I had only 4 days in Moldova but it was an amazing time. The people are really friendly and the country has a lot of interesting things to do.

We arrived mid-day and immediately headed off to the wineries (Et Cetera andPucari). We arranged a driver through a women called Roxanne (theroadistheway@gmail.com) and she got us a guy called John to drive us around. We needed a driver because there was no public transport to these wineries.For a full day with an English speaking driver it cost us €50 plus petrol money. All other drivers we found wanted $100 per day, so we got a pretty good deal. It took us 1.5-2 hours to get there.

Et Cetera (www.etcetera.md) is a very new family run winery in the south of Moldova and it is mostly famous for it’s food/restaurant. It has lovely grounds but I wasn’t that impressed with the tour. The good part of the tour was that we saw the factories and the tanks where the wine was being made but some of the wines we were tasting were from tanks that we had been told were not ready yet. After the tour we had Zama, which is the Moldovian soup, with a nice bottle of rose. These were both delicious. The tour (which included the Zama) cost us $14 and the bottle of rose cost 60 Leu ($3).

After Et Cetera, we went down the road for a tour at Pucari (www.pucari.md). Our tour was delayed because of some VIPs being there, so we had a relaxing sit in the garden.  This tour was a lot more enjoyable than Et Cetera. They showed us around the factory and the cellars and the wine was a lot better. The tour included the tasting of 5 wines and their famous ice wine.

On the way back from the wineries we stopped at the side of the road for bbq pork. Wow that was nice! Again it’s a Moldovian dish. It cost us 200 Leu each ($10).

The next day was Orhei Veche!