Holiday in Chisinau

What makes Chisinau special as a destination?

Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, is Europe's best-kept secret for wine lovers and explorers. The green city with its plane tree boulevards, Soviet panel buildings, and Orthodox churches lies in the heart of the largest contiguous wine-growing region in Europe. Moldova's wine culture is legendary: the country has the highest density of vineyards per capita in the world, and the Milestii Mici wine cellar (Guinness record for the largest wine cellar in the world with 200 km of tunnels) is just 15 km south of Chisinau. Cricova, another underground wine cellar complex with 120 km of tunnels, offers tours with tastings in an underground city. The Cathedral of Christ's Birth in the city center, surrounded by the green Cathedral Park, is the spiritual center. The National Museum of History showcases Moldova's complex past between Romania, the Ottoman Empire, and the Soviet Union. Chisinau has a rough charm: Soviet architecture is slowly giving way to a vibrant café scene, street art, and a young generation that thinks European. The Central Market (Piata Centrala) is one of the largest in Eastern Europe, and Transnistria — the breakaway Soviet republic with its own currency and Lenin statues — is just 75 km to the east.