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 :-)