Europe - Bucharest Recommendations?

So I booked a quasi-MR to Bucharest May 17-22.

Any recommendations as to restaurants, museums, attractions, etc?

TB-ES

Six days is way too long for Bucharest. The only attraction I found marginally interesting was the Palace of the People, only because of the shear size of the place. IMO, Bucharest is the pits, with six days I'd seriously consider spending little time in Bucharest and spending the majority of the time in Transylvania.

The Village Museum is well worth visiting. Haven't found its official web site (if indeed there is one in English), but there is plenty of information to be found via Google.

There was a thread on this a long time ago; if you do a search you might find some things.

Bucharest is not a good tourist destination. You can visit People's House (or People's Palace), the Village Museum ("Muzeul Satului") and a few other things (the History Museum, the Art Museum), but overall it's not exactly the place for walking around and visiting. There are some other places I can recommend (Brasov, Sighisoara, Sibiu) that I think are worth seeing. You can take the train there.

Try "carul cu bere" - it's a very old building that is beautiful inside and decent food. I would recommend this to anyone visiting Bucharest.

Otherwise, what kind of restaurants are you looking for? There are some higher-priced good ones (Cantine de Nicolai, Uptown, Arcade, Cucina), and there are some that are less pretentious and still excellent.

What is now known as the "old city" ("centrul vechi") has tons and tons of bars and restaurants. I've never had good food there (the places are always packed and they never have to try), but a lot of fun can be had in that area.

Six days is way too long for Bucharest. The only attraction I found marginally interesting was the Palace of the People, only because of the shear size of the place.

+1
Go for the castles (http://www.romaniatourism.com/castles-fortresses.html) (my favourites: Peles and Bran)

I also recommend the painted monasteries (http://www.romaniatourism.com/painted-monasteries.html)in Moldavia (my favourites: Voronet, Humor, Moldovita)

You can rent a car for 25EUR day with insurance.

You also use the overnight train to get to Sofia, Bulgaria for a couple of days stay. Saves you a night hotel if you rough it.
IST there used to be a night train as well.

You can also check the LCC's like blueair (http://www.blueairweb.com/First-Page/) and Wizzair (http://www.blueairweb.com/First-Page/) if you get bored :D . And Pegasus (http://www.flypgs.com/en/default.aspx) gets you to SAW (Istanbul)

GBM

Six days is way too long for Bucharest. The only attraction I found marginally interesting was the Palace of the People, only because of the shear size of the place. IMO, Bucharest is the pits, with six days I'd seriously consider spending little time in Bucharest and spending the majority of the time in Transylvania.

More like four days - I arrive the evening of the 17th and leave horrifically early on the 22nd, but I take your point. Any advice is still appreciated, though.

There was a thread on this a long time ago; if you do a search you might find some things.

Bucharest is not a good tourist destination. You can visit People's House (or People's Palace), the Village Museum ("Muzeul Satului") and a few other things (the History Museum, the Art Museum), but overall it's not exactly the place for walking around and visiting. There are some other places I can recommend (Brasov, Sighisoara, Sibiu) that I think are worth seeing. You can take the train there.

Try "carul cu bere" - it's a very old building that is beautiful inside and decent food. I would recommend this to anyone visiting Bucharest.

Otherwise, what kind of restaurants are you looking for? There are some higher-priced good ones (Cantine de Nicolai, Uptown, Arcade, Cucina), and there are some that are less pretentious and still excellent.

What is now known as the "old city" ("centrul vechi") has tons and tons of bars and restaurants. I've never had good food there (the places are always packed and they never have to try), but a lot of fun can be had in that area.

Thanks for the recommendations. As for restaurants, I'm primarily interested in Romanian food but would like to try and avoid tourist kitsch. Price (within reason) is not really a concern.

TB-ES

As for restaurants, I'm primarily interested in Romanian food but would like to try and avoid tourist kitsch. Price (within reason) is not really a concern.

"Carul cu Bere" is very good for both Romanian food and a good atmosphere. You'll feel it once you get there... it's hard to explain in words. Surprisingly, good Romanian food is hard to find. A lot of places describe themselves as Romanian but they mostly feature meat & potato variations (beef/pork/chicken, fries/mashed/whatever) and not so much traditionally Romanian dishes. Good, authentic Romanian places are Jaristea and Casa Doina, both outrageously expensive though. Stick to Carul cu Bere for that. ;) (They also have decent Romanian food at White Horse: the restaurant is upstairs and there is a fun pub downstairs. It used to be THE expat place; still has a decent base nowadays.)

