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Bucharest's metro
In a city that lately has become paralyzed by traffic, Bucharest's metro is by far the most reliable form of public transport. Built in 1979, the metro is clean, cheap, safe and covers the city pretty well. The center of Bucharest is in my opinion very well served with stations in most of the big squares. Trains run between 5.00 am and 11.30 pm; during peak hours they run at about 5-8 minutes while off-peak they run every 20 minutes. Tickets can be bought at the booths inside the stations; a ticket for 2 rides cost about $0.65 while a ticket for 10 rides costs about $2.15. There is also a one month pass which costs about $6.5. The metro can be crowded in the morning and in the afternoon hours when people commute to and from work but in the rest of the day is pretty empty. Metro stations are not very well signposted, but with the help of a map it will be easy to get around. All trains have maps posted inside the wagons.
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Bucharest's taxies
Taxis in Bucharest are a cheap and safe way of transportation as long as you take one belonging to a company and not a private one. Good companies are Cristaxi, Cobalcescu, Meridian, Perozzi, XXL, Prof, Rodell, Speed, Leone and Fly Taxi. The name of the company is usually inscribed very clearly on the taxi. There are other good companies, but what you should avoid by any means is any taxi marked as "IND" or "Independent". They charge about 4 times what a company taxi charges. It's legal to do that as long as they have the price written on the car, which they have. They usually have 4 prices written on the car and you're guaranteed to be charged at the highest price. If you're in a taxi station and there are 4 taxis waiting but still people wait around and then flock to one taxi who just stopped to leave a passanger, then it's sure that nobody trusts the independent taxis. Always make sure that the meter is on. Most of the taxies in Bucharest are Dacias (the national Romanian car), so don't expect a high level of confort. One company that has better cars and a better level of confort is Fly Taxi.It used to be a hassle to take the taxi from the airport but things have improved (in a way). Today there is only one company licenced to pick up passangers from the airport, the Fly Taxi company mentioned above. Their fares are comparable with other companies. In December 2004 most taxi companies had rates around $0.50/km.