One day tour in Transnistria

Great experience only 5 of us with Tatiana who spoke excellent English and gave us a lot of information. We had lunch at a local woman’s house of traditional Moldovan specialties which was prepared from scratch. Border crossing was very easy. We handed our passports to our driver at the border control and got them with the temporary registration paper for Transnistria. We were very safe at all the important highlights we visited which one included Bender Fortresss, two war memorials, city hall. I had changed my tour plans to this one and was not disappointed.

I had a one on one tour with Dmitriy and Tatiana. They're a great team, Dmitriy is a calm and safe driver, lovely clean modern car. Tatiana is professional, full of information. I enjoyed the full day tour, saw, are and drank so much. Would recommend, would do again

This was one of the highlights of my trip to Moldova. It was so great learning all the history. There were no issues with border police as some vlogs have concern over. Felt safe and being with a local guide I had no worries. This price has transportation included but the other person in my group took the bus from Chisinau with no issues and save a lot of money. Overall, 5/5, loved it.

Nicholas was a great local guide. He was very knowledgeable about the city and took us to some interesting sites. The lunch with Tatiana and her family was amazing, and a chance to try real local Moldavian food in a beautiful setting. We would definitely recommend this tour.

It is a very interesting tour and we recommend to others if you like history and curious about this unique place. Olga has done all she could do to guide this tour and we sincerely appreciate her effect. However, the transfer from Chishinau to Tiraspol was disorganized. We were picked up at 8:30am as planned, then the next 3 people found our car in a parking lot while the driver still somewhere looking for them. Then we drove to a place for bathroom stop and waiting for more people to join, but no one came for a long time. We continued and met the guide passed 11 am. So the morning time was mostly gone and during all those time, we couldn't communicate to driver much, barely a few words via cell phone translate.

Fantastic experience in Transnistria. The guide, Tatiana, speaks excellent English and is able to cover topics from history to current affairs, always offering a view from different perspectives. The tour will take you to visit the Bender Castle and the city center of Tiraspol. The experience in the Soviet canteen or the green market was beautiful.

Wonderful excursion from start to finish! Everything was perfectly organized, with beautiful routes and unique experiences throughout. Nicholas, our driver and guide, was outstanding—very friendly, professional, and kind. His knowledge of the country's history was impressive and made the tour even more interesting and enjoyable. We highly recommend him! We had an amazing time and created unforgettable memories.

I’ve been to 77 countries so it takes quite a bit nowadays to blow my mind.. but this day trip did. It is simply an extraordinary place to visit: on the one hand, a quiet, chilled, friendly lovely place.. on the other a breakaway territory considered under Russian military occupation by the Council of Europe. It’s a truly weird place, full of contradictions: a celebration of the Soviet Union.. and at the same time there are statues of Catherine the Great and the last Tsar is worshipped as a saint. Basically it seems to just celebrate whenever Russia was great, regardless of the contradictory ideologies. It’s an authoritarian semi-dictatorship (we were given a list of rules such as the word „Transnistria“ being forbidden), yet it felt really easy going strolling through the place. The journey from Chisinau was quick and easy. The border crossing took 3 minutes. Our young French/ PMR guide Nicholas, was superb: friendly, informative, warm. Lunch in a Soviet style canteen was fun and cheap. We were driven round in an 80s Soviet Lada which added to the experience. A few practical things: You can’t use credit cards, or non-PMR phones even with e-Sims. Every country in the world advises you against travel here as only Russia has a consulate.. so if you lose your passport you’re screwed. And your travel / health insurance is invalid. All that said (!) it felt incredibly safe: crime is non-existent and you’re with an official guide on a day trip. It’s without doubt statistically far riskier riding your bike through London. Would I recommend? 100% YES. I’ll never forget this bizarre, fascinating day.

This was a really great experience. Everything was handled expertly by the guides, from pick up at my hotel to the border crossing and day visa process. I was one of 6 tourists visiting for the day on this trip, and couldn't have picked a better day – glorious sunshine and blue skies during the heatwave this part of Europe is experiencing. Our driver took us to meet our tour guides in Tiraspol, and we were immediately immersed in the culture, history and politics of Pridnestrovie, the country that doesn't exist. It is a fascinating place to learn about, the centre of the city is well maintained and looked beautiful in the summery weather. We walked around the main streets for a while visiting war memorials, statues, parks, shops, the markets and souvenir places. We then headed to the USSR Canteen for lunch. This little time capsule on Lenin Street was serving traditional local food, and had museum pieces and exhibits from the CCCP. It was really interesting to see the mixture of modern European and Soviet era cultures and how it has evolved. You see the national flag fly everywhere with its hammer and sickle, and find local produce on sale alongside Western goods and brands. People were exceptionally friendly and welcoming to tourists everywhere we went, and our guides helped with exchanging money. Make sure you bring major currency in cash notes to change, bank cards won't work here – Euros, Dollars or Sterling were easiest to work with, or Moldovan Lei. I changed £50 and spent roughly half on lunch and several souvenirs, then used the rest for tipping. Around €30-40 would still be more than plenty, depending on what you'd like to buy, I'd suggest €20 if you only plan to get lunch and tip. The tour also took us across the Dniester river to Benderi Fortress (admission price was included with the tour), where we explored the site and its museums, learned more about the long history of the region dating back to the Ottoman and Russian Empires, and the site's more recent restorations, including a grand church building that has been rebuilt. We were then picked up and driven back to the border checkpoint and onwards to Chișinău. Drop off is back at your hotel, or you can ask to be dropped in the city centre if you plan to go straight out for dinner (our group got back around 5:30pm, this will always depend on the traffic). I am really grateful to the guides for making this such a memorable experience, and especially Tatiana who kept in touch with updates via WhatsApp to coordinate pick up in the morning. Chișinău has exceptionally busy traffic at peak times, so it was great to be kept informed of pick up times. I was hesitant about visiting Transnistria because of the cautions and travel advisories I read online warning against visiting, but my experience was the total opposite. Tiraspol is a friendly place to explore, and I have always believed it's important to see new places and learn about other cultures. The day visa was issued with no problems, peacekeeper troops from Moldova and Russia are visible as you pass on the roads and at border crossings, but I felt reassured and safe at all times in Pridnestrovie. You could visit or your own, but this is hard right now with no trains running there with the line from Moldova closed due to the conflict in Ukraine. I would instead highly recommend booking an official trip through these guides who will look after you and take care of everything to ensure you get the best from a trip to a country that doesn't exist.

This was a cool trip. The driver didn’t speak English but we made do with Google Translate. Our group was really chill and we all made friends with each other. Once we crossed the border, we met with a guide, Vita, who was knowledgeable and friendly. We got to see a lot of interesting sights and learn about the history. Highly recommend.