Romania: Bucharest practicalities (2001-2002)

[December 2014. I wrote most of this in 2002, updated a bit in May 2006, but Bucharest is changing fast. I'm leaving this up here mainly for historical reasons. Do not use this as a guide to present-day Bucharest, though it will still be useful for things like museums and perhaps theaters. Bucharest in Your Pocket is now on line 🔗, and they are a consistently good, up-to-date source on the city.]

[December 2014: If you have the money, the new Hotel Epoque is pretty amazing. Beautiful, rather central but on a quiet dead end, 5-star facilities, staff who seem actually to care about making it not just a fine hotel but a great hotel. Unless you need to be dead center, this, rather than the Athenee Palace, is probably the hotel of choice now in Bucharest.]

Some of you have been asking me for more practical advice on Bucharest rather than just travelogue. (On the other hand, if you are looking for travelogue, read my Romania letters.) Here goes, although this is still by no means going to be a comprehensive tourist guide.

Sources of Bucharest information

If anyone has information they believe I should add to this page, please let me know. I'd be especially interested in the URL of a good online guide to the city: so far, I haven't found anything better than going into Google and starting a search on what you are interested in.

Bucharest will be well covered in any guide to Romania. My favorite guide to the country is The Rough Guide to Romania, but you may have different taste in travel guides. I figure that anyone going to Romania has probably traveled enough to have developed a taste in travel guides.

Far and away the best English-language guide to Bucharest itself (so much so that this is not a matter of taste) is Bucharest in Your Pocket, updated every two months (important in this fast-changing city). They recently upgraded their look and raised their price, but it's still an amazing bargain, locally available in Bucharest for 85,000 lei (about US$2.75 [May 2006: still about the same, but in new lei — RON — that's 8.5 lei]). Once you get to Bucharest, you can buy it at many bookstores, hotels, and at some of the larger museums. [May 2006: some hotels have it for free.] It includes a useful map that will probably be sufficient for a short-term visit. Unfortunately, their web site has been down lately (April-May 2002), so there is no point in my providing a link, but you might try a web search and see if they are up again.

More detailed city maps can be generally bought at almost any hotel, bookstore, or news kiosk near the center of the city. Prices run about US$2-5.

Excellent online listings of the performing arts throughout Romania, with an emphasis on Bucharest, can be found in the online edition of Observator Cultural 🔗. Click on Agenda Culturala, then select the type of event you are interested in. (Opera and ballet will be under "Spectacole".) Listings are strictly in Romanian, but one needn't be Charles Berlitz to understand "Romeo si Julieta de S. Prokofiev". The same people put out an excellent weekly (Romanian language) guide to goings-on [May 2006: they no longer do listings, more just reviews these days, more of an intellectual journal of the arts], available at most Bucharest newsstands, out each Wednesday.

Sapte Seri 🔗 ("Seven Evenings"), available free at most Bucharest hotels and many bars, comes out on Friday and also has good listings of goings-on about town, mostly in Romanian but with seemingly random bits of English. The web edition postdates my time in Bucharest; it looks slicker than the magazine itself and includes more English-language content (try the "English" button at the upper right of their home page). [May 2006: now there is also 24-FUN 🔗, with a Bucharest edition B-24-Fun.]

Bucharest has no tourist office worthy of the name. The dozen or two so-called tourist offices are really just undistinguished travel agencies that will try to sell you package tours.

Romania changed its phone numbering scheme June 14, 2002. The country code remains 40. The Bucharest phone code is changed from (0)1 to (0)21. Consequently, any but the most current guidebooks show Bucharest phone numbers beginning with 40 1 for international dialing and 01 for domestic within Romania. Instead, these numbers are now 40 21 for international dialing and 021 for domestic. I haven't made any effort in the following to give a comprehensive list of phone numbers (it shouldn't be hard for you to search down, say, the phone number of a theater on line) but where I do list them I'm using the new international phone numbers.

Quick tourist overview

Sadly, only a few neighborhoods of Bucharest still live up to its onetime reputation as the "Paris of the East". For simple beauty, it does not rival Budapest, let alone Prague, Bucharest took some damage during World War II and was further marred by the ugly urban planning schemes of Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. In the remaining older neighborhoods, many beautiful villas retain their charm intact. Even in the most Orwellian Communist-era neighborhoods you may stumble upon a small, lovely Orthodox church, possibly now in the courtyard of one of the Orwellian apartment buildings.

