Bucharest, Muntenia, Romania

Day 1

• Palace of the Parliament (House of the People)

  Ceaușescu's colossus: over a thousand rooms, record-breaking marble and chandeliers, on an area that cost the demolition of a fifth of the old city. Entry is by guided tour only, tickets are sold at the Constantin Brâncuși hall desk (not online) and you need photo ID: book by phone at least 24 hours ahead.

• Romanian Athenaeum

  The 1888 neoclassical concert hall, paid for by a public whip-round under the slogan 'give one leu for the Athenaeum': inside, a 75-metre circular fresco tells Romanian history. The best way to see it is to buy a ticket for a Philharmonic concert.

• The Old Princely Court and Manuc's Inn

  The ruins of the princely court where Vlad the Impaler also ruled, with the voivode's bust, and next door the 1808 Ottoman inn with its wooden galleries around the courtyard: the oldest piece of the city, in the middle of the nightlife.

Day 2

• 'Dimitrie Gusti' National Village Museum

  Real peasant houses, dismantled in the villages and rebuilt since 1936 on the shore of Lake Herăstrău: wooden churches, mills and farmyards from all over Romania in a huge park. Ticket 40 lei (pensioners 20, students 10); on Mondays and Tuesdays the buildings are closed but entry is half price.

• 'Grigore Antipa' Natural History Museum

  The natural history museum Romanian families love: historic dioramas, the Deinotherium skeleton found in Moldavia and modern displays. A perfect plan B on a rainy day or a scorching one.

• The Old Town and Lipscani street

  A few pedestrian streets where Bucharest packs terraces, beer halls and clubs until dawn: handsome by day for its eclectic buildings, chaotic at night. It's the city's biggest cluster of tourist traps, so check the price list before ordering.

Day 1

• Macca-Villacrosse Passage✦ hidden gem

  The 1891 horseshoe arcade roofed in yellow glass, opening a few steps from the National Bank: cafés and shisha under an unreal amber light. You'd walk right past it, and it's one of the most photogenic corners in the city.

• Stavropoleos Church✦ hidden gem

  A tiny 1724 Brâncovenesc-style church wedged among the downtown buildings: stone carved like lace, a silent cloister with old gravestones and a nuns' choir. Thirty metres from the bar street, and it feels like another country.

• Cărturești Carusel✦ hidden gem

  A bookshop over six white floors inside a 19th-century banking family's palace, confiscated by the regime and restored: spiral staircases, light from above and a bistro at the top. Free to walk in, even just to look.

Day 2

• Bellu Cemetery✦ hidden gem

  The 1858 monumental cemetery where Romanian poets and actors rest, among neo-Romanian chapels, Art Nouveau sculpture and lime-tree avenues. Free entry, almost no tourists: the country's cultural history read off the headstones.

• Primăverii Palace (the Ceaușescus' house)✦ hidden gem

  The Ceaușescu family's private residence, open to the public since 2016 with its original furnishings: mosaics, indoor pool, the gold bathroom and private cinemas. Visits by booking, far less crowded than the Palace of the Parliament and far more revealing.

Day 1

• Mici and the grill

  Mici (or mititei) are little rolls of spiced minced meat cooked over charcoal, eaten with mustard, bread and cold beer: the national street dish. Look for them in the historic beer halls or at Obor market, where they're sold by weight.

• Ciorbe and sarmale

  Romanian home cooking: the sour ciorbe (tripe, meatball, bean soup served in a bread bowl) and sarmale, stuffed cabbage rolls served with mămăligă and sour cream. In the trattorias outside the centre they cost next to nothing.

Day 2

• Papanași, covrigi and the cake shops

  Papanași are fried sweet-cheese doughnuts with sour cream and sour-cherry jam, the dessert that ends every dinner; on the street it's covrigi instead, hot salted pretzels sold on every corner for a few lei.

• The Old Town and Lipscani street

  A few pedestrian streets where Bucharest packs terraces, beer halls and clubs until dawn: handsome by day for its eclectic buildings, chaotic at night. It's the city's biggest cluster of tourist traps, so check the price list before ordering.