Bucharest Warnings and Dangers

Bucharest used to have a big problem with stray dogs which roamed the streets including downtown but this situation has improved in the last years. Now it seems that the only stray dogs left in Bucharest are the ones residing in a garden near my parents-in-law's apartment. Joking aside, their number has decreased considerably but you'll probably still see a few strays downtown. I don't think there's need for a rabies vaccine (of course, in case something happens seek medical attention, but it's very very likely that nothing is going to happen). I lived there for 24 years and was never bitten nor any of my friends were ever bitten (and I don't think that the dogs prefer tourists over locals). I'm one of the people that are really afraid of dogs and the dogs can feel it and start barking as soon as I get close. Still, I don't believe Bucharest dogs are agressive. What I usually do is refrain from walking alone towards a barking dog or pretend to be throwing something at them in which case they usually go away.

The dog in the picture is not a stray dog anymore, as it was adopted by my parents-in-law. Her name is "Mica" which means "The little one". They got her when she was a still a puppy and it's obvious that she exceeded their expectations.

Prior to any trip that I make, I have a flick through the “Warnings and Dangers” tips here on VT and on various other websites just to see what sort of things I should be aware of. I did this before my trip to Bucharest, and it’s fair to say that there were quite a few warnings being made.

As always, I committed the warnings to memory (it’s better to be safe than sorry!), but didn’t really worry too much about any of them.

Here is a summary of the various warnings and dangers that I read about, and my own experiences of those dangers:

Stray Dogs

This was the warning that scared me the most. I’ve never been a big fan of dogs, and the reports of packs of wild dogs roaming the streets of Bucharest caused me some concern. Furthermore, I had read reports of a Japanese businessman bleeding to death after being bitten by a dog in the city and had seen some statistics that suggested that dozens of Bucharest residents are hospitalised each day as a result of dog bites.

The reality was nothing like I imagined it to be. Most of the dogs that we saw (and we saw only a tiny fraction of the number that I expected to see) were rather tired looking dogs, sleeping in the shade of a tree in the park or scavenging for scraps of food on the city centre streets.

Only on one occasion did I feel even remotely threatened. While walking down a dimly lit side street late at night, we could see a group of 4 or 5 dogs. One of them, quite menacing looking, walked towards us from across the street, but turned back half way and didn’t bother us at all.

Overall, my fears were generally unfounded, but I would still recommend avoiding quiet, dimly lit areas of the city centre after dark.

Fake Police

Whilst waiting for our luggage at Otopeni Airport, a Romanian girl who had been on our flight warned us of the danger of fake police in Bucharest. She believed it was a real possibility that such fraudsters would approach us in the street and demand to see our passports. She warned us not to, in any circumstances, hand over our passports to strangers in the street, and told us that genuine police would never ask to see our passports in this way.

Of course, we had no intention of doing so.

We were never approached by any fake police while in Bucharest and, in fact, never approached by any locals looking to rip us off in any way.

Be on your guard just like in any other city, but don’t worry unduly.

Taxi Drivers

I have written rather detailed tips in the transportation section of my Bucharest page detailing a few things to be aware of with taxis.

To summarise the main details here:

- some taxi drivers that pick up at the airport will attempt to charge a high fare and will refuse to give you a receipt if you haggle the fare down. My understanding of this is that they believe business travellers will pay the higher fare in order to get a receipt, thereby allowing them to reclaim the expenses from their employers. As we didn’t require a receipt, we haggled with the driver when he attempted to overcharge us and a paid a fare that we thought was more realistic. The driver refused to give us a receipt. We didn’t care.

- all of the yellow taxis in Bucharest display the fare per km on the door of the vehicle. You should have no problem finding a taxi that charges between 1.40 and 1.70 Lei per km. Note that all of the taxis look very similar, but some of them will charge over 7.50 Lei per km – which is quite a significant price difference on a long journey! Be sure to check the fares on the door before getting into a taxi.

- on several occasions we found that taxi drivers didn’t know the place that we were looking for, despite it being fairly close to the city centre and despite, on one occasion, us having a full address for the restaurant we wanted to visit. However, the drivers were always friendly and went out of their way (by phoning friends/colleagues) to ensure that we got to our intended destination.

Beggars

I find that most major cities attract beggars in one form or another. It was no surprise to find beggars on the streets of Bucharest – after all, it is a city of over 2 million people in a relatively poor area of eastern Europe.

However, the problem was not nearly as bad as I thought it might be. We saw the occasional amputee sitting on the sidewalk outside restaurants and shops with a begging bowl, and on one or two occasions we were approached and asked for money, but I have experienced far worse begging even in western European cities.

