait for our luggage as the staff were on strike!
We then made our way to the exit, in the hope to get an Uber or Bolt. Unfortunately the instructions sent to us by our Airbnb host did not seem to be quite right, so we weren't able to find the meeting point easily. By this point it was late at night and we knew we had an early start the next day, so we gave in and took a local taxi. This was incredibly expensive, so if you have the time we would recommend seeking out the Bolt/Uber meeting place.
A 10 minute car ride later and we were at our Airbnb. We heated up some homemade pizza in a frying pan (we came prepared knowing it would be hard to find gluten free food) and went to bed.
Day 2
On our second day we got up early and walked around 15 minutes to Therme Bucharest. The route was easy but the path was not flat, which made it very hard to pull our suitcase along! We stored our suitcase in the spa's luggage room, and enjoyed the facilities for a few hours.
Once out of the spa, we got a Bolt to our next apartment, just on the outskirts of the Old Town in Bucharest. We quickly discovered how accessible Bolt/Uber was out there - we never waited more than 10 minutes for a pick up, and the journeys were incredibly cheap compared to UK prices!
Once at our apartment, we unpacked and suddenly found ourselves completing an activity that we hadn't planned in advance - having to cancel and rebook our trip planned for Day 4!
We mentioned above that Bucharest wasn't the easiest trip to plan. This was partly due to the lack of Coeliac-safe Vegetarian food, and the location of it. Day 4 was a Sunday and we had booked a day trip outside of the city. It was scheduled to be a long day (around 12 hours) and we had purposely picked a trip starting very early to ensure that we were back in time to get to a gluten free restaurant before it closed. Unfortunately at around 36 hours notice we received a text saying that there weren't enough people booked onto our timeslot, so we had been moved onto a later one. We replied straight away asking what time we would be due back, explaining that we had severe food allergies (yes, Coeliac isn't an allergy, but we needed to get our point across quickly), couldn't eat just anywhere and needed to be back for a restaurant reservation. Their response was "There are restaurants at the Castles" - unhelpful to say the least! 🙄
Needless to say, we promptly cancelled that trip, and luckily managed to find another one leaving at an earlier time.
Once all of that was all sorted, we got ready to head out for our evening meal, at Pizzeria Viitorului. This was around a 30 minute walk from our apartment, but we enjoyed seeing the sights on route. Once back at our apartment, we got an early night ready for the next day of exploring.
Day 3
On Day 3, we got up early and got a Bolt straight to Better Bread, to collect snacks and picnic items to last us for the next couple of days.
We got a Bolt back to the apartment so that we could store the items in the fridge, and then got another Bolt to Dimitrie Gusti, the National Village Museum.
Once we had finished at the museum, we exited directly into Herastrau Park and enjoyed a walk around the lake.
Next, we left the park at one of the exits close to the Arcul de Triumf, and took some time out of our walk to climb it and enjoy views out over the city.
When we were finished with the arch, we rejoined our walk in the park and followed the lake up to The Hard Rock Cafe, where we stopped for a late lunch / early tea.
With very full tummies, we next got an Uber to The Old Town, and visited The Little Paris museum.
We then walked around The Old Town, and decided to pop into a bar for a quick drink. Bucharest has lots of beautiful bars, and having not 'coeliac danced' any of them in advance, we opted for Linea closer to the moon. After climbing flights upon flights of stairs (note: don't be like us, take the lift!) we reached the top and were quickly allocated a rooftop table with a great view out over Bucharest. Unfortunately our visit was very short lived as our waiter told us that none of the drinks were available gluten free (We would have loved a cocktail, but honestly a bottle of water would have sufficed...) so sadly we left this bar rather thirsty.
We then returned to our apartment to prepare for another early start the next day.
Day 4
On Day 4 we were up early and walked around 5 minutes to meet our trip organiser for the day - with this group, we visited Peles Castle, Brasov and Bran Castle.
Due to traffic, we arrived back in Bucharest even later than planned - this meant needing to make a mad dash to Arepas Colombianas before they closed, as there were no other restaurants offering gluten free food open.
The restaurant was a 30 minute walk or 10 minute taxi ride from where the trip dropped us off, so Ady did an amazing job of arranging an Uber to pick us up very quickly after getting off the bus.
We made it to Arepas with just minutes to spare, and reflected upon how different that night would have been had we gone with the original trip!
With full tummies we walked the 30 minutes back to our apartment to prepare for our next early morning.
Day 5
Day 5 was our favourite day of the whole trip - a trip on the Transfagarasan Highway, where we saw wild bears literally just chilling on the side of the road! The meet point was again just a 5 minute walk from our apartment.
When we arrived back in Bucharest, once again our only option for tea was Arepas Colombianas, but it wasn't quite as much of a mad rush to get there this time.
Once we had eaten, we walked back to the apartment to prepare for our last day in Bucharest.
Day 6
On our final full day in Bucharest, we spent most of the day walking around the city looking for all the little hidden treasures. We started with Umbrella Street, moving on to Pasajul Macca-Villacrosse, Biserica Zlatari, a brief walk by the Palace of Deposits and Consignments and then Biserica Manastirii Stavropoleos.
Next we went hunting for breakfast at L'Amande and quickly returned to the apartment to pop next day's breakfast in the fridge (stopping by Carturesti Carusel very briefly on route).
We then walked through Cismigiu Gardens, before heading to meet our tour guide to visit The Palace of Parliament.
After the tour, we needed to get to our dinner reservation at Pizzeria Viitorului quickly, so we got an Uber. Traffic was bad, but our driver did a great job of getting us there on time. After dinner, we returned to our apartment to pack ready to fly home the next day.
Day 7
Day 7 was devoted to flying home. We were up and out early, and got ourselves an Uber a lot earlier than we needed to (standard practice for us when a flight is involved). We did however realise halfway to the airport that we had left our car keys in the safe at the apartment?! A quick panic amendment to our Uber route later, we managed to go back to collect the keys and still made it to the airport an hour before check in! 😂
We had a great time in Bucharest - due to our dietary requirements it was not the easiest of cities to navigate, but we will never let that stop us! ♥
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