Authentic Snapshot
Discover Bucharest by driving a comrade’s car

What better way to discover Bucharest’s past & present and understand Romania than from the car that built the nation, the Dacia ?

Red Patrol is the ultimate way of discovering Bucharest by riding a fully restored Romanian vintage car from the 80’s!

Our Red Patrol Stars, The Dacias have 5 different, unique and memorable stories about Bucharest to tell: The Communist Bucharest , The Magic & Spell of Romanian Food, The Bucharest of Contrasts ,The City Flea Markets, The Bucharest Urban Delta vs Communism !

With the Red Patrol Tours with Dacia  :

  • Live the irresistible “Dacia effect”: everybody will look at you, wave hands at you and even photo you!
  • Take the best trip pictures of you & your friends & the Dacias
  • Hear the most amazing life stories of how was everyday life in the Communist era or in the Present days
  • Discover the local traditions, the way people live in the city or sense the Romanian gastronomy and find the story of its’ ingredients
  • Discover the urban delta that grew silently on the communist relics
  • Discover the eclectic Bucharest’s in a 30 km drive on the large boulevards
  • Drive the classic Dacia like an 80’s Comrade 

You will feel like a rock star while riding with Romanian car made in the 80’s !

Get your companions and drive the working class car that served a nation during a trip down the memory lane!

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The authentic snapshot of Bucharest with an old Dacia car!

From: 69.00 €

Communist Tour of Bucharest with Dacia

The Red Communist Tour of Bucharest is the out of the box private city tour that sends you back in time while driving a fully restored Romanian classic car from the 70′-80’s!

The ultimate city tour of Bucharest where you can drive a fully restored Romanian vintage car from the 70′-80’s!

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From: 99.00 €

Magic & Spell of Romanian Food Tour with Dacia

The Red Patrol Magic & Spell of Romanian Food Tour Dacia is an urban trip through Bucharest for understanding the Romanian food starting from the powerful ingredients that give an amazing taste but also have magical powers as locals believe.

Taste & understand the Romanian Food in a unique tour with Romanian vintage cars.

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From: 69.00 €

Bucharest of Contrasts Tour with Dacia

The Red Patrol Bucharest of Contrasts tour  takes you in a visit to 3 different Bucharest neighborhoods: of the bourgeoisie, of the average people, and of the poor Romanians. Discover the life facts and get a memorable snapshot of how contrasting is real life is in Bucharest.

The ultimate city tour of Bucharest with a fully restored Romanian vintage car from the 80’s !

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From: 54.00 €

Bucharest Flea Market Tour with Dacia

The Red Patrol  Bucharest Flea Market Tour with the 80’s Dacias will present you not just a history lesson and a nice picture for your Instagram. You will mingle with crowds of Romanians, learn to spot antiques and get a piece of history back with you to your country !

The ultimate city tour of Bucharest with a fully restored Romanian vintage car from the 70-80’s !

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From: 69.00 €

Bucharest Urban Delta vs Communism Tour with Dacia

Bucharest Urban Delta vs Communism Tour with Dacia is a unique 2 in 1 experience in a Natural Park that grew silently for 30 years in the middle of the city on a forgotten communist construction site combined with the exploration of  the pharaonic administrative center built in the 80’s following Nicolae Ceausescu’s vision.

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50.00 €/car

The Airport Transfer

We offer a trip into the past in a fully restored Dacia 1300/1310 car from the Communist era. Find out what it felt like for a working class family to drive around Bucharest 40 years ago!The amusement and excitement it will bring to your face alone is worth the price, so getting to your Bucharest accommodation place would just be an added bonus. 😉
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The Cars
Meet the Red Patrol Stars

Domnica

Greetings Comrades!

My name is Domnica and I am one of the last of my kind. I was born in June, 1989 with only 6 month before communism fell. I was born in Pitesti, but I grew up in Sector 2 of Bucharest.

We are around 1,953,730 sisters, but not all were as lucky as me. I have lived all my life in the capital. Everybody here admired my blue paint exterior and blue vinyl interior. Sometimes I am sad I didn’t feel Communism but they say it was bad.I do not like mud, dirt or being overcrowded. The times were blue and so was I.

I am a cheap gas girl and am used to change. I am also a very, very fast Dacia. I can reach 90 km/h.

In 2019 I became a Certified Historic Vehicle like my sister, Malvina. Congratulate me!
I joined The Red Patrol in 2018, at 29 years old when I had 42,000 km
on the run.

                  I am in love with my hometown city , Bucharest.

And I hope I can make you love it too!

Malvina

Greetings Comrades!

My name is Malvina and I am a glorious child of Romanian socialism. I was born in June 1984 in Pitesti and I have 1,953,730 sisters. I spent my childhood in Romania’s wineland – Vrancea.

