Bucharest 7 Day Itinerary (No Day Trips)
Seven days in Bucharest, prices in lei not euros, is the full city version: all 9 things worth doing here, a proper flex day, and enough slack left over for one optional day trip if you want it, without turning this into a Transylvania itinerary by accident. This extends the 6 day route with a second free day before departure; for the deeper castle-and-mountains version, see the Bucharest castles and day trips itinerary instead, a genuinely different trip built around Peles, Bran, and Brasov.
Book these before you go:
- Palace of Parliament tour on GetYourGuide , the phone-only booking line is the one thing here you can’t sort out on arrival
- Bucharest hotels on Booking.com
- Therme Bucuresti tickets on GetYourGuide
- Communism history tour on Viator
Day 1: Old Town and Revolution Square
Express Bus 100 from Henri Coanda, roughly 3 RON, 40 to 50 minutes to Piata Unirii; skip the unmarked taxis outside arrivals, the overcharge scam there is well documented, and use Bolt or the terminal’s official yellow kiosks instead. Settle into an Old Town hotel, then Revolution Square and the Romanian Athenaeum in the afternoon (15 RON cash, walk-in, Musicians Entrance on Strada Benjamin Franklin). Dinner at Caru’ cu Bere, evening on Strada Lipscani.
Day 2: The Palace of Parliament and Calea Victoriei
Book ahead or this day doesn’t happen (full rules ): phone +40 733 558 102/103, weekdays 9:00 to 16:00, 24+ hours out, original passport required at the door. Standard tour roughly 60 RON adult, 30 RON student, 20 RON child, plus a 10 RON basement add-on. Afternoon on Calea Victoriei, the “Little Paris” boulevard that survives in patches rather than as a wall-to-wall old-world streetscape given the WWII bombing and Ceausescu-era demolitions.
Day 3: The Village Museum and King Michael I Park
Morning at the Village Museum , 40 RON adult, half off Monday and Tuesday, real relocated wooden houses, churches, and windmills from rural Romania, no booking needed. Afternoon around the lake in King Michael I Park.
Day 4: The National Museum of Art and Obor Market
Morning at the National Museum of Art of Romania, 24 RON per gallery or 32 RON combined, free the first Wednesday of the month. Afternoon at Obor Market for mici at half the Old Town price.
Day 5: Therme Bucuresti
A full day at Therme , roughly 130 to 150 RON for the Galaxy zone on weekdays, more on weekends. Budget the whole day, it’s genuinely out of town in Balotesti, not a quick stop.
Day 6: Cotroceni and Primaverii
Morning in Cotroceni, the quieter district around the President’s official residence. Afternoon in Primaverii, the upscale embassy district near King Michael I Park, including the former Ceausescu residence, now open as a museum. A slower, more local day than anything earlier this week.
Day 7: Farewell, or one optional day trip
Two honest options here. If you want a genuinely relaxed last day: revisit whichever neighborhood surprised you most, do a last Old Town food crawl, and head to the airport with a buffer for weekday traffic. If you’d rather use the slack for one castle day trip, Peles Castle in Sinaia is the stronger single pick over Bran, a genuinely opulent 19th century royal interior versus a thin, marketing-built Dracula connection, but book the train and any castle timed-slot ahead; it’s roughly 1h15 to 1h30 each way from Gara de Nord and this makes for a long last day before a flight. Don’t try to do both Peles and Bran in the same day trip from a city-based stay, that’s the 12-hour version and it needs its own itinerary, not a bolt-on to this one.
| Day | Focus | Travel time | Rough daily cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Revolution Square, Athenaeum, Old Town | Airport to center: 40-50 min by bus | ~150 RON |
| 2 | Palace of Parliament, Calea Victoriei | Walkable within center | ~195 RON |
| 3 | Village Museum, King Michael I Park | Metro/bus to the park | ~140 RON |
| 4 | National Museum of Art, Obor Market | Metro to Obor | ~130 RON |
| 5 | Therme Bucuresti | Taxi/Bolt to Balotesti, ~30 min | ~230 RON |
| 6 | Cotroceni, Primaverii | Walkable/metro | ~110 RON |
| 7 | Flex day or Peles day trip | Train to Sinaia if day-tripping, ~1h15-1h30 | ~100 RON flex, ~250 RON with Peles |
If Day 7 becomes a Peles day trip, buy the train ticket a day ahead rather than at the Gara de Nord counter that morning, the earliest departures fill up in summer.