A Note on Language

Most younger Romanians (and many older Romanians) speak at least rudimentary English. [As of 2021, "younger" here probably means under about 50!] Many are fluent. Older educated Romanians typically know French; they also often know Russian, but they don't like to use it. You might also find German or Italian useful, but probably less so than English or French.

As for the Romanian language itself, it is very much a Romance language, closer to Latin and Italian than to anything else. There are a few unusual letters, which I haven't tried to reproduce here. A "t" with a cedilla under it (a cedilla looks a lot like a comma), is pronounced "ts", an "s" with a cedilla is pronounced "sh". For example, there is a cedilla under the "t" in "piata" (which means "square" or "market"), so it's pronounced "piatsa"—almost exactly like the Italian "piazza". [Note 2021: the Romanians insist it's not a cedilla, it's a vergula (basically a comma), but it doesn't really matter unless you are defining a font.]

Reasonably good online introductions to the Romanian language (usually with some wave files) seem to come and go. Try typing "Romanian language" into your favorite search engine.

Getting in and out of Bucharest

Bucharest is not the easiest town to come and go from. The following tips are intended to prevent your visit from getting off to a miserable start.

Getting in from Otopeni Airport

[2021 note: almost certainly hopelessly outdated, right down to the name of the airport. I'm leaving this here mainly for historical reasons.] All international flights in and out of Bucharest come and go from Otopeni Airport 🔗. Probably the best deal to get into town from Otopeni is Sky Services limos. They have a booth in the arrival hall, or they can be reached at (40 21) 204 10 02, fax (40 21) 232 96 91, email [email protected]. It's US$25 for a private limo, US$10 to share, slightly discounted if you pay for a round trip. If you know Bucharest well, you might cut a better deal with a taxi driver, but if you don't know Bucharest well, a taxi driver will almost certainly sting you for just as much (or more) and provide worse service.

For those on a tiny budget, the number 783 Express (it's just a name, don't get excited) airport bus leaves approximately every 15 minutes from Otopeni and runs from roughly 06:00 to 23:00. It's cheap (round trip is less than US$1; buy a ticket at the RATB ticket booth) but not utterly reliable (nothing comes for 45 minutes, then three come right together, etc.), and occasionally haunted by sneak thieves and pickpockets, so keep an eye on your belongings. Unless you are caught in rush hour traffic, the 783 takes about 35 minutes to the Piata Victoriei and another 10 minutes to the Piata Unirii. Probably you will want to stay on until Unirii, then (depending on where you are going) walk, take the Metrou or take a taxi.

Conversely, for those on a large budget, a correspondent informs me (November 2003): "When traveling to Romania, there is no better way of getting from the airport into town for $50 then with the only real limo company in Bucharest. They have new Lincoln Towncars 9 meters long, with BAR TV and all that California dream stuff in it! I tried it, and its really a cool thing to do, with kids, for business or otherwise. I believe their number is +40 788 326 825." Sounds like his tastes are more expensive than mine (I just want to get into town without hassle), but if you're more that kind of traveller, there you go.

Arriving by train

[2021 note: presumably hopelessly outdated. I'm leaving this here mainly for historical reasons.] Bucharest is a long way from Europe's other major cities (12 hours by train to Budapest, 17 hours to Vienna) but the train service is reliable. If you have time on your hands, you might make a few stops between Budapest and Bucharest (or between Istanbul and Bucharest, not to be so Occidentally Eurocentric).

All long distance trains come to the Gara du Nord, which is well served by the very cheap, reasonably well-run Metrou. You can take the Metrou to Piata Victoriei or (transferring once) to Piata Universitate, which is the nearest subway stop to many Bucharest hotels (though, unfortunately, that still means a ten minute walk to the biggest concentration of hotels). Also, there is nothing (except perhaps language barrier) to stop you from calling one of the more reliable taxi companies from the station.

The Gara du Nord itself is considerably cleaner and safer than it was just a few years ago (partly due to a fee of 3000 lei -- about 10 US cents -- to enter the station without a ticket), but the cabbies around the station are mostly not to be trusted (be particularly wary of any who actually approach you inside the station), the buses in and out of the station are the pickpockets' favorites, and the neighborhood, while not actively bad, is not the friendliest part of town to walk around (fine if you already know the city, but a tough place to start). Unless you know what you are up to, take the Metrou or take a taxi from a reliable company.

Getting around town

Bucharest is a compact city. Most of what you will want to see should be within thirty minutes walk of your hotel. Expect to walk a lot.

