Moldova entry requirements, by passport

What draws travelers to Moldova

Moldova is the least visited country in Europe and that is exactly its appeal: vineyards, cave monasteries and a capital with no queues. The axis is wine. Cricova and Mileștii Mici, on the outskirts of Chisinau, are underground cities of galleries cut into limestone — tens of kilometres you tour by car or on a little train — and Mileștii Mici is in the Guinness book as the world's largest wine collection; both have been on UNESCO's tentative list since 2025. The country's only inscribed World Heritage site is the Struve Geodetic Arc (2005), a chain of 19th-century triangulation points spread across ten countries, of which Moldova keeps one stretch. Beyond wine, Orheiul Vechi is the landscape not to miss: a deep meander of the Răut river with an Orthodox monastery carved into the cliff, still inhabited by monks, and remains of Getic, Tatar and medieval settlements. Chisinau keeps Soviet architecture and wide parks; Soroca, to the north, a circular medieval fortress above the Dniester. Transnistria, the strip east of the river, operates de facto as a separate state with its own authorities and its own currency: Spain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs advises avoiding it, and it is not a place your embassy can easily get you out of if something goes wrong.

Sources for this section: whc.unesco.org (World Heritage List: 1 site in Moldova — Struve Geodetic Arc, 2005; and the tentative list, with the Orheiul Vechi archaeological landscape since 2017 and the underground wineries of Cricova and Mileștii Mici since 2025); Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs travel advice for Moldova (Transnistria). Accessed 17 September 2026.