Bucharest for Digital Nomads

Bucharest is the capital of Romania, one of the cheapest countries in the EU. With a population of almost 2 million people, it's oddly ignored by most digital nomads who choose instead to venture to more expensive, less welcoming cities.

I recently returned for my second visit, and it did nothing to sway my positive opinion. I love it here. Let me tell you why.

The architecture in Bucharest is surprisingly stunning. This is the east side of the Palace of Parliament in the evening.

How affordable is Bucharest?

Very. It's the best-value capital city within the EU. You'll pay less than 230 lei per night for really nice Airbnbs here. If you're on a budget you can find accommodation cheaper than that. A beer in a bar will cost you around 18 lei and a single trip on the metro is 5 lei.

Paying for things in Bucharest

The currency of Romania is the Romanian leu, which has the plural form lei and is what you'll commonly see prices suffixed with. In international currency the abbreviation is RON.

Card payments including Apple Pay are accepted basically everywhere. That includes being able to pay for metro tickets using your phone.

During my first visit in 2023 a small number of businesses were still cash-only - I specifically remember having to pay for my gym membership in cash. During my 2025 visit I didn't have to use cash once. Everything that I paid for was with Apple Pay.

What language is spoken in Bucharest?

Romanian.

Is it easy to get by with English in Bucharest?

One advantage that Romania has over many of its neighbours is that it uses the Roman alphabet. Even if you don't know a word of Romanian, which I don't, it comes across to me as a mish-mash of other European languages, so if you speak English and have only a rudimentary knowledge of other European languages, you might find that you can understand more written Romanian than you'd expect.

If you go to the supermarket and see 'produse vegane', I probably don't need to tell you that indicates the vegan section. Or if you see 'Acces Parcare' and 'Nu blocati accesul în parcare', it won't take you too long to understand that means 'car park access' and 'don't block access to the car park'. 'Ceai verde' means green tea, 'case de bilete' means ticket office, and I'll give you one guess how to say 'carp' in Romanian.

This doesn't mean that you'll be able to understand everything that you read - you won't, not even close, but you won't feel as lost as you do in other countries in this region that don't use the Roman alphabet.

In terms of how widely English is spoken, you shouldn't expect it from everyone, but most people that you're likely to deal with, for example those working in restaurants or in barber shops, typically speak some English. I find it pretty easy to get by here.

Salted carp egg spread anyone?

How is the Internet in Bucharest?

Lightning-fast and reliable.

In my first room here in 2023, the download speeds were over 600mbps and upload speeds over 500mbps. In my second room in 2025 I had 400mbps download and 425mbps upload speeds. I've had no reliability issues, and haven't been anywhere in the city without strong mobile coverage.

Getting in and out of Bucharest

If you're arriving or departing Bucharest by air, you'll likely be doing so at Henri Coandă International Airport, Bucharest's main airport, located 16.5km north of the city centre. The most hassle-free way of getting there from the city centre is on the airport train, which runs 24 hours per day, departing in each direction between the airport and Gara de Nord every 40 minutes. The journey takes 20 minutes and tickets cost 6 lei.

While it's possible to buy tickets at the ticket office before boarding, it's not necessary. Once the train leaves, English-speaking conductors walk down the train taking payment and printing tickets for passengers, so it's much simpler to get on without a ticket. They accept card or cash payment.

Gara de Nord is also likely to be the station you arrive at in Bucharest if you come by train, and it's on lines 1 and 4 of the metro, so taking the underground from here to wherever you're staying is easy.

If arriving or departing by bus, there are two main bus terminals. Autogara Militari is west of the city centre, but an easy walk from Păcii metro station on line 3. When I took a bus to Sofia in 2023, this is where it departed from. I've never had to go there myself, but I understand that Autogara Filaret also has long-distance buses.

At Gara de Nord, look for the departures board. The airport train is labelled 'AEROPORT H COANDĂ' and leaves every 40 minutes.

Is Bucharest safe?

I've seen nothing to make me think that it's not, and that includes wandering the streets drunk in the middle of the night.

The one thing to be aware of is that Bucharest has a very evident problem with drug addiction. You will be asked for money a lot, and you'll see a lot of people clearly off their tits. I've never felt threatened by them though.

Who is Bucharest suitable for?

Being in the EU and being as affordable as it is, Bucharest is most suited to EU passport holders on a budget. As of 2025 Romania is a fully-fledged member of the Schengen Area, meaning that it's no longer suitable for nomads looking for a Schengen cool-off.

It's got a lot of green space, so it's very suited to those who like to get outside a lot, and it's a very vegan-friendly city.

The social scene here is a little underwhelming. While it does exist, it's not as vibrant as in other places, so it's perhaps not suited for nomads who're very socially-needy.

So basically if you're a poor, vegan, introvert who likes the outdoors and has an EU passport, you're going to love it here. It's why I came back again.