If you really want to know what I like about Bucharest, read my thirty-plus articles about the city, but here are some highlights:

• The opera and ballet are excellent, with first rate ensemble work, which is the way I like it. Keep your divas, give me singers and dancers who are also actors. The musical repertoire is distinctly Classical and Romantic (I could go with a bit more Twentieth Century myself, but who can really argue about Mozart, Verdi, Bizet, etc.), staging is as innovative as any in the world. Costumes are lavish, performers, directors, and choreographers are of world caliber. Typically, there are at least a dozen pieces in repertory, and there are performances Wednesday through Sunday evenings, so if you are into this sort of thing you can go night after night. Even the most expensive tickets cost about $US5. That is not a typo. Five dollars. Performances rarely sell out, so you can usually arrive an hour beforehand and still get a decent seat, but you can also book up to about two months ahead. (Warning: like most things in the high arts here, the opera house is closed at Orthodox Easter, the Christmas holidays, and summer)
• Other classical music is also strong. Most notably, the Orchestra George Enescu usually gives several performances a week at the very centrally located Ateneul Roman (Romanian Atheneum), an ornate, circular, domed, Victorian-era auditorium directly across the street from the Hilton Hotel. (Some people really like its acoustics, I find it a little echo-y myself, but it's a marvellous building in any case, certainly worth one visit even if you end up agreeing with me about the acoustics.) Tickets run about US$4.
• The same correspondent who gave the limo tip above writes (November 2003): "Include the OPEN AIR SUMMER CONCERTS. http://www.openairsummerconcerts.ro 🔗. [Note 2021: dead link, presumably gone.] It's a really VIP event (US ambassador, ministers, etc) for charity, where young professional classical musicians perform outside of Bucharest at one of the most beautiful places called Snagov. Its in one of the nicest residences I have ever seen, with a giant garden near the lake, etc....Really incredible." I have no independent comment on that, since I have never been in Romania in the summer. Snagov is supposed to be beautiful and is quite near Bucharest.
• Quality is just as high prices are just as low for the National Theater (with three halls and a large number of plays in repertory) and the adjoining Operetta, and such smaller theaters as the beautiful nineteenth-century Odeon (a 400-seat gem on Calea Victoriei near the Cercul Militar). There are about a dozen other good theatrical or classical musical venues. Do not let your ignorance of the Romanian language keep you out of the theaters. Sure, you won't understand everything, but this is top-quality theater, and you are unlikely to be bored.
• Tickets are even cheaper for the city's four children's theaters (two live, two with puppets) and the remarkable Teatrul Evriesc de Stat (State Jewish Theater) which typically has four different performances each week, including at least one in Yiddish.
• Gradina Cismigiu is a totally great park, like a miniature of New York's Central Park. Unlike Central Park, Cismigiu is relatively safe at night. In the winter it's full of ice skaters all evening; at other times of years it is a favorite spot for couples to pair off on the benches. (The city's many outlying parks are also good, but they are a bit of a trek to get to.)
• The utterly central national gallery (with an admission price of about US$2) has a fairly good European collection (the highlight is Cano's "Christ at the Column") but the real delights are in the Romanian collection: an entire room devoted to the eerie, supernatural sculptures of Dimitrie Paciurea, plus a truly great collection of Eastern Orthodox religious art in the Medieval collection. (Don't feel compelled to look at everything: some of the pieces here merely go to show that if you want to get your work into a National Gallery it is a good career choice to come from a small country and paint folkloric subjects.)
• While I'm on Orthodox religious art, the Museum of the Romanian Peasant -- about 1.5 kilometers north of the center of town at Sos. Kisileff 3 and possibly even more worth a visit than the national gallery -- has a fascinating collection of icons, a textile collection worthy of an entire museum in its own right, an entire windmill and watermill (both beautifully weathered), and more other wonderful things than I can list.
• Speaking of the Museum of the Romanian Peasant, its museum store (which tends to close around 16:00, so don't put it off till late afternoon) has an impressive collection of contemporary peasant handicrafts, almost a museum in its own right. Elaborately painted eggshells, which sell for barely US$1, make wonderful, inexpensive souvenirs, and the store staff know how to pack them reasonably well for travel (or you can bring an egg carton!). There are also remarkable peasant textiles, including embroidery on cotton, wool, and leather. If you are the kind of person who can get away with wearing an exotic, head-turning coat, you could have the find of a lifetime here. Prices typically run less than half of what comparable textile items cost in the US.
• Bucharest's Jewish Museum is one of the most interesting I have seen. Housed in a magnificently preserved former synagogue in the city's historically Jewish neighborhood, it acknowledges the Holocaust, but is not obsessed with it; acknowledges Zionism, but is not obsessed with it. It attempts to be -- and largely succeeds in being -- a museum about the Jews as an ethnic component of Romania.
• If I were living here, I would probably spend a lot of my summer on the terasas of the Cafeneaua Actorilor and the Lăptăria Enache (whose terasa has a separate name, La Motoare), both part of the complex containing the National Theater and the Operetta. Good bars, even better terasas, and Actorilor is open 24 hours.
• Incredibly cheap taxis, once you know what you are doing.
• People are reasonably friendly and outgoing. Not quite as much so as the Spanish, the Italians, or the Hungarians (which might be welcome for a lot of women travellers: guys will not assume every stray American woman wants to sleep with them), but the aren't going to wait for formal introductions.
• Everything I've mentioned so far is located within thirty minutes walk of the center of town. Farther out are some more good little museums (I'd choose the Zambaccian Museum, the Village Museum, the Storck Museum, and the Pallady Museum in that order, although there are certainly museums in Bucharest that I have not seen), a decent Botanical Garden (the conservatory can be a great place to visit for some warmth on a winter day), and the Bucharest Mall, which is neither great nor awful but has a good multiplex cinema and a great place to get gelati.

