Bucharest Getting there & around

Getting there & away

Land

Bulgaria

Maxitaxi services depart three times daily from Autogară Diego for Ruse, Bulgaria (€12 one way, 3 to 4 hours) – the only bus service between Romania and its neighbour to the south.

Moldova

A regular bus service leaves for Chişinau (€11, 12 hours) from Filaret bus station.

Turkey

The Turkey-bound have several options around Gară de Nord, including Ortadoğu Tur (318 7538; Str Gară de Nord 6-8), Troy (318 7920; Piaţa Gară de Nord 2); and Toros (233 1898; Calea Griviţei 134-136). Each sends one or more buses daily. The 12-hour trip is about €37.50 one way.

Western europe

The biggest name in international buses is Eurolines (316 3661; www.eurolines.ro; Str Buzeşti 44; 24hr), which links many Western European destinations with Bucharest. One-way fares for sample routes include two weekly buses to Athens (€80, 22 hours) and Berlin (€115), a daily service to Rome (€115) and Vienna (€64), and three weekly buses to Paris (€125). Working with Eurolines, Atlassib handles Italian destinations. Buses pick up passengers at various Romanian cities, but there’s no domestic service.

Double T (313 3642; www.doublet.ro; Calea Victoriei 2) has frequent buses to Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Spain. A ticket to Munich is €77.

Car & motorcycle

Bucharest offers some of the country’s cheapest car-hire rates. Major car-hire agencies can be found at the Henri Coanda Airport arrivals hall, as well as offices around town.

Absolut Rent-a-Car (319 5473; www.rentacar.com.ro; Spl Unirii 160) Rates start with Daewoo Ticos at €22 per day.

Avis (www.avis.ro) Hilton (312 2043); Henri Coanda Airport (201 1957); Hotel Inter-Continental (314 1837) Typical rates of the international big boys: from €52 per day at airport, from €64 in town.

Budget (204 1667; www.budgetro.ro; Henri Coanda Airport) Other locations around town.

C&V (201 4611, 0788-998 877; www.dvtouring.ro; Henri Coanda Airport) Cheaper than the big names. Offers Dacia Solenzas for €42 per day (including unlimited mileage and insurance), or €27 per day if you hire for more than a week.

Europcar (201 4937; www.europcar.com; Henri Coanda Airport)

Hertz (201 4954; www.hertz.com; Henri Coanda Airport)

Parking a car in the centre, particularly off Piaţa Victoriei and Piaţa Universităţii, costs €0.30; look for the wardens in yellow-and-blue uniforms. In many places you can just pull up to the sidewalk. Petrol costs about €1 per litre.

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Air

Most international flights use the Henri Coanda Airport (formerly Otopeni; 201 4788; Şos Bucureşti-Ploieşti), 16km north of Bucharest on the road to Braşov.

Arrivals and departures use marked side-by-side terminals (arrivals is to the north). The information desks (204 1220; www.otp-airport.ro; 24hr) are in both terminals.

Romania’s national airline is Tarom (Transporturile Aeriene Române; www.tarom.ro) Airport (201 400) Centre (337 0400; Spl Independenţei 17; 8.30am-7.30pm Mon-Fri, 9am-2pm Sat). Daily service includes a couple of daily flights to Cluj-Napoca and Timişoara (about €55 one way including tax); one daily flight to Iaşi (€52); three weekly to Târgu Mureş (€45); four weekly to Suceava (€60); and a Friday flight to Oradea (€50) and Baia Mare (€50). Note that, enigmatically, a return flight booked online costs more than two one-way tickets – by as much as 30% extra!

Air Moldova (312 1258; www.airmoldova.md) also serves Henri Coanda.

Băneasa Airport (232 0020; Şos Bucureşti-Ploieşti 40), 8km north of the centre, is used for some internal flights, charter flights, and – as of January 2007 – irresistible discount flights from London via Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com).

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