As a teenager in Bucharest, there are three main things to do: go to the park, eat at a restaurant, or hang out at a mall.
Since the mall is a year-round destination where you can shop, eat with friends, ice skate, play games or even bowl, we’ve decided to put together the city’s best five (in no particular order).
Baneasa Shopping City
Baneasa Shopping City is the most visited in mall in Bucharest. Baneasa is always the first to get everything; for example, the iPhone 8 will be coming to the istyle in Baneasa before any other istyle, and the first Taco Bell in Romania will be opening in Baneasa. The mall has many exclusive shops, a vast food court, a very popular game zone/restaurant that used to be called Grand Combo and is now called Black, which includes pool tables, bowling alleys, an arcade and a restaurant with a terrace, a cinema, a Carrefour and much more. You can go to Baneasa and find almost any service; if you broke your phone you can fix it there, if you want a fresh juice you can get it there, if you want to take a suit to the dry cleaners you can go there and so on. Baneasa has always been the most popular mall ever since it was built, and I believe it will continue to be popular for a long time.
Address: Șoseaua București-Ploiești 42D, București 015011
Promenada Mall
Promenada is a mall that was recently built compared to the other malls. It was finished in 2012-2013. At the start it wasn’t very popular because of its lack of a cinema. But over the past 2 years, it gained a lot of popularity. This summer the place was packed because of the humongous rooftop terrace it has. There are a lot of cafes where you can order a drink or food and relax with your friends. There are also a lot of parties at night with DJ’s on the rooftop. Promenada is now best known for its great terrace, and other than this it also has unique shops and a good food court.
Address: Calea Floreasca 246B, București 077190
ParkLake Shopping Center
Parklake is the most recent mall built in Bucharest. It’s not very popular because its 45-60 minutes away from here and it is also generally in a more isolated part of Bucharest. The mall itself is huge. It has hundreds of shops, a food court that is as hard to navigate, as there must be around 40 restaurants, a large cinema with a great VIP section, many entrances (one of them even connects directly to pretty park) and a game center. The mall has many levels and you can basically find whatever you want there. If it was closer to the center of Bucharest, it would probably be the most popular mall, as it huge and full of unique shops. Also, the fact that its very elegant with carpets and chandeliers doesn’t hurt.
Address: Strada Liviu Rebreanu 4, București
Bucharest Mall/Vitan Mall
Bucharest Mall is the oldest shopping mall ever built in Bucharest, but it could hold the record for the oldest yet most modern pretty popular mall. The mall is up to date and full of new stores. If someone went in they wouldn’t be able to tell it was built in 1999; the way it looks it could have been built 3 years ago. Bucharest Mall is called Vitan locally (if you want to go there with a taxi it would be better to say Vitan Mall) because it is located on Calea Vitan. The only problem with Vitan for anyone who lives in Pipera is that (depending on the time you depart) it takes around 45 minutes to arrive there with regular traffic.
Address: Calea Vitan 55-59, București 031282
AFI Palace Cotroceni
AFI Palace Cotroceni is most famous for its ice skating rink, which is something no other mall in Romania has. It also is a huge mall in general with a giant food court, a quality cinema with a great VIP section and many shopping options and services offered. AFI is a very popular mall but nobody living in Pipera usually goes there as it is 30+ minutes away.
Address: Bulevardul Vasile Milea 4, București 061344