Hiking In Moldova

There are places you visit…

And there are places you need to walk through.

Moldova is good for that.

Not because it has the highest mountains or famous hiking trails that people travel across the world to complete.It doesn't but leave the road and start walking, and you begin seeing a different Moldova.

A path disappears between trees, another follows the edge of a vineyard or takes you across an open field where the next village can already be seen in the distance.

In the Codrii, you walk beneath the trees where the light changes every few metres.

Along the Nistru, the landscape is different, the cliffs, valleys and steep paths can suddenly put the river far below you and around Orheiul Vechi, trails cross open land, climb the limestone ridges and follow the Răut through a landscape shaped by both people and nature.

Near Țipova, walking sometimes means going down first, which of course, means you eventually have to come back up again.

You don't always need a marked hiking trail, sometimes it begins with a road through a
village, then a smaller road, and finally something that looks enough like a path to
make you curious.

You walk and maybe it goes where you expected, maybe it doesn't and that is also part of the hiking exsperience.

There are places where you can walk for quite some time without meeting many people, but that doesn't mean nothing is happening.

A tractor works somewhere across the field. Birds disappear into the trees when you come too close. Somebody is working between rows of vines. A dog in a village notices you long before anybody else does.

Then when you stop, you notice how much you couldn't hear while you were moving.

Hiking in Moldova doesn't have to be about kilometres, records or reaching the highest point, walk for an hour, spend half a day in the forest, follow the river, take food with you and stop somewhere for lunch.

Combine the walk with fishing, a winery, a monastery or a village you have never visited before or simply walk because you saw a path and wondered where it went.

Sometimes that is reason enough.

Hiking Paths Across Moldova

The hiking trails in Moldova are not always obvious.

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Some are marked, some are known locally, others are simply paths and small roads that people have been using for years and sometimes you aren't completely sure which one you have found.

Around Orheiul Vechi, walking routes are easier to recognise.

Paths cross the hills and limestone landscape around the Răut River, connecting viewpoints, villages and some of the historical sites in the area.

In the Codrii, it is the forest that changes the walk, paths disappear beneath the trees, divide, meet again and sometimes become little more than tracks through the vegetation.

Along the Nistru and around Țipova, the terrain can become steeper.

A path that looks easy from above may suddenly begin going down towards the river.And remember: if you walk down, you normally have to walk back up.

Outside the better-known hiking areas, things become less organised and You'll may find a dirt road leaving a village, a track between vineyards, a path along a field or something disappearing towards the forest.

These were not necessarily made for hikers.

Farmers use them, villagers use them, tractors use them and you can sometimes use them too but use some common sense.

Not every track is public, not every path continues where you think it does, and mobile coverage or signs cannot be expected everywhere.

If you are heading into an area you don't know, check the route before leaving, carry water and make sure you have enough daylight to get back.

That less organised side of hiking is also part of what makes walking in Moldova interesting.

You don't always start beside a large sign saying TRAIL BEGINS HERE. Sometimes you start at the edge
of a village.

You pass the last houses, the asphalt becomes gravel, the gravel becomes dirt, and eventually you realise you have been hiking for the last twenty minutes.

No ceremony required.