In February, we flew to Romania with low expectations and fell in love with the culture, fascinating history, medieval architecture, and nature.
Here's how to spend 5 days in Romania.
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In February, we flew to Romania with low expectations and fell in love with the culture, fascinating history, medieval architecture, and nature.
Here's how to spend 5 days in Romania.
We landed in Bucharest at 12:30 pm. When you arrive, you turn to the left and take a piece of paper from the Yellow taxi machine, and the driver arrives after a few minutes.
It cost 45 Lei (10.9$) for the taxi.
Shopping in Romania is cheap, so we decided to go on a shopping spree. We decided to go to Megamall since we heard great things about it, and it did not disappoint. The mall has got four floors with all the great international brands. The mall also has a cinema city and many restaurants.
The biggest spa in Europe. It's the main attraction in Bucharest.
Things you need to know about Therme spa:
1. Bring flip-flops in your bag! NOT ON YOU!
2. Bring your swimsuit in your bag! NOT ON YOU!
3. Bring a towel (has to be a light color).
4. Anything not made out of swimsuit material will not be allowed in the pools.
5. Photos are not allowed, but you could sneak a few photos here and there.
Day 2 and 3 we took day tours from Bucharest.
Vladi is a Romanian tour guide that lives in Bucharest. He is highly recommended and offers a variety of tours around Romania. When we were trying to decide which tour we wanted to do with him, we had a difficult time choosing which tour to take. I spoke to Vladi on Whatsapp he was very patient and explained about all his tours After hearing everything he had to offer, we talked between ourselves to see what suits us best and ended up booking two private tours with Vladi. The jeep tour to the Carpathian villages and snowmobiles cost 105€ (If you want to do the tour without the snowmobiles, it costs 75€).
Valea Doftanei is a commune in Prahova County, Romania. It is composed of two villages: Teșila and Trăisteni.
The river is 51km long, and its basin size is 410 km.
The Paltinu Dam is located near the city of Câmpina, on the Doftana river valley, downstream of its confluence with the Păltinoasa valley, in the gorges known as ‘’La Tocile’’. The dam has a height of 108m above the foundation, the upside of the dam being 654 mdm. The total length of the upside of the dam is 455 m.
The viewpoint of the Doftana River.
Vladi took us to an authentic Romanian home. Helena lives a simple life with cows, horses, sheep, and pigs. She is such a warm, welcoming person and although we didn't understand everything she said we enjoyed her company so much!
The snowmobile was a fantastic experience. We were so lucky because it started snowing as we went on the snowmobiles and it was just magical. Make sure that if you go during the winter time wear SUPER WARM gloves! Our hands felt like they froze it was freezing, we even heard of some people who got frostbite, but we came prepared.
We booked a private tour with Vladi. It was 55 Euro per person.
There was a horrible storm five days before our trip, so the cable car in Sinaia was only opening at 12 PM, so Vladi took us to Bran's castle first.
In 1957, a museum was opened in the castle. The castle, shown to tourists as "Dracula Castle," has very little connection to the influential Vlad (and it is unknown whether he stayed there himself). The castle was famous mainly for Bram Stoker's novel, "Count Dracula." If you go there knowing it has nothing to do with Dracula, then you can enjoy this place. But if you think it's all about Dracula in there, you will be disappointed.
•Entrance Fee: 40 LEI (9 USD).
•Opening hours: Tuesday- Sunday 9 AM-4 PM. Mondays from 12 PM to 4 PM.
Sinaia Cable car that goes up to 1,400 meters high. Sadly the 2,000 meters was still closed because of bad weather, even though they said they would open it at 12 PM.
•Entrance Fee: 35 RON (7.94 USD) per person per person
•Opening hours: 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM.
This is the most beautiful castle we've been to in Romania, yet most people tend to skip going inside this beautiful castle. Peleș Castle is a Neo-Renaissance castle in the Carpathian Mountains, near Sinaia, in Prahova County, Romania, on an existing medieval route linking Transylvania and Wallachia, built between 1873 and 1914. Its inauguration was held in 1883. It was constructed for King Carol I.
•Entrance Fee: 30 LEI per person
•Camera Fee: 40 LEI. We paid for one camera to take photos inside.
•Opening hours: Wednesday-Sunday 9:15AM - 5:00 PM (Closed on Mons-Tues)
We started our day at 9 AM and decided to see what Bucharest has to offer.
This temple is a copy of Vienna's Leopoldstadt-Tempelgasse Great Synagogue, which was raised in 1855-1858. It was designed by Enderle and Freiwald and built between 1864 - 1866. The synagogue was devastated by the far-right Legionaries but was then restored after World War II in 1945. The main hall was recently refurbished and re-opened in 2015. We enjoyed our tour with Naomi.
Entrance Fee: 15 Lei (3.20 USD).
Opening Hours: Monday - Thursday 9:00 - 15:00. On Sat & Sun it is closed.
