Things to Do in Moldova: City Guides & Audio Tours

Moldova is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, between Romania and Ukraine, where fertile countryside, vineyards and a complex history meet. The best things to do in Moldova include exploring its capital, discovering the distinct character of Tiraspol, and understanding how changing empires and borders shaped the country. Neywo offers a free audio guide for 2 cities in Moldova, with 114 narrated places across 7 walking tours, available in 11 languages.

What to see and do in Moldova

Explore Chisinau

Chisinau is the main starting point for discovering Moldova. Neywo’s guide to the city includes 102 narrated places, making it the country’s richest urban collection on the app. Its highlights include the Complex of the former synagogue with retirement home, the Cathedral of Divine Providence, the Synagogue of the Glaziers and Măzărache Church.

These places reflect several layers of Chisinau’s history and religious life. They also offer a way to move beyond a general introduction to the capital and focus on specific buildings and sites as you walk through the city. For a closer look at the capital, continue with the Chisinau city guide.

Discover Tiraspol

Tiraspol lies in the Transnistria region, on the east bank of the Dniester. The territory has been controlled by the breakaway government of Transnistria since 1990, making it an important place for understanding Moldova’s continuing political and historical divisions.

Neywo’s Tiraspol guide includes 12 narrated places. Among its main stops are Tiraspol Fortress, the Kotovsky Museum in Tiraspol, the Old Believers church in Tiraspol and Shevchenko Transnistria State University. Together, these sites introduce the city through its fortifications, museums, religious heritage and educational institutions. The Tiraspol guide lets you explore these places with their stories at hand.

Follow Moldova’s history through its changing borders

Moldova’s modern story begins with the medieval Principality of Moldavia, which emerged in the 1350s and became the predecessor of both modern Moldova and Romania. The principality grew in importance under rulers including Stephen the Great before becoming a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1812, its eastern half, Bessarabia, was annexed by the Russian Empire. Bessarabia later united with Romania in 1918, then became part of the Soviet Union in 1940 as the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. Soviet policies of Russification and economic transformation left a lasting mark. Moldova declared independence in 1991 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, followed by the Transnistria War the next year.

This history is not a straight sequence of settled borders. It is a story of changing empires, governments and identities, and of a country still defining its own path.

See the landscape between the Prut and the Dniester

Moldova’s geography helps explain its history and its way of life. The Prut River separates the country from Romania to the west, while the Dniester marks much of its eastern side. Moldova lies east of the Carpathian Mountains and within the Black Sea Basin.

The landscape includes mixed forest, forest steppe and steppe, with rivers, open land and cultivated ground shaping the scenery. Moldova has a moderately continental climate softened by its proximity to the Black Sea. Summers are warm and long, winters relatively mild and dry, while rainfall can be unpredictable, with dry spells as well as heavy showers and thunderstorms in early summer and October.

Experience Moldova’s wine country

Fertile black earth, known as chernozem, is central to Moldova’s countryside and economy. The soil supports grapes, fruit, vegetables and grains, while meat and dairy products also contribute to the national cuisine. Much of the country’s territory is agricultural land, and traditional farming methods remain part of this rural picture.

Wine has a particularly important place. Moldova’s long, sunny growing season creates favourable conditions for vineyards, and the wine industry is a major part of the economy and exports. In Moldova, vineyards are therefore more than a scenic feature: they connect the land with food, daily work and trade beyond the country’s borders.

Taste the food shaped by the land

Moldovan cooking begins with the ingredients produced by its fertile soil. Grain comes from the fields, while orchards and gardens provide fruit and vegetables. Grapes become wine, and meat and milk products also have an established place in the national cuisine.

This relationship between agriculture and food gives Moldova a distinctive rhythm. The country’s cuisine is closely tied to its landscape, where cultivated fields, vineyards and gardens are part of everyday life rather than separate attractions.

Explore Moldova with Neywo

Download Neywo to discover Moldova through 7 walking tours covering 2 cities and 114 narrated places in total. The app offers free audio guides for Chisinau and Tiraspol, with narration available in 11 languages.

Each story plays as you reach the place, at your own pace, with no group and no schedule. Open the app, choose a walk and let Neywo explain the history and character of each stop as you explore.