Is the tap water drinkable in Bucharest?

Very much so.

Things I don't like about Bucharest

Smoking

Bucharest hasn't escaped the plague that infects the rest of Eastern Europe, with an uncomfortably high proportion of the population doing what they can to give everyone else cancer.

Men smoke. Women smoke. Children smoke.

I'm not joking, I saw a school trip and half the kids had cigarettes. Smoking is at least banned indoors, but good luck trying to breathe clean air while walking down the street.

Drug addiction

Particularly in the city centre, although certainly not limited to it, you'll see a lot of evidence of drug addiction. People trying to fly, that kind of thing.

That means that firstly, you're going to have a lot of people ask you for money. And secondly, there are a lot of people behaving erratically. I've never seen any violence directed towards other people, but I did see one guy get into a fight with a trash can. That kind of unpredictability can put you on edge.

Emergency messages

The Bucharest authorities are way, way too trigger happy with those emergency messages that get sent to your phone, where even if it's on silent and on do not disturb, it'll start wailing at you. On multiple occasions I've been in the middle of video calls with my phone on do not disturb when they've been sent, which is pretty embarrassing when you're on a work call.

If these messages were being sent for legitimate reasons I wouldn't mind, but the first one I received during my second stay in Bucharest was because someone had misplaced their child.

Ok, great. Thanks for telling me.

There was another one when everyone was told to seek emergency shelter from an incoming storm. It didn't even rain. Multiple others came telling me about a heatwave. It wasn't even that hot, it only got to 38°C. That's good running weather.

My guess is that the authorities are so paranoid that they'll face criticism if anything happens and they didn't send out an emergency message, that they just send them out for anything, but fucking Hell they get annoying.

Missing Child Alert. All that's done is alert the local paedophiles that there's an unattended child somewhere in town.

Being sociable in Bucharest

The social scene for digital nomads in Bucharest isn't completely dead, but it's certainly a bit sickly.

Facebook is a clutter of adverts disguised as events, and there aren't many bars that are appealing to go for a beer by yourself. I find my social life here limited to a small number of active Meetup groups in Bucharest, such as Bucharest Digital Nomads, which holds events at different bars around Bucharest.

If having an active social life is important to you, then Bucharest might not be for you.

In 'Drunken Lords' bar in the old town.

Running in Bucharest

Like many cities in Europe, Bucharest is very running-friendly. While the pavements are quiet enough and the pollution insignificant enough that you can comfortably run along the roads here, there's really no need as there are some really great parks in Bucharest.

Tineretului Park

Tineretului Park is a big park south of the city centre. During my second visit to Bucharest, when I was staying intentionally close by, I came here pretty much everyday to either walk, run, or just get outside and get some sun.

The most obvious running route here is to do laps of the lake, one circumference of which is 2.8km. It's got a wide path all the way around, shared by runners, cyclists, walkers, rollerbladers and electric scooters. Apart from one small corner that's home to a lot of birds that stay off the path unless some genius parents decide to take their kids to feed them, there are no real bottlenecks, so you can comfortably run in either direction.

At the north-eastern tip of the lake you'll find a drinking fountain, with a few others dotted around the park. Even if you don't want to run, this is a great place for a lunchtime walk. There are hundreds of benches all over the park if you want to relax, or quite well hidden on top of a hill is a calisthenics area where you can come to do some pull-ups.

The one obvious and expected deficiency in this park is the number of people that smoke, where they make every effort to annoy as many people that are exercising as possible. Given the size of the park, it isn't as bad as in some other parks in Eastern Europe.

Tineretului park centres around Lacul Tineretului, which translates to 'Lake Tineretului'. You're welcome.

Văcărești Natural Park

Văcărești Natural Park is probably my favourite place in Bucharest. It's a slightly peculiar place, because it's surrounded by this big, concrete bowl, and as typically happens when you build something out of concrete, people graffitied all over it. That makes it slightly unwelcoming, made even more so by how inconspicuous the entrances are.

It perhaps explains why there's barely ever anyone else here, but I love it. The presumed intention of the bowl is to keep all pollution, including noise pollution, out of the park, which it does very effectively. The park is bordered on two sides by a main road, but once you're inside you wouldn't know it. It's a very peaceful, untamed area of parkland within easy reach of Bucharest city centre. For walking or running, I suggest having it on your list of places to come in Bucharest.

If you're running here you've got two options. You can either go down into the park where there are some trails that are suitable. Or you can run around the edge of the bowl. I prefer the latter.

The top of the bowl has a path that goes all the way around it, with one lap being 5.14km. The downside of this is that being on top of the bowl you're not protected from the noise of the nearby roads, and you're also out in the open with little shade.

As Văcărești is fairly close to Tineretului Park, you can easily combine them into a longer run, the only downside being that to get between the parks you have to cross a couple of main roads that can take a little while.

