The October issue of
Business Traveller magazine (I always find copies in the DL crown room clubs) has a very good article on visiting Bucharest. One caution- beware of stray dogs; there are between 75k and 200k of them roaming the city, a legacy of Ceausescu's forced resettlement of people into high rise apartments. There are 75 cases of dog bites a day. The editor of the Bucharest in Your Pocket guidebook, who lives in the city, is quoted as saying that so he always carries a device called a Dazzler II (which he bought online)- it is a pocket sized thingy which emits a high pitched sound and keeps the strays at bay. The article also states that the city is quite safe for a city of 2 million people- lots of petty crime (pickpockets, etc.) but zero violent crime. The article reports that it is a good walking city (as long as you carry the Dazzer
)with some of the character and shabbiness of Prague 10 years ago. There isn't a lot of tourism, but still demand exceeds supply for hotel rooms (so plan ahead).
(note: as of this posting their website still has the Sept. issue info, so I guess they might post this article in the next couple of weeks)