Bucharest

By bus

Buses are a good option to get to Bucharest if coming from Moldova, Turkey, Greece and to some extent Bulgaria, given the low frequency and speeds of trains between these countries and Romania.

If you're willing to make extremely long bus rides it's also possible to get to Bucharest from a large number of cities in Western and South-Western Europe; these lines are operated by Eurolines (http://www.eurolines.com/) and their local affiliate Atlassib (http://atlassib.ro/csp/we...).

The city has several bus terminals: Băneasa located in the northern part of town, Obor east, Filaret south, Rahova south-west, Militari west, Griviţa north-west as well as many other smaller stations.

Buses and minibuses from Chişinău seven-eight buses every day, about 10 hours travel time, tickets around €15 arrive mostly at Filaret bus station linked to downtown by tramway 7 and bus 232;

Buses from Istanbul three-four buses per day, 12-14 hours travel time, tickets around €45 arrive at multiple stations along Viilor road linked to downtown by tramway 32 from the northern end and tramway 7 from the southern end;

The only daily bus from Sofia 7 hours travel time, €18 stops near Tineretului subway station one station away from city center;

Buses from Varna one or two buses daily only between late May-early September, 5-6 hours travel time, tickets around €30 usually stop in various squares in downtown;

Buses from Athens several times per week, 16-20 hours travel time, tickets around €60 arrive at stations along Viilor road;

Transfer buses for routes from Western Europe usually arrive at Rahova bus station tramway 32 links it with the city center;

Bucharest also has bus connections to a vast number of cities in Romania. They're a convenient choice primarily when coming from places from which railways are under repair like Constanţa and the Black Sea resorts or too indirect like Sibiu.

Timetables for most domestic routes and several international ones are available on (http://www.autogari.ro/?&...).

By train

Bucharest is linked through direct daily trains to all neighboring countries’ capitals Belgrade, Budapest, Chişinău, Kiev, Sofia, as well as to Vienna, Venice, Thessaloniki, Istanbul, Moscow and of course to main cities in all of Romania’s 41 counties.

All international trains and most long distance internal trains arrive at Gara de Nord Northern station, located quite near of the city center, to which it is linked by subway and several buses, trolley, and tramway lines.

Some trains to and from the Black Sea Coast use either Gara de Est-Obor Eastern station, or Băneasa station, as well as the main Gara de Nord station most of the trains. Currently the route between Bucharest and Constanţa, the main city in the Black Sea area, has been modernised and the trip duration was lowered to 2:30 hours on direct trains. Following further modernisation expected to finish in 2012 the duration is expected to get to 2:10-2:15 hours.

The other three smaller stations Basarab, Progresul and Republica are used exclusively for local and regional trains.

The timetables for domestic routes are available here: (http://www.cfrcalatori.ro/).

Do not use any exchange services around the train station: they offer about 30-50 percent below the actual exchange rate--use an ATM instead or walk a few blocks to get a much better rate, then take the subway system, which is reasonably priced ~1 euro for 2 uses, as of August 2011 and has clearly marked maps and schedules.

Watch out for the shady private taxi services and avoid taking taxiis near the stations, no exceptions! You should know that near the stations all of them will try to cheat you and you will have to be both vigilant and lucky to avoid being ripped off. Always look to see if the cab driver starts the meter and alert him by saying "aparatul" ah-pah-RA-tool while pointing at the meter. There will be drivers offering rides - be extremely wary. It is reccommended to ride only with drivers who use the meter and have the general tarriff currently 1,39 lei/km, August 2011. Never accept bargains and other offers, they are usually more than double than the route is worth.

By car

The city’s entrances from the north the E60 road coming from Braşov, west the A1 highway from Piteşti, east the A2 (Sun highway from Constanţa), south the E20 road from Giurgiu and the avenues in the city center are very crowded, especially at rush hours. Inside the city there are few parking spaces and some of the secondary streets are in bad condition.