Not the most popular tourist destination in Eastern Europe, Moldova is undeniably famous for two things: viticulture and an abundance of ancient Orthodox monuments - early Christian rock monasteries and medieval cathedrals . Who does not know the stork with a bunch of grapes in its beak - the emblem of Moldovan winemaking? Today there are hundreds of varieties of wine and cognacs, and wine tours around Moldovan cities and villages are perhaps the most popular direction of the local "land" . From pleasant bonuses - practical absence of border formalities, only 2 hours in flight and such a Soviet native local population . Among other things, there is an extremely rich gypsy and Jewish history with the spirit of gypsy barons and dedicated Kabbalists in the air, and also a simple and delicious cuisine and good opportunities for treatment . In short, everything you need for full and interesting rest .

Capital - Chisinau

Big cities - Tiraspol, Beltsy, Bendery, Ribnita

Details on when it is best to go to Moldova and what to do on the spot is told on the page tours to Moldova

How to get to Moldova

From Moscow to Chisinau you can get by S7 and Air Moldova flights. S7 daily every day and twice a day in summer flies from Moscow's Domodedovo and 2 hours later lands at the airport of the Moldovan capital. Air Moldova airplanes fly into the air twice a day - at 10:40 and 22:40 - daily throughout the year, also from Domodedovo.

Air Moldova flies from St. Petersburg on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (2 hours in the air), and from Kiev - on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, on the way - 1 hour.

Citizens of Belarus will have to travel to Moldova with a transfer in Moscow or Kiev, or take advantage of the railway.

In Chisinau, you can also arrive by rail transport: several trains are sent daily from the Kievsky railway station in Moscow. Travel time is from 26 to 32 hours. From St. Petersburg to Chisinau by rail - 40 hours, trains run every day; and from Minsk - 30 hours, message on odd days

Visa to Moldova

Citizens of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus do not need a visa to enter Moldova if the visit does not exceed 90 days.

Customs

Duty-free to Moldova, you can import 5 liters of beer and 2 liters of other alcoholic beverages, 50 cigars, 200 cigarettes, 5 jewelry pieces from precious stones and metals, regardless of their cost, 1 unit of photo, video, and computer hardware. Import and export of foreign and national currency is unlimited, but amounts over 10 000 EUR per person must be declared. It is prohibited to import weapons and ammunition, explosives and poisonous substances, drugs and narcotic drugs, pornography.

• Is it possible to export wine from Moldova

Money and currency exchange

You can exchange money at bank branches and exchange offices, at the reception desk hotels. Lack of ATMs in the Republic of Moldova is also not available - in addition to bank branches, they can be found in hotels, shopping centers and on the central streets of Moldovan cities. Of course, it is better to go to the provinces with cash lei: there may not be a currency exchange or cash machine at hand.

Useful telephone numbers

Embassy of Moldova in Moscow: ul. Kuznetskiy Most, 18; tel .: (495) 624-53-53, 624-63-42; consular department: st. Rozhdestvenka, 7; tel .: (495) 628-10-50, 624-96-78; website

Embassy of Russia in Chisinau: 153 Stefan cel Mare avenue; tel .: (22) 234-941, 234-942, 235-110 (consular department); website

Tourist safety

Moldova is a relatively safe country, especially for Russian-speaking tourists . Drunken companies on the streets do not surprise us, you will not be surprised at pesticides in food - so that the Russian traveler here will feel at home, at in all senses of the word . Relative inconvenience may be caused by a visit to Transdniestria, or rather, by the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldovan Republic .Local "border" services can request a visa for entry, which, actually, and get somewhere else, as the consular institutions abroad does not have a republic . It is better to instruct a travel company in Transdniestria to travel company that will settle all formalities for you . For the same reason, it is worthwhile to avoid "Transnistrian" and "Romanian" topics in conversations with Moldovans - as Romania considers Moldova part of its territory, and Moldovan does not allocate it to a separate nation . It is recommended to take a passport with you for walks around the city - not bad and police check of documents .

Transportation

In Moldova it is faster and more convenient to travel by buses and shuttles . Main transport junction - Chisinau with its three intercity bus stations, from here the buses go to all without exclusion of the city of the country . The northern bus station serves most of the major cities and towns in the north of the country, the south-west - respectively, the southern cities, and buses leave from the central bus station to Transnistria . 15-local minibuses called "maxita" B "buses drive faster and take charge slightly greater .

In Moldova, there is also a thoroughly modern railway transport, after the upgrade is almost in no way inferior to the European. By train, you can travel from Chisinau to Balti, Tiraspol or Bendery, the classification of cars and accommodation is Russian.

Rental car

The rules of car hire, like border formalities, in Moldova are absolutely simple: for rent you need a driver's license and money. At the age of the driver, no less than on the experience of driving, no one particularly looks. Rent the most affordable model will cost in the amount of 24 EUR (insurance included), the car is more interesting, for example, the Mercedes C180 on the "automatic" can be taken for quite acceptable 35-38 EUR per day. Rental "Ranjrover" with a driver will cost about 130-150 EUR. As a rule, when renting a car, a deposit of 50-150 EUR depending on the model is charged

Moldova's climate

Moldova has a moderate continental climate with a long sunny summer and cool winter . Average temperature in January is -3 . 5 ° C, several times during the winter the thermometer can drop to -15 . 20 ° C . From November to March the snow falls and melts several times . Spring - unstable time of year with unexpected warm days and equally sudden cold snaps, the average temperature in May is +15 ° C . The Moldovan summer is surprisingly long and A warm with possible long droughts and short-term, but literally squalling downpours . In July, the thermometer shows +20 . 27 ° C, sometimes reaching +33 . 38 ° C . Autumn is of a nature "Indian summer" - with pleasant warmth, gentle sun and flying spider webs, it lasts until November, when the first frosts on the soil begin and the temperature drops to +4 . 7 ° C . Moldova is comfortable to visit during all year .