What I don't like about Bucharest

• [2021 note: presumably largely outdated. I'm leaving this here mainly for historical reasons.]
• Bucharest is a largely poor city (half of the people are getting by on no more than US$100/month). [May 2006: probably now that number is more like US$200] Although remarkably free of violence, and with only slightly more beggars than an American city of comparable size (although more child beggars and more persistent beggars), you are constantly aware of the poverty of those around you, and unless you are one of those "let's go dancing on the backs of the poor" types, this is not fun.
• [May 2006: this seems to be pretty much over and done with] The Maradona: someone will approach you and attempt to engage you in (English-language) conversation, typically, although not always, about something vaguely illicit. Seconds later, two men will appear, in plain clothes but flashing legitimate-looking police badges. They will accuse the two of you of some illegal activity (usually currency swapping, a totally ridiculous charge in a city where legitimate currency exchanges are more common than streetlights), and demand to see your wallet and/or passport. Do not hand them these things! Walk away, or yell, or tell them outright that you do not believe they are the police, or suggest that you all walk to the lobby of a nearby hotel (or police station) because you are not comfortable taking out your wallet or papers in the street, or whatever. These con men thrive because the police fail to enforce laws against non-violent crime and because some visitors to the city are easily gulled. They will not physically attack you. Treatment of violent offenders is severe. These men are professionals, and they would never be foolish enough to chance it.
• Similarly annoying, though not particularly threatening, lone men walking in touristy parts of Bucharest in the evening should expect to be approached by pimps. [May 2006: less so, but still true.] They may insult you when you say "no", but they won't do anything worse. I'm told that women have the equivalent hassle but, as far as I can tell, nothing worse than insults will arise.
• Bucharest beggars can be a bit persistent, but almost all will settle for very small amounts of money: 1000 lei (about 3 US cents) or almost any item of food is typically (though not always) well received. I hand out small amounts like this rather freely, but to refuse to part with anything larger unless I actually want to. (You will encounter far fewer con men, pimps, and persistent beggars if you don't dress in a way that shows off money. Don't walk around flashing jewelry, camera, or expensive watches. Wear clothes a Romanian might wear (black leather jackets are a fine choice and athletic-type clothing is popular here).
• A distinctly Bucharest hassle is the large number of stray dogs. They are generally well behaved, but occasionally can run in packs and become a bit bolder. They are likely to bark, unlikely to bite, and will usually respond submissively to almost any sort of assertive behavior. Still, if you ever got bitten... can we say rabies shots?
• Another distinctly Bucharest hassle is the occasional open manhole. No joke.
• Bucharesteans are generally homophobic. If I were a gay man in Bucharest, I would keep a low profile about it. Lesbian are less of an issue, for all the wrong reasons. [May 2006: less true now, but still not a queer-friendly city.]
• The bias against Gypsies (tigani, that initial "t" has a cedilla under it) is so thorough that I have seen an otherwise liberal person who had displayed no other indications of conventional prejudices pass up a taxicab from a reliable company because the driver looked like he was probably a gypsy. Need I say more?
• The air is pretty polluted. Not as bad a the San Fernando Valley on a hot summer day, but if you have any respiratory problems, you'll notice. [May 2006: somewhat better now.]

