A guide to the city of Bucharest recently published in the British newspaper The Times shines a positive on what the city can offer British visitors, from coffee shops, parks, museums, and restaurants.

Instead of lingering on its dark, communist past, the guide underlines Bucharest’s “buzzy outdoor bars and hipster coffee shops that now abound,” not to mention its “venerable museums and terracotta-topped villas.” The guide goes on to favorably compare the Romanian capital to others in the region, like Prague or Budapest.

Affordable, and with daily flights from London and a new twice-weekly route from Cardiff, “mean[s] now is the perfect time to go” and visit Bucharest, the author says. Walking tours in the city can include the balcony on which dictator Ceausescu made his final speech, the bullet-ridden headquarters of the defunct secret police, and the Vacaresti natural park, with its otters and numerous bird species.

The guide also mentions Piata Obor, the “best place to try Romania’s skinless mici sausages.” Once culinary curiosities have been satisfied, the guide says, the tourist should head to the Village Museum, a “fascinating insight into Romania’s rural history.” The crowd-free National Museum of Art and the Grigore Antipa National Museum of Natural History should not be missed either.

The coolest neighborhood in Bucharest, The Times guide says, is clearly downtown, especially Calea Victoriei. Green Hours jazz café, “where Romanian Ursus lager is poured from large tanks and there’s live music from blues to Brazilian beats,” gets a warm review, while the restaurant Kaiamo is recommended for its edible pebbles and butter-soft venison. Restaurants such as Bucataria, on Ion Slatineanu Street, as well as Caru cu bere, Zaganu, and Biutiful Downtown are also mentioned, and so is Casa Capsa.

Tourists who have just enough time to do one thing, the guide concludes, should climb Arcul de Triumf, from where the Palace of the Parliament can be seen.

radu@romania.com

(Photo source: Masezdromaderi | Dreamstime.com)