Bright colors of Moldova

Tsipovsky Monastery

Monastery Capriana

Hotels

In Moldova you can find hotels for all tastes: in Chisinau there are very high-quality hotels, including the world's leading chains, and in the outskirts of the palm family family pensions and mini-hotels, as well as sanatoria inheritance of the republic from Soviet times

Shopping

Traditional Moldovan souvenirs - cotton linen products with national embroidery, rag dolls, decorative woven rugs, items of national costume - skirts, shirts, handkerchiefs . Very nice products of local potters - a little "awkward", but very cozy jugs, bowls and bowls, glaze, and in natural color. . Pay attention to leather products - outer clothing, bags, shoes - they are traditionally of high quality and products from the vine - baskets, litter and even furniture . And of course, bring wine with x It is well known from Soviet times emblem - stork with grapes in beak .Dry "Rara nyagray", "Riesling", "Muscat", "Pino", "Negru de Purcari", semisweet "Norok", pink and white port wines and dessert vermouths, the famous "Bouquet of Moldova" and finally, the famous cognac among the Soviet intelligentsia "White Stork" is a short list of Moldovan alcoholic drinks .

Cuisine and restaurants

Moldovan cuisine is simplicity, satiety and "soulful" goodies, a mixture of Russian Ukrainian, Balkan and Turkish gastronomic traditions . The main component of the dishes are vegetables and legumes that are consumed in raw, boiled, stewed and fried types, often fantasically mixing the seemingly incompatible components . From vegetables, tomatoes, sweet pepper (including the popular Moldovan "Gogoshar" variety), zucchini, eggplant, leek . Meat in Moldovan cuisine is represented in all variety: beef, veal and pork, lamb and poultry . The main way of cooking is quenching and heat grilled local grill; fry in butter less often . Among the first dishes it is worth trying meat "chorba" and "zam" with chicken, greens and egg-whipped egg sour cream . A frequent component of soups - bran kvas "bors" . On the second, certainly order cabbage rolls " sarlale "- here they are tasty as anywhere in the world," tokanu "- ragout with meat and vegetables, pork sausages" kyrnatei "and beef" mititya ", grilled pork" bone ", smeared with garlic and poured with traditional sauce" muji ". You can have breakfast with thick corn porridge with "mamaliga" or omelette "scrabble" . Finally, to any tra pezes are a popular addition - rolls made from dough with a variety of fillings - cottage cheese, onion, pumpkin and of course wine .

Moldova's entertainment, excursions and sights

Moldova's main sights - ancient monasteries and extensive vineyards, the latter serving not only for wine production, but also attract literally crowds of tourists within the wine tours that are extremely popular in Moldova . Standard wine tour, in addition to the vineyard and production inspection The hospitality and tasting of drinks includes visits to rock monasteries, ancient and medieval fortresses, ethnographic villages, nature reserves and national parks, as well as staying in nature - near waterfalls and among the picturesque valleys of Moldova . Wine tours take place in the north, center or south of the country - each region has its own specialization: on "divins" (cognacs), sparkling, table wines and t . . During such excursions you can visit truly unique places, for example, the world's longest wine cellars Cricova and Malye Milesti ( more than 200 km of underground premises) or the oldest Purcari winery in Europe, whose wine was appreciated by Nicholas II and Queen Victoria .

The most famous archaeological park of Moldova is Old Orhei, located 60 km from Chisinau. Here you can see the caves carved into the rocks by prehistoric tribes, the early Christian cells, the fortress of the Geto-Dacians, the ancestors of the Moldavians, the medieval rocky monastery of the Assumption of the Virgin.

Monasteries of Moldova is the famous rocky Tipova on the banks of the Dniester, founded in 8-10 in the Holy Trinity Monastery in the village of Saharna, the place of the Orthodox pilgrimage to the relics of St. Macarius, the Zhapka Convent with the tricolic church of the Ascension of the Holy Cross, the monastery Hincu of the 17th century, the oldest monastery of Capriana (15th c.)

In the village of Soroca, the name of the gypsy tion capital of Moldova, is worth visiting the old quarter of Romani houses with ornate facades and climb to the citadel built by Stefan cel Mare in the 15th century to defend against Turkish raids.

In Chisinau we recommend you to visit the remarkable museums: the Museum of National Archeology and History, the Pushkin Museum located in the same estate where the poet spent three years of his Bessarabian exile (the "Caucasian Prisoner" was written here), the Museum of Ethnography and Nature and the Museum of Plastic Arts .You can breathe fresh air in any of the 23 parks of the Moldovan capital - Stefan cel Mare, Riskani, the Pink Valley and Valley of Mills, Arboretum, La Izvora and in the square of the Cathedral .Chisinau has a rich Jewish history, thanks to which there is a synagogue, a yeshiva, a monument to the Jewish ghetto and a Jewish cemetery .From modern architectural monuments stands the Triumphal Arch, the statue of Stefan cel Mare, the buildings of the Government and Parliament . Photos of Moldova (21)