Things to do in Iasi
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Iasi
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Best weather in late spring, roses in the Botanical Garden and everything open.
Best autumn window to mid October, with chrysanthemums and the October festivals.
Hot summers over 30C and the student city empties in high summer.
Partly redeemed by lights and Christmas market atmosphere around Unirii and Palas.
Worst months, cold and dark with the Botanical Garden at its barest.
Late winter azalea and camellia exhibitions in the botanical greenhouses in February to March.
Chrysanthemum exhibition continues into November, a local family ritual.
What's on
- Feast of St Parascheva around 14 October
Huge Orthodox pilgrimage to the cathedral that fills hotels and closes centre streets for days.
- FILIT - Iasi International Festival of Literature and Translation late October
Major literary festival with international authors, readings and translation events across the city.
- Iasi City Days mid-October
Civic festival wrapped around St Parascheva with concerts, fairs and public events in the centre.
- Rocanotherworld June
Multi day music and arts festival in the Ciric zone with a sustainability minded ethos.
Best things to do in Iasi
Palace of Culture
Neo-Gothic palace housing four museums, worth visiting for the hall, tower and building itself first.
Church of the Three Hierarchs
Church covered in carved stone lacework with royal tombs, unlike any other Orthodox church exterior.
Metropolitan Cathedral of Iasi
Huge neoclassical cathedral holding the relics of St Parascheva and anchoring the boulevard walk.
Metropolitan Museum Iasi
Basement museum with synaxarion hall and chapel that most cathedral visitors miss entirely.
Vasile Alecsandri National Theatre
Romania's oldest and most beautiful national theatre, best experienced at an evening performance.
Anastasie Fatu Botanical Garden
Romania's oldest and largest botanical garden with greenhouses, roses and seasonal exhibitions.
Copou Park
Romania's oldest public park with the Eminescu Linden and shaded alleys for a hot day.
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University
Romania's first university crowning Copou hill, the centre of the city's student identity.
Where to stay in Iasi
Centre - Piata Unirii / Stefan cel Mare / Lapusneanu
first trip, all-round base
Walk to the Palace, churches, theatre and best restaurants without a taxi from here.
Palas
business travellers and modern comfort
New mixed use quarter behind the Palace with gardens, hotels and predictable facilities.
Copou
longer stays, repeat visitors and summer
Green hill with university, park and botanical garden, cooler and quieter than the centre.
Bucium
spa retreats with a car or driver
Wooded hill southeast of the city, lovely and quiet but a taxi ride from everything else.
Think twice about
- Nicolina and the CUG industrial zone
Communist era factories, big roads and tower blocks with nothing a visitor wants on foot.
- Tatarasi
Dense ordinary block district with no visitor infrastructure, charm or dinner options.
- Alexandru cel Bun
Dense ordinary block district with no visitor infrastructure, charm or dinner options.
- Dacia
Dense ordinary block district with no visitor infrastructure, charm or dinner options.
Best restaurants in Iasi
Toujours
Owner driven modern European kitchen, widely treated as the number one table in Iasi.
Fenice Palas
Lebanese Mediterranean fine dining in the Palas gardens, the centre's most occasion room.
Blue Acqua
Danube and Delta fish house serving fish soup, catfish and carp far from the sea.
Casa Bolta Rece
Historic Moldavian restaurant in vaulted cellars where Eminescu and Creanga drank.
Carciuma Veche
Huge, authentic and unpretentious Moldavian cooking near the Opera at strong value.
Krud
Modern local produce restaurant and shop, the easiest pick in the city for vegetarians.
Restaurant Oscar
Long running big menu all rounder for groups that cannot agree on what to eat.
Little Texas
American and Tex-Mex institution in a stepped terraced garden for long summer evenings.
Best bars in Iasi
Berarium Tankeria Ursus
Large beer hall around Unirii, one of the main student nightlife spots in the centre.
Best coffee in Iasi
Fika
Cosy cafe praised for friendly staff and very good coffee on the cafe tier.
Outdoor things to do in Iasi
Voronet Monastery
Painted monastery famous for Voronet blue and a Last Judgement covering its whole west wall.
Moldovita Monastery
Painted Bucovina church from 1532, part of the standard trio with Voronet and Sucevita.
Sucevita Monastery
Largest and most fortified painted monastery, known for its dominant green fresco palette.
Neamt Citadel
Restored medieval fortress of Stephen the Great with a drawbridge and valley views.
Agapia Monastery
Monastery famous for interiors painted by a young Nicolae Grigorescu.
Varatec Monastery
Romania's largest nunnery, a white walled village within a village near Agapia.
Cotnari Winery
Historic Cotnari estate with galleries, a treasury cellar and traditional Moldavian lunch pairings.
Casa de Vinuri Cotnari
Modern Cotnari wine house for sparkling and contemporary styles after the historic estate.
Best hotels in Iasi
Pleiada Boutique Hotel & Spa
Five star retreat hotel with spa and indoor pool in wooded grounds southeast of the centre.
Grand Hotel Traian
Grand dame hotel on Union Square itself, opened in the 1880s in the Eiffel orbit.
Hotel International Iasi
Polished full service tower in Palas, two minutes from the Palace of Culture.
Unirea Hotel & Spa
Large four star on Union Square with pool, spa and views down to the Palace.
Ramada Iasi City Centre
Reliable international chain hotel delivering predictable rooms and a real breakfast.
Hampton by Hilton Iasi
Reliable Hilton brand hotel for a predictable one night stopover in the centre.
Grand View Hotel & Suites Copou
Small boutique alternative by the Botanical Garden in the Copou belt.
Hotel Bellaria Iasi
Hotel in the northern belt with garden, terrace restaurant and breakfast included.
Is Iasi expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | RON 200 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | RON 450 a person |
| Splurge | RON 850 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Vasile Alecsandri National Theatre: weeks ahead
- Gheorghe Asachi Library: a few days ahead
- Voronet Monastery: a few days ahead
- Moldovita Monastery: a few days ahead
- Sucevita Monastery: a few days ahead
- Cotnari Winery: a few days ahead
- Casa de Vinuri Cotnari: a few days ahead
- Cricova Winery: a few days ahead
- Book Toujours always and Fenice Palas at weekends, as both fill with locals.
- Book theatre and opera seats as soon as dates are fixed.
- Book Bucovina, Cotnari and Cricova driver trips at least several days out.
- Book Pleiada and Grand Hotel Traian early for October and university event weekends.
Is Iasi safe?
- Watch for pickpocketing in crowds and on transport, worst in pilgrimage week and at the station.
- Expect assertive traffic, negotiated crossings and broken pavements outside the centre.
- Emergency number is 112 and city tap water is generally treated as safe.
Iasi travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Palas Mall is a good mall, not a sight, so do not spend a Moldavia afternoon inside it.
- Buying all four Palace museum tickets and skimming them, instead of picking two properly.
- Day tripping Bucovina by public transport on a tight schedule wastes the day in connections.
- Generic Dracula framing on Iasi tours is a reseller product, as Iasi is not on that circuit.
Getting around Iasi: public transport and more
- Use the tram network for centre to Copou, Palas, Ciric and the station, and validate tickets.
- Walk the centre from a Unirii base and avoid driving or parking in the centre.
- Use Bolt, Uber or a dispatched licensed cab on the meter for taxis.
- Rent a car or hire a driver for Bucovina, Neamt and Cotnari, not for the city.
Who Iasi suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Great |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | OK |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | OK |
Make Iasi your trip
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