Autumn changes the way Bucharest breathes. The light softens, leaves scatter across the asphalt, and the city seems to slow down for a few weeks. It’s not just about parks covered in foliage, but about places where a walk becomes a complete experience – visual, sonic, even olfactory.

Cișmigiu Park has a particular charm in September and October. It’s not only the city center turning into a map of colors, but also the sense of stepping into an older Bucharest, with worn benches and alleys that have witnessed generations of lovers, students, and pensioners. The small lake, nearly drained after summer, reflects the trees in a way that turns every step into an unedited photograph.

Carol Park feels different – solemn and calm. The giant plane trees and oaks shift their colors, and the wide alleys give you space to breathe. Autumn here carries a historical air: the monument on the hill, the broad stairs, and the open perspectives make time feel slower.

If you want to break free from the urban routine, head to theVăcărești Delta. In October, the wild vegetation becomes a canvas of red and gold, and the city noise fades. Around you are reeds, migratory birds, and an open sky – a striking contrast with the apartment blocks that rise at its edges.

On Dionisie Lupu Street or around the Romanian Athenaeum, leaves mix with the scent of coffee and the hurried steps of students. It’s not a park, but it’s where autumn feels urban and authentic: interwar buildings, libraries, and small bookshops that echo the atmosphere of an old European city.

There are also unexpected corners. The streets of Cotroceni, with their houses draped in red ivy, belong to the kind of places you don’t look for but remember once you stumble upon them. The same goes for the Botanical Garden, where autumn isn’t just a play of colors but also a lesson – labeled trees, rare collections, and the smell of damp earth reminding you that the city is alive, not only built.

Autumn walks are not just about golden leaves and crisp air. They are about the way the city lets you, for a few weeks, see beyond horns and concrete. Bucharest has corners where silence settles unexpectedly, where footsteps sound sharper, and where October light changes the way you look at things.