We will be docking on our cruise this summer on the Black Sea resort of Constanta. Our ship offers a 8 1/2 hour bus tour to Bucharest. Is it worth the time?

Hi,
I have never been to Romainia, but I just saw Michael Palin on the travel channel last night and he was in Bucharest. He reported that a lot of the old Bucharest had been destroyed by the last dictator, whose name I can not spell. It appeared OK. Somewhat depressing and I am not sure it is worth a 8 1/2 hour bus ride. Hopefully someone who has been there can give better advise.

Yipper

How close is Constanta to Bucharest? What are your alternate plans for the day?

I think Bucharest is a very interesting city, based on my brief visit there. If you have other interesting, closer, Romanian places to visit, then consider those too.

Are you spending just 1 day in Romania, or more than that? If I had a day I would stay in Constanta, visit the city, the Casino, Archeological Museum, go to Mamaia near by for fun in the sun and late night partying.
If the tour to Bucharest is 8 1/2 hours, considering it is quite a distance, does that mean you are spending 2 hours in the city?

We dock at 7AM and leave at 7PM. Really not familiar with that port, and what there is to do or see. Checked again, and the excursion to Bucharest is 10 1/2 hrs....a lot of time on a bus!

Constanta is more than a port, it is the second largest city in Romania, a university city, has some very good Roman archeological sites and is very close to Mamaia, a popular summer resort blessed with Floridian type white sand. Forgot to mention a visit to the Mosque built by the a king at the turn of the century.

Definitely do not go to Bucharest for such a short time, there is nothing that would make it worth while, no Versailles or Mona Lisa. Stay on the Black Sea Coast and enjoy it!

No, stay where you are or go to the delta

There are a lot of things to visit in Bucharest (see some images at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucuresti ). However, with only 12 hours, I would not make this trip. The distance is around 300 km (more or less ), and the bus can make it in 4 hours. Too, too much time in bus.

Stay in Constanta, visit it, visit Mamaia or Neptun. See here some info about Constanta:
http://professionaltravelguide.com/c...nations-135524.


Or, as bilboburger advised, go for a cruise in Danube delta. Delta is declared UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site A bus will make an hour and a half to Tulcea, and from then, take a boat to Sulina, Sf. Gheorghe, etc. See http://www.traveltoromania.com/desti...ea/danubedelta

Constanza is rather pretty. Be aware that the Casino can only be viewed from the outside but it is stunning. Across the way is an aquarium which I did not visit, but the outside is very interesting to see. Along the prominade are street musicians. There are many little restaurants with reasonable prices in the town. I believe there is a shopping mall somewhere as well.

Bucharest is a beautiful city in spite of the communist efforts to reduce it to rubble. The 1000 room building is interesting to tour, there is an outdoor museum of many different houses to look at, there is a magnificent concert hall,there are stunning churces and a couple of synogugues, but I was just there for three days and can tell you that you need lots of time to get around as the traffic is horrendous - even worse than the freeways in Los Angeles. Four hours will give you no time to do anything and it's not worth the 6 hour drive time.