In the morning I pick you up at your hotel, and for the first two and a half hours we walk through the centre of Chișinău. It's the best time for the city: the streets are still in the shade of the trees, the sun hasn't reached the square yet, the cafés are only just putting their tables out, and nobody needs to check the time. If you landed overnight and hardly slept, tell me straight away. I'll start later and keep the walk shorter.
I usually suggest this day first, to guests who have just arrived and know nothing about the country yet. We visit just three places: the city, a wooden church and a castle winery, and the whole day covers 81 kilometres, less than any other day trip I run. Before evening you're back at your hotel, but by then you know where the centre is, what language people will speak to you in, where you can pay by card and where you'll need cash. Later we can go further out if you like, but I'd advise starting here.
First of all, for people who have just landed and don't want three hours in a car on day one. For families with children, because the drives are short and the park by the cathedral has room to run around. For anyone with an evening flight who'd like to see something besides the airport: I can end the day right at the terminal. Pick-up and drop-off anywhere in Chișinău are included in the price. And for people here on business who have one free day between meetings.
But if you're after a long drive with plenty of conversation, this isn't your day. There are no cliffs, no monasteries on the edge of a drop, no lunch next to a village oven. I have other routes for that, and I'll happily suggest them when you come back a second time. For a first visit, I'd start with the city.
Chișinău is called the green capital, and that isn't a line from a brochure: in the centre there really are more trees than buildings. The city stands on the Bic, though the river runs through another part of the centre, and our walk starts at the Nativity Cathedral and the park around it. Here I usually explain how the city grew in layers. First the old one- and two-storey houses with courtyards, then Soviet concrete, then glass, and all of it side by side, sometimes at the same crossroads. To me that's what I remember most about Chișinău: it doesn't try to look all of a piece, and I like it for that.
A few steps from the cathedral stands the Triumphal Arch, and from there we walk along the central streets and look into the courtyards, where Chișinău is quieter and older than on the boulevard. There I try to talk less, because courtyards are better seen without a lecture.
Along the way I translate what you'll need later on your own: shop signs, menus, notices in cafés. The official language here is Romanian. Russian gets you by almost everywhere in Chișinău, but English and German are rare outside the tourist spots. In the city cards are accepted nearly everywhere, while in the villages cash comes in handy. By the end of the walk you can find your own way around the centre, and to be honest, that's part of my plan.
The walk takes about two and a half hours, but with children, after a night flight or in the heat I make it shorter, and people ask for that often. While the adults listen to talk of domes and courtyards, the children have plenty to do in the park by the cathedral.
From the centre to the Village Museum is fifteen minutes by car. We're still in Chișinău, but the surroundings have changed. The museum has a wooden church built in 1642 at Harjauca Monastery, moved here and restored in 2009. It's all oak, twenty-seven metres tall, and there is no taller wooden church in Moldova. Entry to the Village Museum and the church is free.
I bring you here after the city, not before, on purpose, because after the stone and glass of the boulevard, wood feels completely different: the boards have darkened, and its slender outline rises above us. Tip your head back, and those twenty-seven metres of oak against the sky become the best photo of the day, the one guests most often take home. If the church is open, we'll go inside. It's quiet in there and smells of wood, like an old wardrobe.
We spend about fifteen minutes here, and that's enough. What matters to me is something else: a quarter of an hour from the cathedral, you see what Moldova looks like outside the city. We're still in the capital, and there's a village all around us. You don't need a long drive for that, and I think it's an honest way to show the country on a first day, because here the city and the countryside are only fifteen minutes apart.
From the museum to Bulboaca is half an hour, and on the way I talk about the history of the country and how people live here. I say very little about the castle in the car: when and why it was built, they'll tell you in detail on site. I'll only say that Constantin Mimi built it at the end of the nineteenth century, and today it's a winery that turns up on lists of the most beautiful in the world. For once I agree with whoever makes those lists, because you drive up and see why. I'm not trying to show you the biggest or the oldest thing on your first day. What I care about is that by the evening you know the wine here is well worth trying, and worth travelling further for on other days.
At the castle the winery tour comes first, followed by the Iconiq tasting: five wines, each with its own appetiser, which the chef picks to match that wine. I mention it in advance because everyone asks about lunch: there's no lunch in the usual sense on this day, the tasting takes its place, at a table and without hurry. The tour and tasting together last two to two and a half hours, and that's usually plenty. If you're the kind who needs soup at midday, tell me in the morning and we'll work something out.
The tour and the tasting are paid on site. If anyone in your group doesn't drink, or you have children with you, let me know and I'll sort it out with the winery beforehand. The drive back takes about an hour, and in Chișinău I drop you at your hotel, your apartment or the airport terminal, whichever we agreed.
We could do it the other way round, wine in the morning and the city after lunch, but I don't. After five glasses a walk quickly turns into a search for a bench, and in the hottest part of the day you're sitting at a table in the castle instead of crossing a square in the sun. In summer that's the main reason. In winter the order stays the same, only for a different reason: it's nicer to end the day somewhere warm than to start it there.
Ordinary city shoes are fine, as long as you can walk in them comfortably for two and a half hours. There are no rocky paths or climbs on this route. In summer bring a cap. There's water in the car, a 0.5 litre bottle for each of you. In winter dress as you would for a walk in any city, and if it's windy, I'll shorten the walk.
The price includes the car with fuel for the whole day, the tour in your language (English, German, Russian or Romanian), pick-up and drop-off anywhere in Chișinău, and water. If you'd rather have Italian, Spanish or Turkish, a guide from my team who speaks it will come with you. On site you pay only for the tour and tasting at Castel MIMI, and entry to the Village Museum and the wooden church is free. For the reasons above, there's no separate lunch in the programme.
This is the day I suggest to families more often than any other, because the drives take fifteen to thirty minutes, there's room to run in the park, in the wooden church you can touch the wall, and at the end a table of appetisers is waiting. Child seats are available for children from nine months. Tell me your child's age when you book. With children we walk less and stop more often, and so far nobody has complained.
Up to four guests travel with me in a Toyota Prius+, five or six in an Opel Vivaro, and seven to twenty in a Mercedes Sprinter. The price is per car, not per person.
I drive all year round. From April to October the day looks just as I've described it. In winter there are fewer people in the city and the castle tour runs the same way, only the colours outside the window are different. Really only one thing changes: in frosty weather I keep the walk shorter and show you more from the car.
Tell me when you land and where you're staying, and I'll fit the start of the day around you: after a night flight we start later, and before an evening flight we finish at the terminal. The route, what's included and the booking form are on the tour page: Chișinău, the Wooden Church and Castel MIMI. If you're not sure where to begin exploring the country, start with this day, and we'll decide the rest together on the drive.
Message me on WhatsApp with your arrival time and how many of you there are, and I'll time the start to suit your flight. We can even finish it at the airport terminal.
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Ten hours, roughly 320 kilometres and one town on the Dniester at the end of the road. Here is how my longest day out works and who it suits.
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An hour and a half under oaks and hornbeams in the morning, then a wine tasting with lunch overlooking the vineyards. How the day works and who it suits best.
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