What to see in Chișinău: Milan Bez Mapy’s 7 tips

Chișinău didn’t win me over at first sight. It grew on me slowly and quietly, and I think it’s well worth a long weekend. As well as the city itself, plan a trip to Orhei Vechi and a wine tasting at Cricova, one of the largest wineries in Europe. Use the Bolt app for taxis, and come hungry, because you’ll eat very well here.

Quick factsby Milan Bez Mapy

From the airport

The trolleybus takes about 45 minutes, but I recommend a Bolt taxi for about €7

Where we stayed

With my mum at the new Art Hotel, about a 20-minute walk from the centre and, as it turned out, right opposite a prison

How much time

You can see the city itself in a day on foot; for trips out of town you need a hire car or an organised tour

Cricova winery

You won’t get in without a booking; the tour takes about two hours and the cellars are around 12°C

Mobile data

I bought an eSIM I didn’t need; since January 2026 Slovak SIM cards have worked in Moldova just like at home

What is there to see in Chișinău? I asked myself the same thing, because, let’s be honest, Moldova’s capital rarely makes it onto lists of Europe’s top cities to visit. So I was all the more pleased to find out that Wizz Air had launched a direct route from Bratislava Airport, and I booked tickets straight away. I travelled with my mum, who had picked Moldova as her number one out of all the new Wizz Air routes from Bratislava.

Below you’ll find my practical tips on what to see in Chișinău: where to go, what not to miss, what to eat and what to watch out for. Let’s get started. This article was written in collaboration with Bratislava Airport and Moldova’s National Tourism Organisation, and it was the tourism organisation that put our programme together. So what follows is the crème de la crème of what you can squeeze out of Chișinău and the surrounding area in a long weekend.

• Tip from Milan Moldova’s official language is Romanian, but most people also speak fluent Russian. And the younger generation? Their English is excellent; Russian they understand, but speak less.

Is Chișinău worth visiting? My honest answer

I believe you should visit any place you get the chance to, because travel is a privilege. But don’t expect Paris from Chișinău. Expect instead a country that isn’t one of the big tourist magnets, and is all the more authentic for it. The people who appreciate it most are those who have already done the mainstream classics. Are you one of them? Fun fact: the correct name is Chișinău, not Kishinev.

Do I need a passport for Moldova, and does EU roaming work there?

Moldova isn’t in the European Union. But if you have a Slovak biometric ID card, you don’t need a passport for Moldova. At Bratislava Airport they checked my passport anyway, as it’s a non-Schengen flight, but the Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs website says an ID card is enough. As for EU roaming, I was silly enough to buy this Airalo eSIM, and there was no need. Since January 2026, Slovak SIM cards have worked in Moldova just like at home.

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Cheap flights to Chișinău and getting from the airport into town

• Tip from Milan If you’re in a hurry, buy Fast Track in the Wizz Air app for about €6 and you’ll be among the first through airport security.

A trolleybus runs from Chișinău Airport into the city in about 45 minutes, but I’d recommend taking a Bolt. It doesn’t cost much and saves you time. Chișinău is known for its traffic jams and chaotic driving, and the ride costs about €7.

Where to stay in Chișinău and how to get around

Chișinău isn’t a big city, so your best bet is to stay as close to the centre as possible, ideally around the Triumphal Arch. From there most of the sights are within walking distance, and restaurants, cafés and parks are close by. Mum and I stayed at the brand-new Art Hotel, but it’s about a 20-minute walk to the centre and, as we found out, right opposite a prison.

The best way to get around is a mix of walking and Bolt. Public transport works, mainly trolleybuses, but for a visitor there’s little point bothering with it. I didn’t take a bus once: the whole centre is walkable.

Do I need to hire a car in Chișinău?

For getting around the city, definitely not. Chișinău is fairly small, and in the centre a car would be more of a hindrance: traffic can be heavy and parking is limited.

It’s a different story if you want to take trips out of the city. The Cricova winery, Butuceni, the countryside, Tiraspol and other less accessible places are hard to explore without a car, so hiring one makes sense there. The roads are fine and Moldovan drivers struck me as responsible. I wouldn’t hesitate to drive here.

