Regular readers of Inside Laura’s Head will know I’m aiming to do 40 before 40. I didn’t want settling down into a relationship to change that. Luckily for me, my partner is fully on board with my plan to visit some more unusual countries. For his birthday, we decided we wanted our first holiday together. We went for a new country for me, Romania, planning on spending 48 hours in Bucharest. I came home from visiting Bucharest with a different opinion of the city than I’d expected. Read this post to find out what we did and what we saw whilst spending 48 hours in Bucharest.
Day 1 of spending 48 hours in Bucharest-the Zoo, Herastrau Park and drinking in the Old Town
Our first day in Bucharest was J’s birthday, and he really wanted a more relaxed day. It’s not the way I usually travel. I am a ‘cram in as much as possible’ person, but a slower pace is a refreshing change. We decided on the Zoo (Zoo Baneasa) and then Herastrau Park for the afternoon, followed by finding somewhere nice for tea.
We’d read mixed reviews on Bucharest’s Zoo. But we decided, as tickets were only 13 leu (RON) – about £2.30 – we’d try it. It turned out to be a good way to spend a couple of hours. I’ve written a separate post reviewing the zoo so if you want to find out more, give that a read.
Herastrau Park
Herastrau Park, also known as King Michael I Park, was a great way to spend our afternoon when visiting Bucharest. The park is the largest park located inside a city in Europe. We only managed less than half of it. You could easily spend a day at Herastrau Park. Especially if you took a picnic or planned to eat at one of the restaurants.
We started by walking around some of the lake, stopping for ice cream when we needed a rest. After a sit down, we diverted to one of the playgrounds. I had a go on a slide and a swinging horse, because I’m still a child at heart. We tried out the outside gym equipment too.
Village Museum
Our next stop, the Village Museum, is part of the park too. We spent a couple of hours walking round there looking at the old houses and trying to make friends with some of the 20+ cats we saw. (Cats don’t like me, I managed to stroke two, which is a very low success rate!)
The museum cost 15 RON – less than £3 each – and it was well worth the price. We definitely could have paid more attention to reading all the signs and looking inside the houses, but we enjoyed just walking around taking photos and spotting cats.
Herastrau Park has a skate park, plenty of bars and restaurants,and a Japanese Garden – our next stop.
This was a pretty area full of Cherry Blossom trees and little bridges over a stream. Whilst it’s not the best Japanese Garden I’ve ever seen, it was a good addition to the park.
Arcul De Triumpf
We then left the park to see Bucharest’s Arcul De Triumpf, which is just outside. Nearby is a tribute to Michael Jackson-which really isn’t anything special. Worth a look if you’re there anyway, or a big MJ fan. I’m glad we went to see it.
At this point we were tired, so we headed back to our hotel to rest and play some UNO.
Later, we went into the Old Town for Italian food and few drinks including a ridiculous Romanian Flag shot which was pretty lethal. A brilliant night.
Day 2 of spending 48 hours in Bucharest-the Old Town, Calaei Victoriei and Amythyst Sky Bar
Our second day in the city began with a brilliant hotel breakfast. We then had a walk to see the Royal Palace of Bucharest and some other touristy parts of the Old Town. Seeing it in the daytime was a totally different vibe to the night before and it, like most old towns, was much prettier in the daylight!
Mid-morning, it was time for something I was really excited about, a visit to Cărturești Carusel. Known as one of the prettiest bookshops in Romania, it’s easy to see why it’s so popular with tourists. I took lots of photos here.
We enjoyed a coffee at their top-floor cafe and I resisted the urge to buy new books. English books abroad are more expensive and carrying books in hand luggage feels silly. I did treat myself to some traditional gingerbread and some fancy tea.
Caru’ Cu Bere: a must-visit when visiting Bucharest
We’d booked a table at Caru’ Cu Bere for lunch so we could try traditional Romanian food. I forgot to note what we had, but we went for their set menu and it was really good, even for a fussy eater like me.
The restaurant had live music too which was really cool, and the wooden, traditional decor was beautiful. You definitely need to eat at Caru’ Cu Bere when you’re in Bucharest.
Calea Victorei and Umbrella Street
Following lunch, we went for a walk down Calea Victorei, which is Bucharest’s most fancy, upmarket shopping strip. Sadly, my travel budget doesn’t stretch that far. We just window shopped but Calea Victorei is such a big part of the city, we wouldn’t have missed it.
Our next stop, Umbrella Street was mostly just for the photo. Who doesn’t find a street full of hanging rainbow umbrellas brings them joy?
By mid-afternoon we’d walked 20,000 steps and we were tired. We spent some time relaxing back at our hotel, knowing we had big plans for the evening.
Amethyst Sky Bar and more drinks
Later on, we headed to Amethyst Sky Bar for fancy cocktails whilst watching a sunset, which was really beautiful. We did have to watch the clock a bit as our football team (Burnley) were playing, and we knew it was the game where they were hopefully going to achieve promotion.
J had already found a sports bar and emailed them to ask if they would be showing the game. On arrival we found that they’d reserved a table for us.
The lovely barman watched the game as we did. When we got promotion he came over with a shot each for us and him, said ‘welcome back to the Premier League’ and we did the shots. Such great hospitality, absolutely lovely, and an absolutely unforgettable night.
We went for another drink after the Burnley game to carry on the joy for a bit longer, before heading back to sleep ready for our third day, heading outside of Bucharest. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out…
Day 3-the change of plan while visiting Bucharest
Our third day was supposed to be spent getting a train to Brasov. We wanted to take a cable car up into the mountains before coming back down and exploring Brasov itself. Unfortunately, due to poor planning and Romania’s seemingly not great transport system, we didn’t make it.
We walked to the train station in the morning, not realising the first train wasn’t until 12:30. When we got there, there were no tickets left for that train anyway. We could have taken the next one, but with the two-and-a-half hour train there it felt like a long way for what would be a few hours in Brasov, so we admitted defeat and decided on spending another day in Bucharest instead.
With the benefit of hindsight, we should have figured out Brasov trains on our first day in the city and booked our tickets then.
Botanical Gardens: a quiet space when visiting Bucharest
Because we felt like we’d seen what we really wanted to, and because we were really tired from the night before, our third day ended up feeling a bit flat.
I’d recommend always having a plan B on trips. If you end up with more time than you thought you’d have in a city, you still have things you want to do. I didn’t do that when visiting Bucharest and it did mean we didn’t have as good a day as we could have.
We went for a wander around the Botanical Garden, which was lovely, and had a much-needed coffee there too. We then wandered around some of the city and spent some more time relaxing at our hotel.
Most of my trips teach me something, and visiting Bucharest taught me the importance of a plan B.
Have you been to Bucharest? What should I have done on day three?
Do you have any lessons from previous trips you’d like to share? Let me know in the comments.
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