The question we are asked most often about Moldova is not "which wine should I drink", but "how do I get to a winery if I am not driving". It is a fair question, because the obvious answer — hire a car — runs into one fact: at a tasting, you drink. And the legal blood alcohol limit for drivers in the Republic of Moldova is zero.
The good news is that it can be done. The less good news is that you have to understand the geography first, or you will build yourself an impossible day.
The geography nobody tells you about
Moldova's two famous underground wineries look like neighbours on paper. They are not.
- Cricova — 14.5 km from Chișinău, about 20 minutes. North of the city.
- Mileștii Mici — 19.4 km from Chișinău, about 30 minutes. South of the city.
Both are close to the capital. But they are on opposite sides, with roughly 38 kilometres between them, on a road that crosses the whole city. Anyone planning "Cricova in the morning, Mileștii Mici in the afternoon" without knowing this ends up spending more time in traffic than in the cellars.
The third big name, Purcari, is 114 km away — around two hours each way, to the south-east. Purcari does not combine with anything. It is a full day on its own.
Open our map before you make any plans. Moldova's wineries do not form a route; they are spokes running out of Chișinău in different directions.
The rule that changes everything: booking
Cricova requires a booking. That is not a recommendation, it is a condition of entry. You cannot turn up at the gate in a taxi and walk in.
This has a logistical consequence many people miss: if the booking is compulsory and the time is fixed, your transport has to be fixed too. A taxi found on the spot in a village at the hour the tour ends is not a plan.
The general rule: book the tour first, arrange the transport afterwards, not the other way round.
The four real solutions
1. An organised tour with transport included
The simplest. Somebody else handles the car, the timetable and the bookings; you drink.
The advantage that matters most is not the convenience — it is that an operator who works with the wineries constantly knows what can and cannot be combined in a day. They will not sell you Cricova plus Purcari on the same day, because there is no way it can work.
The drawback: you go at their time, you stay as long as they stay, and you share the tour with other people. The available options are in the tours and excursions section, and the classic route format is explained in our wine tour guide.
2. Taxis and ridesharing
Ridesharing apps operate in Chișinău — Yandex Go and inDriver are both present in the city. For short journeys, within the capital or out to its edges, this is the most direct option.
There are two traps here, though, both to do with getting back:
The coverage trap. The apps work well in the city. At 40 or 100 kilometres out, in a village, there may be no car available at the hour you want to leave. The further you get from Chișinău, the lower the odds.
The price trap. Fares vary — by operator, by hour, by demand and by distance. We do not publish figures, because any sum we wrote down would be wrong within three months. Ask in the app before you set off, not afterwards.
The practical solution for the nearby wineries: negotiate with the driver to wait for you. For Cricova or Mileștii Mici, where the tour runs two to three hours, it is often cheaper and infinitely safer than hoping for a ride back.
3. The designated driver
If you are travelling as a group and someone is willing not to drink at all — and we do mean at all — this works perfectly. The driver can usually ask to have the wines explained without consuming them, or take the samples away, if the winery allows it.
To be honest: it is a solution that requires someone to give up the very reason you came. Rotate the role by day if you are staying longer.
4. Sleep where you drink
Five wineries in our directory offer accommodation on the estate. If you stay the night, the problem of the return journey disappears completely — all you need is the trip out.
It is the most elegant solution for the more distant wineries, in particular for Purcari, where the alternative is four hours of driving in one day. The details are in our guide to staying at a winery and in the dedicated article.
Three scenarios that work
Half a day, no car. Cricova or Mileștii Mici, there and back by ridesharing from Chișinău, with the driver waiting. Choose one, not both. Book the tour ahead — at Cricova, compulsory.
A full day. An organised tour with transport included, two wineries in the same direction. Let the operator choose the combination.
A weekend. Night one in Chișinău, night two at a winery with rooms. You transfer once, with your bags, and you avoid four journeys.
What not to do
- Assume there is useful public transport to the wineries. Public transport exists in Moldova, but the timetables do not match the tour hours, and the return in the evening is unreliable.
- Turn up at Cricova without a booking. You will not get in.
- Put Cricova and Mileștii Mici in the same half-day. That is 38 kilometres across the city, between two tours with fixed times.
- Drive after a tasting. Zero means zero.
- Leave the return journey to chance. From a village, at 6pm, on a Sunday.
If you are hiring a car anyway
There is a legitimate reason to: it gives you access to the monasteries, the surrounding villages, the places with nothing to do with wine. The combination that works is a car for the exploring days and arranged transport for the tasting day. The mobility options are gathered in the transport guide.
In practice, the order to do things in
- Choose one main winery per day.
- Book the tour — at Cricova, compulsory; everywhere else, recommended anyway.
- Only then sort out the transport, around the confirmed time.
- Arrange the return at the same time as the outward trip.
- If the winery is more than 100 km away, seriously consider sleeping there.
The rest of the practical planning — season, payments, connections — is in the practical guide. We connect readers with local operators through our partners page; we do not sell tours and we do not take bookings.
