Arriving in Bucharest

Arriving in Bucharest means also knowing where you should find the appropriate transportation means to your destination. Main "entering points" to Bucharest are the Airport and the train station.

Getting in from the Otopeni Airport

All international flights in and out of Bucharest come and go from Otopeni Airport . Probably the best deal to get into town from Otopeni is Sky Services limos. They have a booth in the arrival hall, or they can be reached at (40 21) 204 10 02, fax (40 21) 232 96 91, email skytransport@yahoo.com. It's US$25 for a private limo, US$10 to share, slightly discounted if you pay for a round trip. If you know Bucharest well, you might cut a better deal with a taxi driver, but if you don't know Bucharest well, a taxi driver will almost certainly sting you for just as much (or more) and provide worse service.

For those on a tiny budget, the number 783 Express (it's just a name, don't get excited) airport bus leaves approximately every 15 minutes from Otopeni and runs from roughly 06:00 to 23:00. It's cheap (round trip is less than US$1; buy a ticket at the RATB ticket booth) but not utterly reliable (nothing comes for 45 minutes, then three come right together, etc.), and occasionally haunted by sneak thieves and pickpockets, so keep an eye on your belongings. Unless you are caught in rush hour traffic, the 783 takes about 35 minutes to the Piata Victoriei and another 10 minutes to the Piata Unirii. Probably you will want to stay on until Unirii, then (depending on where you are going) walk, take the Metrou or take a taxi.

Arriving by train

Bucharest is a long way from Europe's other major cities (12 hours by train to Budapest, 17 hours to Vienna) but the train service is reliable. If you have time on your hands, you might make a few stops between Budapest and Bucharest (or between Istanbul and Bucharest, not to be so Occidentally Eurocentric).

All long distance trains come to the Gara du Nord, which is well served by the very cheap, reasonably well-run Metrou. You can take the Metrou to Piata Victoriei or (transferring once) to Piata Universitate, which is the nearest subway stop to many Bucharest hotels. Also, there is nothing (except perhaps language barrier) to stop you from calling one of the more reliable taxi companies from the station.

The Gara de Nord itself is considerably cleaner and safer than it was just a few years ago (partly due to a fee of 3000 lei -- about 10 US cents -- to enter the station without a ticket), but the cabbies around the station are mostly not to be trusted (be particularly wary of any who actually approach you inside the station), the buses in and out of the station are the pickpockets' favorites, and the neighborhood, while not actively bad, is not the friendliest part of town to walk around (fine if you already know the city, but a tough place to start). Unless you know what you are up to, take the Metrou or take a taxi from a reliable company.