Transnistria travel

Transnistria travel

I do postcards with my drawings and budget tours to top attractions and hidden gems of Transnistria. Honestly, I can’t make Maldives of my country, because it is not Maldives. But i can make an unforgettable journey through all contrasts of what it really is - beautiful panoramas and impressive soviet lost places, curious history and nowadays life in the country that doesn't exist, combining classic walk with forays for true explorers and adventurers.

Full day tour takes eight hours default, though Transnistria deserves at least a week. It is not Stalinism, we are very volatile where to go and what to do, but default route covers must-see USSR era and modern bits of Tiraspol, Bendery and optionallly Kitskany, and my favorite nooks and crannies that I discovered doing my sketches. The trip wont be exhausting, not boring at all, we will have time to talk about all peculiarities of past and present of Transnistria, you won’t be meeting a guide, you will be meeting a friend!

Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product

Pass By: House of Soviets, 25 Oktyabrya St., 101, Tiraspol Moldova

This is a day journey with a volatile route that combines classic walk and forays for true adventurers. No moving between monuments with boring lectures. In some parts it will be just like all tours go - “Look to the left, there is a building, look to the right, there is a monument”, but I will minimize that. My ideology is to show real country and hidden gems that travelers wouldn’t find themselves. That’s why most places where we may actually go are not listed here. Also please check out brutal version of the tour. So, first step - we will definitely stop by DOM SOVIETOV, impressive Stalin ampire from 1950es.

Stop At: The Christmas Cathedral, Tiraspol Moldova

Optional loop through 100 rouble back side.

Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: Green Market Center, Karla Liebknekhta St., 226, Tiraspol Moldova

Surprisingly modern veggie market. What they call eco products - for my country is just products.

Duration: 10 minutes

Stop At: The Suvorov Monument, Constitution Square 25 October Street, Tiraspol Moldova

Day trip will include highlights, top attractions and my favorite hidden gems that I won’t display here. But probably it will be exactly them making the journey unique and unforgettable. One the known attractions will be Alexander Suvorov monument on the central square.

Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: Eternal Flame, Tiraspol Moldova

Eternal flame and memorial for fallen in Great Patriotic war.

Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: The Tank Monument, Tiraspol Moldova

T-34 is one the most significant memorials in Transnistria. Real combat tank which krew was killed in Hungary when soviet troops were already going to Berlin.

Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: Supreme Soviet, Strada 25 Octombrie, 45, Tiraspol Moldova

Palace of pioneers, Supreme Soviet with comrade Lenin in front.

Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: Noul Neamt Monastery, Tiraspol Moldova

Optional throw to Kitskany village and Noul Neamt Monastery.

Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes

Stop At: Bender Fortress, Petra Panin 2/3, Bender 3200 Moldova

Bendery - second largest town of nowhereland has soviet and medieval sightseeings, on demand we may visit old Turkish fortress on the bank of Dniester river. I loved it when it was abandoned but now while reconstruction it got some significant bonuses.

Duration: 1 hour

Stop At: Mig-19 Monument, Yunosti St., Tiraspol Moldova

Pridnestrovie is rumored to be “back to USSR” but actually it is more complicated than that, you need to be at the right time, at the right place and frame your look to get that impression. One of my favorite gems to catch that is Aviators memorial at Balka dst. commemorating 30 years of victory in the Great Patriotic war.

Duration: 5 minutes

Stop At: Kumanek Restaurant, Strada Sverdlov 37, Tiraspol, Moldova

The journey will be multi-sided and contrast, curiously history and nowadays life, picturesque panoramas and impressive soviet lost places. We are very volatile where to go, what to see, some parts are planned, some parts are optional or spontaneous, let’s be open to the outside world and all probable adventures. I will be not only storyteller, but a conductor to the real country and its people.

In summer time they start to sell kvas in the streets, cool refreshing drink made of water, bread, yeast and sugar. You may like it or not, but that’s a chance to try something authentic, the recipe is same as back in communist times.

Kumanek is one of great options for lunch - delicious cuisine and tasty beverages will win your heart! Another variant is Soviet Canteen in Bendery.

Duration: 1 hour

Stop At: Kvint, 38 Lenin Street, Tiraspol Moldova

I discovered many curious nooks and crannies doing my drawings, they are not listed in trip advisor but will make the day unforgettable and the tour unique. We will have time to talk about all peculiarities of life in the country that doesn’t exist, this is my native land and I lived in Pridnestrovie from the foundation of the state. It is totally safe, intriguing and hospitable, mount up, comrades! You won’t be meeting a guide, you will be meeting a friend!

Duration: 45 minutes

Stop At: Tiraspol, Tiraspol, Transnistria

One of the options where to get lunch is reincarnated Soviet canteen, the place is amazing and still awfully underrated. Well, maybe it’s even better that it’s not discovered and overfilled by tourists

Duration: 30 minutes

Stop At: Transnistria, Transnistria

For lovers of Tarkovsky cinematography, post-apocalyptic movies and USSR legacy there is a brutal version of the tour. Impressive soviet lost places and Chernobyl style cityscapes of Transnistria will make your heart beat faster and leave you speechless, I can’t reveal where we go without the risk of subsequent demolition of these eerie gems, but I guarantee unforgettable trip. It is also important to keep these urban wastelands a secret for keeping melancholic atmosphere of solitude, you know, the best and only way to explore such things is to do it alone, let’s keep it this way. No one can predict how long these communism remains will be accessible so the whole idea is to discover everything while it still exists and do it without overcrowd of people. In a way, this journey is a chance to explore a version of Chernobyl “exclusion zone” without crowds of tourists that overfill real Pripyat and actual Chernobyl exclusion zone. There is no radiation here luckily, it’s not radiation that killed the place, it’s perestroika. We can do a combo of beautiful hidden views of Tiraspol and views of abandoned beauty of decay.

Duration: 3 hours