Bucharest

Bucharest gets treated by a lot of itineraries as a necessary evil — the place your flight lands, tolerated for one groggy night before the 'real' trip to Transylvania begins. That's a mistake. It's a genuinely strange, layered city: Belle Époque townhouses next to Communist-era megablocks next to one of the most absurd buildings on the planet. Give it two full days and it earns its keep.

How many days do you need in Bucharest?

Two to three nights is the right amount. One day for the Old Town and a walk down Calea Victoriei (the city's grand 19th-century boulevard), one for the Palace of the Parliament and the Village Museum, and a spare evening for the restaurant and rooftop-bar scene, which is genuinely excellent and still cheap by Western European standards.

The Palace of the Parliament — yes, it's really that big

Built on Nicolae Ceausescu's orders in the 1980s, it's the second-largest administrative building in the world by floor area (after the Pentagon) and reportedly the heaviest building on Earth. An entire historic neighborhood was demolished to build it. Guided tours run daily, covering a small fraction of its roughly 1,100 rooms — book online a day ahead in peak season to skip the queue. Entry: around $12–15 for the standard tour.

What's actually worth seeing

1. The Palace of the Parliament — book the guided tour in advance; it's the single most-talked-about thing to do in the city, for good reason.
2. The Village Museum (Muzeul Satului) — dozens of real wooden houses and churches relocated from across the country into a lakeside open-air museum. A genuinely good stand-in if you won't make it to rural Maramures.
3. Revolution Square and the Old Town at night — Lipscani lights up after dark with bars, buskers, and a very good, very cheap restaurant scene.
4. The Romanian Athenaeum — a stunning 1888 concert hall; even a quick daytime look inside (small entry fee) is worth the detour.

Mistakes worth avoiding

• Treating Bucharest as a one-night layover — most travelers who do this regret it and wish they'd budgeted a second day.
• Skipping the metro because it 'looks intimidating' — it's cheap, safe, and by far the fastest way to cross the city during the day.
• Assuming every taxi meter is honest — stick to Bolt/Uber, or only use taxis with clearly marked company logos and a visible meter.

Day trips from Bucharest

If you're short on time for a full Transylvania loop, Bucharest still puts a few genuinely worthwhile day trips within reach: the Bucovina painted monasteries and the Danube Delta are both too far for a rushed day (budget a dedicated 2-3 day leg for either), but Sinaia's Peles Castle is a comfortable half-day round trip by train, and Brasov itself can be done as a long day trip in a pinch, even though an overnight is the better call.