While Bucharest undoubtedly has a few outlying neighborhoods to avoid (especially to the south), nothing very bad is anywhere near the center of the city or any of the tourist attractions. The neighborhood around the Gara du Nord (the city's main railroad station) is probably the worst central neighborhood, but certainly no worse than the area around the bus or train station in many major American cities.

In general, it is legal to wander into courtyards of residential buildings, but not polite to do so out of mere curiosity. It is especially a bad idea to wander into courtyards that look run down or trashed out. (On the other hand, there is nothing unusual about a Bucharest courtyard containing a church or shops, so there is no hard and fast rule here.)

While we are on the negative side...

• The Braseria Terasa Cina, despite its beautiful building and utterly central location by the Ateneul Roman and the Hilton, has famously bad food and service (especially the service). If you must go there, stick to drinks and expect to wait a long time to order them. And for them to arrive. And to get your check. [May 2006: defunct, replaced by something presumably better.]
• The Palace of Parliament -- an enormous building, second only to the Pentagon in size -- is notable mainly for its bulk. It is one of the city's most popular tourist sites, but it is as much of a Bourbon Stalinist monstrosity on the inside as it looks from the outside. If you have a strange fascination with the excesses of dictators, then it is a sterling example. If you are willing to wander through a bloated monstrosity just to appreciate the occasional nice detail, you will not be disappointed (there are some beautifully carved wooden doors and a few good floor mosaics), but if you have only a few days in town, this should not be on your list. [May 2006: Now also home to a museum of modern art. Word on it is pretty good, I haven't gotten there.]
• In general, unless you have been a long time away from civilization and are desperate for ma po tofu or pulpo a la plancha, Bucharest is not the place to go to a Chinese or Spanish restaurant. Unless a place is particularly recommended by someone, stick to Romanian, Italian, or Turkish/ Middle Eastern food, or if you are feeling spendy, French food. There are a few decent, but by no means cheap, exotic restaurants -- even Japanese or Korean food can be found, at prices comparable to those in the US -- but as a short term visitor, that is not what Bucharest is about.
• Two of the city's most famous old restaurants -- the Hanul lui Manuc and the Caru' cu Bere -- have relatively undistinguished food, high prices likely to be made more so by overcharging, and indifferent service. [2021 note: I've heard food has improved at both.] Nonetheless, they are undeniably atmospheric, which is why they get away with this. All of this is less of an issue if you are just going for drinks and snacks. If you decide to go anyway, expect to be overcharged (at least by local standards) or to argue the bill...in Romanian.
[July 2007: Caru' cu Bere is now under new management, part of something called "City Grill". I haven't been back; it wouldn't surprise me if they've done a restaurant worthy of the space.]

So you need somewhere to sleep...

Accommodation in Bucharest can be tricky, unless you are on a Hilton/Marriott budget. Here are some of the best options I know about:

• [2021 note: hopelessly outdated. I'm leaving this here mainly for historical reasons.]

