The ULTIMATE 4-day itinerary to Bucharest, Romania

If you’re looking for an affordable and fun city break, you need to check out Bucharest, the capital city of Romania. Just a 3.5 hour flight from Liverpool airport and you can explore this gorgeous city. We headed there for four days, which felt like the perfect amount of time, and this is our exact 4-day itinerary to Bucharest so you can see as much as you can!

Bucharest has quickly become one of my favourite city breaks for two reasons; firstly there is so much to do here and secondly, it is really affordable. It was about £360pp all in for this trip and that was without really budgeting!

Your 4 day itinerary to Bucharest

Our flight landed at 3:30pm, so our first afternoon/evening included heading into the city from the airport (approx 40mins), grabbing some delicious food at Hushimo, having the obligatory “getting your barings” walk around the city and crashing into bed!

Day one : Pele’s Castle, Brascov and Dracula’s Castle

Starting bright at early with a 7:30am pick-up for Pele’s Castle, Brascov and Dracula’s Castle.

This day trip takes you out of the city and into the Romanian countryside. It’s a full 12 hour trip which includes all your transport and an expert guide to take you around each place.

We started with Pele’s Castle, built by the former king as his summer residence. We had an hour and a half here before heading to stop 2, the town of Brascov.

Here we had a traditional Romanian lunch (not included), and time to explore the town. We headed to the restaurant Le Ceaun, as recommended by our guide, and it was really tasty. You need to make sure you try Papansi; a donut-like dessert with sour cream, fruit and marmalade. It is incredible

Our third and final stop was Dracula’s castle aka Bran Castle, which definitely felt the spookiest of all of the stops.

We arrived back in Bucharest at 7:30pm, so a quick pit stop at our air bnb before dinner.

If you’re looking for incredible burgers, head to Mario’s Osteria. It’s based in a brewery and they have a small but delicious menu. I can’t recommend the Italian burger enough – pesto, mozzarella and tomato on a burger = pure perfection.

Day two : the day we tried all of the TikTok recommendations

If you search Bucharest on TikTok, you’ll get served videos all about the Van Gogh brunch, the most instagrammable book shop, and Europes largest indoor spa. So we went and tried them all out.

We started the day with brunch at the Van Gogh cafe. It was about £16 for an omlette and a coffee and to be honest it was overpriced for what it was. It was cool to go to, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

After our brunch, we headed to Cărturești Carusel – the instagrammable book shop. This place is gorgeous, and if you love books you will love it here. They have a huge section of English books here as well so you can properly browse and take a keepsake book home with you!

The afternoon was all about Therme Bucharest – Europes largest indoor spa. The reviews recently have been mixed here, with people saying it’s become overcrowded, dirty and just not great. For context, we headed here on a Thursday afternoon, around 2:30pm. I found it to be just a nice level of busy – we had no problems getting a drink at the bar, a sunbed and had plenty of space.

We stayed here til about 8 pm and it was well worth the £25 entry!

Day three : exploring Bucharest

There is so much to explore in Bucharest, and we started by visiting the Palace of Parliament. This is world’s heaviest building (1 chandelier alone weighs over 5 tonnes!)

The build started whilst the country was under a dictatorship, and the building has key designs from communism. However, by the time the building was finished, the country was a democracy again. This felt like a really important tour to do whilst you’re in Bucharest, to understand the more recent history.

After a tour of the palace of parliament, it was time for brunch. We headed to Le Bab, and this is up there with one of the best brunch’s that I’ve had! If you go here, make sure to get the tater tots because they are incredible.

Currently, there is a Salvador Dali exhibition at ARCUB. Check it out if it’s on whilst there, or see what other exhibitions there are. If there isn’t an exhibition on here, head to the museum of senses for a mind-bending experience!

We walked a lot in this day, taking in the incredible architecture of the city. Our final stop was The Observatory of Bucharest which is a beautiful building. The exhibition is in Romanian only, but it’s still worth a trip, and is only £1 entry!

Day 4 : our final morning

Before you leave Bucharest, make sure to visit The National Museum Village.

This is a museum which is dedicated to the villages of Romania. Traditional buildings (houses, churches and even a pub!) from as far back as the 17th Century are now set in a village and you can walk around them.

And that’s how we spent four days in Bucharest! Make sure to check out the 10 best things to do in Bucharest and head over to my Instagram for more Bucharest tips and tricks. If you’re looking for more every day adventures, make sure to join our FREE Everyday Adventures Club over on Substack