Carturesti Carusel is a bookstore on Lipscani 55 Street in the old town of Bucharest. It belongs to the Romanian bookstore chain Cărtureşti, and it's one of the most fantastic books stores. It's got booked, games, and even a gorgeous cafe.
Just absorb this beautiful city. There is great architecture on every corner.
•Savings Bank’s Palace: This building doesn't look like a savings bank, but it was originally CEC Savings Bank headquarters built in 1900. CEC is the oldest Romanian bank. The construction of a home worthy of its importance started in 1897, and King Carol I himself laid the cornerstone of the new building. The architect who designed the grandiose palace, Paul Gottereau, is one of the French architects active in the Kingdom of Romania in the late 19th century -he also designed the Carol I Royal Foundation’s building, today it is still CEC bank headquarters, although the building has been sold to the municipality of Bucharest for an eventual museum.
•Stavropoleus monastery: Probably the most visited in Bucharest, the lovely Stavropoleos Monastery Church is a must if you’d like to explore one of the most remarkable religious monuments in the capital. Monastery has a rich collection of rare icons, iconoclastic objects, and old history and religious books. To visit the monastery's museum, you need to reserve a spot in advance.
Located in the center of Bucharest is Cismigiu Gardens. It is Bucharest's first public garden opened back in 1854, and it is a great location to relax after all that walking and have a picnic. The park's design was inspired by English gardens, and it features playgrounds, green meadows, and gazebos that host live concerts in the summer. There is a lake in the middle of the parks that you can skate on during the winter.
Facing the University of Bucharest, there are four statues of Romanian heroes and personalities standing in the square: Ion Heliada Radulso, Michael the Brave, Gyorga Lazar, and Spyro Harte. Also located around the square are several buildings of the university, the Ion Luca Carajiela National Theater, and the Intercontinental Hotel.
Royal Palace was built extending a former boyar house used by rulers of Romania by adding two wings to it in the late 19th century to be representative enough for Carol I, the new king of Romania. Palace was rebuilt in the late 1930s after a fire by King Carol II. In December 1947, the monarchy was abolished in Romania, and the last king, Michael, left his country the Palace Today, the former Royal Palace houses the valuable National Art Museum, with a particularly interesting section of Medieval Art.
The square is considered to be the most essential and representative square of Bucharest, where the roots of the history of the city and the entire country are rooted; the square is mainly remembered as the place where protests began to topple Romanian dictator Tsuachescu and the removal of communist rule in the country, here from the balcony of the Communist Party headquarters today The masses, especially the rally held in late December 1989, after which the protesters seized the Palatul Regal Palace, arrested the tyrant and his wife, and later executed them.
The Romanian Athenaeum is considered one of the most important and beautiful buildings in the city of Bucharest and serves as the home of the Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra. The construction of the magnificent building was completed in 1888. Built in the neoclassical style, it features a porch of marble columns, gold moldings, and a unique and beautiful ceiling. The acoustics in the auditorium are considered particularly good because of their unique structure.
We booked tickets for 16 USD per person. We saw the Opera Turandot. To order tickets, click here! We have seen a ballet in the opera house in Rome and the opera house in Bucharest takes Rome's national opera house by far!! The show was much more invested, and the Opera House was insanely amazing.
We woke up, had breakfast, and headed towards the Parliament castle.
Start your morning with a tour in the heaviest building in the world. It is gorgeous inside!
Starting in 1984, The Palace has a height of 84 meters, a floor area of 365,000 square meters, and a volume of 2,550,000 cubic meters. The Palace of the Parliament is the heaviest building in the world, weighing about 4,098,500,000 kilograms. The Palace of Parliament is the world’s second-largest administrative building (after the Pentagon) and former dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu’s most infamous creation. Entry is a guided tour only (book ahead), and you must bring identification.
Cute coffee shop with fantastic décor. It is a little on the expensive side, but it is very delicious, the place is clean, and the drinks are fresh. Make sure to make a reservation since the cafe is pretty tiny.
Heratrau Park is the largest and most beautiful park in this city. The village museum is one of the first open-air ethnographic museums in the world, so don't miss it!
The Triumph Arch is located on Kiseleff Street next to Herăstrău Park. It is one of the capital's most notable landmarks and one of the symbols of Bucharest. The reinforced concrete structure was inaugurated in 1922 to celebrate the victory of Romania in World War I, and the event was attended by the most important political figures of the time.
The weather got pretty bad, so we took the afternoon to relax in our apartment and got ready to go for our last night in Bucharest.
We decided to go to a cat cafe since we'd never experienced it before and loved it. The cats are so friendly and sweet.
It does get pretty crowded, and there is no way to reserve online, so do know that you might have to wait a while.
We headed towards the Marriot hotel. The hotel is located close to the parliament building, and we heard they have a friendly casino, so we decided to go just to try our luck.
Romania has surprised us, and we will be back! I recommend spending at least two nights in Sinaia, it's so beautiful.