The Chisinau day trip guide: how to use Marshrutkas.

Buna ziua! I have just returned from Moldova and I had an incredible time there, but it was such a pain trying to find information about public transport to organize my day trips out of Chisinau. Once you get to Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, most people take a day trip or two out of town because the centre of Chisinau really isn't that big and you can see most of it in a day or two. However, Google was useless when it came to looking up information on the buses I needed for my day trips and shockingly, my Airbnb host was completely useless. I stayed at a lovely apartment complex which was owned by a rich woman who no longer lives in Moldova, so she was literally looking up the information on Google from Italy to answer my questions about public transport whilst I got the keys to the apartment from the security guys at the apartment complex. If you're looking up information about public transport in a big city like Chicago, London, Paris, Singapore or Sydney, you'll have no problem finding everything you need on Google but if you are after information about public transport in Moldova, what you find online is very misleading! The problem is that only a part of the information is available online, like 40%  to 50% of it and you would be left with the impression that public transport is terrible there with only a tiny network available: that is not true at all. The fact is Moldova is a poor country and that means most people do not own their own cars or have the means to pay for a taxi, hence they are completely reliant on public transport and thus there is a sufficient demand for an extremely robust public transport system. However, the key difference between the system in Moldova and say that in the UK or USA, is that more than half of these bus services are supplied by private companies who run small mini buses, often known as Marshrutkas (the Russian word which means 'routed taxi'). The operators of these Marshrutkas have a good system and a time table, so the locals know when they can get the bus into town and back home, but that information simply isn't passed onto Google or whatever internet search engine/app you use to plan your journeys. As a tourist who is so used to using Google maps and various apps to plan my journeys, I had to go back to basics and go into the bus station to ask for the information I needed - I knew I was able to do that thanks to a number of other bloggers who have done the same thing. Given that some of those posts were from a few years ago, I thought I would add to this wealth of knowledge by doing a similar post in November 2023. 

Day trip to Tiraspol in Transnistria from Chisinau 

This is relatively easy and straightforward despite what you may have read online. You need to start at the Chisinau central bus station, this is right next to the Piaţa Centrală, which is pronounced "Piatza Chentraluh" as Romanian is closest to Italian, so if you speak Italian or at least have some knowledge of how words in Italian are pronounced, use those rules and ditch the rules you use in English. For example, the capital Chisinau is pronounce "ki-shi-now". The Piaţa Centrală is massive and is a tourist destination in itself and  contains a massive market where everything under the sun is sold - the bus station is on the eastern side of the market. Look out for the huge sign for LC Waikiki that is right next to the bus station and you will find it easily enough. Given that Tiraspol is the second largest city of Moldova (okay, I know we can talk about whether or not that counts as it is in the breakaway region of Transnistria) with about 150,000 inhabitants, there is always enough demand for a bus about every 30 minutes, sometimes even more often during peak periods, hence you will never have to wait too long for the next bus to Tiraspol. Once you have located the bus station, locate a ticket booth and these are actually located on the outside of the building - please don't be confused by the fact that there are also ticket booths in the interior of the building, those are selling train tickets, not bus tickets. But if you make that mistake, I'm sure the staff at the train station will point you in the correct direction. The staff at the ticket booths will speak Romanian and Russian but not likely to speak any English - you might get lucky and get a younger person who may manage basic English, but you simply need to find out when the next bus is, how much it costs and where that bus will depart from. So even if you spoke no Romanian or Russian, you literally just need to say your destination: Tiraspol. The person behind the counter will then write down the time of departure and the cost on a piece of paper for you to read, "11:15 am, 40 lei". As for where the bus will depart from, you will be pointed in the right direction by the staff and the driver of your bus will probably spot the foreign looking tourists and come and help you out by asking you, "Tiraspol? Tiraspol?" I speak some Romanian and Russian but I reckon given how the staff there help tourists all the time, you will be fine even if you didn't speak either; but even a few words of Russian will prove to be rather useful there. 

