Friday Evening — Arrive & Get Into Lipscani
Drop your bags and head straight for Calea Victoriei, Bucharest's grand 19th-century boulevard. Walk it south from Revolution Square, passing the Romanian Athenaeum on your right — even from outside, the domed 1888 concert hall is worth a slow look under evening light.
Dinner in Lipscani, the old town's tangle of pedestrian streets. Caru' cu Bere, an 1879 beer hall with painted ceilings and stained glass, is touristy but genuinely handsome and worth one meal. Afterwards, stay in Lipscani for the night — this is the densest concentration of bars in the city, packed into 19th-century buildings a few minutes apart. Order a țuică (plum brandy) to start.
Saturday — The Big Hits
Morning: The Palace of Parliament (Palatul Parlamentului), the world's heaviest building and second-largest administrative building after the Pentagon. Book a guided tour online in advance and bring your passport — security is strict. The tour covers a fraction of the 1,100 rooms but the scale alone justifies the visit. Budget at least 90 minutes including entry procedures.
Lunch: walk from the Palace toward Cotroceni or back into the centre for a plate of sarmale or ciorbă de burtă at a no-frills local restaurant.
Afternoon: Herăstrău Park, the 1.1km lake park north of the centre. Walk or rent a bike along the water, then spend an hour at the Village Museum (Muzeul Satului) on the park's western edge — over 300 traditional wooden houses, churches, and windmills relocated from across Romania. It's one of Europe's best open-air ethnographic museums and rarely feels crowded.
Evening: dinner in the Floreasca or Dorobanți area, Bucharest's upscale restaurant district, then back to the old town or on to a rooftop bar — Bucharest's nightlife runs late and the crowd is a genuine mix of locals and visitors.
Sunday — Culture & Departure
Morning: the Romanian Athenaeum's interior, if there's a morning rehearsal or you can catch a tour — the frescoed circular foyer depicting scenes from Romanian history is one of the country's most important interiors. If it's closed, admire the neoclassical facade and colonnade from Revolution Square instead.
From there, walk Calea Victoriei south towards the National Museum of Art of Romania, housed in the former royal palace, if you have an hour to spare.
Brunch: a café on Strada Franceză or Strada Smârdan in Lipscani — the old town by day is quieter and more pleasant for coffee than at night.
If time allows before your flight, the Văcărești Delta on the city's southern edge is a striking last stop — an accidental urban nature reserve grown over the ruins of a demolished Ceaușescu-era neighbourhood, now home to over 170 bird species. Otherwise, one final coffee and a bottle of local wine from a Lipscani shop to take home.