New Year’s Eve in Bucharest/Bucharest Life Goes On Holiday

We are off now on our Christmas holidays, shooting tigers in the Himalayas. We will be back on January 4th, 2010.

If you are staying in Bucharest for New Year’s Eve, here are our suggestions for things to do…

First off, a warning: do not think that you will be able to simply turn up to a bar or restaurant on New Year’s Eve and get something to eat/drink. Unless of course it’s McDonalds or KFC. In this town, New Year’s Eve is a reservations only affair: and most parties would have been sold out weeks in advance.

If you do get stuck all-dressed-up with nowhere to go, then you can see in the New Year on the city’s streets. There will be parties in Piata Revolutiei and (probably) Piata Constitutiei, sponsored by rival television stations. Both will feature plenty of local bands miming badly to their hits, and lots of little idiots with bangers and fireworks. One million bottles of cheap, sweet sparkling wine will go pop at midnight. Join in the spirit of the thing, lower your expectations and you will have a very good time.

For a more sophisticated time, note that almost every pub, bar, restaurant and club listed on the Bucharest pages of In Your Pocket will be having some kind of party.

(Our top tip – and where we would be going were we not ex-Bucharest – would be Mojo. Tickets cost 250 lei).

You might also (if you are looking to do something a bit different) think about the Romanian National Opera. On New Year’s Eve they are hosting an Opera Marathon, starting with Die Fledermaus at 18:00, and complete with full festive meal. Tickets cost 490 lei.

Metropotam has a decent list of other New Year’s Eve parties.

Ticket prices vary depending on what’s included, but expect to pay around €100 for an evening of food and drink. We recommend that you decide where you want to go as soon as possible, and reserve a space as soon as you can.

As usual, the biggest and perhaps best events will be hosted by the five star hotels. It is important to remember that in Bucharest, the five star big-boys are far more than hotels: they are in many ways the heart and soul of the expatriate community, with their Sunday Brunches and fitness centres, coffee shops and bars. As a result, they are expected by their regulars to come up with something special during the festive season. So here is this year’s offer: note that all of these parties include copious amounts of fine food and drink, and that cheap-rate rooms are usually offered to guests who attend the parties bit can’t face the journey home at the end of the night…

At the Athenee Palace Hilton there are two parties, a Venetian Ball at Le Diplomate Ballroom (890 lei) and Jazz Club at the Executive Lounge (1150 lei). At the Crowne Plaza there is a Royal Night, costing 760 lei. The InterContinental’s New Year’s Eve party is at the Sala Fortuna, on the hotel’s 21st floor, and the perfect place for a New Year with a view. At the JW Marriott there are no fewer than five parties: Yin and Yang at the Constanta Ballroom; From Classic to Cool at Cupola; Old and New at Cucina; Le Rouge et le Noir at Champions; Fire and Ice at the Grand Ballroom. All are priced at 920 lei. There are three parties at the Radisson Blu: at the Bla Lounge Bar (870 lei); at Prime Steaks & Seafood (820 lei); and at the Atlas Ballroom (980 lei).

Tagged as: Mojo Music Club Bucharest, New Year's Eve Bucharest, Romanian National Opera