It is a long journey to Tiraspol involving a border crossing at Bendery, so make sure you go to the toilet before your journey begins. There is a disgusting public toilet in the bus station itself and you have to pay 3 lei to use it, but be sensible, just pay up, use it and get on the bus knowing that your next toilet break may be between one and a half to two hours away. Make sure you turn up at your bus at least 10 to 15 minutes before departure to secure a good seat - my partner and I were separated as we were one of the last two to board the bus but it wasn't a complete disaster. I had to sit next to a very fat guy who kept falling asleep on me but my partner sat next to a young Italian student who was mad enough to want to go to Tiraspol in November. So imagine my surprise when I heard them conversing in English, when everyone else in the bus was speaking only in Russian. It took us approximately70 minutes to reach the border crossing at Bendery, the roads are bumpy and of poor quality once you get out of the greater Chisinau metropolitan area so buckle up for an uncomfortable ride. We had to disembark at the border crossing for passport control, I was more than ready to speak to the border guard in Russian military uniform in Russian, but to my surprise he actually spoke perfectly good English even though I was speaking only in Russian with him. He asked us three questions, "What is the purpose of your visit? (We are tourists on holiday.) Where are you going to today? (Only to Tiraspol.) How long will you be staying? (Only five hours, we are going back to Chisinau later this evening.)" Based on that, we were issued a visa-on-arrival for 12 hours and a slip of paper in Russian and English with all the information - I'm sure you've heard this before, you really must hold on tight to that piece of paper! You will run into all kinds of difficulty trying to leave Transnistria without that piece of paper. The bus driver doesn't give you any of this information or prepares you for this, I wasn't even told that I needed to have my passport with me when I got on the bus - everyone is simply expected to be prepared. If you're turned away at the border, the bus driver would just continue on with the rest of the passengers on his way and leave you at the border. Mind you, my driver did shout at me when I took a selfie at the border crossing - that's not allowed, I know you're not supposed to take pictures of that. I played the part of the dumb tourist who didn't know better. 

The bus will make a few stops in Bendery, the sleepy border town with some incredibly old Soviet era trolley buses that make the trolley buses in Chisinau look ultra-modern and new. You will also see some very Soviet-era style buildings in Bendery and it is most famous for the Bendery fortress, though I have seen videos of it and passed on it. It used to be a magnificent fortress but it was used as military barracks in the Soviet times and fell into disrepair - the soldiers weren't that interested in preserving the historical aspects of it and after it was abandoned by the soldiers, the locals decided to spend a lot of money repairing it and restoring it, so it could become a tourist destination. But now it looks a bit too shiny and new, almost Disneyland like and if you have plenty of time, by all means visit it and spend an hour or two there - otherwise, you can continue straight onto Tiraspol. I recommend that you stay on the bus until you get to the station, so you know where to return to in order to pick up your bus back later. The station is a little bit out of town, but that 15 minutes walk into the centre of Tiraspol will allow you to see how the real people live - in crumbling Soviet-era blocks that look utterly miserable and are just falling apart. Come on, that's what you've gone to Tiraspol to see. When at the bus station, you will find a schedule of all the buses back to Chisinau on the notice board - the staff behind the counter spoke some basic English to my surprise, but don't expect them to be fluent. It is important for you to find out what time the last bus back to Chisinau is, so you do not overstay your limited day trip visa. You might be able to purchase the tickets there and then, but when we tried to buy a ticket for a bus late in the day, the man behind the counter said he couldn't get it on the system to sell us that ticket, but it will likely be quite an empty bus so as long as we return at a decent time, we should have no problems buying the tickets then. Interestingly enough, he was happy for us to pay in Moldovan Lei! There is the local Transnistrian Rouble and you are usually screwed on the exchange rate whenever you change Euros, Dollars of Moldovan Lei into the local currency, but the bus tickets back are more expensive - that's just the price of getting back to the free world, away from Transnistria. If you want to spend any money in Transnistria, you will need local Roubles and you need to visit a money changer in town - there are plenty of them everywhere. Only change what you need as that currency is useless once you get back to Moldova, no one in Moldova will accept it, not even the money changer! I have read that some Marshrutka drivers in Moldova might accept it however that's just a rumour I can't verify. 

