Bucharest is closer to the good stuff than you think.
Which castle day is worth twelve hours in a minibus. What the salt mine is actually like. Whether the spa by the airport lives up to it. Every bookable day out of Bucharest, reviewed and priced.
Six days that carry most of a Bucharest trip.
The castle run, the old town, the salt mine, the spa, the food and the mountain road. Almost every trip to Bucharest is built from these, and each one books differently.
Bucharest’s most-booked day out starts three hours up the road.
Every review →Travellers here book one thing more than anything else, and it is not in the city. These are the tours with the most people through them, in order.
1
Dracula’s Castle, Peles Castle, & Brasov Old Town
From Bucharest, see Peleș and Bran castles plus Brasov Old Town. Dracula lore, royal rooms, and medieval walls for about $40.
From · $40
Read our review →
2
Dracula Castle, Peles Castle & Brasov Old Town
from $40
3
Dracula’s Castle, Peleș Castle & Brașov Day Trip
from $23
4
Palace of Parliament Tickets and Guide
from $38
5
Day Trip to Dracula Castle, Peles Castle & Brașov
from $45
6
Bucharest to Dracula Castle, Peles Castle and Brasov Guided Tour
from $33
7
Palace of Parliament Tickets and Guided Tour
from $28
8
Dracula’s Castle, Peles Castle and Brasov Day Trip from Bucharest
from $33
Out of Bucharest: two castles, a medieval town, and a count who lived in none of them.
Every day trip from Bucharest →
Bran gets called Dracula’s castle and Vlad the Impaler almost certainly never lived in it. Peleș is the one that actually takes your breath away, and it was built in the 1870s for a German-born king. Brașov is the town you eat lunch in. Nearly every operator sells the three as one long day; the difference is pace, group size and how much of it you spend in the vehicle.
Peleș, Bran and Brașov in one run
Leaves central Bucharest early, Peleș before the queues build, Bran after lunch, an hour loose in Brașov’s old square, back after dark. The cheapest way to see all three and the longest day on the site.
Bran on its own rock, without the sprint
Cuts Brașov or Peleș out and gives the time back. You get the courtyard, the narrow stairs and the village market at the bottom instead of twenty minutes and a rendezvous point.
Peleș and Sinaia, done properly
The royal apartments, the armoury and the carved Moorish rooms, then the monastery and the mountain air in Sinaia. Peleș closes on Mondays, which catches people out every week of the year.
Bucharest’s old town is six streets wide and runs very late.
Lipscani is small enough to cross in ten minutes and busy enough to lose a night in. Around it sits the rest of the city: the Athenaeum, Calea Victoriei, the covered markets and the interwar boulevards that earned Bucharest the “Little Paris” line it has never quite escaped. Best covered on foot, on two wheels, or hungry.
Ceaușescu’s Bucharest is still standing, and still being explained.
A fifth of the historic centre was pulled down in the 1980s to build the Palace of the Parliament and the boulevard leading to it. The balcony Ceaușescu gave his last speech from on 21 December 1989 is still there, in what is now Revolution Square. Guides on these tours tend to have lived through it, and the walk between the two sites is the point.
Palace visits are guided only, booked in advance, and you must show a passport or national ID card at the door.
What a day out of Bucharest actually costs.
Every tour on the site sorted by what you pay. Romania is still cheap by European standards, and the gap between the cheap castle run and the private one is mostly legroom.
Walking tours, the old town, bike mornings, salt-mine and spa tickets with the transfer thrown in.
The full castle day, the Transfăgărășan run, wine tastings and most small-group day trips.
Private cars with a guide to yourself, two-day trips to the Delta, and the days built entirely around you.
Bucharest keeps a salt mine, a spa the size of a village, and a grave on an island.
Plenty of European capitals have a good old town and a food tour. These three are Bucharest’s alone, and all three are back in time for dinner.
The Salt Mine at Slănic
The Unirea mine at Slănic Prahova is a working-scale cavern more than 200 metres down, with salt walls cut into clean vertical faces and enough room inside for a football pitch and a playground. It sits at about 12°C every day of the year, the air is famously easy to breathe, and you go down in a lift in your coat. Bring one even in August.
- 1Slănic Prahova Salt Mine Ticket and Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 790 reviews
- 2Salt Mine Guided Day Trip to Slănic★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 559 reviews
- 3Slanic Salt Mine Day Trip from Bucharest★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 142 reviews
Therme, by the Airport
One of the largest thermal complexes in Europe is not in the mountains but on the road to Otopeni airport, under glass, full of palm trees. Water comes up warm from a borehole more than a kilometre down, and it is 30°C-plus inside whatever February is doing outside. Almost every ticket sold here comes with a transfer, because getting there otherwise is a nuisance.
- 1Therme Bucharest Entry Ticket and Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 608 reviews
- 2Therme Bucharest Evening Entry Ticket & Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 552 reviews
- 3Therme Spa Night Experience with Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 237 reviews
A Grave on Lake Snagov
Snagov Monastery sits on an island in a lake an easy drive north of the city, and a slab in front of the altar has been pointed at as Vlad the Impaler’s grave for a century. Nobody has ever proved it. Most tours pair the island with Mogoșoaia Palace, a red-brick Brâncovenesc house from 1702 that is the prettiest thing within half an hour of Bucharest.
- 1Small Group Tour to Mogosoaia Palace & Snagov Monastery★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 41 reviews
- 2Sacred Monasteries Private Tour: Snagov, Țigănești & Căldărușani★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 32 reviews
- 3Private Half Day Trip to Snagov Monastery & Mogosoaia★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 29 reviews
Bucharest is a base camp with a capital attached.
Nothing worth seeing in southern Romania is more than a morning’s drive away, which is why so few of these tours involve a hotel. Roughly, by distance from the city.
Snagov & Mogoșoaia
Slănic Prahova
Bran Castle
Bucharest’s mountain road is shut for most of the year.
The Transfăgărășan crosses the Carpathians at over 2,000 metres and the high section only opens once the snow has gone — in a normal year from around the end of June to late October. Book it outside that window and you get the foothills. Everything below runs whatever the weather is doing, which is why they fill up in winter.
Book these before you land in Bucharest.
Most of Bucharest can be arranged from the hotel the night before. These four cannot — they run on timed entry, paperwork at the door, a snow gate, or a start time that beats the sunrise.
- 01Palace of Parliament Tickets and GuideGuided visits only, reserved ahead, and a passport or national ID card is checked at the entrance.
- 02Small-group max 7 – Top Gear Road – Transfăgărăşan HighwayThe high road over the mountains is closed by snow for most of the year; it usually opens around the end of June.
- 03Therme Bucharest Entry Ticket and TransferEntry runs on timed slots with the transfer attached, and the evening sessions are the ones that go.
- 04Day Trip to Danube DeltaIt is over four hours each way, so the day trips leave central Bucharest before first light.
By where it takes you
Out of the city119 tours
Dracula’s castle107 tours
Sinaia & Peleș104 tours
Brașov83 tours
Transylvania79 tours
The Transfăgărășan22 tours
The Black Sea15 tours
The Danube Delta5 tours- Every day trip →
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