Dimitrie Gusti National Village Museum

Explore the history of Bucharest on this van tour of the city. Learn about the communist past of the city from your local guide. Find out about the ousting of the communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu.  Enjoy the convenience of being picked up from your accommodation in Bucharest. Sit back and relax on the way to the Palace of Parliament. Learn about the old communist regime and experience the opulence of this administrative building. Make your way to the National Village Museum where you can purchase tickets to see the open-air ethnographic museum. Have the chance to see an old wooded church and Romanian traditional houses that were made from earth, wood, and stone.  Continue to Victory Avenue to admire the grand Royal Palace and to view the old Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party. Head to Revolution Square, to see where Ceausescu fled the country by helicopter. Learn about the great fortune and controversies that he left behind. Finally, drive to the 17th-century Patriarchal Cathedral and get a deeper understand of the Orthodox church in Romania. Return to your accommodation at the the end of your tour. 

Learn all about Romania's communist history on this private tour through Bucharest. Start your tour at the Palace of Parliament, the second largest administrative building in the world after the Pentagon. Learn how dangerous and damaging the totalitarian regime was in Romania at this influential site. Next, visit the Dimitrie Gusti National Village Museum. See traditional homes and how Romanian villagers to have built ecological and sustainable environments in their backyards.  See Victory Avenue, a boulevard with communist buildings where you can also admire French architecture. Make a stop at Revolution Square and learn about the Romanian Revolution in December 1989. Visit Ceausescu Mansion, the private residence of Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu and their children for a quarter of a century (1965-1989), during their communist rule in Romania. Finish up your tour with drop-off back at your hotel or the airport.

Explore the historic center of Bucharest, once dubbed “Little Paris,” on a private 5-hour sightseeing tour. See the contrast between the wide boulevards and the tiny streets of unique charm. Best observed in the jumble of lanes of Lipscani, between Calea Victoriei, Boulevard Bratianu, Boulevard Regina Elisabeta, and the Dambovita River, the once-glamorous residential area and old city center is now being refashioned into an upscale neighborhood. Continue to the monumental Parliament Palace. Built by Communist Party leader Nicolae Ceausescu, it is the second largest administrative building in the world after the Pentagon. The extravagant interior is a riot of crystal chandeliers, mosaics, oak paneling, marble, gold leaf, stained-glass windows, and floors covered in rich carpets. In contrast, a visit to the Village Museum on the shores of Lake Herastrau in Herastrau Park, provides a fascinating glimpse into Romanian rural history. Founded by royal decree in 1936, the outdoor museum is the largest in Europe at some 30 acres. Discover an enchanting collection of 50 buildings that represent the design of Romania's rural architecture through the centuries.

Discover the highlights of Bucharest on an amazing half-day guided tour and marvel at the monuments of the historical city center. After meeting your guide at the local partner's centrally located office, travel to the open-air Village Museum and learn more about traditional village life in Romania as you explore the interesting reconstructions of various buildings through the ages and regions of the country. Get an amazing view of the monumental Palace of the Parliament on Constitution Square. Look at the imposing façade of the largest, heaviest and most expensive administrative building in the world. See where Communism was brought to an end in December 1989 on Revolution Square, stroll around the neighborhood to see the elegant university buildings and much more.

Bucharest is a city that wears its history proudly, if not painfully, on its sleeve. The city is a vibrant and noisy place, filled with stunning architecture, plenty of smiles, and someone at a cafe always happy to tell you their story of where they were in 1989. Today, we will experience the best Bucharest has to offer, and learn a bit of its history, while enjoying marvelous architecture and grand boulevards. We begin at Revolution Square, home to the 1989 revolution that brought Ceausescu's regime to a close. Here we can see the Royal buildings, Libraries and Statues that make up this grand and central area of Bucharest. From here we walk down Victoriei Avenue towards the heart of Bucharest's bustling commercial quarters. We will pass the Princely Court and Church in the old quarters, as well as the Palace of Justice, with its imposing columns reminding us that the state was once all powerful. Eventually after a nice stroll, we arrive at Unirii Square, the gigantic transportation hub of Bucharest. Here we can see the Palace of Parliament, which we can stop and visit, should you choose. If there it’s not possible to visit the palace, we can instead visit the Spring Palace/Ceausescu's residence. We move on to the Metropolitan Church, where we can again look at the lovely iconography of these Orthodox churches. Walking back towards the University, we will pass Bucharest's own Arch de Triumph, and have the option to stop at the Village Museum. All together, our walk will introduce you to the highlights of this city, while explaining to you their importance in history. Romanians proudly walk these streets along side you, and by the end of our day together, hopefully you will feel a bit closer to their incredible story.

The tour will start in the morning at your hotel and following a 4-hour itinerary will show the participants the most interesting sights of Bucharest downtown with entrance to the Parliament Palace (optional) and The Village Museum (optional). The tour includes transport by modern 8 seat minibus, guide services in English, pick-up from the hotel and does not include the entrance fees at the Parliament Palace and the Village Museum. The itinerary depends on your hotel’s location, but it will include: Free Press Square (Piata Presei Libere) – The Arch of Triumph (Arcul de Triumf) – Victoriei Square (Piata Victoriei) – Calea Victoriei – Revolution Square (Romanian Atheneum, Revolution’s Memorial) – The Palace of Parliament (Palatul Parlamentului) – Union Square (Piata Unirii) – University Square (Piata Universitatii) – Romana Square (Piata Romana) – Victoriei Square – Charles de Gaulle Square (Piata Charles de Gaulle) – The Village Museum (Muzeul Satului).