Thanks to our Italian friend, we saw all the principle tourist sights in the centre of Tiraspol as he was so well prepared and had plotted a route already. We even went to a restaurant called 'Back in the USSR' which was gimmicky, touristy and pricey but still, we were tourists looking for a fun experience so we had a great meal there. All in all, we spent about 6 hours in central Tiraspol including about 30 minutes in the Sheriff supermarket - we were playing this game whereby we had 54 Transnistrian Roubles (the equivalent of US$3.35) left and we were trying to spend exactly that amount in the supermarket. We took the 18:30 bus back to Chisinau and the bus was relatively empty when we got on bus filled up as the bus made its way through Tiraspol, Bendery and finally at the border - the border guard boarded the bus this time and we simply handed all our passports over to him. He then returned a few minutes later and returned our passports without any fuss, then we were on our way. I slept most of the way back to Chisinau despite the bumpy road conditions. We did hit rush hour traffic going back into Chisinau city centre, so the journey back did take a bit longer, but I was satisfied that we did successfully navigate the local Marshrutka system without any problems. A lot of people simply give up and think, no this is all way too complicated, I'll just book myself on a guided tour to go to Transnistria, that way I can have a guide hold my hand every step of the way and I don't have to worry about the logistics. However, a day trip with a tour company is expensive: typically they start at about £80 and the price can go down if you have a large enough group, but if you're a solo traveller or as in my case, if you are a duo, then you are effectively paying for a private tour. Perhaps in the summer season, you would be lucky and they might combine groups to drive down the price but if you are going off-peak like I did in November, then it can be frightfully expensive to get one of those private tours. Given that we spent the equivalent of about £6 (US$7.58) each to get to Tiraspol and back on public transport, I definitely recommend doing this on public transport even if you don't speak any Russian or Romanian. Our Italian student friend had looked up all the information online prior to the trip and he was a great guide for us in Tiraspol, I was able to step in and translate whenever necessary, so the three of us had a great day out in Tiraspol at a tiny fraction of what it would have cost. Besides we could take our time and we were on our own schedule whilst your time there is very limited on a guided tour. 

Day trip from Chisinau to Orheiul Vecchi 

This one is a little more tricky but still completely doable. Note the main difference between getting to Orheuil Vecchi and Tiraspol is the frequency of the buses - Orheuil Vecchi is located near the villages of Butuceni (5 minutes walk) and Trebujeni (50 to 60 minutes walk - depending on your speed). I only visited Butuceni and Orheuil Vecchi given that I went in November and it was bitterly cold, it was just above freezing and very windy that day. If you have nice weather in spring or autumn, you might want to go all the way to Trebujeni and hike back to Butuceni and Orheuil Vecchi, but otherwise if it is very cold in winter and stupidly hot in summer, then do what I did by getting the marshrutka to the visitors' centre near Butuceni. Once again, you will find the marshrutka in the central bus station in Chisinau - but the buses going to Butuceni are parked near the market place itself. The bus driver will have a bus time table with him and you can always ask him to show it to you, the word for time table in Romanian is orarul and in Russian it is Расписание (Rapinsanye) - in November, there were only three buses a day heading to Butucenni and it was obvious that I had no choice but to take the morning bus at 10:20 am as the other two buses are way too late for me to spend the day at Orheuil Vecchi. This time we did not buy a ticket at the ticket office, we merely paid the bus driver when we arrived at our destination. Our bus was completely Romanian speaking and given the age of our bus driver, I didn't even try to ask him if he spoke any English - I just assumed he didn't. But then, he knew exactly where the two foreign tourists wanted to go, he dropped us off right at the entrance to the visitor centre of Orheuil Vecchi. We were literally two steps away from the ticket booth at the entrance where the staff welcomed us at once. The entrance fee is only 10 lei (£0.45 or US$0.56) and that fee covers your entrance to the whole area of Orheuil Vecchi. There is a tiny museum at the visitor's centre, gift shop and toilets but before you go hiking up that mountain to see the famous monastery, make sure you ask the staff at the visitor centre to tell you exactly what time the bus back to Chisinau would arrive. Our driver told us 15:00 and 16:00, the staff at the visitor centre said no, that is wrong, it should be 14:45 and 15:45. We decided it wasn't worth the risk to miss the last bus, so we aimed for 15:45 and sure enough, the bus turned up at 15:50. The security guard was very friendly and helpful, he directed all those tourists heading back to Chisinau onto that bus and made sure nobody was left behind. 