There is undoubted poverty in the Romanian capital, and we often saw people rummaging through bins in search of food scraps, but we were never seriously harassed. Unlike in Budapest and Toronto, to name but two cities, we didn’t see homeless people sleeping rough in the subways – but I’m sure that this must occur.

Traffic

From a pedestrian’s point of view, walking around Bucharest wasn’t too much of an ordeal. I could name dozens of cities where crossing the road was much more dangerous than it was in Bucharest. There are lots of underpasses and pedestrian crossings in the city centre.

However, I would think twice before driving in Bucharest. Quite a lot of vehicles are in a relatively poor state of disrepair, and road rules aren’t always followed, especially when turning from one road onto another across a lane of traffic. We endured a couple of near misses during our various taxi rides in the city and we saw a van hit a motorcycle on the road outside our hotel.

Unwelcoming Locals

I would like to start by making it clear that all the locals that we met in Bucharest were friendly and welcoming. However, I feel that I should share this anecdote in the hope that it might prove useful to somebody else:

One morning we asked the man on reception at our hotel if he could recommend any day trips from Bucharest. We were interested in visiting somewhere off the beaten tourist path, where we could perhaps see a more traditional way of life. He mentioned the name of a village or small town close by, that we may be able to visit by bus or train (he wasn’t sure), and where we could see traditional Romanian houses and experience local customs and ways of life. However, he then added, and I quote: “the only problem is that they might see you, think you are something, and beat you up”. I’m not sure what he meant by that, and I didn’t want to find out, so we gave it a miss. I was surprised – that warning was so far removed from the hospitality that we experienced from the locals in Bucharest.

We then asked him about the best way to visit that evening’s football match between Steaua Bucharest and UT Arad. Having not scared us enough, he told us not to bother going because there was likely to be trouble in the crowd and, as foreigners, we could be likely targets. He did recommend that we visited an Irish bar and watched the match on TV “with our own people”. Given that a match the previous midweek between two Bucharest clubs had been abandoned due to crowd trouble, we decided it was best to give it a miss.

Summary

We found Bucharest to be a safe and friendly city on the whole. We never felt threatened or unsafe at any time of day or night, we didn’t experience any real hassle from touts, beggars or scammers and we barely even noticed the stray dogs.

Just take the usual precautions.

Bucharest's road system is very confusing, the city itself is a somewhat disorganised blend of many political influences, many of Chaucescu's communist buildings still stand. A lot of the roads meet on complicated junctions with many one way systems and many have large holes in them. There are also many stray dogs wandering about the city, keep your eyes open!

Dishonest taxi drivers are a problem in many European cities, Bucharest is no exception. We only took two taxis on our trip, the first one ripped us off even though we had the hotel call for us. I knew the fare was too high but it was 5 am and we were at the train station which is rather dodgy at that time of the morning and honestly just wanted to get into the train station.

The second taxi was to the airport. Once again I asked the hotel to call us a taxi, this time they did a voucher for 15E which still might be too high but I could add it to my hotel bill and I didnt have to worry all the way over that it would be more than the money in my pocket.

I had read about the fake tourist police in both the Rough Guide and Lonely Planet and here on VT. We did not get approached by real or fake police on our trip, perhaps this is not as common of a scam as it once was.

If someone does approach you claiming they are the tourist police, there isn't such a thing. The guidebooks suggest telling them that you need to return to your hotel to get your documents or to find a real policeman and that they will likely find another mark.

Stray dogs are a problem not just in Bucharest but all over Romania. But I think reports of packs of wild, snarling, rabid dogs are misleading, we never had an unfriendly stray dog approach us, most just seemed to be looking for food or a scratch behind the ears.

It was heartbreaking seeing all of them, some with their little puppies, many eating out of garbage dumpsters. I had a couple of very anxious moments watching some of them chasing after cars in busy intersections.

Particularly around churches, you will find young children begging, mostly dressed in rags. We actually had few following us around the fountains around the Piata Unirii area. It seems rather heartless not to give them anything but local governments never encourage you to give to beggars so I don't.

I have travelled extensively through Romania and have not encountered any of the problems people are listing. The only occasions that come close are:
In Brasov, my travel companion was surrounded and had her purse sliced. Luckily nothing fell out before it was noticed. The other was occurred on several occasions, having Gypsie/tigani children harass you non stop with their begging. We resisted, but it was difficult. I'd rather pay a local for directions, or housing. I feel safer in romania than I do in downtown Phoenix. Just keep you wits, and everything should be fine.