Here we had over 7,600 kg of grapes per hectare which makes it a happy land…and its inhabitants sometimes tipsy :). This is where my love for long drives over grape-covered hills comes from. Even if I am not the strongest or largest of vehicles, I am a hard worker and a pride for the father Communist Party. I do not know how many tons of grapes and wine I helped carry in Vrancea, but for sure I didn’t get tipsy.

I was actually happy when I retired – because I am a Certified Historic Vehicle – and now I only carry people. Unlike grapes, people are interesting. Please pardon me if I am not as agile as 30 years ago or as comfortable as
new cars.

I promise I am hard working and reliable. I only ask you to have fun and be nice to me!
I joined The Red Patrol in 2018, at 34 years old when I had driven 140,000 km in Vrancea County.

Now I love Bucharest!

Hope to take you around for a spin soon!

Letitia

Greetings Comrades!

My Name is Letitia and you should know that it is not a coincidence that I am as red as blood: I come from the land of Dracula. My hometown is Transylvania, the city of Sebes in Alba region, more exactly. I came into this world in November 1977. It was the year of the great earthquake and of the red Dacia cars.

I never met my sisters as not many of us stayed behind. Most went to bigger cities or abroad. Before becoming a RedPatrol star, my previous owner put me to carry very heavy things like my sisters did: from potato sacks to sheep,
because Alba is full of sheep on the fields.

Nowadays, after my complete rejuvenation, it would be a blasphemy to put stuff like this on my lovely 70’s black leather seats!

In Bucharest  I am surrounded by many people who love to touch me. I love to take pictures but hate to be touched. I am temperamental but always help when needed.
I joined The Red Patrol in 2019, at 42 years old when I had around
400.000 km and became a Certified Historic Vehicle .

I am in love with my new hometown, Bucharest.

Hope You will like it too!

The Red Patrol Car on duty
The timeless DACIA

Dacia plans
Image credits © Drawingdatabase.com

You will undergo this unique trip in the most emblematic brainchild of the Romanian Communism – the DACIA.

Designed as a family-friendly car, the “1300” stands for the engine displacement. The first Dacia 1300 left the assembly lines on August 23rd, 1969 being promoted as a big achievement of the Communist industry – even though it was just a licensed product of the French Renault 12 car model.

Romanian engineers needed a car that was cheap to make, consumption-efficient and large enough for the whole family. Dacia became a sweetheart not just with Romanians. It managed to find its way as far as South America, Canada, China or North Korea, but also Great Britain or the Netherlands. Such features as air conditioning, airbags and ABS or MP3 players were never offered. Also, the right-side mirror and the radio were luxury options, and so were the safety belts!

dacia_2019

Ironically, Dacia 1300 and later 1310, the emblematic car of the Romanian communism, had been the childhood family car of choice for the generation who got rid of the Romanian communism, such bringing its life as a car model to an end!

Several lift-ups were made during the years, but all of them reflected the stage of the Romanian economy, racing from the early, promising days of socialist industrialization to the later days of socialism decline and sheer poverty. The final result, step by step, was that all the lift-ups had a negative impact on quality and placed the model farther away from its inspiration: Renault 12. Just before its 35th anniversary, the last Dacia 1310 (sedan version), number 1,959,730, came out of the gates of the Mioveni (near the city of Pitești) production facility.

Bucharest
The Capital Before & After Communism

Bucharest during the two World Wars – The little Paris of the Balkans

Image credits © fortepan.hu

The city undergoes a drastic leap in evolution after 1918, when the major boulevards are built and electric trams and busses are introduced to the masses. It is also the time when a huge mixture of styles (still visible today) begins to dominate the landscape. One can still see the Bauhaus, Art Deco, Neoclassic or Beaux Arts edifices side by side with the Neoromanian-style buildings.

Image credits © fortepan.hu
Image credits © fortepan.hu

50’s – 70’s Bucharest – industrialization by all means necessary

Maybe nothing has had more impact on the architecture of Bucharest than the Communist regime. Urbanization and industrialization are the norm – the goal is to create a strong, independent industry meant to support a socialist, self-sufficient, Soviet–like state.

The Soviet troops invaded the country in 1944 and were initially meant to stay here for 20 years with the goal to help set up the communist regime. They came upon a severely damaged city with 1 million inhabitants struggling to recover after the bombardments of both German and allied forces

Image credits © fortepan.hu
Image credits © fortepan.hu

Soon after, The Monarchy was quickly transformed into a Working People Republic by means of force and fraudulent elections.

The first communist building saw the light of day in 1947 as an apartment building rose in order to house the countless workers recently hired for mixed Romanian-Sovietic enterprises in the wards of Ferentari, Vatra Luminoasă, Floreasca and Bucureștii Noi.

