CCIITTYY GGUUIIDDEE

BBuucchhaarreesstt

22000088--22000099

Photos:

– The National Museum of Art

– Mådålin-Cristian Foc¿a

– Gabriel ªerban

– Romeo Huidu (front cover)

© 2008 House of Guides

Tel.: (0040)21-317 91 31, Fax: (0040)21-224 31 86

E-mail: office@houseofguides.ro

distributie@houseofguides.ro

Web-site: www.houseofguides.ro

© All rights reserved. Copyright by House of Guides. This book may not be reproduced

in whole or in part without written permission of House of Guides.

Descrierea CIP a Bibliotecii Na¡ionale României:

Bucharest city guide: 2008-2009. – Ed. a 5-a, rev.

Bucure¿ti: House of Guides, 2008

Index

ISBN 978-606-513-026-5

913(498 Buc.)

3

Summary

How to use the guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Romania – general information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Short History of Bucharest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Best Sightseeing Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Best Hotels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Best Restaurants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Romanian cuisine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Serbian Cuisine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76

French cuisine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Italian cuisine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Mediterranean cuisine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Lebanese cuisine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Turkish cuisine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Chinese cuisine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Asian cuisine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Japanese cuisine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Arabian cuisine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Exotic cuisine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

International cuisine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Best Beauty Centers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Best Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Mall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Women Fashion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Men and Women Fashion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Men Fashion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Footwear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Accessories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Cosmetics, Perfumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Luxury Jewellery & Watches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Best Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Casinos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Clubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Café-bars, Pubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Best Theaters & Cinemas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Bucharest Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Units index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

4

HOW TO USE THE GUIDE

The editor’s note

This guide is published on annually basis and appears in full tourist season.

The ratings that it contains are available for one year.

Classification

Each section will present top locations as follows:

– hotels – listed on categories (5*, 4*, and some 3* hotels), in alphabe-

tical order by each category;

– restaurants – listed by their cuisine profile, as seen on Summary;

– entertainment – also listed by profile, as seen on Summary.

Compulsory criteria for at least 3 stars accommodation units:

– Disabled facilities; laundry; credit card; phone in the rooms; parking lot;

fast mail services; room service; rent-a-car; minibar in the rooms; TV set

in the rooms.

Besides the above facilities, the 4 stars accommodation units must have:

– Conference room; internet acces in the rooms; air conditioning.

In addition, the 5 stars accommodation units must have:

– Safe box in the rooms; secured parking lot.

Symbols

Hotel facilities

Credit card

Breakfast included

Hairdresser’s

Wardrobe

Internet

Room with safe

Secure parking lot

Valet parking

Conference room

Gym room

Sauna

Massage

Solarium

��������� �

Beauty saloon

Indoor pool

Outdoor pool

Indoor sports-ground

Outdoor sports-ground

Gift shop

Rent-a-car

Baby sitting

Pets allowed

Green location

Disabled facilities

Quiet area

Historical building

�������������

5

���� !"#$

Restaurant facilities

Summer Restaurant

Daily supply

Live music

Programme

Special events

The suit is obligatory

Smoking room

Belvedere

Bar

Hotels section – abbreviations

R – restaurant

T – terrace

Bar – bar

BZ – day bar

NC – night club

Bs – brasserie

B – bistro

Cr – wine cellar

Co – sweet-shop

Cs – casino

Cf – coffee bar

Distance to Henri Coandå International Airport �

Note:

Because the guide’s map-drawing areas are exclusively extracted out of

Bucharest’s administrative map, the high-standard unities that are situated

outside Bucharest are not spotted on the maps.

6

ROMANIA

GENERAL INFORMATION

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION

Romania is situated in the South-Eastern part of Central Europe.

Neighbouring countries are: Hungary in the West, Ukraine in the North and East,

the Republic of Moldavia in the East, Bulgaria in the South and Serbia in the

South-West.

AREA: 91,725 sq. miles (238,391 sq. km)

CAPITAL: Bucharest

LOCAL TIME: GMT + 2 hours (summer time: GMT + 3 hours – between the last

Sunday of March and the last Sunday of October)

POPULATION: 21,500,000 (2007)

ETHNIC GROUPS: Romanian 89,5%, Hungarian 6,6%, Gipsy 2,5%, Other 1,5%

RELIGIONS: Orthodox Christians 86,8%, Romano-Catholic 4,7%, Reformed 3,2%,

Pentecostal 1,5%

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: Romanian

FORM OF GOVERNMENT: Republic with two legislative bodies:

Senat and Chamber of Deputies

ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS: 41 counties and the capital city of Romania – Bucharest

NATIONAL CURRENCY

1 Leu (RON) = 100 bani; 1 EUR = 3,7 RON; 1 USD = 2,4 RON

You can find exchange offices in airports, 4 and 5 star hotels, commercial

banks and on the cities’ main streets. Avoid unofficial exchange transaction, in the

street.

