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Bucharest on a Budget.

In 2024, I set myself a goal. I wanted to visit a new country every month. As well as showing people it can be done on a total budget of £250 each time. Also, I work a normal job, so I was aiming to do all 12 trips within a 28 day UK holiday allowance. Subsequently, these were only going to be short breaks, anywhere from two to four days. The first destination I chose was Bucharest, Romania. At this point, I had never been to anywhere in Europe further than Poland or Croatia. Nonetheless, it was an area of the world that I had been wanting to visit for some time and I had heard that Bucharest is cheap! Anyway, let’s get into it!

There are a few things to note before we get started. Firstly, I mainly fly out of Bristol (BRS) airport, as this is my local. Fortunately, it is also one of the cheapest airports in the UK. Secondly, every expense for the holiday is included in the £250 budget (flights, accommodation, transport, activities and food and drinks). Equally, one thing I do not include in the cost is the cost of transport from my house to the airport, and back. This is because, it is impossible for me to make it relevant to everyone, as everyone’s situation is so different. Finally, for this trip I travelled with somebody, so the costings are per person. Obviously, the only thing that is made cheaper because of this is the accommodation and any taxis used (only 1).

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Cheap Flights to Bucharest

I think it is so important for us to make the most of our time, especially when travelling and taking short breaks. Therefore, I will always advise you to find early outbound flights and late return flights. So, I was excited to find cheap flights to Bucharest. These flights left Bristol at 6am on Friday 26th, with a return at 9.30pm on Sunday 28th January. This allowed me essentially 3 full days, but for the cost of just two nights accommodation. I flew with Ryanair both ways, using just the ‘small bag’ luggage allowance and I never pay for seat selection. This meant the flights were a total of £55 for the return journey!

Don’t get me wrong, I understand that some people want the comfort of taking more luggage and knowing that they have a seat they like. Equally, I’m here to show you that the more efficiently you can be with your money, the more opportunity you have for additional trips because you’re not spending unnecessarily.

Flights for this price are a lot easier to find and more common than a lot of people think. If you struggle to find these prices, and want to guarantee best prices on flights, check out my expert guide. Click here and use the code BLOG for another 25% off the marked price.

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The view from Bran’s Castle, Transylvania

Accommodation

As previously mentioned, I travelled with somebody for this trip. This meant the accommodation was split between the two of us. We stayed in a small, one bedded apartment. This is the kind of accommodation I usually try to find, and what I advise for other people trying to save money. Why? The initial cost of the accommodation may be slightly more for an apartment. However, if you have kitchen facilities, it allows you to save so much money on food and drinks.

Anyway, this apartment gave me access to a double bed, an en-suite and several appliances. For example, a fridge, microwave, hairdryer, kettle etc. Essentially, this was set out like a hotel room but for a fraction of the cost! Equally, the location of the accommodation was disappointing and mis-advertised but it was only about a 25 minute walk from Bucharest old town. This cost £29.20 per night (split between two), meaning a cost of £29.20 per person for the two nights. There are accommodations available for less if you are travelling solo!

Some great places to check for accommodation are TripAdvisor. Or, if you’re happy to use hostels for even more savings, try Hostelworld.

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Bucharest, Romania (Photo by Uiliam Nornberg)

Activities

Day 1

On day 1 we went the biggest spa in Europe, Therme Bucaresti which cost £26.50 for entry. You can pay for these tickets when you get there, but to guarantee your space you should book your tickets here. This option gave us full access to all 3 areas of the spa for 4.5 hours. Additionally, we paid for towel hire and an 18 minute hydromassage which cost, £4.12 (24 Lei) and £3.09 (18 Lei) respectively.

Day 2

For the second day, we got up early and headed into Bucharest for 7.15am. This was because we’d decided to book an excursion, which took us into the mountains and Transylvania area of Romania. The itinerary included a visit to Peles castle, one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, a lovely little town in the mountains called Brasov and finally, a visit to Bran’s Castle, otherwise known as Dracula’s castle.
The excursion cost £29.99 per person, plus 70 Lei (£12.00) entry for Peles castle and 50 Lei (£8.58) for Brans Castle. You can book the excursion here.