• Hotel Capitol, Calea Victoria 29, phone: (40 21) 315 80 30, fax: (40 21) 312 41 69. US$75 single / US$98 double [May 2006: a bit more now: change those dollars to euros and it will be about right] includes breakfast and all taxes. You may be able to get a discount by paying cash (US dollars will do nicely): ask at the desk. This is where I stayed my first several months in Bucharest. I found it comfortable, though admittedly not hassle-free: the restaurant keeps capricious hours, the price for doing laundry seems to be determined by a roulette wheel, etc., but it's a characterful 100-year-old three-star hotel with big rooms and enormous bathrooms, and most of it has been reasonably recently remodeled. Many of the (double glazed) windows look out on the lovely Cercul Militar, and the rest look out on a reasonably nice stretch of Calea Victoriei. The heat works. Little things like that do not go without saying in Romania. Don't expect an all-English-speaking staff or American efficiency, but there will always be someone at the desk with good English.
• Visali [defunct 2021], Str. Occidentului 25, phone: (40 21) 210 12 74, fax: (40 21) 210 12 74. If you don't need any hotel services, you can get a short term apartment rental for a price comparable to a midrange hotel like the Capitol. Pleasant apartments, centrally located and with modern furnishings, start at about US$70/night, with good discounts for long-term stays. The office staff speaks excellent English and the company is very good at dealing with any problems that may come up about the apartments (no small thing in Eastern Europe). I got a great apartment through them for the latter part of my stay in Romania. I have nothing but praise for their operation. [May 2006: quite a few of these rental agencies now, and Vasile may not be the best deal; shop around their web sites. http://www.inyourpocket.com/romania/bucharest/en/category?cid=2697 has some good listings.]
• Hotel Carpati, Str Matei Milo 16, phone: (40 21) 315 01 40; fax: (40 21) 312 18 57. By all accounts, Bucharest's one genuinely good, centrally located bare bones budget one-star hotel with singles US$11-17, doubles US$25-33 and a couple of apartments at US$40. Except for the apartments, expect to share a bathroom down the hall. Some of the rooms have balconies (ask). At these prices you can't assume English-speaking staff (though the person at the desk will have at least rudimentary English) or last-minute rooms (even out of season), so reserving in advance by fax is a good idea. If you arrive on the day and they are full, they are likely to be able to tell you what else in the area is also relatively cheap and decent. They tend to be comfortable answering that sort of question because they know the only reason anyone would be looking elsewhere is that the Carpati is full.
• [Added June 2004:] I've recently heard that two relatively new unofficial hostels -- Elvis's Villa and the Villa Helga -- are both good deals at the very low-budget end. I don't really know anything else about them, except for a warning that rip-off artists will show up at the railroad station falsely claiming to be from one of these hostels. If you are going there, get there on your own, don't trust touts at the station.

... and I suppose you eat, too

[2021 note: prices presumably outdated. I'm leaving this here mainly for historical reasons.] You could do fine in Bucharest on just "street food" (and it would be a cheap, cheap way to go). The city is notable for its many patiserie, where good French- and Hungarian-style pastries can be had for no more than about 50 US cents; covrigarie, selling hot pretzels (covrigi) for about 6 US cents (and they are filling: three makes a lunch); and gogoserie, selling gogosi and langosi (two varieties of doughnut, often with fillings such as apples -- mere -- or chocolate) for about 15-30 US cents. A line at the window is almost always a good sign: Buchuresteans don't line up for bad food.

Also notable are mici, little sausages typically served with mustard and bread, the staple food of the terasa (terrace) bars. Cheap (a meal's worth will usually be under US$2) and (my meat-eating friends tell me) delicious. Of course, you don't really want to know what's in them.

The number one Romanian staple is mamaliga (essentially the same thing as Italian polenta), a preparation of corn with a consistency somewhere between mashed potatoes and oatmeal. It can be served either alone, with smentâtână (sour cream), or covered with a tocana (a simple stew, usually meat-based, although a vegetarian mushroom version exists).

Two other staples are ciorba, a type of sour soup reminiscent of an Italian minestrone soup, although without the noodles (meat-eaters tell me the best is ciorba de burta -- tripe ciorba -- although I can only vouch for ciorba de legume), and sarmale, stuffed cabbage leaves, typically stuffed with meat although vegetarian versions exist.

More elaborate Romanian food runs heavily to game dishes and the like. In general, seafood is not a particular strength at any but the most expensive restaurants, although farm-raised salmon and pike perch (salau) are both commonly available.

There are several local beers. The best is probably Ursus, with Romanian-brewed Stella Artois also a contender. A few of the best bars actually have a Belgian beer or two, arguably the best beers in the world (please don't hate me if you are from Bavaria. I just said "arguably"). And remember that Bucharest is in the part of the world where "Budweiser" means the good stuff from the Czech city of Budwar, not the American beer of the same name.

For those who don't eat meat: people will tell you that it is hard to be a vegetarian in Bucharest. Well, it is relatively hard to be a vegetarian eating at traditional Romanian restaurants, but other than that I think it's not tough at all. Markets have good a selection of produce (though not like what you'd find in a wealthy country); good juices are readily available; there is a (religious) concept of food that is de post, which pretty much means vegan; about half of the street food is vegetarian (although a lot of it does use milk and/or eggs). If you eat cheese, Italian food (especially pizza) is ubiquitous, and it's easy to eat a good meatless Italian meal (although a cheese-less one is harder).

