Intro
Bucharest is Romania's capital and largest city, as well as the most important industrial and commercial center of the country. With 2 million inhabitants in the city proper and more than 2.4 million in the urban area, it is also one of the largest cities in Eastern Europe. The population of Bucharest is expected to be around 5 million within the next 10 years.
Time
Bucharest is in the Eastern European time zone (UTC+2, with a DST of UTC+3 from April to October).
By Air
Most flights, both international and domestic, land at the Henri Coandă International Airport, located in Otopeni, 18 km north of the city downtown. It is the main hub for the Romanian flag carrier Tarom and is used by the major international airlines.
By Train
Bucharest is linked through direct daily trains to all neighboring countries’ capitals (Belgrade, Budapest, Chişinău, Kiev, Sofia), as well as to Vienna, Venice, Thessaloniki, Istanbul, Moscow and of course to main cities in all of Romania’s 41 counties.
All international trains and most long distance internal trains arrive at Gara de Nord (Northern) station, located quite near of the city center, to which it is linked by subway and several buses, trolley, and tramway lines.
The timetables for domestic routes are available here.
By Car
The city’s entrances from the north (the E15 road coming from Braşov), west (the A1 highway from Piteşti), east (the A2 (Sun) highway from Constanţa), south (the E20 road from Giurgiu) and the avenues in the city center are very crowded, especially at rush hours.
By Taxi
There are a lot of taxi companies in Bucharest and you'll easily find a cab here. Please use only the services of big taxi companies. Cars from these companies have the rates displayed on the door. Each door used to contain an initial "sitting" fee (between 1.4 to 2 lei), a per km fee (1.4 to 2 lei) and per hour fee (14 to 20 lei). You can find a list of taxi companies here. If you are traveling outside the city limits (say to or from the airport) prices per km and per hour are often doubled, or an extra 10-15 lei is added to the fare
By Metro (Subway)
The metro, which has four lines (M1, M2, M3, M4) and covers the city quite extensively, is usually a cheap (2.2 lei for 2 trips, 8 lei for 10 trips) and easy way to get around.
Maps of the subway can be found on the Metrorex official site |