Discover Bucharest, a charming city full of contrasts. Admire impressive 17th-century churches, well-preserved traditional houses, and imposing French style palaces alongside communist era buildings and glass office towers. Get picked up at your accommodation in central Bucharest, then head to the Parliament Palace. There, take a tour inside the second-largest building in the world and the seat of the Romanian Parliament in the post-communist years. Next, move on to the Village Museum (Muzeul National al Satului "Dimitrie Gusti"), an open-air museum situated on the shore of the scenic Herastrau Lake. Explore a micro-universe of the traditional Romanian village with houses representing all regions of Romania. From there, head to Bucharest Old Town for a walking tour, the former quarter where the merchants and craftsmen lived and worked that is now the entertainment center of Bucharest. Wander along the quaint, narrow cobblestone streets filled with restaurants, cafes, and pubs. Then, it's time for some panoramic sightseeing. Pass by Victory Avenue, one of the oldest streets in Bucharest that features majestic palaces, art museums, former residences of the aristocracy, and old churches. Then, see Revolution Square, the place where Nicolae Ceausescu held his last speech and where the protests that ultimately led to the fall of communism took place in December 1989. After, move on to discover Mogosoaia Palace, the former residence of Wallachian princes in the 18th century that combines Byzantine-Ottoman elements with Baroque and western Renaissance architectural styles. Finally, visit Snagov Monastery, the final resting place of another Wallachian prince, Vlad the Impaler, also known as Dracula. Admire this monument of medieval art before returning to your accommodation.

Discover the wonders of Bucharest, also called the “Little Paris of the East”, together with your professional guide and a group of travelers on this 4-hour tour. Your panoramic city tour includes stops and history lessons at important sites and places only locals know, as well as the city highlights. The first highlight will be Revolution Square, where you’ll get an explanation of the communist system of Romania before 1989, and find out how the country moved to democracy in Europe’s bloodiest revolution.   Your second main destination will be Constitution Square, where Romania’s Parliament is located. Also known as the “House of the People”, this is the second largest civilian building in the world, and the largest in Europe. Learn more about the project that changed the face of the capital in the 1980s. Complete your visit of Romania’s capital by taking a tour of one of the most impressive open-air ethnographic museums in the world. Have an encounter with an authentic Romanian village, rich in artifacts from the 17th to the 20th century before ending your tour.

You will start in the morning from your hotel and head north-west toward Pitesti and soon you will enter the Olt River Valley. One of the most beautiful river valleys in Romania has in it's beginning an architectural and historical monument: the Cozia Monastery, built in 1388 by Mircea the Elder, the Grandfather of Vlad the Impaler.  Next stop will be Sibiu, European Cultural Capital in 2007 along with the city of Luxembourg, when Romania joined European Union. Sibiu was also voted as Europe's 8th most idyllic place to live by Forbes. With its Large Square, Small Square and Huet Square was the largest fortified city of Transylvania in medieval times. You will take a walking tour discovering why the city is so famous and admire beautiful landmarks like the Brukenthal Palace, Jesuit Church, Old City Hall tower, Evangelical Church and Liars Bridge - the first iron cast bridge in the country.  Because your guide wants to show you the real life in the area, and especially in the countryside, your next stop of the day will be made in the village of Sibiel where locals teamed up and restored most of the houses here. In the same place you can find the largest glass icons museum in Transylvania which you have the pleasure to visit and hear more about how this tradition started in the area. You will follow the Olt River Valley back to Bucharest.

After pick-up, have your first stop at the Village Museum, an open-air reconstruction of the traditional Romanian village. “The architecture of a country is, perhaps, the most accurate expression of its history” (M. Cantacuzino). For many Romanians, entering the National Village Museum is like going back to the childhood days spent in the countryside. For everyone else, this is the perfect place to discover the authentic Romanian village, with folklore elements and buildings originating from all historical provinces. You can admire steep-roofed peasant homes, thatched barns, log cabins, watermills, churches, oil presses, road crucifixes and many more. Then continue to your second stop, a wine tasting. Enjoy traditional Romanian wines, cheese & dry sausages. Romania – the world’s 13th largest wine producer with over 2000 years of viticulture tradition. It is believed that knowledge of a region’s food and wine is intrinsic to understanding its culture. Thus, the next stop is at Bucharest’s first wine bar, in a century old manor. The traditional architecture, elegant interior, the wine bottles displayed like books on shelves and the local sommelier create a perfect setting for wine tasting. Whether you’re a casual wine drinker or a true connoisseur, you’ll enjoy yourself as you discover the distinctive “terroir” of famous Romanian vineyards like Dealu Mare, where the wine is nicknamed “liquid gold”. You’ll be able to taste different types of local wines, traditional cheese & dry sausages.