Romania · budget cars
Cheap car rental in Bucharest
The lowest daily rates on car rentals in Bucharest, Romania. Expedia Cars compares budget brands against the majors — economy cars and the majors side by side.
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What things cost in Bucharest
This is the cheapest capital in the region and the bill shows it: a 90-minute bus ride is three lei, an integrated 24-hour pass covering the metro eighteen. The Parliament tour costs sixty lei and the Village Museum forty. Mici run under ten lei each at Obor, a sit-down dinner with wine lands between 100 and 150, and half a litre of beer fifteen to twenty.
What first-timers get wrong in Bucharest
At Otopeni, ignore everyone offering you a ride and use the touchscreen taxi kiosks in arrivals or a ride-hailing app; the standing scam is a car whose door sticker shows a plausible rate while the meter charges several times it. In town you must load a rechargeable card before boarding a bus, costing a few lei, then roughly three lei per 90-minute ride.
What's actually worth your time in Bucharest
The Palace of the Parliament is compulsory: the heaviest building on earth, still only partly occupied, and you need your passport at the door because it remains a working legislature. Book the standard tour at sixty lei rather than arriving hopeful. Thirty seconds off the Lipscani drinking streets, the 1724 courtyard of Stavropoleos Monastery is the best free thing in the centre.
What to eat in Bucharest
Mici, skinless grilled meat rolls eaten with mustard and a slice of bread, are the national street food, and the grill inside Obor market is where locals queue for them rather than the Old Town. Ciorba comes soured with bors, fermented wheat bran, and the tripe version is the local dare. Papanasi close the meal: fried dough rings under sour cream and cherry jam.
Bucharest after dark
The Old Town's Lipscani grid is wall-to-wall terraces and shot promotions, largely surrendered to visitors. Control, on Strada Constantin Mille, and Expirat are where the city's own music crowd goes, both running well past four. Summer relocates everything to the terase, open-air garden bars scattered across the centre. Nothing begins before eleven, and a nine o'clock dinner counts as early.
When to go to Bucharest
| Best months for cheap-cars | Avg daily high | Rain days |
|---|---|---|
| September | 25°C / 77°F | 5 days |
| October | 19°C / 66°F | 5 days |
| May | 22°C / 72°F | 9 days |
The month to avoid is January — around 6°C (43°F) with roughly 7 rain days. Prices and crowds track the weather here: September is the sweet spot, January the month most people skip.
Pack for peak season: Summer clothes, plus one light layer for air-con and evenings, Comfortable walking shoes — every guide on this site assumes you'll use them.
Where to base yourself in Bucharest
- Old Town (Lipscani) — Cobblestone bar district — restaurants, clubs, historic churches.
- Cotroceni — Leafy residential streets near the Botanical Garden — belle-époque villas.
- Piata Universitatii — The commercial center — bookshops, cafes, the intellectual heart of the city.