CLIMATE: temperate continental

The average temperature in the hottest summer month, July, varies between

22 and 230C in plain areas and 16

0C in the mountains.

The average temperature in the coldest winter month, January, varies between

2 and -30C in plain areas and -10 and -11

0C in the mountains.

NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

New Year (1st, 2nd of January)

Ortodox Easter (the first and the second day)

The 1st of May – Labour Day

The 1st of December – Romanian National Day

Christmas (25th, 26th of December)

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

In Romania, two types of mobile telephone systems from the second generation

are available: GSM Vodafone, Orange, Cosmote and CDMA Telemobil/Zapp.

You can purchase cards and telephone sets from specialised shops or autho-

rised dealers.

7

BANKS

In Romania, there are banks with state or private capital, but also international

banks, with foreign capital.

TRANSPORTS

By air. TAROM, the Romanian Airlines has at its disposal 17 airports out of which

11 operate in international regime. Internal flights connect Bucharest to the main

Romanian cities: Arad, Bacåu, Baia-Mare, Constan¡a, Cluj, Craiova, Ia¿i, Oradea,

Sibiu, Suceava, Satu Mare, Timi¿oara, Târgu-Mure¿, Tulcea.

Bucharest Otopeni is Romania’s main international airport, situated approximately

17 km from down town.

Plane tickets can be booked at ticketing agencies.

By rail. CFR, the Romanian Railways, has a national wide network of 22,637 km.

CFR offers the following facilities:

For exterior traffic: trains or direct wagons for the main European routes; sleeping

cars from Bucharest (Northern Railway Station) to the main European cities; berth

wagons.

For the internal routes: intercity trains from Bucharest to the country’s main

cities, with modern comfortable wagons; high speed trains between the main towns;

popular trains for short distances (urban or rural); The Blue Arrow – a high Speed

motorailer with a locomotive, and two wagons. The train offers 12 seats at the busi-

ness class and 92 seats at the economic class. The two wagons offer air conditioned

facilities and are not separated such as the other trains; berth wagons in six seats

compartments.

By ship. Transport is available mainly on the Danube and its tributaries – 1,599 km

and on the two ship-going channels, Bega and Danube-Black Sea – 91 km.

Danube Delta is only accessible by water, but ships do not operate in winter.

Classic routes: Bråila – Gala¡i – Tulcea – Sulina; Tulcea – Sulina; Tulcea – Chilia

Veche – Periprava; Tulcea – Sf. Gheorghe; Cri¿an – Mila 23.

Special routes (fast transportation services): Bråila – Gala¡i – Tulcea – Sulina;

Tulcea – Sulina; Tulcea – Sf. Gheorghe.

By road. The Romanian Roads Network has: 73,160 km public roads ; 14,686 km

national roads (DN), 265 km highways (Bucharest – Pite¿ti and Bucharest – Cernavodå).

Legal speeds limits: within localities 50 km/h, 100 km/h outside – on european

routes, 90 km/h outside – on other routes and 130 km/h on highways.

HistoryCity Guide Bucharest 2008-2009

Short History of Bucharest

Bucharest keeps in its soil traces of

human presence even since the age of

carved stone, that is 150,000 years

ago. Proofs of material culture of civiliza-

tions named Vinca, Boian and Gumelni¡a

were discovered at Glina, Pantelimon,

Giule¿ti and Jilava. The Bronze Age has

more proofs, located especially around

the rivers Dâmbovi¡a, Colentina, Sabar

or Ciorogârla.

In the 6th-7th century, there were

not less than 17 villages on the territory

of the today city.

The first documentary testimony of

the city is dated September 20th, 1459

in an official document issued by the

prince Vlad ºepe¿ “from Bucharest”.

Starting from 1659 the town re-

mains the capital of Wallachia.

The revolutions in 1821 and 1848,

as well as the Principality Union in 1859

conduct their most important moments

in Bucharest, too, just like the proclama-

tion of the state independence of Ro-

mania, on May 10th, 1877. Bucharest

becomes the capital of the Romanian

State.

Today Bucharest lays on an area of

over 228 square km, has a population of

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