Cotroceni Palace - Presidential Palace in Bucharest - Guided Tour

Unlikeable and grumpy staff.

Wonderful and elegant building without a shadow of a doubt; unfortunately the guide (the blonde) was very unsympathetic to us from the beginning. She felt very patriotic and probably wanted to elevate her origins compared to us Italians. We decided not to take the guide to visit the palace alone without her. While we were outside the building smoking, the above-mentioned guide, in front of many people, called us back saying that they in Romania do not like smokers and to go to the exit to smoke (note that next to us there was a very large ashtray and a basket for cigarettes). Very nice building, shame about this disrespectful person who did not make us enjoy the visit. I highly recommend to choose the ride ALONE

via Tripadvisor (translated)

Beautiful palace with gardens

Very nice palace, and not bombastic like so many of the carved in Bucharest. Both the presidential palace and the museum in the other half of the building are worth a visit. Nice gardens.

via Tripadvisor (translated)

The splendour of the Romanian monarchy's home

Follow signs to the museum, where tours are booked. There are numerous options and price levels, including for children and pensioners (cost €4-10). The basic tour takes in the two floors of the palace, but a longer tour also includes a rebuilt church etc, and one can arrange a foreign language guide (French, Spanish, Italian, English). One has to have a passport or Romanian ID card which is surrendered at the entrance, and any bags or bulky coats go through a scanner - collected from a window as one leaves in exchange for the pendant card that you are issued. The guide takes the group through the grounds (the site extends to 20 ha), and into the palace, where one dons blue overshoes so as not to tread dirt into the fine carpets. Here also is a cloakroom where overcoats etc can be lelft. There are so many rooms, and interesting artefacts, as well as displays of the geneology of the Romanian royal family and particular attention to Queen Marie and Alexandru Ioan Cuza, as well as Ferdinand. Compared to royal palaces in other European capitals, Cotroceni has a quite eclectic mix of style, with interesting oddities in decoration, such as the Norwegian room, clad in wood, the French-style library and several rooms with a strong German influence. The state of repair and preservation was good, but the decoration was sometimes a bit oppressive and overwhelming - though never anything other than interesting. Well worth a visit, as a tourist or local.

via Tripadvisor

Make sure you are early so you don't get told off

I booked the tour thinking I had booked directly with the presidential palace. We therefore headed to the visitors centre. At the last minute, I checked the booking confirmation and saw the meeting point was the travel agent office. My husband and friend went to the visitors centre and were there for 3pm;our tour time. I arrived and went to the back of the passport queue check. A palace employee asked for our tickets. She politely said there were two types of ticket and to wait there. The next thing, the Transylvanian Wonders representative came rushing in asking for my name. She brusquely said to follow her and then in front of the rest of the group started to berate me for being late. I fully admited I was late but she continued to ask me to confirm my telephone number and show me the message she had sent me. I kept saying that I believed her and then got very upset. After that, she was very friendly. I had received a scam message that morning so incorrectly assumed her text was one too. Another trip I booked had the name of the trip at the beginning so I knew straightaway that was not a scam. Perhaps this could be adopted. I fully acknowledge I was in the wrong for not being early but it was the way I was berated in front of everybody that I didn't appreciate. I have seen another negative post about the company on TA and this was the only one that the company responded to so I expect this will happen here too.

Response from the operator: To start with , it was always us who send you the "scam" message that morning. We do send a REMINDER to all our customers every morning with the information that you already were supposed to know( you have it on your voucher). This "incident" could have been avoided if you just looked carefully at my message, the office message, but mist importantly the voucher.

via Tripadvisor

Don’t book via headout.com

The tour in the palace was interesting, the guide from headout.com was giving information very emotionless and seemed like she was happy to finish. The operator who walked us to the palace treated us quite harsh and rude. We left the meeting point office later than planned and operator ran to the palace shouting to hurry up or lose the access. Tour operator is definitely not well organized and not recommendable.

Response from the operator: You are viator/tripadvisor page reviewing an experience that you booked through headout.com. It is very questionable review since you don't even know where you are or what you have purchased

via Tripadvisor