București surprised us. The reputation says it’s rough. The reality is nuanced. Parts of the city are grand and beautiful, parts are still finding themselves.
Also, dollar for dollar, it’s one of the best value cities in Europe. And nobody talks about it.
Finding a long-stay apartment in Bucharest’s Vitan neighborhood
We stayed on Strada Panait Cerna in Vitan, a residential middle-class neighborhood in Sector 3, southeast of the city center. Renovated apartment in a large building, less than half of what an equivalent flat would cost in Kyiv or Sofia. Romania has some of the best housing value in Europe if you know where to look.
Vitan is real Bucharest. Not the Old Town, not the tourist trail. Communist-era apartment blocks mixed with newer developments, big shopping centers, quiet residential streets. A ten-minute metro ride to Piața Unirii and the historic center. The kind of neighborhood where you actually live, not just visit.
Living in Vitan, Bucharest
București at Christmas is legitimately magical. The Christmas markets, the New Year’s Eve celebration, and (this we did not expect) random groups of people roaming the streets performing The Bear’s Dance, the Capra (goat dance), and the Plugușorul (cracking whips like Devo to scare away evil spirits). It woke us up faster than coffee.
Bucharest is layers of history: Ottoman, Belle Époque, communist, contemporary. All coexisting on the same block. Vitan sits on the communist layer, and there’s a specific honesty to that. No pretending. Just apartment blocks doing what apartment blocks do, with a really good bakery on the corner.
A typical day in Bucharest
Coffee at Origo when we made it to the center. Metro at Timpuri Noi or Dristor when we needed to get somewhere. Long afternoons working from cafés or the apartment. Dinner in the Old Town some nights, at a nearby local spot on the others. Sarmale cu Mămăligă (stuffed cabbage leaves with polenta) with hot chilis and a dollop of smântână on the side became our comfort food. We were introduced to țuică, the traditional Romanian spirit made only from plums. A famous national pick-me-up (or drop-you-down if you’re not careful).
Weekends went further. The Carpathian Mountains for a hike into a bat cave. Transylvania for our first Dracula encounter at Bran Castle. And a train ride to Moldova, which we didn’t fully know we were going to. It turned out to be our first sleeper train and also the first time we’ve ever been on a train that had to be jacked up to have its wheels changed for different-sized tracks. In Moldova we visited a winery with 150 kilometers of tunnels and millions of bottles of wine. For us, this was what visiting Disneyland must feel like for a child. Moldova is the happiest place on earth.
Bucharest: our verdict after 2 months of living there
Bucharest is a city that rewards curiosity. It’s not going to charm you in a weekend. It might not charm you in a week. But live there for a couple of months and you start to see the layers.
For long-stay value in Europe, București is genuinely underrated. And if you want the real thing instead of the tourist version, look at neighborhoods like Vitan. Cheaper, quieter, and connected to everything by metro.
Bucharest long-stay stats
- Duration: Two and a half months, winter
- Neighborhood: Vitan (Sector 3, residential southeast)
- Cost tier: Very affordable
- Walkability: Local streets walkable, metro fills in the rest
- Wifi: Extremely fast (Romania has some of Europe’s best internet)
- Cat-friendly: Yes
- Best for: Long stays, budget-conscious remote workers, Christmas market obsessives, wine tunnel enthusiasts
- Would return: Yes
Book the stay: Our Vitan apartment on Airbnb →