Văcărești is a beautiful nature park within easy reach of the city centre and my favourite place in Bucharest.

Izvor Park

Izvor Park is much smaller than the two parks mentioned above, with one loop being just 1.25km, but as it was so close to my first room in Bucharest, I really put my laps in here. If you're staying near the city centre and can't be arsed to go to Tineretului Park, it's probably your best bet.

Unsurprisingly it's full of nobheads smoking, which is good cardio training as you have to hold your breath while running past them. And if you come at the wrong time of day, there are packs of poorly attended children. I think a local school or nursery takes them there sometimes, which is annoying because you have to kick them out of the way. Other than that it's a nice place to do laps, and being right in front of the Palace of Parliament is a bonus.

Izvor Park is right in front of the Palace of Parliament, so you get a nice view while you run.

Getting vegan food in Bucharest

Being vegan in Bucharest is as easy as anywhere else that I've been.

While there are only two fully-vegan restaurants in the city centre, and not many more further-out, most restaurants here have something vegan on the menu, so you're not going to struggle.

Even better is the supermarkets are very vegan friendly - you'll find a lot of intentionally vegan items while you're shopping. This is definitely a city to get accommodation with a kitchen if you can.

Level Up

Strada Sfânta Vineri 10

Level Up is one of the two fully-vegan restaurants in the city centre. It serves vegan takes of a mix of foreign and local foods, with burgers and pizzas dominating the menu. It's definitely not a place to come to be healthy.

From the outside it looks tiny, but that's because most of the seating is downstairs in a really comfortable room that includes six sofas. The staff are really friendly, they speak English, and there's an English copy of the menu. It's all good with one notable caveat: They only open at 2pm. They've got to be the only restaurant in the world that opens right after the lunch-rush.

So good that even the burger is licking his lips, this is the double burger for 29 lei, with salad and fries for an extra 9 lei.

Sublimme

Splaiul Independenței

Sublimme is the other fully-vegan restaurant that you'll find in the city centre. It's much more health-focused than Level Up.

On weekdays they have a menu of the day, which for 49 lei includes a soup and a main dish. I recommend that simply because service can otherwise be a bit slow. And while they do open each day at 11am, wait until midday before coming here. If you come at 11:15am like I did one day, they'll complain that they haven't had time to get ready yet, like that's your fault.

The restaurant itself is pretty comfortable. It has three sofas, although one is always occupied by a staff member's laptop. Once the food arrives, it's always very good.

On the menu they have something called a proteic bowl (I assume that's a typo of protein). On my first visit to Bucharest in 2023 it looked like this, which is kind of what I was expecting. I came back here in 2025 and ordered it again expecting the same thing, except this time...

Groceries

Vegan grocery shopping in Bucharest is as easy as anywhere else that I've been.

The main city centre supermarket is Carrefour. It has two floors, and up on the second floor it has a large 'free-from' section that includes many vegan items like protein bars, that aren't available in the supermarkets of other major cities in this region. It also has dedicated vegan parts in the chilled and frozen sections.

Even more vegan-friendly than Carrefour is Mega Image - they have small to medium-sized branches all over the city, and just in those you're going to find a lot of intentionally vegan items. Sausages, nuggets, even cheesecake and other things to make yourself fat.

If for some reason you can't find what you need in these stores, Mega Image has some larger branches like the one on General Gheorghe Magheru street, which is spread over two floors. It's as good of a place to do vegan grocery shopping as anywhere I've come across in this part of the world.

Between Carrefour and Mega Image you're well covered for groceries, but I was going through a bit of a fitness-kick during my second stay in Bucharest, meaning I wanted vegan multivitamins and vegan protein powders. For those and other vegan supplements, I found that Bebe Tei was the best place.

It's a slightly odd store, in that from the outside it looks like a mother and baby store. Their logo is a pram and the items most prominently on display are children's toys, buggies, cots and high chairs. I felt a bit odd walking in here for the first time as a lone, childless man. However, once you get past the mothering section, they have a health food section that includes some vegan foods that you might not be able to find elsewhere, but also an overwhelming amount of supplements, including many that are vegan-friendly.

Unlike in other cities in this region, you'll find dedicated vegan sections in the supermarkets in Bucharest, like here in Carrefour.

Where I stayed

Either through luck or skill, I've had two absolutely amazing Airbnbs in Bucharest. I don't have a bad word to say about either of them. Finding them on Airbnb wasn't a struggle like in other places - there seems to just be a lot of really high quality accommodation in Bucharest.

Flexible Check-In/Out apartment

Strada Vânători 5-11

This was the first place that I stayed in Bucharest, and it was perfect.

It's very near to the city centre while still being in a local area. Izvor Park is a short walk away, giving you some nearby green space. The large Carrefour supermarket in the centre of town is about a fifteen minute walk from the room. Izvor and Piața Unirii metro stations are both about an eight minute walk away, and two of Bucharest's vegan restaurants are also an easy walk.