Considering that Bucharest is not a wealthy city, it has a remarkable number of worthwhile bars and restaurants. [May 2006: and far more now. No trouble finding good food in Bucharest anymore.] Rather than list the city's best-known landmark restaurants, here are some lesser-known favorites; nothing here except Golden Falcon should set you back even ten dollars a person:

• [2021 note: hopelessly outdated. I'm leaving this here mainly for historical reasons.]
• La Taifas, Str. G. Clemenceau 6, phone: (40 21)313 49 00, open 18:00-24:00. Pleasant, very central bistro with frequent, informal live music. About US$7. Staff speak a little of everything, but don't expect fluency. Menu on a blackboard in Romanian. [May 2006: defunct]
• Count Dracula Club, Spl. Independentei 8A, phone: (40 21) 312 13 53, open 14:00-24:00, Sunday 17:00-24:00. It sounds so tacky, but I really like the place. Despite being a theme restaurant (the "Count" makes an appearance every evening around 10pm), the prices at this restaurant in a converted villa along the river are entirely reasonable, the food is excellent, and the service is good. Depending on your tastes, you can either time your visit to be there for the Count's appearance or not. Given even a moderate tolerance for kitsch, it's a first-rate alternative to being overcharged by a "historic" venue. About US$10. English-speaking staff.
• Golden Falcon, Str. Hristo Botev 18-20, phone (40 21) 314 28 25, open 12:00-24:00. Wonderful Turkish food, mainly vegetarian appetizers and meaty kebabs. I guess this one is a little out of the price range I just gave (closer to US$15 a person) but worth it. English-speaking staff. A bit less central than most of what I'm listing, best reached by taxi if you do not know the city, so add a few bucks more for the taxi ride. Still, worth the trip, if only for the experience of the bizarrely attentive female serving staff, who perform sort of a live-action menu and vacuum up the table between courses.
• Cafe de la Joie, Str. Bibliotecii 4 (the street is also known as Str. Ion Nestor), phone: (40 21) 315 0937, open 18:00-24:00, closed Sunday. A romantic little candlelit French bistro, featuring good fondues, excellent (warm) seafood salads, and scrumptiously rich desserts (sadly, I'm told the meat dishes fall short). Although it is less than 50 meters from the Piata Universitate, the actual location is a bit obscure: the restaurant has only one tiny sign and is located in the basement of an office building off of a pedestrianized street of bookseller's stalls. About US$10. Minimally English-speaking staff, menu in French and Romanian. [May 2006: defunct]
• Casa Veche, Str. George Enescu 15-17, phone (40 21) 315 78 97, open 11:00-02:00, Mon 13:00-02:00. Very central, located in the same building as an excellent bakery of the same name, the best-known of Bucharest's many good pizza places features excellent thin crust pizza and a very pleasant terasa. Expect to pay US$4-5 for a meal-sized pizza and a beverage. Staff speak a little of everything, but don't expect fluency. Menu in Italian and Romanian.

Bucharest also has a number of fine public markets. The most central is Piata Amzei (Amzei Market), with a good selection of imported and domestic produce, several small supermarkets (one of which is open 24 hours), and a 24-hour flower market. The largest is Piata Obor (Obor Market), an indoor/outdoor market covering several city blocks, with perhaps fifty butchers, twenty fishmongers, several hundred produce vendors, and hundreds of more vendors selling everything from Turkish jeans to tropical fish. Obor Market and the shopping district between the market and the Obor Metrou station (especially the sprawling "Bucur Obor" complex, which fills in the ground floor of half of the block between the metrou station and the Market) are also among the best places to buy CDs and cassettes of Romanian music. Obor is a few kilometers out of the center, near the Metrou station of the same name. It is also on the route of the 66 bus, which comes through the center on B-dul Regina Elisabeta. If you're not ready to contend with public transit, you can get to Obor by taxi. I happen to think it's very worth seeing, but recognize that if central Bucharest itself feels to you like you have left civilization as you know it, Obor feels that way to people from central Bucharest.

Nightlife

Bucharest is not a big nightlife city like Berlin or Madrid, but on the other hand it doesn't exactly go to sleep at sundown. Here are a few places I like, all within a kilometer of the center of town. At any of these, mixed drinks run about US$3, local beer (Ursus, etc.) about half of that.

