Palace of Parliament in Bucharest: Tickets, ID and What the Guided Tour Covers
4 min read
Book the guided tour in advance and bring an original passport or ID card. The Palace of Parliament tickets and guide cost €32.90 per person, are rated 4.3 stars from 4,173 reviews, and last about an hour.
Why the building is worth an hour
According to the Chamber of Deputies, which runs the building’s visitor centre, the Palace has 365,000 square metres of developed area and ranks first in the world among administrative buildings for civil use. It is 84 m high above ground and reaches 16 m below it. More than 100,000 people worked on it under Nicolae Ceaușescu; one of the tour listings dates the start of construction to 1984. The tour listings describe the Honor Hallway, the Music Hall, what one of them calls Europe’s biggest ballroom and, on the Senate-side tour, marble halls, monumental staircases and the story of how Ceaușescu’s plan cleared whole neighbourhoods for the site.
Official tickets or a bookable tour?
The Chamber’s own pages do not agree on the hours: its start page gives daily visits from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm, its visits page 9 am to 5 pm. The start page says tickets are bought only at Str. Izvor 2–4 on the day of the visit, after a telephone booking made on the previous working day, and that the booking line answers Monday to Friday, 9 am to 4 pm. A booked tour on GetYourGuide takes that step out of your hands, and the cancellation is free up to 24 hours before on all three listings below.
The three tours compared
| Tour | From, per person | Stars | Reviews | Duration | Language |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palace of Parliament Tickets and Guide | €32.90 | 4.3 | 4,173 | 1 hour | English, Italian |
| Palace of Parliament Tickets and Guided Tour | €32 | 4.3 | 2,613 | 45 minutes to 1 hour | Host: Romanian, Italian, English |
| Palace of Parliament Ticket and Official Guided Tour | €29 | 4.1 | 1,698 | 1 hour | English |
Know before you go
Documents. All three pages list a passport or ID card among the things to bring; the first and the second add that an ID card is enough only for EU citizens, and everyone else needs a passport. The listing from the Eastern European Experience operator says it must be a valid original passport or national ID card: copies, photos and driving licences are not accepted. The CT&T listing says the same, and adds that you can expect airport-style security, and that there is no refund if you are refused entry at security or arrive late at the meeting point.
Meeting point. This is where the listings differ most, and it is easy to go wrong. The first lists Bulevardul Națiunile Unite 4 and the second Calea 13 Septembrie 1 (entrance S2). The third meets at the Senate side, Calea 13 Septembrie 1–3, with entrance B3 on Monday to Friday and entrance A1 on Saturday and Sunday. The building is huge, so read the voucher for your own entrance before you set out. The third operator asks you to be there at least 25 minutes early for security; the second says to confirm your reservation 15 minutes before the tour, and that the whole visit lasts about 1 hour 15 minutes with the entry procedure.
What to leave behind. The first lists cameras, weapons or sharp objects and oversize luggage as not allowed; the second also names plastic bottles and large bags. Photo and video fees, if any, are not included in the second tour’s price.
Mobility. The first two listings are not suitable for wheelchair users. The third is not recommended for people with limited mobility: it counts about 200 steps over several flights, with no lift. The palace is an active government building, so the route and rooms visited can change at short notice.
Which one?
Take the tour with the most reviews if you want the most tested option, and the English-only Senate-side tour if you want the entrance spelled out for each day of the week. Whichever you choose, the palace sits well with a walk through the communist-era city; the communism tours in Bucharest and the Palace of Parliament tours pages list the rest.
