Gastronomic Tour

Arrival at Chisinau International Airport (KIV). Our guide or company representative will meet you at the airport.
Transfer from the airport to the hotel in Chisinau. Check-in.
After check-in at the hotel, a walking tour of the historical center of Chisinau: the main street of the capital – Stefan cel Mare boulevard, the Cathedral, inspection outside the Parliament building, a walk along the Alley of classics of Moldovan literature in the Stefan cel Mare park.
Welcome dinner at the Vatra Neamului restaurant (Moldovan cuisine) with live music.

In the morning you will go to the Orhei Vechi (Old Orhei) area, where you will have the opportunity to visit the cave monastery, admire the fantastic views of the valley, explore the traditional village and enjoy lunch including national Moldovan cuisine and homemade wine.
Excursion to Old Orhei, a unique rock monastery and caves (13th century), carved into a limestone rock that fits perfectly into the picturesque landscape. On the other side you can see the ruins of the Geto-Danish fortress. In the nearby village of Butuceni, visit the house-museum of the traditional life of the 19th century Moldovan peasants.
You will also have the opportunity to participate in the Master Class on making “placinta” with a glass of wine.
Next visit to the Cricova wine cellars. The cellars from Cricova are truly unmatched in the world. Here, history, archeology and the art of winemaking, united into a single whole, formed a real Underground City. Currently, the wine city covers an area of ​​53 hectares, and the underground galleries, converted into streets, have a total length of 120 kilometers. The depth at which the labyrinths are located can reach 80 meters, depending on the relief. As in a real city, there are streets, traffic lights, and road signs. Only that the labyrinths of roads have more unusual names, such as: “Cabernet”, “Dionysus”, “Feteasca”, “Aligote”, “Sauvignon”, thus, each street corresponds to the name of the wine, which is stored in the adjacent niches. Throughout the year, the temperature in the underground galleries remains constant, about +12 … + 14 ° C, and the relative humidity of the air is about 97-98%. It is thanks to these natural conditions that high-quality wines, as well as classic sparkling wines, can be preserved and processed to form their authentic character. At the end of the tour, you will be able to taste 4 samples of the most famous wines.
In the evening we return back to Chisinau.

Today you will visit one of the oldest monasteries in Moldova – Curchi, which has the title “One of the most beautiful Bessarabian architecture”. It is surrounded by a high stone wall giving the impression of a fortress. The monastery has two and a half centuries of religious and cultural past. According to some legends, the Curchi monastery was founded by Stefan the Great, and the architectural ensemble was formed later, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.The most probable version is that the Kurki monastery was founded in 1773 by the brothers Iordake and Mihai Kurki.
Then you will go to the Fromage Cheese Farm where you will have a guided tour with a tasting of several types of cheeses combined with homemade wines.
The owners of the farm, Thierry and Tatiana, live in the village of Horodishte (Rezina district). Engaged in charitable and social projects, the couple work and make real French cheeses. They buy milk from local people as raw materials for cheese production. Moldova is rich in high-quality natural milk – one kilogram of cheese requires an average of 10 liters of milk, so a small production of cheese is now a common concern for the whole village.

Food and Wine Pairing at Chateau Warteyl. Here you can take part in a wine tasting with the selection of the right dishes. At the end of the tasting, you can also take a tour of the winery and hear its history. Château Vartely promotes the culture of quality wine consumption. On the territory of the winery, not only wine is produced, but also a love for this product is cultivated.
Located only 45 km from Chisinau, Chateau Vartely is distinguished by its original architecture and provides its guests with the opportunity to fully enjoy the picturesque landscape, located on a hill with a very beautiful view.
A landscaped courtyard with elements of a wine museum perfectly combines the art of architecture with winemaking.
Return back to Chisinau in the evening.

Today we will go to the south of Moldova. The tour will begin with a visit to the city of Comrat.
Comrat is the capital of the autonomous region of Gagauzia. This is a very interesting territory, because most of its inhabitants are Gagauz. They are the only members of Turkish descent associated with the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Gagauz people migrated from Bulgaria with ethnic Bulgarians and settled in Moldova in the 19th century.
Further excursion and wine tasting at the Comrat Winery.
In 1897, the first mention of the Comrat Wine Compound appears. During the Peasants’ Unrest in 1917, the wine estate was completely destroyed and desolate. In the 60s, on the site of the destroyed plant, the Comrat Agro-industrial complex was built, which includes several wineries and grape plantations.
After the excursion, transfer to the village of Kongaz at the Gagauz Sofrasi restaurant where you will have lunch including traditional Gagauz cuisine.
Then we head to the village of Beshalma to visit the Gagauz National Ethnographic and Historical Museum “D. Kara-Chobanu ”, which introduces us to the history and culture of the Bulgarians and Gagauz in the south of Moldova. One of the leaders of this small nation was the writer D. Kara-Ciobanu, who promoted this culture all his life. He founded this museum in memory, where you can find hundreds of exhibits of artistic and spiritual value from the Gagauz people who have lived in Moldova for the past two centuries. The most valuable item in the museum is the collection of original films filmed during the Gagauz colonization of the Buzhak steppe. At the end of the excursion you will be able to see the folklore program.
Then we will return to Chisinau.

An unforgettable trip to Transnistria.

The first stop is Tiraspol – the capital of Transnistria. In Tiraspol, you will have the opportunity to travel in time, discovering the USSR. The excursion will be combined with the bus and pedestrian part, you will visit the monuments of Lenin, Suvorov, Catherine II and the remaining tanks of the Great Patriotic War. The city seems to be a ghost of the Soviet past.

The next stop is the city of Bender (Tighina), here we will visit the memorial and Sheriff’s shop. Then we will take a tour of the famous Bendery fortress, where once stayed with his army Charles XII, where it is now partially located Russian army. The fortress was built according to the project of the Turkish architect Sinan, a sample of Western European bastion-type fortresses. Construction began in 1538 year after the entry of the city into the Ottoman Empire. After the excursion, lunch at the Bastion restaurant with dishes from Turkish cuisine.

Next, you will visit the Noul Neamt Monastery – a male Orthodox monastery located in Chichany, not far from Bendery and Tiraspol. Here you can meet one of the monks who will tell the history of this place and will also treat you with wine and homemade cheese made on the territory of the monastery.

Finish the day with a visit to Asconi Winery The winery was founded in 1994 and has achieved a lot thanks to the modernization of the production process. Currently, thanks to constant investments in equipment, the winery’s winemakers use the most modern production facilities of the best Italian and French producers. The wines are made from both local and European grape varieties such as Feteasca, Traminer, Chardonnay, Pinot Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and others. Return to the hotel in Chisinau.

Transfer to the airport. Departure