• [2021 note: hopelessly outdated. I'm leaving this here mainly for historical reasons.]
• Twice [defunct 2021], Str. Sf. Vineri 4, phone: (40 21) 323 18 68, open 21:00-05:00. Impressive multi-story villa conversion; techno, disco, and the occasional live act. Until recently this was free entry, lately they've been charging men (but not women) about US$2 at weekends, also typically US$2 for live acts. [May 2006: I'm told this has detriorated: more for the "girls gone wild" types.]
• Cafeneaua Actorilor, B-dul Balcescu 14, open 24 hours - The "Actors' Cafe" is a hip (but not too-hip) bar next to the Operetta. In good weather, the entire ground floor is open to the elements and becomes sort of a roofed terasa. If that doesn't sound appealing, there is plenty more space in the basement.
• Lăptăria Enache 🔗, B-dul Balescu 2, open Fri/Sat 10:00-04:00, Sun 13:00-02:00, other days 10:00-02:00. Located over the National Theater (enter by the side near the Hotel Intercontinental and the Operetta), Lăptăria Enache is certainly Bucharest's best-known contemporary bar, and possibly its best and most genuinely hip. Usually free entry, though cover for live acts can be up to about US$2.50. Live acts typically Fri/Sat/Sun at 22:00. The Lapteria also has a legendary terasa.
• The Harp, Str. Bibescu Voda 1, phone (40 21) 335 65 08, open 12:00-03:00. Remarkably legit Irish pub with very good Irish pub food, on Piata Unirii. The owner is an Irish expatriate, and it is a gathering place for Irish (and other English-speaking) expatriates of all ages, as well as many Romanians in their twenties and thirties.
• TZ's Cotton Club, Calea Victoriei 40-50 (Pasajul Victoriei), phone (40 21) 313 13 13, open 24 hours. A near-random schedule of entertainment (theatrical skits, lounge acts, theme parties) a hip, slightly decadent crowd, and a reasonably priced buffet (under US$3 for salad bar or breakfast bar, depending on the time of day) make this a lively, often crowded, and not entirely predictable venue.
• Fire Club, Str. Gabroveni 12, phone: (40 740) 39 09 46. Don't be discouraged if the crowd looks sparse from outside: the action is in the basement (which has half-decent ventilation, so it is not quite as oppressively smoky as some basement discos). Music, mostly from the UK or US, ranges from the Violent Femmes to Nick Cave to Lenny Kravitz. Cover varies with day of week, but is never more than about $US1.50, less for women. Open till dawn, cheap drinks: anyone who runs through $US15 in a night here is either buying for their friends or drinking to oblivion.

• Children's theater, mostly with morning preformances. Sure it's in Romanian, but it tends to be pretty lively.
• Gradina Cismigiu: central, great park, lots of playgrounds.
• Natural History Museum (Muzeul National de Istorie Naturala "Grigore Antipa") 🔗.
• If they are reasonably well behaved, this is a good city to take kids to the opera or ballet: they tend to be more welcome than in some other places.

• Traditional gypsy music from Taraful Haiducilor ("gang of thieves"), so far the only Romanian band to receive international attention (unless you count the dreaded Gheorghe Zamfir; actually, when Zamfir sticks to traditional Romanian music, he's fine, but the problem is he doesn't stick to traditional Romanian music. Taraful Haiducilor do).
• Twenty-first century hybrid gypsy/Romanian/rock from Zdob si Zdub 🔗, who hail from the tiny, neighboring former Soviet republic of Moldova.
• Rougher (though still melodic) hybrid gypsy/Romanian/rock and brilliant untranslatable lyrics from Spitalul de Urgenta (roughly, "emergency room". Due to a lawsuit, they may be changing their name to Spitalul de Nebuni, "lunatic hospital").
• Brilliant acoustic rock from Taxi 🔗, whose song "Americanofonia" features (believe it or not) hot Nashville-style guitar licks and makes wonderful fun of the way American English is engulfing the Romanian language.
• Female vocal Europop from the not-quite-interchangeable duos Bambi 🔗 (linked article is in Romanian) and Blondi, who are each striving to be Romania's answer to Abba. Bambi seem to have more of a sense of humor about it all.
• Surprisingly well-done Romanian rap from slick, menacing B.U.G. Mafia and the highly respected, musically minimalist Paraziti.
• Energetic, contemporary teen pop from Hi-Q 🔗, whose single "Da Muzica Mai Tare" (roughly "Give Me Louder Music") should by rights get more airplay than Britney Spears, but doesn't stand a chance because it is in Romanian.
• Cabaret jazz from Alexandru Andries 🔗, notably his Muzica de Divort ("Divorce Music").

There is also an entire genre called manele, which is essentially something between a lounge music and a rock music reworking of traditional Turkish folk material. It is generally looked down upon by people who are serious about either rock music or folk music, and probably even by anyone who is serious about lounge music, but it can be kind of fun. I have no particular groups to recommend: nothing I heard stood out from the pack.

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