5 days sample itinerary
Highlights
- Various specialties of traditional Moldovan cuisine
- Mamaliga and stew from Lalova
- Tipova rock monastery from the steep bank of Nistru River
- Roast lamb and dumplings from Palanca
- Medieval fresco of Causeni church and Tihon’s windmill
- Rabbit stew and roasted zucchini from Talmaza
Day 1
Once you arrive at the Chisinau International Airport, a representative from our company will meet and accompany you to the hotel. You will receive an information package with maps, guides and contact numbers. For dinner you can choose meals from Moldavian, Gagauz, Bulgarian or even Ukrainian cuisine.
Day 2
The first morning in our country will begin with a panoramic tour of Chisinau. You will hardly find another city so green, calm and hospitable. During the tour you will discover pieces of the city’s gastronomic history and culture.
You will have lunch at „Hanul lui Hanganu” agro touristic pension from Lalova village. Here you can pick some vegetables from the garden, which will subsequently form the ingredients of the dishes. You will fall in love with zeama (chicken soup with noodles), mamaliga (bread from corn flour) and friptura (stew) and will definitively become addicted to placinte (potato pies) for life.
In the afternoon, you will be greeted by the music of Tipova monastery bells – one of the „Christendom cities” on Nistru River. This is considered the oldest monastic settlement of Moldova. The complex, which comprises 18 rooms, dug into the rock at a dizzying height, is an impressive outdoor museum.
Day 3
After breakfast you will be able to enjoy a walk into Calarasi Codri. Here, lost among the birch alleys, you can find the old monastery Hirjauca, the former summer residence of the bishop of Moldova.
You will continue the trip to „Casa Parinteasca” pension from Palanca village, where you will get to know the Moldovan traditional costumes and our ethnographic customs. Here you can bake bread in a wood-fired oven and enjoy homemade meals for lunch. Roast lamb with scrambled eggs and dumplings with sour cream will be served with the best local wine, while the organic herbal tea, accompanied by quince jam will surprise you with an unrepeatable taste.
In Codri you will find another treasure – Chateau Cojusna Winery. The wine tasting process at the cellars of Chateau Cojusna resembles to a time machine which transpose you in the times of the medieval court. Here, in one of the 4 tasting-rooms you will have the opportunity to become an expert in the offered wines.
Day 4
The “Adormirea Maicii Domnului” Church of Causeni will be your first stop on this day. It is the only church from Moldova that has walls decorated with medieval frescoes. You will most certainly notice that the church is buried halfway into the ground. This is explained by the prohibitions of the Tatar domination period, when Christian churches were not allowed to be higher than a soldier on horseback.
In the afternoon you will visit the Talmaza village in the Nistru valley. Here, besides the irrigated fields, where farmers grow ecological vegetables, vineyards occupy a special place. Talmaza is also the home of many craftsmen. Among their works, you can admire Tihon’s windmill, one of the few of its kind in Moldova.
The majority of locals actively practice hunting, therefore you will have the opportunity to taste many traditional game dishes. Roast rabbit with potatoes will make your mouth water and pork kebab with roasted zucchini will complete your impressions about Moldovan cuisine.
Day 5 After breakfast, you will have the possibility to walk around Chisinau for a while and buy some of the finest Moldovan chocolate and pastry. Afterwards, airport transfer.