Bucharest Airport and arrival to the city

    A Tale of Bucharest,

    **update as of December 4th

    The first impact for a traveler in a new country is the airport and the way to the destination. Although Otopeni Airport ( or officially Henri Coanda International ) is the country’s main airport, it has quite a low score on “user friendliness”. We will present some insights on what to expect when arriving on Otopeni airport.

     

    At the Airport

    1. When offboarding: if you get transported to the terminal by bus, be careful at the airport entrance as all the people will try to fit on a single escalator. The stairs get crowded especially between floors and eventually you may get blocked while escalator is still moving.

    Tip: try to keep a distance of ~1m from the people in front of you. It may not solve 100% the issue, but it will be less likely to stumble on the person in front of you.

    2. Passport control – Romania is still not part of Schengen so take into account that a passport control at arrival is needed.

    Tip: try to respect the EU/All passports split where signaled, especially if you are non-EU. Else, you may be redirected ( in busy periods ) to a different post and wait in the line again. Also, try to advance to further control posts and not wait on the first ones you encounter.

    Arrival in the city

    We recommend using the bus or the train. From a cost perspective they are almost similar and both can have the trip paid on board by card. Just tap your card to the yellow machine when boarding and wait for a green screen. If you want to pay with the same card for more people, after the first payment, press “+” , tap again the card until you see a green screen and repeat for each person.

    Train to Bucharest:

    Route from Otopeni Arrival terminal to North Station (Gara de Nord). How to get to train station: exit the airport arrival terminal and cross the parking lot to the train station.

    Price: 5 RON (1 EUR) payable on board by card or you can also pay the fare directly to the train staff in cash or card.

    Frequency: 40 minutes between departures. Up to date schedules on this link.

    Trip duration: 20-25 minutes

    Bus to Bucharest:

    Bus 100: departure from Arrival terminal to Piata Unirii.
    Although they bring you closer to the city centre we recommend using them if you arrive during weekends or are not in a rush or leave you really close to your hotel. Bucharest traffic is very chaotic and from our point of view a specific time for rush hour is not available anymore.

    Timetable and routes on the STB website, just need to choose the schedule for bus 100.

    Price: 3 RON for 90 minutes, payable by card on board or by purchasing a ticket at the vending machine in the bus station.

    Trip duration: ~45 minutes – 1 hour between Airport and Piata Unirii, depending on traffic

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