Other notable restaurants:

Golden Falcon - by far my favorite. Not a "menu" type of place; they bring a bunch of appetizers on a cart and you pick what you want, then they show you the kebaps that they have and you pick one, and so on. Superbly attentive service.
Cantine de Niculai: a fine restaurant that is mostly French (although I've had the most amazing Osso Buco there). Pretty expensive, but very good.
Uptown: lots of expats; good food and presentation, also fairly expensive.
Santorini: good Greek restaurant (reasonably priced)
Trattoria di Roma: good Italian, pretty cheap
Cucina (at the JW Marriott): excellent Italian, very expensive
Taverna Sarbului ("The Serb's Tavern"): decent Romanian / Serbian food.
El Bacha: good Lebanese food
Smarts: cheap, quaint place with decent food


The tip at restaurants is normally 10%.

More like four days - I arrive the evening of the 17th and leave horrifically early on the 22nd, but I take your point. Any advice is still appreciated, though.

You could take the train to Brasov, spend the night there. Sinaia is on the way to/from Brasov and you can check out the Peles castle (also the smaller "Pelisor" one). Brasov has a nice city center, with the Black Church and everything. From Brasov you should be able to go to Bran (it's some 15km away and there are probably some mini buses) and visit Dracula's castle. That would easily kill 2 days.

"Carul cu Bere" is very good for both Romanian food and a good atmosphere. You'll feel it once you get there... it's hard to explain in words. Surprisingly, good Romanian food is hard to find. A lot of places describe themselves as Romanian but they mostly feature meat & potato variations (beef/pork/chicken, fries/mashed/whatever) and not so much traditionally Romanian dishes. Good, authentic Romanian places are Jaristea and Casa Doina, both outrageously expensive though. Stick to Carul cu Bere for that. ;) (They also have decent Romanian food at White Horse: the restaurant is upstairs and there is a fun pub downstairs. It used to be THE expat place; still has a decent base nowadays.)

Other notable restaurants:

Golden Falcon - by far my favorite. Not a "menu" type of place; they bring a bunch of appetizers on a cart and you pick what you want, then they show you the kebaps that they have and you pick one, and so on. Superbly attentive service.
Cantine de Niculai: a fine restaurant that is mostly French (although I've had the most amazing Osso Buco there). Pretty expensive, but very good.
Uptown: lots of expats; good food and presentation, also fairly expensive.
Santorini: good Greek restaurant (reasonably priced)
Trattoria di Roma: good Italian, pretty cheap
Cucina (at the JW Marriott): excellent Italian, very expensive
Taverna Sarbului ("The Serb's Tavern"): decent Romanian / Serbian food.
El Bacha: good Lebanese food
Smarts: cheap, quaint place with decent food


The tip at restaurants is normally 10%.

Thanks; will post here on my return with my impressions.

TB-ES

A leisurely afternoon/evening visit to Herastrau Park, in the northern part of Bucharest, is a must, especially in May. The flowers should be in full color and I can assure you it will be a beautiful sight/site. Take a nice boat ride across the lake. Walk around the lake and people watch. Couldn't ask for a more pleasant way to spend a warm spring evening in Bucharest.
Cismigiu Park in the middle of Bucharest itself is the oldest and most renown Bucharest park and very beautiful too, although much more condensed than Herastrau. Another must-visit.
Also definitely agree to venturing into Transylvania. Brasov would be an easy day trip but you may as well spend a night there and then you can enjoy some un-rushed visits to Bran and Peles. You might look into a Sighisoara visit too which is another hour or two or so northwest of Brasov by train. Classic medieval fortress up on a hill there that's amazingly well-preserved. You won't be disappointed I'm sure.

I fly frequently to Bucharest and I always find something new to enjoy. It's a really great city, but you could use the help of some locals to get the best of it. I have some great colleagues that always showed me around.

As for the food, I'd say to focus on the Romanian food if you're going to get there. I saw some posts saying that Locanta Jaristea is expensive and that you should try Caru cu Bere instead. Not a clever idea. Caru' cu Bere is always crowded with tourists and locals since it's in the historical center and the waiters really don't give a s**t about serving you well. At Locanta you can really feel the Old Bucharest, you feel like you're entering an old extravagant house. The types of food they serve are really Romanian authentic and cannot be found in any restaurant in Bucharest.

Also, if you have so many days around here, I would recommend you a daytrip to Sinaia, go and see the Peles Castle, it's amazing!

Ended up not going ... see this thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-canada-aeroplan/1347054-yet-another-ac-has-lost-my-business-thread.html)for the details.

TB-ES