Day 3

Finally, for the third day, we simply spent the day exploring Bucharest and the old town. If you enjoy looking at the different architecture of places, Bucharest has plenty to offer. The places we explored were Biserica Sfantul Anton, Biserica Manastirii Stavropoleos, and Palatul Voievodal. Following this walk we stopped for a coffee before making our way for lunch in. Parcul Unirii. However, this was a bit disappointing as Google maps showed a large water feature and fountains which turned out to be empty of water! Nonetheless, we enjoyed our lunch sat in the park and then ventured back into town. After this, we went to the instagram famous umbrella’s street (Calea Victoriei), which is a beautiful little alley way with probably around 100 colourful, open umbrellas covering it.

After this, we slowly made our way to Piata Romana where we’re getting a bus to a huge park and lake called Parcul Herastrau. Along the way, we made stops at the Muzeul national de arta And Ateneil Roman to take in some more architectural beauty. Finally, before heading into the park, we stopped by the Arcul de Triumf which is located at the front of the park.

So, as you can see, the three days were packed full of things to do, despite this being a quick and cheap trip to Bucharest, with the total cost of activities being £84.28

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Tram in Bucharest (Photo by Cosmin Chiwu)

Food and Drinks in Bucharest

Just so you know, I am a bit weird and find it quite easy to go all day without food, which I know isn’t possible for everyone.

Day 1

Anyway, when we arrived into Bucharest in the evening, we found a place to eat called Casa Romana. The food was incredible although we should have done more research into prices as it was definitely not as cheap as other places in Bucharest. We spent 240 Lei (£41.18), so £20.59 per person! This included a drink, a starter and a large meat platter as the main. I also spent £2.23 on a drink at one of the mineral pool bars at Therme.

Day 2

Following on, something that I think is huge for saving money is making sandwiches/ picnic’s for the lunch time meals. So, on the second day, we bought ingredients from the supermarket which included 1 loaf of bread, 2 packs of sliced cheese, 4 packs of sliced ham, a 250g bag of nuts, a packet of 6 pain au chocolat, 6 bananas and a 2.5l bottled water. This cost a total of 88 Lei (£15.08) and was shared between 2 people for 2 days lunches so averaged at 22 Lei (£3.77) per day. In the end, we actually had lunch from a cafe in Brasov which cost 54 RON (£9.26) per person, and then ate the sandwiches later in the day. I also bought a coffee today at a price of 5 Lei £0.86.

Day 3

For the final day, at lunch time we had more sandwiches made with the ingredients we bought yesterday. Whilst later, we found another cheap Bucharest pasta bar called Pasta del Popolo. In here, I had pasta and Ragu, a coke and a dessert called zeppoline. So, this cost 90 Lei (£15.09) which brought the total spending on food and drinks to £54.71.

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Bran Castle (Photo by Chavdar Dimitrov)

Transportation

One thing you will find is extremely cheap in Bucharest is the public transport, so make the most of it! So, as soon as we landed, we caught a bus to Therme spa which is about 30 minutes from the airport. Later, we had to make our way back to Bucharest which was a bit more complicated than i was hoping as we had to take two buses with a bit of a wait between the two. Subsequently I found out there is a direct bus, but it only runs every two hours. Anyway, as I said the transport in Bucharest is super cheap, meaning these buses only cost 50p each. Therefore, the total cost of those buses were £1.50. After this, we used a bolt to get from a restaurant to the accommodation, which cost £2.74 each.

The only other money we spent on transport during the trip was another 50p for the bus back to the airport. This brings the total transportation costs to a tiny £4.74 per person.

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Snow in Bucharest (Photo by Dave Haas)

Conclusion

There it is. This is an example of what you can do on a budget in Bucharest. Truly, I’m on a mission to help people realise that travel can be so easily attainable with just a few tweaks to what we do. Letting go of a few home comforts and being sensible with how we spend money can open a world of opportunity! The overall breakdown of spending is below –

Flights – £55

Accommodation – £29.20

Activities – £84.28

Food & Drinks – £54.71

Transportation – £4.74

Total for 3 cheap days in Bucharest – £227.93

Let me know in the comments if you like this post or if you have any suggestions of things the community can do in Bucharest. Thanks for reading!

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