Moldova?

I haven't been there, but did a six day tour of Romania and loved it. I imagine that culturally, it is similar to Romania?

Seriously not sure how Moldova would feel about that. Sort of like Canada and tge US i guess you are saying.

Yes, I know the history (more or less) and there is some talk in the Moldovan government about joining Romania ... but thats for survival (NATO). Moldova does have russian troops in it.

I only plan on spending a few days after coming from Odesa. Wizzair has direct flights to Budapest.

You might like this Youtube video of a couple of tourists who recently visited Moldova:

https://youtu.be/x11G_1tJqk4?si=OqN8VbMwE4j7JVjL

Thank you FrankII, I guess I should of posted on how over touristed Italy is... we could have all agreed and then bought a ticket to Italy and somehow convinced ourselves we were different because we were using the back door to Venice as "travelers".

I only spent around 2 days in Moldova (Khisinev only) around 2018. I just wandered around the capital area and didn't make it to the wine region. Really not a lot of tourist sites.

You can find some of my notes in the following thread:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/touring-from-iasi-romania-perhaps-moldova

I haven’t been, but did a tour of Romania last year where one of the participants said that Moldova was the only country in Europe he hadn’t been too and was going to visit for a few days after the tour. I quizzed him about whether it really was the only remaining country in Europe— Liechtenstein? Cyprus? Belarus? Andorra? — but yes, he had been to them all. He reported later that he was glad to have seen Moldova but four days there was about two too many. One thing about Romania was that in addition to their own wines, Moldovan wine was widely available, and the “1827” label was particularly common and good quality.

Slate, had he gone to all the Trans countries? (Azerbaijan, russia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Georgia)

It looks like i will have not less than 3 days, not more than 7 days. Moldova is really my airportto reach Odesa. If all goes well I have 3 days in Moldova. If things look to risky in Odesa, I get 4 more days in Moldova.

We are going to Armenia and Georgia with Gate 1 Travel in late Summer.

My second trip to Europe was with GATE1 and it was a good deal.

My son wanted us to go to Armenia and Georgia with a tour in July, but his boss said neither country was on the approved list so he is going to Spain and invited me. Its a shame because I was excited about the trip. We have non-stop discount service to both from Budapest. I just cant get excited about Spain, so I am looking at the Moldova / Odesa trip instead.

Arnold, looks like I am doing your trip in reverse, or more round trip starting in reverse: (Budapest to) Chișinău to Odesa to Chișinău (to Budapest). I have a couple of wine tours and a market tour lined up in Moldova. Looks interesting enough.

That’s a good question, Mr. E, in truth our discussion didn’t get into precise detail about the countries where it’s questionable whether they are in Europe or Asia. Certainly Russia and Turkey, the others more dubious about whether any part of them are in Europe. It is a bit arbitrary in other ways too — one could argue that Iceland should be considered North America, Cyprus Asia or Africa, Malta Africa, and so on, but of course they are generally accepted as European. I wouldn’t call Kazakhstan Europe though, regardless what some geographers might say about their Ural region.

Thats an interesting take on life.

If you are thinking the biggest wine cellar thing (forgot the name) - that's easily a full day tour.
Chisinau itself is a bit underwhelming (compared to Odessa), but worth a couple of days. If you can find a performance at the local theater - it's well worth it. If you have an extra day - highly recommend visiting pridnestrovie. Talk to people :-)

For those that are not familiar with Pridnestrovian, it is an entity that borders Ukraine:

The Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (PMSSR), also commonly known as Soviet Transnistria or simply as Transnistria, was created on the eastern periphery of Moldava in 1990 by pro-Soviet separatists who hoped to remain within the Soviet Union when it became clear that Moldova would achieve independence from the USSR. (Mostly Wikipedia)

Russia maintains troops in Pridnestrovian. No UN nation recognizes the "country" but it is recognized by the russian occupied portion of Georgia.

Naaa, I'll wait until after liberation, or UN recognition before I visit. I have seen the tourist advertising and it promotes the region as being a way to experience what the Soviet Union was like before it collapsed. I dont need to "experience" toilet paper lines.

My family has visited Moldova three times, all for two week, team-based service trips to run kids day camps in small villages.

Like you, we enjoy meeting and interacting with local people and learning about their interests / ways of life.

Some of our most memorable experiences in Moldova were:

• Village life: boarding and cooking with locals, fun activities with the local children, markets with baby chicks and rabbits, visits to the elderly, including a seniors care home.
• Impromptu visit to the home of a local Roma leader, who invited us in for a tour. My son played the piano for him and he played the accordion for us.
• Visit to a pottery operation, and to a honey operation run by a 16 year old boy out of his back yard!

We spent one day at the end of each trip touring around Chisinau. We visited the Orthodox church, small open air market, Valia Morilor Park, shops, etc. For us, one day touring Chisinau was enough for each visit.

All our activities were facilitated by locals who translated for us.

If you can find a guide to take you to a village on market day, you could make it a three day trip!

I visited Moldova last month for a total of 12 days. Overall I enjoyed it, though I like spending time in 'everyday life' not just seeing tourist attractions. I work about 4-5 hours/day (as a remote consultant/writer) and then look around where I'm at.
Chisinau: Did a free city walking tour (worthwhile). Visited museums: National Museum of Art, of History, City of Chisinau, National ethnography museum, Alexander Pushkin House, main cathedral. they have some nice parks and walked around the lake (near the university). The cathedral and central market. Visited the main train station and the surrounding open market. Tried to go on tour of Parliament, but no English tour when I was there, and the city bus tour was cancelled when I wanted to go. Food was so-so, but had a great Italian meal at a high-end restaurant near the US Embassy. There was a traditional culture festival that I attended
Went to Old Orhei, Balti, and Soroca (rented a car when leaving Chisinau). and then to the south, to Comrat and Cahul. Lots of farmland, vineyards. As stated, not a lot of traditional attractions, but I enjoyed just seeing daily life + leftovers from the Soviet periods. For getting around, I managed OK with just English, which was rather more prevalent in Chisinau than elsewhere not surprisingly. Also surprisingly, I only broke out Google Translate a few times.
Yes, this is inexpensive by USA standards. Prices seem to me about like Chile or slightly less, but a bit more expensive than Peru. My metric is ice cream. I had an ice cream cone in Cathedral Park, smack in the center of Chisinau, for $1.50. About the same as Romania and Georgia. I think I've paid like about $3 in Munich. In the US, you can pay as much as $9 for the same--yes the US has become so expensive. (the only expensive thing I experienced in Moldova was fuel for the car -- about $6/gallon.
I had a good experience, but I acknowledge this is not a visit for everyone.