I paid a total of 140 lei for a return trip (£6.25 or US$7.88) but bear in mind that a day trip as part of an organized tour would set you back approximately £80 to £90 and that it is a 55 km trip from Chisinau to Butuceni. I arrived there at about 11:05 am and got the 15:50 bus back - thus all in all, I was there for 4 hours 45 minutes which was more than enough time for us to hike up to the monastery and the church, have a nice lunch in one of the expensive, touristy, restaurants in Butuceni. It is what it is, you're in one of the most touristy and beautiful spots in Moldova, so of course it is never going to be cheap to have a nice meal there. Then we took a slow walk through Butuceni village and made our way back to where we started at the visitor's centre, we spent a little time at the museum (which I'm afraid was completely underwhelming) before waiting at the entrance to be picked up for the 15:45 bus. If we had walked a bit more quickly, we probably could've made the 14:45 bus but we wanted to take it easy and not rush at all as we were on holiday. As with the other trip to Tiraspol, this is completely doable on public transport and we saved a lot of money doing it this way. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind spending more money if it was good value for money but I really don't want people to think that the only way to visit these incredible places would be to sign up for a tour when it is really quite easy to do it with public transport options especially since the locals are very friendly and helpful. Moldova is a poor country and they do want tourists to visit, so even if you don't speak a word of Romanian or Russian, the locals will go out of their way to try to help you have a good experience. When we were having lunch in Vila Etnika, our waitress couldn't understand what I was trying to say to her in Romanian, so she ran to grab another colleague who came to our table and said, "I'm sorry my colleague couldn't help you, but I speak English, what can I do for you?" I believe that figuring out the public transport system in Moldova is part of the experience of traveling, the system works - 2.6 million people live in Moldova and most of them either rely on public transport or at least use it frequently, so the system has to work even if it may be hard to find the information online. The locals seem to know exactly where to wait and what time the buses will show up and they will be very happy to assist any tourists they meet. I would definitely encourage you to do what I did, but please always verify the bus timetable for every single medium to long distance journey you make in Moldova as these could always change.  

So to conclude, I want to address the question of why it seems impossible to get all of this information on Google? Well, the bus drivers are working as part of a private business and it is down to them to share this information online in order for Google and other apps to integrate that piece of information into what you and I can find online when we do a search. Perhaps it is because Moldova just isn't as technologically advanced as other countries in this aspect and that information regarding bus schedules isn't shared online but everyone just somehow knows. Heck, I'm old enough to remember what it was like taking the bus to get around town in the 1980s and 1990s, we didn't have the luxury of looking that information up on the internet then, we had other ways of finding out how to get to our destinations, we asked our friends and family for that information or we would consult a directory with the information we needed - it was old fashioned but it still worked. Perhaps it is because I am part of that generation, I have less difficulty in finding the information I need without going online - the same principle applies when it comes to languages. In Moldova, people speak Russian and Romanian, now you can get by in Moldova simply using Google translate all the way and never even learn a single word of Romanian or Russian during your trip there. But I actually enjoyed the process of revising the Romanian and Russian that I had studied years ago and then have the ability to speak to the locals without having to take out my phone to translate every single sentence. I really enjoyed traveling to Moldova because a part of that experience was to step back in time and see things from another era - that was especially true during my day trip to Tiraspol which was totally stuck back in the Soviet era. So when in Rome, so as the Romans do and when in Moldova, learn to find all the information you need without the internet. Finally, if you have the chance, I recommend popping into Chisinau tourist information office which is located close to the Triumphal Arch (opposite the McDonald's), the staff there will help you find all the information you need and help you plan your itinerary. I wish you a safe and enjoyable trip in beautiful Moldova - those who venture off the beaten track in Moldova will be rewarded richly. I really enjoyed Moldova, I'm sure you will too. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave me a comment below. Many thanks for reading.