The first thing guests notice in the Codrii forest is the quiet. I leave the car at the roadside near Lozova, we step in under the trees, and within a minute all you hear is birds and your own feet in last year's leaves. The conversation usually fades by itself at that point, without anyone asking.
What I love about this day is what it leaves out. No monasteries, no fortress wall where I have to explain who stormed it and in which century, and this time we don't go underground either. Instead there's a forest in the middle of the country, an hour and a half of walking under the canopy, then a long lunch overlooking the vineyards of the Ungheni district. If you've seen plenty of stone over the previous days, it's a chance to breathe out, and for families with children it is, in my experience, the calmest of all our days together.
We don't leave at dawn, so there's time for breakfast at the hotel. The reserve is fifty kilometres from Chișinău, about an hour's drive, and we're back in town before dinner, which leaves your evening free. We cover 205 kilometres, with no border crossings and no rush.
I count the road as part of the day too. There are three drives: an hour to the forest, another to the winery and an hour and a half back, and all the way I talk about the country, what the guidebook says and what it doesn't. If someone wants to doze after the flight, I don't take it personally. Honestly, I still don't know what guests remember more, the forest or the lunch. I've asked many times, and the answers split about evenly.
Codrii is Moldova's oldest scientific nature reserve, established in 1971. Near the village of Lozova it has its own museum on what lives and grows in the central Codru region: mounted animals and birds from these woods, herbarium sheets, minerals under glass. The museum ticket is paid on site, at the entrance.
Forty minutes in the museum means that later, in the forest, you recognise trees you would otherwise walk straight past: that's a hornbeam, that's a beech, and from now on you know a lime by its leaf. Children come alive here faster than adults, because to a child a stuffed animal beats any fresco, and I stopped arguing with that long ago.
As I understand it, “scientific” means this forest is protected and studied first, not fitted out for walkers, so don't expect a café at the edge of the woods. I like that, and so do most guests, although for the first few minutes they still look around out of habit for arrows and signs.
The walk takes an hour to an hour and a half and is easy: hills, the valleys between them and a deciduous forest of oak, hornbeam, beech, ash and lime. The path stays under the canopy almost all the way, so even at midday in summer it's noticeably cooler than in town, and the light falls in patches. We go at your pace and stop when you like, without a guide's flag or a minute-by-minute schedule.
We walk before lunch for a reason. In the morning the forest is still fresh, the heat hasn't worn anyone down yet, and you come to the table hungry. In summer, if the forecast promises a scorcher, I start half an hour earlier so that we're in the shade before the hottest hours.
The season is what people ask about most, and I don't have one answer. In October the forest turns several colours at once, and the valley below you looks nothing like it did in August. In May the leaves are young and you can see a long way through the trees. In summer it offers welcome shade. From November to March there are fewer visitors and longer lunches, and I shorten the walk to suit the weather, because I drive this route all year round.
If someone in your group would struggle with an hour and a half on foot, tell me in advance: I'll shorten the walk, and we can still visit the museum and winery.
From the forest to the winery it's roughly another hour. In that time guests usually ask everything they didn't ask in the morning and get properly hungry, which is exactly what I'm counting on.
Mircesti is a small winery in the Ungheni district, and it's often described as “the Little Tuscany of Moldova”. The label isn't mine, and I don't think Moldova needs anyone else's comparisons, but when you stand above the vineyards you can see where it came from: the rows of vines run down the slope, and beyond them another slope opens up, and then another.
At the winery there's a tour of the estate first, then the tasting, and each wine comes with Moldovan food, so this is your lunch. We don't stop at a separate restaurant that day, and there's no need to. We spend about two hours at the table overlooking the vineyards. The tour, tasting and lunch are paid on site, separately from the tour price. We choose the standard or extended tasting together beforehand, so there's nothing to settle when we arrive. Anyone who doesn't drink still has the food and the view, and nobody gets bored at that table.
Outside Chișinău you rarely hear English or German, so at the table I translate: what's on the plate, what's in the glass and what's worth asking the hosts. Guests are sometimes shy of asking about wine in case they look like beginners, which is a pity, because at a small winery those are the best questions. Nobody here is out to impress you with figures. They pour you a glass, tell you where the wine comes from and let you sit in peace, and after the forest that slow pace is welcome.
Families with children, first of all. The walk is easy, the museum has its stuffed animals, and the day ends with a long lunch rather than a guided tour of museum halls. I have child seats for ages nine months and up, included in the price: tell me in advance how many you need and for what ages. A child who can happily walk for an hour will manage the path, but I wouldn't take a pushchair into the forest, though I'll show you how to shorten the route.
It also suits people on their second or third visit to Moldova who have already seen the classics, and anyone who wants to walk on holiday and has had enough of dates and centuries. October guests often come here just for the colours. And of course it's for those who, after a couple of days of sightseeing, tell me: “Corneliu, no walls today, please.” On week-long trips I usually put it somewhere in the middle, when you've seen your fill of sights and haven't spent time in nature yet.
And here's who I wouldn't recommend it to. If you only have two days and haven't seen Old Orhei yet, start there. That route has its own article about Curchi, Old Orhei and Cricova. The Codrii work best as a second day, once you've had a first look at the country and you feel like slowing down. And if you expect a winery to have vast halls and hundreds of bottles in display cases, this one is different: a small estate, a table and a hill.
Bring shoes for the forest, not for the city. An hour and a half on a trail in thin-soled shoes is something you'll regret, and ordinary trainers are quite enough. It's cooler in the forest than on the main road, which is a relief in summer, and in April and October you'll want an extra layer. The list is short, but check it the night before:
There's water in the car, half a litre per person, included in the price.
On site you pay for two things: the reserve museum ticket, and the tour with tasting and lunch at the winery. Everything else is in the tour price: me as your guide, the car with fuel for the whole day, the tour in your language (English, German, Russian or Romanian), and pick-up and drop-off anywhere in Chișinău. If you'd rather have Italian, Spanish or Turkish, a guide from my team who speaks it will come with you.
I choose the car to fit the group: a Toyota Prius+ for one to four guests, an Opel Vivaro for five or six, a Mercedes Sprinter for groups of seven to twenty. Usually it's just you and me in the car, no strangers and no rigid timetable. If I'm already booked on your date, a guide from my team drives the same route, and I'm still responsible for how the day turns out.
I like the way this day ends. The drive back is the quietest part: an hour and a half, nobody asks to stop at one more church, and you don't feel as overwhelmed as you might after three monasteries in a row. You're back in Chișinău in the early evening with the forest still on your shoes and, most likely, a bottle in the boot. The detailed itinerary, the cars and what's included are on the page Codrii Forest Reserve and Mircesti boutique winery. Write to me, and I'll tell you whether your date is free and pick a car for your group.
If a day in the forest and at a table above the vineyards sounds right, send me your date, the number of guests and your language on WhatsApp, and I'll take care of the car and the rest.
In the morning we walk down to cells cut into the limestone above the Dniester and climb back up, then a village lunch with a family in Lalova and a winery in Orhei. Here is how the day works and who it suits.
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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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The day I suggest to people who want to walk in Moldova and can leave the cellars for later. A forest trail to the Saharna waterfall in the morning, then down and back up at Tipova, the Dniester far below.
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