Where to stay in Bucharest: the best neighbourhoods and hotels

The Old Town is the one corner of central Bucharest that the bulldozers missed. Its pedestrian lanes, centred on Lipscani street, are packed with restaurants, wine bars and clubs, and from Thursday to Sunday the whole district turns into an open-air party. In daylight it shows a gentler side: the tiny, exquisite Stavropoleos church, old merchant inns and glass-roofed arcades full of café tables.

You stay here to be in the thick of it. A luxury hotel with an indoor pool and spa occupies a palatial building steps from University Square and the Macca-Vilacrosse Passage, and there are modern four-stars right in the middle of the lanes, one in a neoclassical-style building with city or river views. Ask for a room facing away from the street, or simply join in.

Calea Victoriei is where Bucharest earns its Paris comparisons. The boulevard runs north from the river past banks built like palaces, the former Royal Palace (now the National Museum of Art) and the domed Romanian Athenaeum, the loveliest concert hall in the country. Revolution Square, where Ceaușescu gave his last speech in 1989, opens out halfway along.

The hotels have been part of the story for a long time. One of the most storied addresses in the city stands right next to the Athenaeum, with an indoor pool and spa; another institution has been serving coffee and cakes to Romanian high society since 1852. A contemporary five-star nearby adds several restaurants and the country's biggest casino. The Old Town is ten minutes' walk south.

University Square is Bucharest's crossroads: the university, the National Theatre and a metro hub all meet here, and Magheru Boulevard heads north towards Piața Romană. A few minutes west, Cișmigiu Gardens is the oldest park in the city, with a boating lake, chess players under the trees and benches that fill up on Sunday afternoons.

This is the best area for small, characterful hotels. An elegant all-suite five-star hides behind a French neo-classical façade steps from the park, and a luxury boutique hotel in a historic mansion sits six minutes' walk from the square. For views, the tallest hotel in the capital towers directly over University Square. A good four-star on Magheru Boulevard puts the Old Town a leisurely stroll away.

Nothing prepares you for the Palace of the Parliament. Ceaușescu's marble monster is routinely described as the second-largest administrative building in the world, and the district laid out around it, all wide boulevards and matching apartment blocks, was built to the same swaggering scale. Unirii Square, at the far end of the main avenue, puts on a fountain show on summer weekends.

It is a calmer, more spacious part of town than the Old Town, and prices are kind. A boutique hotel sits a stone's throw from the palace and about a 20-minute walk from the Old Town; another faces the building head-on. The grandest option is a big five-star with a casino, an indoor pool and half a dozen restaurants. Families and light sleepers do well here.

North of Piața Victoriei the city turns leafy and prosperous. King Michael I Park, which everyone still calls Herăstrău, wraps around a long lake with cycle paths, rowing boats and waterside restaurants. On its edge are the Village Museum, where traditional houses from all over Romania have been rebuilt among the trees, and the city's own Arch of Triumph.

The hotels here are modern, roomy and aimed at business travellers, which means good facilities and quiet nights. One sits in the World Trade Center complex, steps from the park and the Romexpo exhibition centre; another gives guests free use of a spa with a heated indoor pool and a seasonal outdoor one. It is also the right side of town for the airport. The centre is a short taxi or metro ride away.

Henri Coandă, the main airport, is in Otopeni, about 16 km north of the centre. If your flight leaves at dawn or lands at midnight, a night here saves a lot of bother. One hotel is a five-minute walk from the terminal, another is 300 metres away, and all of them are well used to guests on odd schedules.

There is one more reason to stay out this way: Therme, the enormous complex of thermal pools, slides and palm trees that has become one of Romania's biggest attractions, is far closer to Otopeni than to the city centre. Otherwise, treat this as a practical stop. Bucharest itself is 20 to 30 minutes away by road, traffic permitting.