Image credits © artoteca.ro
Image credits © artoteca.ro

During the 50’s and 60’s more and more people were brought over to the capital in order to take up jobs in factories. The heart of little Paris is still kept intact as entire neighbourhoods are raised in true Communist manner for the members of the working class.

By the end of 1967, Bucharest counted over 1.6 million inhabitants

Image credits © accentmedia.ro
Image credits © accentmedia.ro
Image credits © Dinu Lazar https://bucurestiulmeudrag.ro/profil/DinuLazar
Image credits © Dinu Lazar https://bucurestiulmeudrag.ro/profil/DinuLazar

Bucharest in the 80’s – the downfall of Communism

Ceaușescu had been in office since 1964, but it wasn’t until 1972 that he enacted his personal dictatorship over Romania. He proclaimed himself Supreme Ruler, as well as head of the army. He was also the Carpathian genius and all Romanians were ‘new age people’ living with the sole purpose of serving the country and the leader of the Communist Party

Image credits © elcomunista.net
Image credits © elcomunista.net

Following a trip to Phenian, Ceaușescu became greatly influenced by the North Korean regime and decided to implement it (architecture and all) in Romania. Thus, a civic center was soon erected (the main part being the House of People). This was done at the cost of demolishing 7 square km of history (hospitals, churches, as well as countless homes) and relocation of more than 50,000 people.

Image credits © Dinu Lazar https://bucurestiulmeudrag.ro/profil/DinuLazar
Image credits © Dinu Lazar https://bucurestiulmeudrag.ro/profil/DinuLazar

In 1989, as Ceaușescu’s regime found its violent end, Bucharest counted more than 2 million residents.

Bucharest
The city of life for communist comrades Find out more

Image credits © fortepan.hu
Image credits © fortepan.hu

The city sustained a very rapid expansion, from less than a million inhabitants during early communist days, back in the 40’s, up to more than 2 million 50 years later.

Bucharest has always been full of life – an amazing place where old and new mixed up, with people born and raised in the city living together with newcomers from all around the country, brought over to work in the big factories and city yards which provided for the socialist development of the country, as per Nicolae Ceaușescu’s ambitions.

This unique mix of people catered for the exuberance and the charm of the city up to the ’80s. The city was expanding at an accelerated pace, with all-new neighbourhoods showing up in no time and had such facilities to offer as stadiums, concert halls, cinemas, theatres, libraries and public parks.

Image credits © digibuc.ro
Image credits © digibuc.ro
Image credits © fortepan.hu
Image credits © fortepan.hu

The daily life in the city, including going to work or to school, doing sports or attending cultural or entertainment events, was matched by its vivid nightlife. Bucharest was well renowned around the Balkans as the place to be if you want to party, with plenty of choices when it came to outdoor or indoor venues around the lakes that go right through the heart of the city, as well as fancy nightclubs where one could listen to the most famous Romanian artist of the time.

It all came to an abrupt end in the ’80s, when Nicolae Ceaușescu visited North Korea and met supreme leader Kim Ir Sen. This event triggered the “July thesis”, thus ruining the vivid and colourful life of the city, as well as destructing its appealing looks.

All restaurants, clubs and other public recreational venues changed their schedule and had to close earlier that 22.00, while the only, state-owned TV station in the country had to shorten its broadcast to only 2 hours per day, with all content having to serve Ceaușescu’s cult of personality. Subsequently, this forced virtually all restaurants and clubs in town to a progressive shutdown, as there was pretty much nothing left to offer!

Image credits © Clara Spitzer , 1968 , http://sanuuitam.blogspot.ro/2013/10/asa-cum-fost.html
Image credits © Clara Spitzer , 1968 , http://sanuuitam.blogspot.ro/2013/10/asa-cum-fost.html
Image credits © fortepan.hu
Image credits © fortepan.hu

They were not allowed to host or broadcast any entertainment; there was a constant shortage of food and beverages, while any foreign music was simply forbidden. Soon after, all basic food got rationalized, and so were hot water and energy supplies. The gas supply got drastically limited to one tankful per car per month, thus rendering travelling by car in your own country impossible!

Like all Romanians, people of Bucharest had to find shelter and ultimately stand up and fight against this aggressive invasion of their personal lives and constant attempts to turn them into a homogenous mass of working people who only live to work and praise the Party and its Supreme Leader, Nicolae Ceaușescu.

Image credits © http://www.platzforma.md/arhive/36125
Image credits © http://www.platzforma.md/arhive/36125

The Red Patrol Communist Tour of Duty will take you on a trip in time, where you will witness the rise and fall of communism. Past and present will mix and give you the experience of a lifetime!