Living with locals is everywhere a new adventure. With Couchsurfing in Moldova, it helped a lot, especially when visiting the countryside. Discover with me how you can do it too, when visiting Moldova and using Couchsurfing.
Where is it located?
Moldova is a small country in Europe, which shares borders with Ukraine and Romania. In Moldova is also Transnistria, which is an autonomous region which is not recognized as a country.
Moldova is not in the EU and also not in NATO and was earlier part of the Soviet Union, it is a really poor country for Europe at least and Chisinau is their capital.
Where to find hosts in the country?
The easiest is of course to find a host in the capital Chisinau, because it is a big town, but also it is possible due to a little bit over two million citizens that you find hosts in small towns.
When you search in Couchsurfing the world “Moldova ‘, you will find everything inside the region and near the border.
Usually it is nothing which is common to do, due to the amount of users, in Moldova it can help planning your trip.
Basically you can do it in every country, but it can take a while.
Is it easy finding a host in Moldova?
While I stayed a week in the country I could stayed with three hosts, each of them was great to spend time with. Due to not having that many tourists, the locals are excited of hosting you when having a good account and sending a good request.
Read those articles: How to create a great Couchsurfing profile & How to write a good request those ones will help you to have it easier finding hosts, meeting new friends and to save money!
What did I do with the hosts?
The host family in this article was located in a small village located between Chisinau and Transnistria.
Before I visited I was hitchhiking there.
It was surprisingly really easy for me to make it, to that later on a different article.
The guy who picked me up in Chisinau really wanted me to arrive safely, so he called my host and actually dropped me in the village.
Otherwise I would have had to hitchhike on a road which wasn’t busy at all and was just a dirt road.
I was welcomed by the wife of the couple and we understood each other right away. She was lovely and walked with me home where she prepared some food for us. We were eating some local food including sweet cooked apples.
I don’t know exactly what it was called but it tasted amazing!
It had such a good taste and then she brought up the wine, also selfmade. We went to the garden, where the entrance for the wine seller was. They were doing a lot of wine, which was interesting, but the best thing was, it tasted great!
We were eating and drinking while watching some Russian show where people were traveling around the world and actually it was quite entertaining.
What did we do in the village
After the food we went for a walk around the little village which was great!
I was able to see how the local life was going on, people just doing whatever they needed to do, to keep everything in shape and people burning their things, of course illegally but nobody cared.
I took some pictures and one of the pictures got even my favorite of the country.
When the husband came home we also understood each other really well! He was super cool and both of them are perfect for each other! They both travel a lot and also lived in the Netherlands for quite some time working there in the cleaning business, same as I basically for living!
We were spending some quality time together and on the day of my leaving I left with my husband for work, so he was able to drop me off at the highway, so I could hitchhike to Transnistria after, which was such a big help for me!
How was the experience?
The experience was amazing, actually one of the best I had so far. In general I had super good experiences in Moldova, so I highly recommend you try it out. Of course the experiences can never be the same, not everyone likes the same things or will meet the same people, but overall being welcomed in by locals is always feeling great.
I was able to experience the countryside with locals and that was really something I wasn’t expecting at all, because when using Couchsurfing it is usually nothing that would happen to you. Usually just the cities are possible, because you just don’t really find the other options.
Trustroots is doing it better, they have a map where you can find users, sadly the application isn’t that big yet, same as Bewelcome or Couchers.org.
The good thing about those three sides is, they are for free, so check them out for sure!
What is important to know about Couchsurfing in Moldova?
Important to know is, don’t expect a fancy country, Moldova is poor and often not looking that amazing, but the people make up for it. They are really welcoming and love it when you are going to visit their country with a big interest in them.
A week should be enough, unless you really want to dive into the country somehow.
I could have spent more time there because I felt really good being there.
The exchange rate is actually fair, the same you are going to find online, at least by the end of 2021 I don’t know if it is still like that!
Invest some time in searching for good hosts, in Moldova there are not that many people, so it won’t take so long and you won’t regret it for sure!
Summary
It was amazing spending time with Couchsurfing in the countryside of Moldova. It was nothing I expected to do and it is perfect to have the contrast between city and countryside.
The people I met were just super nice and welcoming. Like always, whenever you have any questions about traveling and Couchsurfing just let me know, I am excited to answer them!
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