The Daisybutter Travel Guide to Bucharest, Romania
For my 33rd birthday, I was lucky enough to be whisked away by my boyfriend to Bucharest, Romania for a long weekend away. We had such a great time and it was a fascinating city to explore. Plus, when I regaled our stories to our friends, family and colleagues, pretty much everybody wanted to hear about the best places to go for food, our tips, the sights we’d recommend and, of course, how to get to Dracula’s castle. So, I thought I’d dust off my travel guide skills and pop together a Daisybutter Travel Guide full of my personal recommendations, including vegan food, worthwhile sights and other little tidbits.
See & Do
The Story of Bucharest free walking tour
Something I always do when I’m on a city break is take a walking tour. Not only are they are a great way to support tour guides, I also find them a really nice way to get your bearings, learn interesting facts and find hidden gems. This time, we enjoyed a really informative and engaging tour – namely ‘The Story of Bucharest’ with Walkabout Free Walking Tour.
Palace of Parliament
By far, the most fascinating-to-me building in Bucharest was the Palace of Parliament. Not only is it one of the largest buildings in the city, it’s one of the heaviest in the world too, weighing about 4,098,500 tonnes. So much so that the building actually sinks about 6mm per year. I was thoroughly fascinated and couldn’t stop speculating what’ll happen when the ‘front doors’ are effectively underground?! Well worth a visit and guided tour.
A trip to Peleș Castle and Bran Castle
For my birthday, my boyfriend booked us a day excursion to visit Peleș Castle, Brașov and Bran Castle. Transylvania for my 33rd! I would really recommend the tour that we did, and I’ll share it below! Peleș Castle was really interesting and wonderfully preserved. Its gothic exterior is so charming against the forests and mountains. To be honest, I wish we had longer in Brașov, because it was such a sweet town/city.
And Bran Castle was just great! Come on, Dracula’s Castle?! A huge fantasy bookworm? It was a dream to turn 33 here. The castle is a wonder, but the exhibition felt a little bit lacking. It’s half history and half folklore… (My two favourite things!) I just wish that it’d been a bigger focus on one or the other.
An afternoon in Brașov
Our castles tour also included a few hours in Brașov, a city known for its medieval Saxon walls and bastions, the towering Gothic-style Black Church and cobbled Old Town. We didn’t realise how sweet it’d be here and ended up having a wonderful time checking out the little cafés in town and admiring the architecture. My friend even mentioned that they hiked up to the top of the hill when they visited – we’d have loved that had we more time! So that it doesn’t get lost amongst the bulk of my Bucharest restaurant recommendations, I’m also sharing our lunch at Mamaliguta, which had some delicious vegan options. LOVED their beans and the stewed cabbage!
Browse books at Cărtureşti Carusel
As if by magic, the apartment my boyfriend had booked for us was almost a direct route, five-minute walk from Cărtureşti Carusel, which is easily one of the most beautiful bookshops I’ve ever been to. There’s spiral staircases, stunning bookish and homeware goods, plus a great selection of English books upstairs.
Address: Strada Lipscani 55, București 030033, Romania
Wander Carol Park
On all of my – and our – trips, I like to spend some time in a city park to breathe in some fresh air, appreciate the outdoors like a local, and get some steps in to boot. My boyfriend and I spotted a gorgeous photo of an early evening boating trip in Carol Park, so we popped the destination on our list immediately! And, while it was off-season so the boating wasn’t available nor the ponds/lake full, it made a great walk and experience nonetheless. The park has some beautiful vistas, as well as cafés and restaurants, and there’s an important war monument at the very top. I’d totally recommend making time to visit.
Eat & Drink
As with all of my Daisybutter Travel Guide posts, I share restaurants that I’ve personally been to, as well as the ones on my list. These are usually vegan restaurants and cafés, but often I include general restaurants with vegan options, since I travel with non-vegans. I didn’t find Bucharest to be incredibly vegan-friendly: on one night, we walked to eight different places before we managed to find a restaurant.
Hanul lui Manuc
We started our trip on a delicious note at Hanul lui Manuc, solely for the reasons that it was near to where we were standing at the time and that it was on HappyCow. Manuc’s Inn is the oldest operating hotel building in the city, and today it houses a restaurant, bars, a coffee shop and stores. The Inn is beautiful and atmospheric – I took so many photos! But onto the food! Hanul lui Manuc offers a traditional Romanian restaurant with a stunning view of the courtyard. There’s actually a separate vegan menu, which I learned about afterwards, but there are also a few vegan options clearly marked – and tasty, too! – on the main menu.
Aubergine
I really enjoyed my birthday dinner at Aubergine. This restaurant focuses on ‘healthy’ food in a cosy and relaxed setting, and there are plenty of vegan options and delicious cocktails. One I’d totally recommend and that I would’ve returned to if we had the time!
Scovergăria Micăi
My boyfriend and I couldn’t recommend this place more – we went twice for breakfast! Scovergăria Micăi is a little bakery sells scovergi, which are traditional Romanian fried dough wraps. There’s an entire vegan menu and it was so good that my boyfriend didn’t even give the mainline menu a glance. I can recommend the garlic, the cabbage, and the peanut butter with sour cherry jam options. Pick up one or two each, plus a coffee, and eat it in the adorable igloos just outside.
Sublimmme
I don’t often visit entirely vegan restaurants, not least because they’re few and far between. But Sublimmme sits on the river bank with a glorious view of the High Court building, which used to be a palace. The little restaurant has an extensive menu of plant-based vegan dishes, and raw vegan desserts. We both loved our lunch here and picked up a coconut protein ball and blueberry cheesecake for afterwards. Yum!
Caru’ cu bere
Our final meal of the trip was at the famous Caru’ cu bere, this restaurant is in a gorgeous ‘architecturally notable’ building that used to be a brewery and has 130 years’ of history. Today, it serves traditional Romanian food and continues to be beautiful with wood paneling and stained-glass windows indoors, plus a patio. There’s hardly any vegan options, but staff are accommodating, knowledgeable and friendly. And, there’s live music in the shape of a violinist and pianist, which meant our lunch felt far more formal, romantic and fancy than it was!
Stay & Relax
We stayed in a sweet little studio apartment Airbnb in the Old Town area for our trip. It was the perfect location to get to most of the places we wanted to visit, but I’m not going to link it because it was likely too small for many people to comfortably stay.
