5 Best Things to Do in Bucharest

(That most visitors never find)

Bucharest is not a pretty postcard city. It’s a delicious, chaotic, beautiful contradiction: Parisian boulevards smashed against brutalist concrete, Orthodox bells echoing off glass skyscrapers, and underground jazz bars hidden inside 400-year-old cellars. Here are the five experiences that make locals quietly proud, and that most guidebooks still don’t know about.

1. Get happily lost in the Old Town at golden hour (Lipscani after 5 p.m.) Forget the daytime tourist bustle. Come back when the sun turns low and amber. Start at Caru’ cu Bere for a draft Ursus in the stunning 1899 beer hall, then drift through the maze of passages: Strada Smârdan → Covaci → Șelari → Stavropoleos. Duck into hidden courtyards with ivy-covered ruins, stumble across tiny orthodox chapels glowing with candlelight, and end at a rooftop terrace (Puro & Vin or Nomad Skybar) while the city lights flicker on below you. This is Bucharest letting its hair down.
2. Sunday morning at the Therme spa (the anti-hangover miracle) Escape north for 20 minutes to the largest thermal spa in Europe. Romanians swear by it after Saturday night. Float in 36 °C mineral pools under living palm trees, sweat out last night’s ţuică in saunas scented with eucalyptus and orange, then lie on a heated lounger while snow falls outside the glass dome in winter. Locals do the full circuit: three saunas, cold plunge, then straight to the swim-up bar for a cold Timișoreana. Entry from 99 lei if you arrive before 10 a.m.
3. Hunt for street art & communist ghosts in the Civic Centre Walk the shadow of the Palace of the Parliament (world’s heaviest building) at dawn or dusk, when the marble boulevards feel like a dystopian film set. Then dive into the side streets behind it: Arthur Verona → Piața Amzei → Căderea Bastiliei. Here, vibrant murals cover crumbling 1930s villas, abandoned houses host secret galleries, and tiny bars open only when the owner feels like it. Best find: the hidden garden bar Dianei 4 (knock on the wooden gate, ring the bell, pray they’re open).
4. Dinner at the real Caru’ cu Bere (not the tourist floor) Yes, everyone knows the famous gothic beer hall, but locals eat upstairs or in the atmospheric cellar. Order from the Romanian-only specials board: fasole bătută cu ceapă roșie (creamy smoked beans), cârnați de Pleșcoi (spicy lamb sausages that bite back), and a carafe of house red from Dealu Mare. Live folk band starts at 8 p.m.; by 10 p.m. strangers are dancing on tables and the waiters are pouring shots of ţuică for everyone. This is Bucharest’s beating heart.
5. Midnight jazz in a 300-year-old wine cellar (Green Hours) Tucked inside a crumbling courtyard on Calea Victoriei, Green Hours 22 is a Bucharest institution. Descend the narrow stairs into the brick cellar, order a murfatlar red by the carafe, and let the city’s best jazz musicians play until 3 a.m. The crowd is a perfect mix: artists, diplomats, grandmothers who knew Ceaușescu, and students who weren’t born when the Revolution happened. No cover most nights, just drop money in the hat if you feel moved. When the sax player starts “Cry Me a River” and cigarette smoke curls under the vaulted ceiling, you’ll understand why Bucharest is called “Little Paris of the East” — and why it’s so much more.

Do these five things and you won’t just visit Bucharest. You’ll leave with the city under your skin — and a few new Romanian friends who will insist you come back before the year is out.