When the city gets too much, these are the outings we'd plan for a Saturday: a lake with a monastery on an island, a prince's palace from 1702, wetlands you can paddle, forest rope courses and ziplines, and a warm water park for the cold months. Each is a short drive out of town. Here's what we checked, from the footbridge at Snagov to the treetops at Edenland.
Lake Snagov stretches 16 km through what is left of the old Vlăsia forests, with oak, lime and ash woods along the shore.
A footbridge leads to the island monastery, first recorded in 1408, whose 16th-century church holds a tombstone attributed to Vlad the Impaler (a 1933 dig found no remains). On the water there are rowboats, pedal boats, motorboats and small passenger boats.
Mogoșoaia Palace was built in 1702 by Constantin Brâncoveanu, in the Brâncovenesc style. Inside are the Museum of Court Tradition, a comparative art collection of about 300 pieces, plus around ten temporary shows a year in the ground-floor rooms and the old palace kitchen.
Outside the courtyard, an English-style park from 1921-1922 holds gardens, the 1688 Saint George church and the Bibescu greenhouses, now a children's art workshop.
Comana Natural Park covers about 25,000 hectares of forest, meadows, lakes and the Neajlov River with its small delta, the second-largest wetland area in Romania after the Danube Delta.
Kids can paddle kayaks and take boats along the river, cycle and walk the trails, and look for some of the 157 bird species recorded here. An adventure park adds zip lines and suspended rope courses.
The treetop park at Casa Comana has nine rope courses in three levels, from low routes for preschoolers to high ones for teens and adults. The big draws are a cascade of 10 ziplines through the trees, a 130 m zipline across the lake, and the 300 m Dragon zipline that launches from the Sun Tower, 20 m above the water.
Extreme Park Cernica is an adventure park beside Cernica forest with 11 treetop rope courses, color-coded by age and difficulty, from low purple courses for preschoolers to a red course for fit adults. Everyone gets a climbing harness, carabiners and a helmet, plus a short safety briefing.
A 120-meter zipline crosses the forest, and a picnic area rents out grills and tables.
Edenland Park is a forest adventure park in Balotești, about 20 minutes' drive from Bucharest. Its 16 treetop rope courses range from easy to hard, and a continuous safety line means climbers never unclip mid-route.
Away from the ropes there is Zooland, a walk past llamas, camels, ostriches and deer, plus a children's playground, mini golf, archery, bikes, a climbing wall and pony rides.
A family-run farm park built for kids on more than 4 hectares beside a working dairy farm. Kids can pet and feed goats, ponies, sheep, donkeys, llamas, ostriches and guinea pigs, and staff help them hold the smaller animals.
Two big trampolines (100 and 80 square meters) and a zip line are free to use, and fresh milk from the dairy's dispenser is sold on the way out.
Therme București is a thermal spa complex with three zones, and Galaxy is the one built for families. It has a warm-water wave pool, themed slides (on The Racer, three riders race side by side) and a water playground where a frog and other animal shapes spray kids.
The Palm is a quiet palm-garden zone open to adults and babies under 3. Saunas are not recommended under 14.
When the city gets too much, these are the outings we'd plan for a Saturday: a lake with a monastery on an island, a prince's palace from 1702, wetlands you can paddle, forest rope courses and ziplines, and a warm water park for the cold months. Each is a short drive out of town. Here's what we checked, from the footbridge at Snagov to the treetops at Edenland.
Lake Snagov stretches 16 km through what is left of the old Vlăsia forests, with oak, lime and ash woods along the shore.
A footbridge leads to the island monastery, first recorded in 1408, whose 16th-century church holds a tombstone attributed to Vlad the Impaler (a 1933 dig found no remains). On the water there are rowboats, pedal boats, motorboats and small passenger boats.
Mogoșoaia Palace was built in 1702 by Constantin Brâncoveanu, in the Brâncovenesc style. Inside are the Museum of Court Tradition, a comparative art collection of about 300 pieces, plus around ten temporary shows a year in the ground-floor rooms and the old palace kitchen.
Outside the courtyard, an English-style park from 1921-1922 holds gardens, the 1688 Saint George church and the Bibescu greenhouses, now a children's art workshop.
Comana Natural Park covers about 25,000 hectares of forest, meadows, lakes and the Neajlov River with its small delta, the second-largest wetland area in Romania after the Danube Delta.
Kids can paddle kayaks and take boats along the river, cycle and walk the trails, and look for some of the 157 bird species recorded here. An adventure park adds zip lines and suspended rope courses.
The treetop park at Casa Comana has nine rope courses in three levels, from low routes for preschoolers to high ones for teens and adults. The big draws are a cascade of 10 ziplines through the trees, a 130 m zipline across the lake, and the 300 m Dragon zipline that launches from the Sun Tower, 20 m above the water.
Extreme Park Cernica is an adventure park beside Cernica forest with 11 treetop rope courses, color-coded by age and difficulty, from low purple courses for preschoolers to a red course for fit adults. Everyone gets a climbing harness, carabiners and a helmet, plus a short safety briefing.
A 120-meter zipline crosses the forest, and a picnic area rents out grills and tables.
Edenland Park is a forest adventure park in Balotești, about 20 minutes' drive from Bucharest. Its 16 treetop rope courses range from easy to hard, and a continuous safety line means climbers never unclip mid-route.
Away from the ropes there is Zooland, a walk past llamas, camels, ostriches and deer, plus a children's playground, mini golf, archery, bikes, a climbing wall and pony rides.
A family-run farm park built for kids on more than 4 hectares beside a working dairy farm. Kids can pet and feed goats, ponies, sheep, donkeys, llamas, ostriches and guinea pigs, and staff help them hold the smaller animals.
Two big trampolines (100 and 80 square meters) and a zip line are free to use, and fresh milk from the dairy's dispenser is sold on the way out.
Therme București is a thermal spa complex with three zones, and Galaxy is the one built for families. It has a warm-water wave pool, themed slides (on The Racer, three riders race side by side) and a water playground where a frog and other animal shapes spray kids.
The Palm is a quiet palm-garden zone open to adults and babies under 3. Saunas are not recommended under 14.