Things to do in Chișinău: Milan Bez Mapy’s picks

How long should you spend in Chișinău? You can see the whole city in a day on a pleasant walk, coffee in hand. Here’s my list:

1. Valea Morilor park (the Valley of the Mills) and its pretty lake
2. National Museum of History of Moldova
3. Stephen the Great Central Park
4. Statue of Stephen the Great
5. Triumphal Arch
6. Metropolitan Cathedral
7. Strada Eugen Doga pedestrian street

I’d start the day a little outside the centre, in Valea Morilor park, the Valley of the Mills, one of the most beautiful spots in the city. There’s a large lake, a long staircase and a pleasant promenade where locals work out, walk their dogs or simply enjoy some peace away from the bustle of the centre. My friend Tamara gives a nice round-up of several of the city’s parks in her blog post on Chișinău (in Slovak), which I’d also recommend.

It’s the perfect place for a slow start to the day, coffee in hand if you like. I kept thinking what a shame it was that I hadn’t packed my running shoes: this promenade is crying out for an 8 km morning run around the lake. Next time.

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From there, head into the centre to the National Museum of History of Moldova. It gives you the basic background on the country, from antiquity to the Soviet period, which I find particularly interesting. In front of the museum, look out for the replica of the famous Capitoline Wolf, a symbol of Roman heritage that you’ll also find in other cities that once belonged to Romania.

Carry on to Stephen the Great Central Park, which is more or less the heart of the city. It’s named after the most important figure in Moldovan history, Ștefan cel Mare (Stephen the Great), a 15th-century ruler who is still regarded as a national hero.

He fought dozens of battles, mainly against the Ottoman Empire, and became famous for defending Moldavia’s territory. His monument stands right at the park entrance and is one of the most photographed spots in Chișinău.

• Tip from Milan There’s a lovely Bonjour Café in the park: give it a try. The park is lined with sculptures and statues of famous artists from the past, yet not one of them bears its sculptor’s signature. Any idea why? Under socialism, sculptors here weren’t allowed to sign their work, so they came up with telltale marks that made their work recognisable.

Right next to the park stands the Triumphal Arch, built in the 19th century to mark the Russian Empire’s victory over the Ottoman Empire. Together with the park and the surrounding buildings, it’s one of the city’s best-known landmarks and well worth a look.

Chișinău is also linked to the Russian poet Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, who spent several years here in exile in the early 19th century. He wrote some of his first major works in Chișinău, the city had a big influence on his writing, and I get the feeling that today everything here revolves around him. There’s a statue of him in Stephen the Great Central Park, a museum devoted to his time here and even a street named after him.

Finally, walk past the Triumphal Arch to the Strada Eugen Doga pedestrian street, named after a well-known Moldovan composer. It’s a pleasant place for a stroll, with cafés, small bars and restaurants, and everyday local life. It’s exactly the kind of place where you sit down for a while, order something good and just watch the city go by. And with that, you’ve ticked off the main sights in Chișinău. Simple, isn’t it?

Where to eat in Chișinău: restaurant tips and traditional food

These are the places I tried myself or that the lovely women from the National Tourism Organisation recommended to me:

1. Taifas is a traditional Romanian-Moldovan restaurant in the city centre, traditional right down to the décor. Try their rabbit, polenta and brânză, the local sheep’s cheese.
2. La Plăcinte serves excellent traditional food in an attractive modern setting. I recommend the pancake cake.
3. Crème de la Crème is a charming café on the pedestrian street, with beautiful cakes and a view of the car-free street life around it.
4. I didn’t make it to Fuior, but one of the women put it on my list. Try it and let me know in the comments.
5. Bonjour Café is a pretty French-style café in the middle of the park. I recommend it for the atmosphere when you’re out for a walk.
6. Coffee Monkey is a modern café with speciality coffee and matcha, and it’s good for breakfast too.
7. Epoca de Piatra is a Flintstones-style restaurant near Butuceni, carved into the rock and reachable by car.

What to eat in Moldova: local food and traditional dishes

In Moldova, expect simple but hearty and genuinely excellent cooking, influenced by Romanian, Russian and Balkan traditions. The staple is placinte, flat pies filled with cheese, potatoes, cabbage or meat. You’ll find them on almost every corner, and they taste best fresh.

Make sure you also try sarmale, cabbage leaves stuffed with meat and rice, or zeama, a light chicken soup that’s ideal after a long day. The typical side dish is mămăligă, a cornmeal porridge similar to polenta, often served with cheese and sour cream. And since Moldova is wine country, don’t skip the local wine: it often surprises you with both its quality and its price. If you’d rather have something non-alcoholic, order kompot, a drink made from stewed fruit. It’s what people drink here, and it’s delicious.

And dessert? Guguță’s hat (Cușma lui Guguță) was so good that I asked my mum to try making it at home. A local woman gave me the recipe for Guguță’s hat, so try baking it yourself and let me know how it turns out.

