Three of the country's most rewarding sights lie within an hour of Chisinau. Orheiul Vechi to the north combines a 13th-century cave monastery dug into a limestone cliff above the Raut River with one of the most spectacular landscapes in Moldova. The wineries at Cricova (15 km north) and Mileștii Mici (20 km south) run underground tours through hundreds of kilometres of limestone galleries — Mileștii Mici claims the world's largest wine collection, with two million bottles in cellars 200 km long.
For something different, Tipova Monastery (90 km north) and the Saharna gorge offer cliff-set Orthodox monasteries with hiking trails along the Dniester. All these can be reached by marshrutka or, more comfortably, by a private taxi for the day.
