Bucharest With Kids: Slides, Fossils, Birds
Bucharest With Kids: Slides, Fossils and Wetland Birds
A wet-weather plan and a dry-weather plan, that is all a family needs for Bucharest. The slides at Therme and the fossils at the Antipa museum cover the rain. A village museum, a wetland park and a small zoo cover the sunshine. Everything below is priced in lei (RON), roughly 5.3 to the euro.
Therme București: the Galaxy zone
Galaxy is the family zone of the thermal complex at Balotești, north of the airport, and the operator cites around 1.7 kilometres of slides plus a wave pool and play areas. Child tickets (ages 3 to 14) are 55 to 65 lei for three hours, 85 to 95 for four and a half hours and 125 to 135 for a full day, depending on the weekday or weekend. Children under three are free. Adults pay 71 to 81 lei for the same three hours. Stay in Galaxy: The Palm and Elysium are adult-oriented. Rates and booking are on therme.ro , and online booking is wise on weekends.
Antipa Natural History Museum
On Kiseleff near Piața Victoriei, the museum has a fossil Deinotherium skeleton about 4.5 metres tall and room after room of dioramas. Adults pay 32 lei, pensioners 16, pupils and students 8. Buy tickets online through antipa.ro . Children who like bones and stuffed animals will happily spend two hours here, and it is a good rainy-day anchor.
The Village Museum
In King Michael I Park, the Village Museum lets children walk in and out of old wooden houses and around watermills. Entry is 40 lei for adults and 10 for pupils and students, and children under seven are free. On Mondays and Tuesdays tickets are half price. It pairs naturally with a pedal boat or a ferry ride on the lake in the same park, and with a picnic under the trees. See muzeul-satului.ro for hours.
Văcărești Nature Park
A concrete basin left unfinished at the end of the 1980s has turned into a wetland of about 183 hectares, with more than 100 bird species and turtles. Entry is free. It is easiest to reach from Piața Sudului metro station, about ten minutes on foot. Opening hours and facilities change, so look at parcnaturalvacaresti.ro before you go and bring binoculars.
Zoo Băneasa
The city zoo on Strada Vadul Moldovei is modest, with tigers, lynx, wolves, bears, lemurs, pumas and reptiles across a few hectares of forest. Expect to pay roughly 20 lei for adults and 10 for children, and allow about two hours. It suits young children better than teenagers.
Getting about with a pushchair
A metro single is 7 lei and a 24-hour pass 18 lei, details on metrorex.ro . Buses and trams cost about 3 lei per 90-minute ticket.
Verdict
If you can only do one, make it Therme for children over five and Antipa for younger ones. Browse family-friendly tours only if you need a driver for the castles. Longer plans live in the two-day itinerary . Tip: schedule the museum for morning and the zoo or park for afternoon, when children flag.