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Day trip to Butuceni and Orheiul Vechi, plus a Flintstones restaurant

For the day trips below, you’ll need a hire car, or you can book one of these organised tours, which pick you up at your hotel and bring you back.

A day trip to Butuceni with a visit to Orheiul Vechi is, in my view, one of the best experiences you can take home from Moldova. In the morning, head out of Chișinău to the village of Butuceni, which feels like stepping back several decades: traditional houses, peace and quiet and a completely different pace of life.

From there, walk over to Orheiul Vechi, where the famous cave monastery, carved into the rock, rises above the canyon of the Răut river. Go inside and you’ll often meet a local monk who looks after the place.

There are several stops nearby that are worth your time. I did them in this order:

1. The Butuceni viewpoint is a lovely spot with a view over the whole area. Start here.
2. Opposite the viewpoint, literally across the road, is the Museum of Medieval Archaeology. The collection is modest, but the coins found in the area caught my eye. You’ll need 15 minutes at most, but it’s worth seeing.
3. Take a look at the ruins of the Orhei fortress too. Very little has survived beyond the low foundations, but a short way behind them are the old Turkish baths, known as the Tatar baths, which are surprisingly well preserved.
4. The Museum of Anthropology has a decent collection of bones, and this one I really do recommend. I found out what trepanation is. I’d better not go into it here, or you’ll feel sick. From the museum, carry on to Eco-Resort Butuceni for a good traditional lunch and a look at a typical Moldovan country house. I also had a go at making traditional placinte here. My hands got thoroughly greasy, but it tasted great and reminded me a little of Balkan burek.
5. The highlight of the day is definitely the Cave Monastery, where you’ll find the monk and, a little further on, St Mary’s basilica. You’re not allowed to photograph the monk, so go and see him with your own eyes.
6. If you have the time and the energy, stop on the way back for a wine tasting at Branesti Cellars, where the film Dracula was shot, and have dinner at Epoca de Piatra, a restaurant carved into a cave with full-on Flintstones vibes.

Wine tasting at Cricova, one of the largest wineries in Europe

If you only do one thing in Chișinău, make it a visit to the Cricova winery. Full stop.

You do need to plan your Cricova tasting in advance, though: without a booking you simply won’t get in. The tours are guided, very well run and set in lovely surroundings. They last about two hours and start with a drive through the underground streets, where they show you the cellars and the production itself. It’s a maze down there: Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, once got lost here. The tour ends with a wine tasting.

Cricova is about 20 minutes from Chișinău by taxi or car, but if you plan to taste, leave the driving to someone else. I saw police cars all along the way, and they take drink-driving quite seriously. Also bear in mind that the cellars stay at a steady 12°C or so, so it’s worth packing something warm. The constant temperature and humidity make the Cricova cellars a perfect place for storing (and drinking) wine.

I expected small family wineries in Moldova. Instead, I went underground into a town with no houses, just streets full of wine. It’s basically a former limestone quarry turned into a labyrinth of more than 100 kilometres of tunnels that you drive through, with the ‘streets’ named after grape varieties such as Cabernet and Pinot. And it’s in these conditions that thousands of bottles mature, including sparkling wines made by the traditional method, as in Champagne.

Is Moldova worth visiting? Milan Bez Mapy’s verdict

Is Moldova worth visiting? I’d say yes, but only if you come without expectations. Chișinău isn’t a city that wows you at first sight. It doesn’t have the famous landmarks of Western Europe or perfect Instagram streets.

But that’s exactly where its charm lies. If you find good Wizz Air flights from Bratislava to Chișinău, take off with friends for a long weekend and enjoy good wine and truly fabulous food. I reckon I put on about five kilos here.

What to watch out for in Moldova

Moldova is authentic and at times surprisingly candid. It isn’t a destination for everyone, more for people who have already done the classics and are looking for something different, quieter and less explored.

Come with an open mind and it will reward you with experiences you won’t have anywhere else, whether it’s the monk in Butuceni, the underground city of wine at Cricova or simply sitting among the locals in a sunny park. Just watch out for taxi drivers with creative pricing: always book your taxi through the Bolt app. And watch out for the food: I’m fairly sure I put on weight here.

Moldova didn’t win me over at first sight. It grew on me slowly and quietly. And that’s exactly why it’s worth seeing, because everyone’s already been to Barcelona, haven’t they?

Happy travels!
Milan Bez Mapy