The room is on the third floor of an apartment block. From the outside the apartment block doesn't look great, but once you're inside it's lovely. It's a one-bedroom apartment, but the living area has ample space for yoga and other exercise. There's a TV and an air conditioner in both the bedroom and the living room, and the sofa is sufficiently comfortable that I often worked on it when on my laptop, even though there's a dining table and four chairs that you can use to setup an actual workspace. The wifi here in 2023 was the fastest I'd ever used, consistently having over 600mbps and 500mbps download and upload speeds respectively. The kitchen includes a large fridge/freezer, an oven and a cooker, and more cooking tools/utensils than you'd expect to find in an Airbnb. In the bedroom you have a comfortable double bed with plenty of storage space, and there's a balcony that's really pleasant to sit on with a book and a cup of tea, provided the people on adjacent balconies aren't smoking (which they normally are).

That alone would make it a five-star Airbnb, but what I really loved about this place is how much every little detail had been thought about by the host. So many snacks and drinks are included with the room. That includes nineteen different types of craft beer, one bottle of whiskey, two bottles of wine, many soft drinks, peanuts, crisps, chocolate, popcorn and even fresh fruit. If you then go into the bathroom cupboard you'll find every chemical you could need, from things you might expect like laundry detergent and shampoo, to things you're never going to need, like nail polish remover. In the bedroom cupboard you'll find more clean towels and sheets than you'll know what to do with, and search around the apartment and you'll find extension cords and converter plugs.

I carry everything that I need with me, just because many hosts aren't so thoughtful, but even I still appreciated how much thought had gone into making my stay as comfortable as it could be.

My only criticism is the people in other apartments smoking on their balconies. If you happen to have the windows open and the person next door starts smoking, the smoke blows-in. So where I might have preferred to keep the windows open and the AC turned-off, I generally kept the windows closed.

Unless you find a detached house in the middle of Bucharest, that's going to be a problem anywhere. This is still up there among the best Airbnbs I've stayed at.

The living area is very spacious, especially if you're alone. Plenty of space to do yoga. Probably enough space for two people to do yoga.

Central Exquisite Gold

Bulevardul Dimitrie Cantemir 22

I was so dejected at my previous accommodation being unavailable when I decided to come back to Bucharest that I almost changed my plans to go to another city altogether. Eventually I decided that I'd come back and stay here instead, and that was a good move. This is a great apartment.

It perhaps doesn't have quite as many of the nice little touches as the room above, but I was still very impressed by how much was included. Many different teas, oil, salt and pepper to cook with, more toilet roll than I would use in a year, and even a bottle of wine in the fridge.

It's a gold-themed room, which I really liked. The walls are gold, the lights are gold, the taps are gold, the cutlery is gold, even the bum gun is gold. Yes, I did say that.

To the uninitiated, a bum gun is a water hose that sits behind the toilet and is used like a handheld bidet. They're behind every toilet in South-East Asia, and my biggest frustration when I come back to Europe each year is that they don't exist here and I have to use toilet paper instead. Except one exists in this apartment, and not only is the bum gun gold, but it has a temperature control, meaning you can spray hot or cold water up your arse. Even Thailand isn't that advanced yet.

The location of this apartment is perfect. Tineretului Park is just a short walk away, and there's not one, but two medium-sized branches of Mega Image a 5-10 minute walk away, including on the way back from the park, so getting groceries while staying here is easy, as is cooking them seeing as the kitchen contains just about every utensil that you're going to need. Tineretului metro station is just outside the apartment, and you're about a 25-minute walk from the town centre.

The living room here is really comfortable. It has a very long and comfortable sofa, which is great for working from, and it faces a large TV. There's plenty of floor space to workout on, and there's a desk that includes an external monitor. Both the living room and the bedroom have air conditioning units.

There is no balcony, but that's the only criticism I could level. I loved this room, and given its location, might even rate it ahead of the one above.

It's a gold-themed room, if you couldn't tell.

Summary of Bucharest

Do I want to come back to Bucharest again?

I absolutely love my life as a digital nomad and I'll live out the rest of my days like this if I can. Unfortunately, at some point reality is going to bring me back down to earth.

Whether it's for financial reasons, for medical reasons, because I can't find remote work anymore, or some other reason altogether, a day is going to come when I have to settle down and live like a normal person again. And when that time comes, Bucharest is going to be at the top of my list. For what I look for in a city, it has it all.

It's affordable, it's very vegan-friendly, it's got loads of open, green space, it's got low pollution levels, the people are mostly friendly, and it's in the EU, meaning I can stay here forever without any red tape.

I hope that day is a long way off, but in the meantime I will for sure be back in Bucharest again. I love it here.