Cricova winery & monastery - I took a tour with local guide Valery Bradu which my hotel (Hotel Plai) organised for me. I was picked up from my hotel by Valery at around 11:30am and shared the trip with two ladies from Lithuania. Valery made sure we were all comfortable in his car and spoke to the ladies in Russian and myself in English and made sure we all had a good day. We visited Cricova winery where a guide spoke to the other guests in Russian and Valery gave me a private talk about the winery in English. As part of the trip we drove around underground on a small open bus seeing the caskets and how they make wine & Prosecco, we then took part in wine tasting which was very informative and relaxing in one of the tasting rooms. The tour lasted around 2 hours. Once we left the winery, Valery drove us for around an hour to the monastery which was in a remote location in the Moldovan countryside/hills which was so peaceful with a quintessential little village. We went to the hidden monastery and again Valery taught us everything we needed to know about the area and how & why the monastery was formed. We stopped for a drink in a local restaurant too & we’re watching locals working the land. Valery was a very knowledgeable guide with perfect English & was clearly very passionate about his job & his love for Moldova was clear. Very enjoyable day & would definitely recommend Valery as your guide, he seemed to know everything there was to know about Moldova & it’s history.

Nice trip - The guide picked me up at hotel and drove on beautiful country road and visited cave monastery first, in the afternoon toured the winery. A nice experience!

The Contrast Could not be Greater - After a little bit more than one hour drive from Chisinau, the Moldovian capital, we reached Old Orhei. The very skillfull guide explained the geology and the settlement of the region, becoming apparent that actually it is a kind of ethnical island within Moldova. We visitied a small homestead and made a stroll along a steep hillslope to the monastery on a rocky promontory. Afterwards we had a light lunch (à la carte), to be paid on our own, before we left Old Orhei. After passing the outskirts of Chisinau we reached the Cricova Winery. We got a new guide who showed very professionally but in an apparently daily routine the huge Winery which requires a tramride to cover the distances. For the wine tasting we received 4 samples: two sparkling and to still wines, of which one was a red one, accompanied by a light snack. At the very end we had the possibility to buy their products in their gift shop. The selection is very extensive but tasting was not possible. Another hour due to traffic jam brought us back to the hotel. The car was convenient, the driver drove safely and the travel agency was reliable.