Wild Bucharest: the Văcărești Delta and the Lakes

The natural side of Bucharest, from Văcărești Natural Park, a wetland that grew wild inside an abandoned reservoir, to the lakes and parks of the north and the Danube Delta, with a directory of the parks in our guide and our regional long read on Balkan wildlife.

Bucharest’s most surprising park was not designed by anyone. South-east of the centre, inside the embankments of an unfinished reservoir, nature was left alone for decades and made a wild wetland of reeds, pools and willow scrub, rich in birds: Văcărești Natural Park.

This is a short, honest guide to Bucharest’s natural side: the wetland, the lakes of the north and the old parks. For the Danube Delta and the wildlife of the wider region, see our guides and our Balkans long read.

Văcărești Natural Park

Văcărești was declared a protected natural park in 2016. It covers 183 hectares and is run by the Văcărești Natural Park Administration of the City Hall; viewing platforms look out over the reeds. It is nature, not a garden: paths are unpaved, and visitors keep to the marked tracks and leave the wildlife undisturbed.

The lakes and the old parks

In the north of the city, a chain of lakes runs along the course of the Colentina river, and King Michael I Park, still called Herăstrău by almost everyone, wraps around the largest of them. In the centre, Cișmigiu, laid out from 1847, is the oldest public garden in Bucharest and still its most romantic, with a lake and old trees.

In Bucharest, nature took back an abandoned reservoir and made a wetland.

Feature: a wetland in the city

Văcărești is a rare thing: a wild wetland inside a capital city, born by accident when a reservoir was left unfinished. Its reeds and pools now shelter birds that would never nest in a manicured park, within sight of the apartment blocks. Come early on a spring or autumn morning with binoculars, and keep to the tracks.

Did you know? Văcărești Natural Park, 183 hectares of wetland inside Bucharest, grew wild in the embankments of an unfinished reservoir and was declared protected in 2016.

Our advice

Our advice: come to Văcărești early on a spring or autumn morning with binoculars and good shoes, and use the viewing platforms; keep to the marked tracks and leave the wildlife undisturbed. For the great wetland of the region, take a few days for the Danube Delta.